Friday, December 6, 2013

Player Profile: Tim Belcher

I have 81 cards of Tim Belcher. This one is from 1990 Score.

Playing career: Tim Belcher became an immediate sensation with the Dodgers as a rookie in 1988, helping the team win a world championship by going 12-6 with a 2.91 ERA. The next season he even better, winning 15 games, posting a 2.82 ERA, and pitching eight shutouts, a number that has not been matched since.  After a couple of more solid seasons, he was traded to the Reds for Eric Davis, and was never more than a league-average starting pitcher after that, bouncing around with several teams. He was not nearly as good with other teams as he was with the Dodgers. For the Dodgers he was 50-38 with a 2.99 ERA; for the other six teams he pitched for he went 96-92 with a 4.74 ERA.

Where he is now: Special assistant to baseball operations for the Cleveland Indians.

My memories: When he was a big star he was often considered one of the many young prospects who “got away” from the Yankees – the Yankees actually drafted him but lost him in a front office snafu. Looking at the bulk of his career it looks like he was a guy helped out a lot by the pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium, so the Yankees probably weren’t missing all that much.

Google Autocomplete results: He is tenth when you type Tim Be, after Tim Bevan, a movie producer. Another prominent Tim Belcher is CTO at NetWitness.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Stan Belinda.

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