Shorebird of the week 6-21-2007

Josh Tamba follows through with a pitch in a May 24 game. Tamba started and lost this one to Lake County.

Another pitcher who got off to a slow start but shown improvement is my pick for Shorebird of the Week. Josh Tamba was pretty highly touted after a good career at Cypress College in California, high enough to be last year’s 7th round pick by the Orioles. But the 22 year old righthander struggled in the chill of April, saddled with an ERA over 10 for the month and giving up a Ted Williams-like opponent batting average of .383 during the first weeks of the season.

A small change has helped him with his pitching, however. In his last few appearances he’s come on as a long reliever and the results are appreciably better. For the season he’s still 0-3 but the ERA has made a pretty steady drop to a current level of 5.33 – not great but half of where he was at in April.

One thing Josh will have to work on is not allowing so many free passes. Tamba has walked 32 in 52 1/3 innings of work, and allowing those extra 2 or 3 runners every 9 innings (compared to last season) hurts his chances of moving up in the system. Last season in Aberdeen he was much more stingy about giving up walks, just 21 in 70 innings. That works out to 2.7 bases on balls per nine innings, a ratio much closer to average.

So control should be the goal for Josh as he continues on with his Delmarva stint. Being such a high pick, he’ll get a little more forgiveness from the Orioles’ minor league personnel when they evaluate the season, but no player is safe from release regardless of the draft standing.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.