Baseball America interviews Pirates 2003 first-rounder Paul Maholm. BA compares him to Zach Duke for his poise. Maholm is nearly a year older than Duke and doesn't have Duke's fantastic record of minor league performance, but if Maholm is only Duke lite, that could still be pretty good. Maholm probably should be the Pirates' minor leauge pitcher of the year, although Tom Gorzelanny is having a fine year also.
Maholm, age (young) 23:
Altoona 81.7 IP, 75 K, 26 BB, 3.20 ERA
Indianapolis 24 IP, 18 K, 6 BB, 3.00 ERA
Gorzelanny, age (old) 22
Altoona 108.7 IP, 106 K, 39 BB, 3.56 ERA
Duke, age 22
Indianapolis 108 IP, 66 K, 23 BB, 2.92 ERA
Pittsburgh 50.7 IP, 37 K, 15 BB, 2.13 ERA