Donovan Osborne
| Donovan Osborne | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Pitcher | |||
|
Born: June 21, 1969 Roseville, California | |||
| |||
| MLB debut | |||
| April 9, 1992, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| May 15, 2004, for the New York Yankees | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 49–46 | ||
| Earned run average | 4.03 | ||
| Strikeouts | 558 | ||
| Teams | |||
Donovan Alan Osborne (born June 21, 1969) is a former Major League Baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1992-2004.
Career
Osborne attended Carson High School in Carson City, Nevada before he was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1987 Major League Baseball Draft. After declining to sign with the Expos, Osborne attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he played for the UNLV Rebels baseball team. Out of UNLV, Osborne was chosen by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round (13th overall) of the 1990 amateur draft.
In the 1992 season, his Major League debut season, Osborne finished fifth in MLB Rookie of the Year Award voting.
Osborne was the Cardinals' Opening Day starter in 1999, and he consistently produced season ERAs below four despite recurring battles with injury. In 1996, Osborne won 13 games for the Cardinals, made 30 starts for the only time in his career, pitched 198 2⁄3 innings, and posted a 3.53 earned run average. He ranked among the National League top-10 in walks per nine innings, shutouts, ERA+, and strike-to-walk ratio.
At his peak, Osborne's arsenal included a low 90's fastball with late life, a plus changeup, and an average slider. His control was regarded as excellent, and he was known to throw his fastball to all four quadrants of the strikezone.
Ultimately, Osborne's career was derailed by a series of severe shoulder injuries. He was limited to 225 innings from 1997 to 2004, and he spent the entire 2003 season rehabbing his left shoulder. When Osborne started for the New York Yankees in 2004, he became the first Yankee pitcher since Babe Ruth to start for the team after not having started a game for over five years.
Osborne signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League for the 2005 season, played for the Bridgeport Bluefish in 2006, and back with the Ducks in 2007 until his retirement on July 4, 2008.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube