Kirk Saarloos

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Kirk Saarloos

Oakland Athletics — No. 21
Pitcher
Born: May 23, 1979 (1979-05-23) (age 29)
Long Beach, California
Bats: Right Throws: Right 
Major League Baseball debut
June 18, 2002 for the Houston Astros
Selected MLB statistics
(through April 28, 2008)
Win-Loss     28-30
Earned run average     4.96
Strikeouts     240
Teams

Kirk Craig Saarloos (born May 23, 1979, in Long Beach, California) is a right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher in the Oakland Athletics organization. He has been used both in starting and relief situations.

Saarloos graduated from Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California, a three-sport (baseball, football and soccer) athlete. He attended California State University, Fullerton where he established himself as one of the best closers in college baseball during his sophomore and junior seasons. In 2001, his senior year, he became a starter (the new closer was current Washington Nationals closer Chad Cordero) and established himself as the ace of the staff, winning 15 games with a 2.18 ERA. He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft in the third round as the 86th overall pick.

Saarloos quickly rose in the Astros organization, making brief stops at Class AA Round Rock and Class AAA New Orleans before being called up to the major leagues in his second year as a professional. In 2002 he went 6-7 with a 6.01 ERA with Houston and was sent down to New Orleans for the next season. In 2003 he again pitched very well in the minors but posted a 4.93 ERA in 36 games for the big club. It was around this time he caught the eye of Oakland Athletics assistant general manager Paul DePodesta. A few weeks into the 2004 season, after appearing in only two games for New Orleans, he was traded to the A's for Chad Harville. They sent him to Triple-A Sacramento, where he pitched well enough to receive a call-up and start 5 games for Oakland.

In 2005, with Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson traded away, the Athletics had openings in their rotation. Saarloos beat out Keiichi Yabu and Juan Cruz to win the last starter spot in the rotation. Saarloos succeeded, going 10-9 with a 4.17 ERA in 27 starts. He was widely considered to be among the best #5 starters in the American League.[citation needed]

With the signing of veteran starter Esteban Loaiza before the 2006 season, the A's bumped Saarloos to the bullpen. Soon after, Rich Harden got injured and Saarloos was put in as a fifth starter for a few games. He has also been be used in many varying relief roles, much like Justin Duchscherer was in 2005, but also as a spot starter. On January 19, 2007, Saarloos signed a one year $1.2 million deal with the Athletics.

On January 23, 2007 Saarloos was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for minor league reliever David Shafer. Both teams also received a player to be named later. On May 28, 2007, Saarloos was sent to the minors after failing to retire any of the seven batters he faced in a 14-10 loss to Pittsburgh the night before. On October 12, 2007 the Saarloos was outrighted to the minor leagues. He refused the assignment and became a free agent.

On January 15, 2008, Saarloos signed a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training with the Oakland Athletics. On April 14, he was added to the major league roster, but was designated for assignment on April 23. He was sent outright to AAA on April 25.

[edit] Scouting

Saarloos has a variety of pitches, including a 4-seam fastball, a curveball, a slider, and a changeup. However, his best pitch by far is his mid-to-high 80's sinker. For this reason, Saarloos is known predominately as a sinkerball specialist, and as such gets few strikeouts (batters tend to hit groundballs when faced with a sinker). In fact, his 2.99 strikeouts per 9 innings in 2005 ranked third to last in Major League Baseball, and was the lowest mark in Oakland Athletics history for a starting pitcher.

[edit] External links