The last of Delmarva’s five All-Star selections to be named Shorebird of the Week, Sebastian Vader is finally starting to draw some attention after what’s been a slow, steady climb up the Orioles’ organizational ladder.
Drafted in the 18th round way back in 2010 from San Marcos High School in California, Vader repeated stints in both the Gulf Coast League (2010-11) and Aberdeen (2012-13) before finally latching onto a full-season team in his fifth season in the organization; however, Vader just turned 22 earlier this month so he’s not lagging in development overall. Currently he leads the Shorebirds with seven wins (a 7-3 record overall; ironically the same mark he had in 2013 with Aberdeen) and has pitched to a 3.26 ERA in 11 starts with a WHIP of 1.14. His 47/14 strikeout to walk ratio is sound as well.
As I noted, Vader pitched in Aberdeen last year to a 7-3 record, and had a 2.43 ERA and 1.03 WHIP to back those good numbers. It was a turnaround from a 2012 where he went 1-8, 3.71 with a 1.45 WHIP at the same level. More importantly, while it’s taken him two bites of the apple to excel at previous levels, Vader’s learning curve has greatly improved in the SAL.
While he wasn’t as impressive in his last start, giving up 4 earned runs in 4 2/3 innings against Lakewood, from late April through May Vader won six consecutive outings, beating Charleston twice, Kannapolis twice, Augusta, and Hagerstown. The second Kannapolis win was a seven-inning complete game May 16 on the road. Vader hasn’t been as dominant in any one start as, say, a Hunter Harvey can be, but he has been very consistent and an innings-eater, pitching at least six frames in all but two of his starts. The aforementioned 4 2/3 inning game was his shortest this season.
It’s likely Vader will remain a part of one of the more talented rotations in recent Delmarva memory, and even though he’s a little overshadowed by some dominating pitchers and performances he should be among the staff leaders in a lot of categories come September.