|
2007 Bedard is one of the best pitchers in the majors right now. In terms of rate stats, he basically repeated his very good 2005 last year, but what made 2006 even better was that he stayed healthy, throwing more than 150 innings for the first time in his professional career. Staying healthy is a skill; now that Bedard has done it once, the chances of his doing it again are better. Even so, the odds still favor more injury time. Another encouraging sign was that Bedard got better as the season went on, perhaps having shaken off some World Baseball Classic fatigue. 2006 Bedard was on his way to a spectacular season when he sprained his knee in May. What was supposed to be a minimal 15-day stay on the DL dragged on for eight weeks. Somewhere in there, Bedard lost his release point and never recovered it. Following his return, his walk rate more than doubled, his hit rate jumped, and things just kept getting worse the longer the season went on. His stuff is undeniably good, but his control and his inability to stay healthy have held him back. 2005 Judging solely by how he'd pitched before, 2004 wasn't so good for Bedard: He was far more hittable and wilder than normal, and consequently gave up a lot more runs. Considering that it was his first active duty since having Tommy John surgery, and that he was able to strike opposing batters out at an above-average rate, the results were actually pretty decent. Durability is still a big concern—last year's 137 innings is his professional best for a season—and he needs control to be the great pitcher that's within his realm of the possible. The Orioles did a good job of protecting him from over work, but it will be interesting to see if they let him work deeper into games this season. 2003 Oriole medicine, part 2 (see David Segui for part 1). Bedard was, without a doubt, the best pitcher in the Oriole system at the start of 2002: left-handed, with an above-average fastball, a better curve, totally and completely unhittable by left-handed hitters (who were 2–37 against him in 2002). So the Orioles bring him to major league camp, and leave him there until mid-March, at which point he’s thrown just 11 competitive innings. He starts the season on a 50-pitch limit, 25 behind the other Bowie starters. But no problem, he is just as dominating as ever, and even gets a quick little call-up to Baltimore. Still, he’s tearing up the league, up until June 26. On that day, throwing a two-hitter, he went out for the eighth inning, even though he had already reached his pitch count. The manager thought it was just so much fun, and then pop goes the elbow. The MRI showed that he had a partially torn ligament. The Orioles’ medical staff prescribed rest, hoping that the tear would heal on its own. Six weeks later, without taking another MRI to see if it had healed at all, they had Bedard resume throwing. The very next day, the pain was back, and Bedard was heading for surgery. He won’t pitch in 2003; he’s unlikely to be effective until the second half of 2004, if then. As you can see, that’s a shame.
2002 A big-time prospect whose name people don't yet know, Bedard came from a Canadian high school with no baseball team. He then had to walk on to a community college team, so he is quite inexperienced for his age. He allowed just 27 runs in 17 starts, with 13 of those runs coming in back-to-back disasters. His pitches have a lot of movement, breaking in on and destroying left-handed hitters. He missed six weeks with tendinitis, then pitched well at Frederick and in the Arizona Fall League.
|