Bear with me for a moment, as I toss aside the concept of “small sample size” on a pleasant Friday afternoon.

Craig Hansen and Daniel Bard.

Two highly-touted college flamethrowers that had become synonymous with unfulfilled potential in the past two years.   Coming into the 2008 season, both had experienced major command problems in the minor leagues, and many analysts did not hesitate to stamp them as busts.

Not so fast…

Daniel Bard, converted into a reliever and throwing on a ~2 inning regimen, has been the biggest story from Greenville thus far.  In 9.2 scoreless innings, the right-hander has surrendered only 5 hits and notched 14 strikeouts.  The kicker: he’s only walked 1…ONE…batter, after a year in which he averaged about 9 per game.  Note: he’s at a pretty low level given his age, but the scouts are raving about his stuff and command thus far.

Craig Hansen, having supposedly recaptured the delivery which made him one of the most dominant pitchers in college, has thrown 9.1 scoreless innings, giving up only 2 hits and 3 walks to go along with 10 strikeouts.

Combined, these two pitchers have been quite impressive:

19 innings, 24/4 K/BB, 7 hits, 0 runs.

A cynic might note that this is ridiculously small sample.  And it is.  We’ll see how these guys are doing 1 month from now.

Is it worth noticing?  Given the raw potential of these two kids, absolutely.