James Allin Yacabonis (born March 21, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Video Jimmy Yacabonis
Career
Yacabonis attended Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, New Jersey and played college baseball at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. He was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 13th round of the 2013 MLB Draft as the 399th pick overall. He spent the 2015 season in "Class A-Advanced" Frederick Keys in Frederick, Maryland and much of 2016 on the AA Bowie Baysox team in Bowie, Maryland.
2016
He held hitters to a .216 average in 2016 "between Frederick and Bowie." Yacabonis was promoted to the AAA Norfolk Tides in Tidewater, Virginia where he became part of the Orioles' reactivated "Norfolk Shuttle" of pitchers waiting to join the big-league squad, then being sent back when they don't perform well.
2017
Yacabonis was called up to the majors for the first time on June 11, 2017. As he "had difficultly finding the strike zone" in his first three June 2017 appearances with the Orioles, he was sent back to Norfolk -- where as closer he turned in a 0.93 ERA and 0.99 WHIP. He was recalled from Norfolk on July 2, 2017, likely to work in middle relief during his second call-up for the Orioles.
Yacabonis replaced Alec Asher, optioned to AAA after allowing five runs in 1.2 innings during a July 1, 2017 game against the Tampa Bay Rays. He attributes his success in 2017 to his command of a certain pitch. As he says:
I throw predominantly a two-seam fastball, so I feel like a lot of the time the ball might be looking like it's a fat pitch and then the late movement out of the zone allows me to get that weak contact or sometimes even a swing through and a miss.
In his first up after being called back from Norfolk, Yacabonis shut down the Milwaukee Brewers on July 3, 2017 for 3.1 innings. He allowed just one run on three hits, striking out two batters -- being charged with an earned run on a "ridiculous rundown". Of his contribution in the game after being sent back down, Showalter said, ". . Yac was the key. . . we sent him down to get stretched out a little bit and work on some things, shorten up the breaking ball a little bit, and he presented himself well."
The "rookie reliever" knocked in the only Orioles' run in the 8-1 loss by grounding out to second base, which scored Ruben Tejada from third in the third inning. He was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk the next day. Yacabonis was recalled September 1, 2017, coming in that day in a scoreless game against the Toronto Blue Jays in the top of 13th inning. He shut down the side to get his first major league win -- saved by a spectacular catch by Trey Mancini on former-Oriole Steve Pearce's drive down the left-field line. Pearce's line drive had a Statcast hit probability of 69 percent, compared to 68 percent for Jonathan Schoop's game-winning double in the bottom of the 13th inning.
Mancini and Yacabonis were in the same draft class and moved through the Orioles minor league system together. Yacabonis reflects, "That was unreal, I've been playing with Trey since 2013. So making that catch is an unreal play, a big-time play."
Maps Jimmy Yacabonis
References
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference (Minors)
Source of article : Wikipedia
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