In yesterday's post listing all of the 2011 Orioles debuts so far, I somehow missed the most obvious debut of the season, that of top pitching prospect Zach Britton, who is Oriole #894 (which moves Josh Rupe to 895 and Chris Jakubauskas to 896). Long-time reader and friend of the blog, Russell, pointed out my error, and I'm glad he did.
One might think that I would remember to include the best pitcher in all of baseball so far in this young season in my count, yet I neglected him. Zach has started two games so far this year and is 2-0 with a 0.66 ERA. He's a lefty with a 95 MPH fastball that darts away from righties and is pretty much the only pitcher who has shut down the Texas Rangers so far this year.
I've had the pleasure to watch Zach pitch with the single A Frederick Keys and AA Bowie Baysox over parts of the past few seasons and he realies on his sinking fastball to get most of his outs. I hope that he continues to fool opposing batters for years to come.
Zach actually just signed this card for me prior to Sunday's game, so it's good to see that he's still taking time for fans, even after his early success. While prepping this scan for the post, I noticed that his 2010 Norfolk Tides team set card incorrectly spells his first name as Zack. C'mon Tides staffers, know your top prospects!
Here's a slightly out of focus picture I took of Zach on Saturday as he's about to throw his first pitch at Camden Yards.
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