Player Profile - Scott Feldman

  
Throws: Right
Height/Weight: 6'5''/210
Birthday: 2/7/1983 (Age 25) 
Roster Status: On 25- and 40-man Rosters; Eligible for Arbitration after 2009 Season

Background: Scott Feldman came to the Rangers as a 30th round pick in the 2003 draft from the College of San Mateo in California.  He had finished his two-year career there with a 25-2 record after playing high school ball for Burlingame High School in the same state.  It took the Rangers nearly a month to sign Feldman, but they got it done.  The previous year, the Astros had drafted Feldman in the 41st round, but had failed to sign him.  On the whole, Feldman was seen as a pitcher with some upside who needed some refinement to be considered a quality pitcher.

Pitches: Since Feldman moved his delivery up to three-quarters from the above-pictured sidearm delivery, he's really sharpened his pitches.  As a starter, he features up to four pitches in any game.  His main fastball is a sinker that routinely sits in the low-90s, touching as high as 94 on some nights.  However, the harder he throws, the less movement he gets, so the Rangers are more comfortable with somewhere around 92 for his sinker.  Feldman has a second fastball variation, a cutter, that he uses frequently against left-handed hitters.  It usually sits around 90-91.  It is a developing pitch that sits with his changeup as his two main options for lefties.  The changeup itself is of the average variety, and he does make mistakes with it.  He rarely ever throws it against righties, but it is his third pitch against lefties.  If he commands it, it is a quality pitch.  His last pitch is a curve that has gained bite since his motion was re-worked.  He's much more likely to throw the curve against righties than lefties, but once again, he can get into trouble locating it.  From a pitch standpoint, Feldman has a lot of similarities to Cardinal pitcher Chris Carpenter when healthy.  However, Feldman has a long way to go in terms of locating those pitches.

Professional Experience: Feldman's pro experience has really been interesting, as it has involved two deliveries in two different roles.  He only got into a few games in his debut season in 2003 before succumbing to Tommy John surgery, which cost him a full year of development.  By the time he got back, he could only get it 7 innings in the AZL, and he didn't allow a run in that time.  The Rangers challenged Feldman the next year with an assignment to Bakersfield and a "permanent" role as a relief pitcher.  He only lasted 9 innings in Bakersfield before getting promoted to Frisco, having allowed no earned runs and striking out 11.  However, his biggest challenge was yet to come.  After 61 AA innings with a 2.36 ERA, Feldman found himself with the big club, and he only allowed an earned run in 9.1 innings to finish the year.  2006 found Feldman on the Oklahoma City-Arlington shuttle, with 23 games for Oklahoma and 36 for Texas.  He had success for both, with an ERA of 2.00 for Oklahoma and 3.92 for Texas.  Therefore, Feldman was expected to contribute heavily to the 2007 Rangers' bullpen.  However, his ups and downs continued, and he finished 2007 with an ERA of 5.77 for the big club 4.50 for Oklahoma.  The Rangers decided to move Feldman to a starting role for 2008 and moved his delivery around.  He then went on to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, and entered 2008 figuring to spend the year transitioning into a starting pitcher in the minors.

2008 Season: Feldman's year of transition has really not had a chance to happen.  He did indeed start the year in the minors, but that didn't last long.  The Rangers' rotation has suffered numerous injuries, and Feldman has been one of the few healthy pitchers over the course of the season.  He's only made 2 starts for Frisco this year, and has an ERA of 4.26 over those starts.  However, he's started 19 for the Rangers, and also had 2 relief appearances.  Until his implosion in Boston, he had been having arguably the most consistent season of any Ranger starting pitcher.  However, he now stands at 4-5 with a 5.18 ERA over 114.2 innings, already a career high by a ton.  The Rangers wanted to move Feldman back to the bullpen to finish off the year in order to keep his innings down.  However, until the Rangers find suitable replacements for him in the rotation, he'll continue to step onto the rubber every fifth day with Tommy Hunter being the skipped starter.  It's likely that Feldman will indeed find the bullpen between now and the end of year as Ranger starters come back from the DL.  He'll continue working on his new motion and hopes to finish the year strong.

Future Outlook: Feldman is still only 25, amazing considering how long we've seen him in Arlington.  This is his fourth year to spend time with the big club, and I expect we'll see quite a few more.  His transition to starting has been quite exceptional, and he's now looking more like a true number four or five starter.  By that, I mean that he's good enough to fit in to that number in most rotations around baseball.  He'll continue to have some struggles locating, as most pitchers changing motions do.  In addition, most sinkerballers have trouble from time to time keeping pitches down in the zone, so we'll see some nights where he gets hit hard.  His stuff is fairly good, so I expect Feldman will be in the Rangers rotation until he gets bumped off in 3 years or so.

Profile Coming Next: IF Davis Stoneburner

Don't forget to check Rangers Rosters Update for current Ranger roster moves across all affiliations.  I'll be on vacation, so updates might be less frequent than usual.  Check back for profiles, as I'll do my best to get them to you fairly often.