Astros Organization Mourns Loss of Dustin Kellogg
By Wally Fish
This is hard for me to write. Talking about the merits of prospects – good, bad or in between – is my comfort zone. Whether they sink or swim I always enjoy watching each player’s career unfold out on the field. That’s the way it should be.
Death is another matter entirely, it’s not an easy thing to talk about or deal with. Everyone copes in their own way and coping is exactly what the entire Houston Astros organization has been doing the last two days.
Dustin Kellogg, the team’s 34th round pick in the 2011 draft, was killed Monday night when his pickup truck was involved in an accident with a tractor trailer. The Conroe, Texas native was just 18 years old and just a few months removed from signing with the Astros on July 16th. He was essentially the home-town kid signed by his home-town team – Conroe is just 40-miles north of Houston. It was the start of a wonderful story, but it has ended in tragedy.
I take a small bit of solace in the fact that he was able to take the mound as a professional. He made 6 relief appearances for the GCL Astros and finished with a 4.26 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 6.1 innings pitched. He struck out 9 and walked just one.
It was a nice start to a young career, but sadly we will never get to watch that career unfold. We will never get to see him sink or swim or deal with the inevitable successes and failures that he would have experienced along the way. We will never get to watch him as he tries to make the journey from 2011 Draft pick to major league pitcher.
As a baseball writer I am saddened and I feel cheated. I can’t imagine what his family, friends, teammates and everyone else in the Astros organization is dealing with right now, but my heart goes out to them.
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