Pop music legend has it that a late 1960s Scottish pop band, The Saxons, threw a dart at a United States map, hoping to solve the dilemma of finding a new name. A dart landed on the dot marked Bay City, Michigan, and the mid-’70s chart-topping Bay City Rollers (“Saturday Night”) was born.

Brett Adcock probably had a more family-related reason than did the Rollers in choosing Bay City for his life-changing event (and besides, he landed in Bay City on a Monday night, quite un-dart-like).

The 6’1″ 225-pound left-hander just earned a midseason promotion in the Houston Astros farm system, joining the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks during MLB’s All-Star week.

Gold Record Performances

After missing much of 2016 with an injury (after being drafted by Houston in the fourth round that June and signing for a $430,000 bonus), he delivered a noteworthy 2017 campaign. He started out in the Midwest League with the full season Class A Quad Cities River Bandits, earning his first pro victory behind an 11-strikeout performance.

Adcock played most of the 2017 season, though, with the Advanced-A Buies Creek Astros of the Carolina League. He posted a 5-4 record with a 3.93 ERA last year, throwing 107.2 innings with 117 strikeouts and 39 walks while drawing 18 starting assignments.

He’s been solid so far in 2018 with Buies Creek. Before his recent promotion, he enjoyed a 5-3 record with a 2.54 ERA in 16 games, mostly as a starter.

In his last three mound appearances for the BC Astros, Adcock threw 13 consecutive shutout innings. He didn’t allow an earned run for nearly four weeks (since June 26). In his final outing with Buies Creek, he worked three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks while striking out four.

He’s posted 67 strikeouts in 67.1 innings this season (67:36 K:BB ratio), producing a 1.01 WHIP and holding opponents to a .140 batting average, both as a starter and reliever. Adcock earned a spot on the South squad in the Carolina League All-Star Game, where he pitched a scoreless inning while helping his team to a 7-6 victory.

Adcock now advances to the Texas League, pitching for a Corpus Christi Hooks team that proudly produced seven players who saw action in the MLB All-Star Game on July 17 (the day of his promotion), including Astros Jose Altuve, George Springer, and Alex Bregman, Home Run Derby participant and All-Star Game MVP.

Adcock joins former University of Michigan teammate Carmen Benedetti on the Hooks roster.

The pitcher made his Hooks debut in a 3-1 loss to Midland (Oakland A’s affiliate), July 19, closing out the game with three hitless relief innings, walking one while striking out four RockHounds.

We Came So Close to The Kawkawlin Rollers

Adcock was born in late August 1995 in Bay City, but some bio sites insist on Kawkawlin, an even tinier dot 10 miles north of Bay City. Either way, consensus lands him at Bay City Western High School in nearby Auburn (10 miles due west) as his prep school destination.

He was the ace of the BCW pitching staff in 2013, where he spun a perfect 12-0 record and led the brown and gold Warriors to the Division 1 state championship.

He followed that up with a sparkling collegiate career at Michigan, where he ranks in the Wolverines’ all-time top 10 for wins, strikeouts, and ERA. Specifically, he ranks fifth in program history with 256 strikeouts, sixth with 24 victories, and seventh with a 3.09 ERA.

Eyes on the Prize

In a pre-season interview with Michigan’s MLive.com, Adcock waxed philosophic: “I obviously have things I need to fine-tune; if I didn’t I’d be in the big leagues right now,” he said. “I’m just trying to make myself one percent better each day. If I can do that, hopefully I can end up in the right place.”

Adcock, aware he had been drafted by a championship team tuned for future success, cheered last fall as the likes of Springer, Altuve, and Bregman–all wearing the same uniform that he wears–took the Astros to the top of the baseball world.

“That was really fun to watch,” he told MLive.com. “It’s pretty cool being part of an organization that’s in the World Series. It gives you a lot of incentive to root for that team. And it was the best World Series I’ve ever watched, for sure. It was nerve-racking, but cool.”

Adcock said that success filters throughout the organization and everybody, at every level, shares the common goal of keeping the Astros at the top.

“Obviously, they want to keep winning, and everything starts with the minor leagues,” he said. “They’re going to want to get us to be at our best, so when the time comes we’ll be able to make an impact in the big leagues.

“The organization as a whole is great at working to develop players.”

Workin’ With the DJ

The 22-year-old Adcock recently revealed that he trained alongside DJ LeMahieu (currently on the 10-day DL with a left oblique strain) during the offseason. Adcock’s fellow native Michigander (who attended LSU) plays second base for the Colorado Rockies.

“He’s an [two-time] MLB All-Star and batting champion [2016], and he’s still trying to fine-tune things, so that’s something you never stop doing,” Adcock told MLive, explaining the unlikely scenario of how (and what) an infielder can teach a pitcher. “I watch him, see his work ethic and learn from the things he does.

“Once you get in the minor leagues,” he continued, “you don’t really overpower anybody. You can’t just throw balls by anybody. The hitters have the reaction time and the bat speed to get around on pitches. So you have to be able to pitch, not just throw. You have to be able to throw the right pitch in the right situations.

“You’re going to have your good days and bad days,” Adcock proclaimed pragmatically. “You have to work to make adjustments, and not just between games. The biggest thing for me is making in-game adjustments, doing things pitch-to-pitch.

“I’m just enjoying competing and being a kid for a bit longer.”