Giants’ Surkamp Keeps Dominating In 2011
By Aaron Somers
Last week, I mentioned how two rather unheralded but statistically dominant pitchers–Joel Carreno and Austin Hyatt–had done a nice job of translating their gaudy low-minors numbers to Double-A this year.
They aren’t the only ones tearing up the Eastern League in 2011, though. Yet another relatively unknown pitcher is experiencing even more success–Giants lefty prospect Eric Surkamp.
To be fair, Surkamp had a slightly higher profile than Hyatt or Carreno entering the season. That’s largely for two reasons: a) that Surkamp’s low-minors success came in high-offense environments, including the Cal League, and more importantly, b) he’s lefthanded. Hyatt and Carreno are righties who were pitching in friendly environments.
Like Hyatt and Carreno, though, Surkamp isn’t a power pitcher by any stretch–if he were, you’d have heard of him by now, given the general hysteria over power lefties. But he’s been incredibly successful since being drafted out of NC State in the sixth round in 2008.
Surkamp struck out 169 batters in just 131 innings in Low-A in 2009, walking just 39. He survived the Cal League last year by K’ing 108 while walking just 22 in 101 1/3 frames.
Even though he moved from that treacherous environment to a friendlier one this year, there was still lots of concern that Surkamp would struggle in Double-A. Plenty of finesse pitchers have succeeded in the Cal League despite the high-offense environment and then flopped in friendlier Double-A parks because they just can’t adjust to the higher quality of opposing batters (just look at fellow Giants lefty Craig Clark‘s 2009/10 stat differences).
Surkamp has had none of those problems. Instead, he’s only improved, posting an incredible 1.61 ERA and 102/28 K/BB in 89 1/3 innings. He’s allowed just three homers all season as well.
Soon to turn 24, the lefthander isn’t particularly young for his level, but he’s also not so old for his age to be detrimental to his prospect status.
You’re probably wondering, at this point, what it is that’s allowing Surkamp to be so dominant in spite of his pedestrian velocity. Well, as you might expect, it’s a combination of old “crafty lefty” tricks. He’s got a deceptive delivery and hides the ball well, and he backs up his 86-91 mph fastball with two plus offspeed pitches in his curveball and changeup.
The closest comparison I feel like I can make here, stuff-wise, is Wandy Rodriguez, who also has a very effective curve and change that make up for his upper-80’s fastball. Rodriguez, like Surkamp, is also around the strike zone.
Surkamp may have a couple of advantages over even Rodriguez, though, in that he’s a tall pitcher who throws downhill and gets a fair number of groundballs–he gets good plane on his fastball, and his three-quarters arm slot helps add some armside run to it as well.
Total it all up, and we’re looking at a guy who could really be something pretty special. Not an ace, probably, but the sort of #2/#3 starter who you always think your favorite team can beat because he doesn’t intimidate, but always winds up posting those 7 IP, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K statlines. He’s going to get some whiffs with his deception and movement, he doesn’t beat himself with walks, and he avoids the longball, so Surkamp could really be an extremely solid starting pitcher for many years. He’s certainly a great asset to an organization that already boasts tremendous pitching.
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