Photo by: Atlantic 10 Conference
Sutherland Shines in First Pro Season
9/17/2019 9:00:00 AM | Baseball
Bio
DavidsonPhotos.com
Casey Sutherland had just about moved on from baseball.
He was honored on senior day with the rest of Davidson's 2019 class, finished the season by tossing one final gem at the Atlantic 10 tournament and graduated. Despite an 8-1 record and 2.49 ERA and being among the nation's best in strikeout-to-walk ratio (third) and walks per nine innings (fourth), the right-hander didn't see his name scroll across the draft tracker in June. Graduate school at Vanderbilt was getting closer every day.
Then the phone rang.
Sutherland was in Nashville, along with Davidson teammate Max Bazin, and the two were in the process of securing a place to live. Sutherland was excited for the next chapter of life, and the two Wildcats, set to pursue accounting degrees, were close to signing a lease. But the phone rang. It was baseball calling, in the bottom of the ninth.
Sutherland broke the news to Bazin, who he knew would be both happy for him and in need of a new living arrangement.
"You're gonna hate me for this," he said.
"You're kidding," responded Bazin, knowing what he meant. "Well, who is it?"
"It's the Red Sox," said Sutherland, naming his pal's favorite team.
Bazin: "Well, only because it's them."
Sutherland secured a deferral on admittance to graduate school, signed a free agent contract with Boston and set off to pursue a baseball career. He just wrapped up his first pro season, and his success was both an extension of his all-conference senior season and something different as well.
His pro numbers were similar in terms of efficiency, only better. He finished his rookie season with a 1-0 record and an 0.64 ERA in 28.1 innings, limited the opposition to a .176 batting average and struck out 28 to just one walk. The majority of that production came in Rookie ball with the Gulf Coast League Red Sox, with the lone exception being one scoreless inning of work with the Single A Greenville Drive late in the year.
The effectiveness of the pitches in his arsenal is what changed.
"It was the exact opposite, actually," he said. "All (Davidson) season, we were throwing four-seams and change-ups to get people, and down here, the only things that have been working have been two-seams and sliders. We pretty much threw out the playbook because I can't really tell you why those two things are working. But that's what is working right now."
After his brief stop in Greenville, Sutherland joined the Class A Lowell Spinners for the New York-Penn League playoffs and finished the season there.
Now it's on to the offseason to prepare for his first full year as a pro, one that almost didn't happen. Had baseball called after he started graduate school, Sutherland likely would have had to pass.
He laughs when he thinks about how close it all really was.
"That's about as good as timing could be," he said.
DavidsonPhotos.com
Casey Sutherland had just about moved on from baseball.
He was honored on senior day with the rest of Davidson's 2019 class, finished the season by tossing one final gem at the Atlantic 10 tournament and graduated. Despite an 8-1 record and 2.49 ERA and being among the nation's best in strikeout-to-walk ratio (third) and walks per nine innings (fourth), the right-hander didn't see his name scroll across the draft tracker in June. Graduate school at Vanderbilt was getting closer every day.
Then the phone rang.
Sutherland was in Nashville, along with Davidson teammate Max Bazin, and the two were in the process of securing a place to live. Sutherland was excited for the next chapter of life, and the two Wildcats, set to pursue accounting degrees, were close to signing a lease. But the phone rang. It was baseball calling, in the bottom of the ninth.
Sutherland broke the news to Bazin, who he knew would be both happy for him and in need of a new living arrangement.
"You're gonna hate me for this," he said.
"You're kidding," responded Bazin, knowing what he meant. "Well, who is it?"
"It's the Red Sox," said Sutherland, naming his pal's favorite team.
Bazin: "Well, only because it's them."
Sutherland secured a deferral on admittance to graduate school, signed a free agent contract with Boston and set off to pursue a baseball career. He just wrapped up his first pro season, and his success was both an extension of his all-conference senior season and something different as well.
His pro numbers were similar in terms of efficiency, only better. He finished his rookie season with a 1-0 record and an 0.64 ERA in 28.1 innings, limited the opposition to a .176 batting average and struck out 28 to just one walk. The majority of that production came in Rookie ball with the Gulf Coast League Red Sox, with the lone exception being one scoreless inning of work with the Single A Greenville Drive late in the year.
The effectiveness of the pitches in his arsenal is what changed.
"It was the exact opposite, actually," he said. "All (Davidson) season, we were throwing four-seams and change-ups to get people, and down here, the only things that have been working have been two-seams and sliders. We pretty much threw out the playbook because I can't really tell you why those two things are working. But that's what is working right now."
After his brief stop in Greenville, Sutherland joined the Class A Lowell Spinners for the New York-Penn League playoffs and finished the season there.
Now it's on to the offseason to prepare for his first full year as a pro, one that almost didn't happen. Had baseball called after he started graduate school, Sutherland likely would have had to pass.
He laughs when he thinks about how close it all really was.
"That's about as good as timing could be," he said.
Players Mentioned
RHP
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