Let the retirement tour begin. Unfortunately, the exhibition game with Salisbury University was rained out so I couldn’t get any photos of the new guys – however, there are a few holdovers who deserve their time in the sun, too.
I was impressed when I saw this young man make his Shorebird debut last August 20 – even though Greenville roughed him up a little bit – and in four end-of-season starts Francisco Jimenez held his own, including a seven-inning, two-hit whitewashing of Hickory August 31. In his four Delmarva appearances Jimenez pitched 22 innings, allowing just 16 hits and 7 walks for a stellar 1.05 WHIP (walks + hits/innings pitched.) Francisco won both of his decisions, pitching to a 2.45 ERA. This belied his stats at Aberdeen, where Jimenez was promoted despite a 2-5 record and 4.72 ERA in 40 innings.
Since coming stateside in 2014 (Jimenez began his minor league career in 2012 in the Dominican Summer League and stayed there for 2013) the 21-year-old Dominican native has had some issue with allowing hits, allowing over a hit per inning on average in two seasons beginning with the Gulf Coast League Orioles in 2014 and moving to both Aberdeen and Delmarva last season. Balancing that out is a stinginess with walks, suggesting Francisco is comfortable pitching to contact; he has a good ratio of ground outs to air outs. Pitchers have made fine careers out of enticing weak contact, though.
So 2016 will be a year where we find out if Jimenez has the stamina and ability to last a full season, since he has never pitched above the short-season level aside from his four August starts here. Francisco may also have to adapt to a slightly different role as he’s not currently penciled into the five-man starting rotation – it’s more likely he will be the first guy up and come on in the middle innings to relieve the starter. If he succeeds there, odds are he will make it back into the rotation.
And so begins another Shorebird of the Week season, even if the status of the onfield season opener is in peril (as I write this Wednesday night there is a 100% chance of rain in Hagerstown tomorrow.) We’ll see what this eleventh and final round of Shorebird honorees bring to the Delmarva table.