Shorebird of the week 7-26-2007

Kyle Schmidt eyes the plate in a game earlier this season.

This week’s Shorebird of the Week is a pitcher who is somewhat of an anamoly. It doesn’t happen that often where a pitcher both gives up enough contact to allow more hits than innings pitched (85 in 84 2/3 innings) yet strikes out more than a batter per inning (97 strikeouts this season.) Generally that’s a sign of not being very consistent, yet Kyle Schmidt hasn’t allowed a great number of walks either (33 free passes, or about 3.5 per nine innings – maybe just a tad below average.)

What Kyle has done pretty well this season is keep his team in the game, something not shown with a subpar 4-8 record. Schmidt endured a string of six straight starts to open the season’s second half where he took the loss; however, he did throw what would be considered a “quality start” (e.g. less than 3 earned runs in 6 or more innings) in three of those six contests. In one of those starts he had zero support as the Shorebirds were no-hit that night. That losing streak was finally snapped Tuesday night as Kyle picked up a win against the West Virginia Power.

This is the second tour of duty in Delmarva for the Floridian and Georgia Tech product; he also pitched here last season. In 10 appearances last season (9 starts) Kyle was 4-4 with a 4.53 ERA. So this season’s 4.04 earned run average shows improvement but on the other hand his WHIP has worsened a bit (1.39 this season vs. 1.21 in 2006.) That may make some difference in his evaluation by the Orioles organization over the winter as Kyle is wrapping up his fourth season as a pro and turns 24 next month. But he still has 6 or 7 starts to serve as an audition to move up the ladder in 2008, so hopefully he can take advantage and get a little help from the offense in turning that win-loss record around. After all, he can’t bat for himself.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.