I’m going to take this opportunity to first of all give my kudos to the Shorebirds management for again making players available prior to the games. In this case, it gave me an opportunity to get a good photo of my latest Shorebird of the Week, Tim Bascom.
I knew I had to get a picture of Tim and pick him as a Shorebird of the Week once I found out the opportunity was there. After all, it’s not every pitcher who blows away the opposition in his pro debut like Tim did. On June 25 up in Lakewood, Tim faced 15 batters in five innings, allowing nary a hit and fanning nine. It was a shame he got a no-decision for his effort.
He got a sixth no-hit inning in Sunday night before Lake County batter Matt McBride finally got to him with a single. It wasn’t as easy in that start, but Tim battled through five innings again against the Captains, allowing three hits and one run, striking out five and walking two. So for his brief pro career, Bascom is sporting a nifty 0.90 ERA and a dominating 0.50 WHIP. Granted, it’s just 10 innings and the struggles are sure to come, but Tim’s been impressive in his debut with the Shorebirds.
The Orioles picked Tim in the fourth round out of the University of Central Florida. What I suspect will become of the 22 year old Floridian is that he’ll likely pitch not much more than 5 innings a start (probably on a pretty sharp pitch count), and he’ll have about 12 more starts this season. That will give him about 70 pro innings on top of his workload from UCF this spring. Particularly in Florida, their college season begins in February so the innings will take a toll on Tim a little more quickly than most at this level. Then next year he’ll likely be placed into the regular routine for Orioles farmhand pitchers, albeit (with any sort of success in Delmarva) it’ll probably be in a Frederick or even Bowie uniform. Though he was picked in the fourth round, Bascom was actually the second name called by the Orioles, who lost their second and third round picks when they signed free agents over the winter.
So enjoy watching this kid while he lasts here on the Eastern Shore. I’m sure Andy MacPhail and the rest of the O’s brass are watching him closely too.
