Taking A Milligan:
Former First Round Pick on Rehab
Assignment After Elbow Surgery
Chicago, May 19, 2049 -- The snap in his elbow last August was loud, so loud that Wilson Milligan didn't need an MRI to know his season was done, and future was in doubt.
"It was a pretty loud pop," he recalls about the AAA game on August 28, 2048, throwing in his 162nd inning of the season. "My catcher heard it. The first baseman heard it. Shit, my girlfriend sitting in the stands heard it." Milligan in short order got the diagnosis he feared: a torn flexor tendon. A long road lay ahead.
Fast forward to this month, and Milligan, now 22, is back with his old team, the Carolina Flight,
Front office sources say if Milligan settles in well, he is likely to get called up to the big leagues. "He's ready in terms of his technical skills. He's got it all. We just need to make sure his stamina is there, and then he'll get the call," said one insider.
His first start back, on May 12, went poorly: he gave up seven earned runs on six hits in just two innings. "My timing was off," he says, "simple as that."
Milligan was the 30th overall pick in the first round of the 2047 draft, went straight to the AA Beloit Blue Sox before his promotion last season to AAA. He has outstanding stuff and control, a fastball that nears 99 mph, as well as a solid curveball, slider and splitter.
With the Black Sox mired at around the .500 mark after nearly two months of the season, promoting Milligan to the bigs--assuming this rehab continues to go well-- might just be the spark that this team needs.
