Top > Sport > 2004 > September > 2004-09-29

Eastlake grad`s rapid rise highlighted by minor-league pitcher

Orvella, an Eastlake High School graduate, played for four teams -- starting at Single-A Charleston, S.C, and finishing at Triple-A Durham -- and logged impressive statistics every step of the way. He was honored Tuesday night as the Devil Rays` minor league pitcher of the year in ceremonies at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. ``It`s an honor,`` Orvella said. ``There are a lot of other guys who pitched well this year, but I felt I earned it. I was able to make the four steps from Low-A to Triple-A and be successful at all four stops. The next step is the major leagues.`` A right-handed relief pitcher, Orvella spent most of the season splitting time between the Devil Rays` Single-A teams -- Charleston and Bakersfield, Calif. -- compiling a combined 1.80 earned-run average, while striking out 100 and walking nine in 65 innings. He finished the season with short stints at Double-A Montgomery and Durham. For the season, he finished with a 1.71 ERA, 116 strikeouts and 10 walks in 73 2/3 innings. Those are impressive numbers for a player selected in the 13th round of the 2003 amateur draft, especially considering that he was used predominantly as a shortstop in college. What makes those numbers all the more amazing is how Orvella, who turns 24 years old Friday, got to the Devil Rays. ``I saw him pitch once against Clemson,`` said Tampa Bay scouting supervisor Hank King, a fellow Washingtonian who has known Orvella for nine years. ``It had to be 95 degrees with 90 percent humidity. He comes in the 18th inning of a doubleheader. I was thinking he must be exhausted, and he was throwing 93 to 94 (mph).`` The numbers on the radar gun were far better than those on the scoreboard. ``He got tattooed for six runs,`` King said. ``I don`t think the other scouts saw what I did.`` King met first met Orvella while coaching a Connie Mack team in Seattle. ``I recruited him, but I guess I didn`t go about it very well,`` said King, who coached at Edmonds Community College at the time. ``He said I told him that he wasn`t good enough to play Division I, so he should play for me. He didn`t take that well, and he went elsewhere.`` That path led Orvella to Columbia Basin College in Pasco and later to North Carolina State University is because Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent needed a shortstop. Then-North Carolina State baseball recruiting coordinator Billy Jones, another Washingtonian, heard about a good prospect from Columbia Basin coach Scott Rogers. ``Elliott Avent came out and watched me and liked what he saw,`` Orvella said. Orvella hit .314 with five home runs in 2003 for the Wolfpack, who finished 45-18 and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time in school history. His statistics on the mound were far less impressive -- 10 games, 13 1/3 innings pitched, 8.10 ERA and .327 opposing batting average. But it was the muggy game against Clemson that resonated with King as the June draft approached. ``I didn`t think he possessed the overall tools to be a major-league shortstop,`` King said. ``I told him he could play shortstop and bang around for five or six years in the minors. I drafted him as a pitcher because he had an absolute hose of an arm.`` It wasn`t just velocity that impressed King. Orvella`s strikeout-to-walk ratio during his senior season at North Carolina State was 4.5 to 1. ``I fell in love with the guy,`` King said. ``I wanted him in the third round, but it`s hard for a major-league club to pick a guy that high with his stature and a 10-something ERA in 10 innings. ``There were 10 scouts sitting there -- it wasn`t like no one saw him pitch. If you scout on performance, it`s easy to turn away kids. I was very lucky to get him.`` Orvella said he`s always had good control in his short career in the Devil Ray`s system. ``Once you`re able to locate your fastball, hitters have a hard time with that,`` he said. ``It sets up your offspeed pitches and other pitches.`` John Manuel, assistant managing editor of Baseball America, has followed Orvella since his collegiate days. He ranked Orvella as the No. 29 prospect in magazine`s preseason handbook. That might have had something to do with the fact that Orvella missed nearly all of the summer of 2003 because he injured his right knee shortly after joining Tampa Bay`s short-season Single-A club. At the conclusion of the 2004 summer season, however, the magazine rated Orvella as the 18th-best minor-league prospect in the nation. ``We didn`t know he was going to be this good,`` Manuel said. ``You have to consider him one of the bigger breakout stories of the year. I think it`s safe to say he`s going to be significantly higher going into 2005.`` Manuel said he believed that Orvella`s shortstop experience might contribute to his success on the mound. ``He`s athletic, and athleticism in a pitcher translates into command,`` he said. ``Chad`s velocity went up this year. I saw him late in the year at 89 to 92, and I heard reports that he was up to 97. He also throws a nice change-up, and that`s enough for a relief pitcher.`` Orvella is 5-foot-10. Not all that long ago, his height might have worked against him, because short right-handed pitchers had a reputation of being injury-plagued. King doesn`t see that happening. ``He`ll be a big-leaguer for 10 years barring injury,`` he said. ``He`s a compact-body style with a clean delivery. I don`t see him being a breakdown guy. He pitches out of the stretch only.`` With a slew of talented young position players -- outfielders Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford and shortstop B.J. Upton, among others -- the Devil Rays are eager to look at some young pitchers. Left-hander Scott Kazmir, 20, already is in the Tampa Bay starting rotation, and Orvella will get the opportunity to make the roster next spring. ``The big-league club told him he`s got to be in the best shape he`s ever been in ...,`` King said. ``He almost was called up (this season), but he wore down. They think he`ll be a setup guy in the bigs.`` That possibility already has Orvella looking forward to 2005. ``I would love to go back to Seattle and pitch,`` he said. ``That`s going to be a big thrill for me. When I come back to Seattle, I`ll be able to pitch in front of my family and friends, which will be a big deal.`` It would be a big deal, too, for King, who said he continues to be amazed by Orvella`s progress. ``I give the kid a $2,500 signing bonus and one year later he almost reaches the bigs,`` he said.