Seth Shuman was promoted to AAA Rochester on April 23rd, and his first start was in Sahlen Field in Buffalo against the Buffalo Bisons. Shuman started the game by pitching three scoreless innings. He gave up two runs in the fourth inning. When he went out to pitch the fifth inning, the Red Wings were leading when he left the game with one out in the fifth inning, 3-2. When he was relieved, there were runners on first and second that were his responsibility. The reliever that night gave up a two-out double that scored both runners, giving the Bisons a 4-3 lead. Therefore, when the Wings lost the game 6-3, Shuman was tagged with the loss. His pitching line that night was 5.1 innings, giving up four runs on six hits, with two walks and four strikeouts. After this game, his Rochester ERA was 8.31.

Since his first game pitching for Rochester, Shuman has been nothing short of phenomenal. He has started four more games for the Red Wings and has had quality starts against good teams. He has started against Worcester, Scranton Wilkes-Barre, and twice against the second-place Durham Bulls. In these four starts combined, he has pitched 22.1 innings. Shuman’s pitching approach of “Command Over Power” has been highly effective. In 22.1 innings, Shuman has allowed 14 hits and only four runs while walking only an impressive four batters and striking out 17! His ERA has dropped from 8.31 to a team-leading 2.70. His WHIP is 0.94, which is in the Elite range. If you only look at his last four starts, his ERA is 1.61, and his WHIP is 0.76. These numbers are really good! Another impressive statistic is BABIP. This stands for Batting Average on Balls in Play. This stat takes strikeouts and walks out of the percentage. His BABIP is 0.243. When strikeouts and walks are calculated back into the equation, the Opponent’s Batting Average against Shuman is .206.

Shuman uses four pitches successfully. He uses a four-seam fastball that he commands well to both sides of the plate and in the upper quadrants of the pitching zone. The four-seamer usually sits between 91-93 mph and can reach 95. He mixes three secondary pitches with a sweeping slider in the mid-80s, a curveball in the upper 70s with a vertical drip, and a mid-80s change-up that fades away from lefties and crowds inside on right-handed batters. Shuman dictates to the batter how he will approach pitching them by throwing a first-pitch strike almost 75% of the time. He attacks the strike zone and pitches to every part of the plate except down the middle. When Shuman is pitching ahead in the count, and that is most of the time, he is highly successful.

In this age of radar guns and power pitching, it is nice watching a young pitcher use a cerebral approach to pitching his way through a game. It is a pleasure watching Seth Shuman matriculate through the opponent’s batting order every fifth game. Seth Shuman is scheduled to pitch Saturday night against the Syracuse Mets at 6:35.