Bumgarner named Most Spectacular Pitcher
Just a day after his Augusta GreenJackets swept their way to the South Atlantic League championship, the left-hander was officially named Minor League Baseball's Most Spectacular Pitcher on Friday for finishing the season with the Minors' lowest ERA.
Bumgarner ended the season with a 1.46 ERA, beating West Michigan's Jon Kibler (1.75) in the Midwest League and Brevard County's Chris Cody (1.81) in the Florida State League.
"It's definitely a huge honor," said Bumgarner, who also finished third overall in strikeouts with 164, leading all southpaws, and tied for fifth with 15 victories. "We had a great year and won a championship. It was great to finish it off on a great note."
Things didn't begin so positively for the Giants' first-round pick, taken No. 10 overall in the 2007 Draft. In his first start of the year, he allowed five runs over three innings. Starts two and three weren't much better, and he was staring at a 7.71 ERA after three SAL outings.
"It didn't start out too smoothly," recalled Bumgarner, noting he gave up 10 runs over those first three games. "After that, I worked with pitching coach, Ross Grimsley. I couldn't imagine having a better pitching coach. I learned a lot from him. I don't think I could have had the kind of year I had without him."
Under Grimsley's guidance, Bumgarner didn't give up an earned run over his next four starts and drove his ERA under 2.00 with seven shutout innings on June 11. After those first three starts, in fact, he didn't give up more than three earned runs in a start again for the rest of the season, and the two times he did yield three came in seven-inning stints. Before allowing a run in his last start of the regular season, he reeled off 38 consecutive scoreless innings to bring his overall ERA down to 1.46.
"It just kind of clicked," Bumgarner said. "You just have to have confidence in what you're doing. If you don't believe in yourself, you're not going to be able to get it done."
He got it done by showing vast improvement with his secondary pitches. Coming out of the Draft, Bumgarner was known as a high school southpaw with a plus fastball, but not much else.
"My slider and curve got a lot better," Bumgarner said. "I didn't really have a breaking ball coming into instructional league last year. It just got better and better [as the year went on]."
Bumgarner's best start, he thinks, didn't even count in terms of him winning the Most Spectacular Pitcher Award, which will be awarded to him at the Bricktown Showdown in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. In the opening round of the playoffs, Bumgarner shut down the Asheville Tourists, outdueling Connor Graham by going eight scoreless innings, yielding just three hits and no walks while striking out 10. Needless to say, there weren't any questions about whether he had something left in the tank after his first full season.
"It was a lot more intense," Bumgarner said about his playoff experience (He allowed just one unearned run over six innings for the win in the championship round against West Virginia.). "It was a big relief when it was over, but it's kind of a blur.
"I still feel pretty good. We worked hard to stay in shape, so I wouldn't get tired at the end, so I could finish the season."
That's not to say Bumgarner is going to rest on his laurels. He might be the Most Spectacular Pitcher, but the 19-year-old knows there's still work to be done. "There's a lot of improvement to make," Bumgarner said, pointing to his offspeed pitch and his location. "Even if I had a 0.50 ERA, there'd still be room to improve."
Jonathan Mayo is a reporter for MLB.com.