Jake Skole Has Been Suspended For 50 Games By MLB ...

... for amphetamine use by the commissioner's office, per this Rangers press release:

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Texas Rangers Minor League outfielder Jacob Skole has been suspended for 50 games without pay after testing positive for an amphetamine, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

The suspension of Skole, who is currently on the roster of the Single-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Carolina League, is effective immediately.

Skole was, of course, a 2010 first-rounder, a 15th-overall selection -- that pick was a compensatory pick gained from the Rangers' inability to sign Matt Purke during the previous year's signing period -- who didn't crack Baseball America's top 200 prospects at the time he was drafted, but was viewed at the time as a late riser, somebody who picked up a lot of ground during the period leading up to the draft ... the problem, though, is that the athleticism/tools have yet to really produce quality results, and he's widely regarded as a big disappointment with an already limited ceiling relative to what the Rangers were no doubt hoping for when they popped him two years ago.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Lev	G	PA	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2010	18	2 Teams	2 Lgs	A--Rk	65	261	59	11	2	2	9	4	28	57	.258	.336	.349
2010	18	Rangers	ARIZ	Rk	8	33	8	2	0	0	3	0	5	5	.286	.394	.357
2010	18	Spokane	NORW	A-	57	228	51	9	2	2	6	4	23	52	.254	.327	.348
2011	19	Hickory	SALL	A	124	501	112	14	6	9	21	14	65	138	.264	.366	.389
2012	20	Myrtle Beach	CARL	A+	68	268	42	8	0	3	2	2	31	72	.185	.288	.260
3 Seasons					257	1030	213	33	8	14	32	20	124	267	.242	.338	.345

Skole was already having a dreadful season at his age-20 campaign at Myrtle Beach, and now he's going to lose two more months of development time that he really couldn't afford to lose as is. I know prospect development doesn't work on a linear timeline and all of that, but it's getting harder and harder to envision how the Skole pick could possibly end up producing a happy outcome for the Rangers.