As promised yesterday, we’re going to take a look at how this year’s most promising rookie pitchers have fared so far, updating our two previous lists with all of last month’s appearances. Are all of these guys even still in the majors?

(At left: Would you want to face a baseball thrown by this young man?)

Jair Jurrjens just gets better and better, as he added three wins in the past month while lowering his ERA and WHIP. At the same time, he’s kept his strikeout rate about constant, and has even lowered his walk rate a few ticks.

Manny Parra, meanwhile, has been worth catching up with lately. He won five straight in the past month and lowered his ERA nearly a full point. He has shown some great control some games (walking two and zero in his first two starts in June), and not-so-good control in others (walking four, six, and four in the three starts after), leaving his strikeout and walk rates mostly unchanged from last month.

Johnny Cueto has taken his owners (including, recently, me) for a ride this past month, lowering his ERA a bit and raising his WHIP, while dropping his strikeout rate a half point and raising his walk rate nearly a full one. His starts in the first half of June were frightful, especially the woeful game against the Cardinals on the 11th, when Cueto gave up six runs and eight walks in five innings of work. The silver lining here is that his past two starts have been better, as he’s struck out nine and given up only three walks and one run in 11.1 innings of work.

Joba Chamberlain seems to be taking quite well to the starter’s role, despite only picking up one win in his six starts in June. Over those 29 innings, though, he struck out batters at a 8.16 K/9 rate, and walked them at a 5.28 BB/9. His ERA in June was 2.17.

As you can see, the rest of our rookie pitchers have soldiered on through June, with many posting ERAs in the fours and strikeout rates in the fours and fives. Clayton Kershaw has been an interesting case, as he’s been able to maintain a strikeout rate above seven, while struggling with control to the tune of a 5.90 BB/9 from June 4th through yesterday’s start. Though he’s had control problems in the minors, it wasn’t  this bad in his ten games in AA this year before jumping to the majors. Maybe he could benefit from a few starts in AAA?

Since the last time we checked in with him, Max Scherzer was sent to the minors, and soon after suffered from some shoulder inflammation. It’s not clear if he’ll be back in the majors in the near future. Meanwhile, Homer Bailey only stayed around long enough to show he’s not yet ready to return to the majors, as Patrick and I could see in his first game.

That’s all for this time. Your thoughts?