Erik Bedard
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Erik Joseph Bedard (born March 6, 1979 in the Ottawa suburb of Navan, Ontario, Canada) is a Major League Baseball pitcher.
A Franco-Ontarian, after finishing high school Bedard went to Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut.
A left-handed starting pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, Bedard is in his second season with the Major League ballclub. After posting dominating numbers at the AA level, he quickly gained recognition as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. However, an elbow ligament injury forced him to the operating table, and set his development back 18 months. After spending most of 2003 in rehab, he received an invitation to the big-league spring training camp the next year. He made the most of his opportunity, beating out other pitchers such as Rodrigo Lopez for the final spot in the starting rotation. His 2004 campaign was marked with inconsistency. He posted a mediocre 4.59 ERA in 137 1/3 innings of work. Furthermore, though his strikeout numbers were encouraging (7.93 K/9), he walked far too many batters (71 BB allowed), and drove up pitch counts (19.5 pitches/inning), forcing him to frequently make early exits from ballgames. In addition, there was grumbling from many scouts and observers that Bedard lacked command of that third pitch which is necessary for sustained success.
So far, in the early goings of the 2005 season, Bedard has quieted the doubters who questioned his ability to develop another pitch. Under the tutelage of pitching guru Ray Miller, Bedard has refined his control of the change-up, to go along with his 91-93 mph fastball and wicked-breaking slurve. Though it remains to be seen whether Bedard can sustain his current level of performance, scouts and other knowledgeable baseball people have nonetheless been very impressed with his level of development.
Categories: 1979 births | Major league pitchers | Baltimore Orioles players | Canadian baseball players | Ontario sportspeople
