For Immediate Release
August 7, 2012
Courtesy of the Times Herald-Record, Written by William Montgomery
Fishkill, N.Y. — At first glance, Rob Finneran is just another in a long line of slim chance pitchers spending a summer in the Hudson Valley Renegades' bullpen.
Finneran is from a small school, Division II Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. He missed two seasons in college with arm injuries. He barely made the cut for professional baseball, taken in Round No. 37 out of 40 in the June draft.
Despite the long odds he faces in earning a promotion to one of Tampa Bay's full-season affiliates in 2013, Finneran's college experience give him three distinct advantages over his peers.
First, the silver lining in missing two full seasons of college baseball is that Finneran has fewer innings on his arm than most of his peers.
"You could almost say it's like a fresh arm," said manager Jared Sandberg. "He didn't have that year pitching his freshman year. After that, he had Tommy John. I think he's got a fresh arm."
Finneran followed strong seasons in his sophomore and junior years with Tommy John elbow surgery. He sat out what would have been his senior season in 2011, but came back for a graduate year and had another sharp campaign this spring. His elbow finally at full strength, he started attracting scouts to Bentley's games.
"It's nice to know that it's healed because I think in the past I had been pitching with pain for half a season before I had Tommy John," Finneran said. "It's nice to pitch and know that nothing's wrong and everything's completely healed. You want to just go out and let it fly at this point. I don't have to worry about anything or hold back or be worried about being injured."
Second, Finneran's time in the Northeast-10 Conference, a wood-bat league, has made him a more mature pitcher.
He doesn't exactly have blazing stuff, as his fastball tops out in the low 90s. Still, Finneran hopes to have success in pro baseball because he's familiar with pitching over the inside part of the plate, something he learned in college.
"Pitching to a wood bat is comfortable to me," he said. "I'm not afraid to go inside. I like to pitch inside. A lot of guys that pitch to metal bats are used to staying away, pitching away. Pitching against wood bats the last three years and over the summers, it definitely helps. It makes the transition slightly easier."
In his first professional outing on July 20, Finneran allowed three runs on three hits and two walks while recording just one out. In his first five outings, a span of 5 2/3 innings, he allowed eight runs. That added up to an ugly 12.71 ERA.
Since July 7, Finneran has pitched 8 1/3 innings and held opponents to six hits and one run. In his best appearance to date, he pitched three scoreless innings of relief in a 10-9 victory over Tri-City in 12 innings on July 25.
"He's a competitor," Sandberg said. "He didn't have the best pro debut. He was able to deal with some failure early in his pro career. You see a lot of players going through the minors never have failure. He's able to deal with some failure and overcome some obstacles. He's pitched very well as of late."
Third, Finneran excelled in the classroom at Bentley, as well. He earned a bachelor's degree in finance and has just a few more classes to finish before getting his master's.
The Renegades have six players acquired via foreign free agent contracts, eight who came straight from high school and 17 that played at least one year in college. Other than catcher Geoff Rowan, who completed four years at Northwestern and was a two-time all-academic Big Ten selection, and fellow reliever Shay Crawford, who's working on an MBA at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Finneran might be the Renegades' player most decorated for his studies.
"I'm only 12 credits away from getting a master's, but I have to see when it works," he said. "Right now, the focus is strictly baseball. I guess whenever there is time I'll go back and pursue my degree."
