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Corcoran Nearly Left The Game
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By MARC LANCASTER The Tampa Tribune
ST. PETERSBURG - As a player traveling the back roads of baseball's farm
system, you don't want to get too familiar with any particular town.
A year at each stop is ideal, and once you leave - no matter how charming the
stadium or how pleasant the townfolk - you don't ever want to come back.
Devil Rays pitcher Tim Corcoran can tell you all you need to know about
Columbia, S.C., Bowie, Md., and Durham, N.C., after spending parts of three
seasons at each outpost. But it was Frederick, Md., that almost drove him out
of baseball for good in 2003.
At that point, it appeared he had maxed out, succumbing to baseball's brand
of Darwinism. As a 44th-round draft pick, the seven seasons he had spent in
the minors exceeded usual expectations.
"I'm not going to sit here and say there wasn't any doubt that crept into my
mind," said Corcoran. "There was a few times when I got knocked down and I
said, 'Well, maybe this is a sign or something telling me to move somewhere
else.'"
Corcoran first reached Bowie, the Orioles' Double-A affiliate, in the summer
of 2001 after posting solid numbers for Single-A Frederick to begin the
season. The right-hander compiled a 0.77 ERA in seven appearances for Bowie
before shoulder tendinitis truncated his season.
He went back to Bowie in 2002 and spent the whole year there, but still
couldn't break through to Triple-A. He returned to Bowie to begin 2003, but
was spinning his wheels. The Orioles sent him back to Frederick, and Corcoran
figured his playing days were near an end.
"I was 25 years old and I'd spent a season and a half in Double-A and I went
back to High-A ball and I was like, 'Man, I'm going the wrong direction,'"
said Corcoran.
Frederick pitching coach Scott McGregor, a former All-Star and World Series
champion with the Orioles, immediately set out to rebuild Corcoran's
confidence.
"I think he saw it in my face that I was having my doubts," said Corcoran. "I
went into his office to talk to him and before I could even say anything he
said I needed to sit down and listen."
The message was simple and to the point. McGregor insisted he and others in
the organization saw good things in Corcoran and wanted him to stick with it,
despite the dire implications of his demotion to Frederick.
That speech was all the bucking up Corcoran needed. He stuck out the season
with Frederick and was selected by the Rays in the minor-league portion of
the Rule 5 draft that December. Stops in Montgomery and Durham ultimately led
to his major-league debut with the Rays on June 14, 2005.
After another stint in Durham last year, Corcoran made it back to Tampa Bay,
but soon found himself in an unfamiliar role. He has made only 14 starts in
322 career minor-league appearances but was drafted into the Rays' rotation
last summer.
His numbers were mediocre - a 5-9 record with a 4.38 ERA - but he limited
foes to three earned runs or less in 13 of his 16 starts. He admits to being
a bit nervous before a few games, particularly against Boston, but he emerged
from 2006 confident he could be successful in the majors as a starter or
reliever.
Corcoran will be in competition to make the team this spring, most likely as
a long reliever. He'll have to avoid a repeat of his disastrous spring
training a year ago, when he surrendered 15 hits and 12 earned runs in 3 2/3
innings for a 29.45 ERA. Even if Corcoran ends up in the bullpen, the Rays
would feel comfortable using him for spot starts - keeping them from bringing
up an unproven starter from the minors for one or two outings.
If that mixed bag of a job will keep Corcoran from another trip to Durham,
consider him on board.
"I believe I can do it - there's no question," he said. "I want to help us
win, and I believe I can help us win."
--
If you're not have fun in baseball,
you miss the point of everything.
--
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