Aaron Crow, former Mizzou pitcher and number one draft pick of the Washington Nationals in 2008, finally pitched again in a game.  Crow, after being unable to come to terms with the Nats, signed with the Fort Worth Cats of the American Association, and is prepping for the 2009 draft in early June.

Crow wasn’t masterful as he tried to pitch through the rust.  From the Baseball America blog:

Crow, who is pitching for the Fort Worth Cats of the independent American Association, was on a tighter leash (40 pitches) and did less with his pitches, going into several deep counts that kept him from getting out of the second inning. Crow lasted 1 2/3 innings, giving up three hits and three runs (only one of which was earned) with three strikeouts.

The Cats did not have a radar gun on Crow, but Fort Worth manager Chad Tredaway said he was told Crow sat at 92 mph and touched 97. He also showed his plus slider at times.

“He was working his slider pretty good,” Tredaway said.”He left the ball up every now and then because he was rusty.”

Crow may have relied on the slider a little too and struggled to locate it, which led to lots of deep counts. According to Cats pitching coach James Frisbie, Crow also may have been too pumped up last night.

“He’d get ahead on his fastball, go offspeed, and he wasn’t as good with his command of it. He’d then overthrow his fastball at times,” Frisbie said. “He had to work full counts a lot, which got his pitch count up. He can pitch. He competes really well.”

Sporting News’ mock draft has Crow going to Seattle with the second pick in the draft.  It’ll be interesting is he and Boras can work a better deal this year than the one they turned down from the Nats last year.  I suspect not.  One, the economy is worse.  Two, Crow has less leverage as it would be damaging to his career to sit out two years.  The kid has to get into a system at some point if he wants to be a major leaguer. 

That mock draft has Kyle Gibson, Mizzou junior, going to Baltimore with the fifth pick in the draft.  Sure, two Tigers in the top five.  That happens every year.