Neil Ramirez Receives First Major League Promotion
Former Hickory Crawdads pitcher Neil Ramirez of the 2009 and 2010 teams received his first big league promotion when he was called up by the Chicago Cubs on Thursday. He became the 121st former player to play for Hickory and then later suit up in the majors.
The native of Virginia Beach,VA came to the Crawdads in 2009 after he was the first-round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2007 out of Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach. Ramirez went 13-14 with a 4.53 ERA in 46 games (40 starts). In 206.2 innings, he struck out 198, walked 78, and allowed 119 runs (104 earned) on 208 hits. Ramirez owns the overall club record with 31 hit batters. He is also third in overall games started, fifth in homers allowed (22), and ninth earned runs allowed, wins and losses. His 9.11 strikeouts per nine innings in 2010 is the ninth-best mark by a Crawdads pitcher for a season.
Ramirez started 2011 at Myrtle Beach, but after one start he was promoted to AAA Round Rock. Since then, he split time with the Express and AA Frisco until a July 2013 trade sent him to the Cubs organization. Ramirez finished up last year at AA Tennessee and began this season at AAA Iowa.
This season with the I-Cubs, Ramirez had no record in six relief outings with a 7.71 ERA. He has struck out 11, walked five and gave up six runs on seven hits in seven innings.
Ramirez's promotion by the numbers:
He is the 121st former Crawdads player to make it to the major leagues.
He is the third former player to go to the majors this season.
He is the tenth former Crawdads player to play for the Chicago Cubs (Jairo Asencio, Jason Bere, Tom Gorzelanny, John Grabow, Justin Grimm, Brent Lillibridge, Paul Maholm, Roberto Novoa, Josh Paul).
He is the 68th former Crawdads pitcher to go on to the majors.
He is 82nd player to go to the majors after coming to the Crawdads via the draft.
He is the 30th player to go to the majors after playing two seasons in Hickory.
He is second Virginian-born player to go to the majors after playing in Hickory (Justin Grimm).
He is the 25th high school draftee to go on to play in the majors.
He is the 15th out of 28 first-round picks to play in Hickory and then play in the majors (Rocky Biddle, Bryan Bullington, Sean Burnett, Chris Clemons, JJ Davis, Jason Dellaero, Mark Johnson, Brad Lincoln, Paul Maholm, Andrew McCutchen, Aaron Myette, Neil Ramirez, Aaron Rowand, John Van Benschoten, Neil Walker).
He is the 8th player from the 2009 team to go to the majors (Cody Eppley, Wilmer Font, Leury Garcia, Mark Hamburger, Joseph Ortiz, Martin Perez, Joe Wieland).
He is the 8th player from the 2010 team to go to the majors (Robbie Erlin, Wilmer Font, Leury Garcia, Josh Lueke, Joseph Ortiz, Robbie Ross, Joe Wieland).