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JOHN SEVER, LEFT HANDED PITCHER
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| Born: July 26, 1993 Height: 6’5″ Weight: 190 Bats: Left Throws: Left Drafted: 20th Round, 611th Overall, 2014 How Acquired: Draft College: Bethune-Cookman University Agent: N/A |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
| Sever (the name is pronounced the same as Tom Seaver’s) pitched for three different college teams in three years. He spent 2012 with Erskine College in South Carolina, an NCAA Division II school, and 2013 with Daytona State College, which competes in athletics as a junior college. He transferred to Bethune-Cookman for 2014. Baseball America ranked him as the fourth best prospect in the Florida Collegiate Summer League in 2013, but did not list him among the top 500 draft prospects in 2014. BA did, however, rate him 73rd on its list of the top 98 draft prospects in Florida. His fastball sometimes gets into the low-90s, but he needs to develop a useful secondary pitch and also work on his command. He had significant control issues in college in 2014. The Pirates no doubt like his height. Although he had a year of eligibility left, Sever signed quickly.
2014 Sever had a standout debut with Bristol, including an extremely high K rate. It has to be borne in mind, though, that he was pitching below his experience level. He pitched in relief until late in the season, when the Pirates gave him three starts. When he had problems, it was generally due to control issues. 2015 Sever moved up to low A, where he made nine starts and 21 relief appearances. The way the Pirates handle many pitchers at that level, there isn’t a big difference between the two. Sever typically threw 3-4 innings per outing either way and had very similar numbers in both roles. He had a good year, but didn’t dominate as in 2015. He had control problems at times, but still held batters to a 232/307/343 line. He was a flyball pitcher and, oddly, had far more trouble with left-handed hitters (.821 OPS) than right-handed (.585). He had a rough stretch in June, with a 7.27 ERA in six outings. The rest of the season his ERA was 1.82. Sever should be at Bradenton in 2016. |
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CONTRACT INFORMATION
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| 2016: Minor league contract |
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PLAYER INFORMATION
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| Signing Bonus: N/A MiLB Debut: 2015 MLB Debut: MiLB FA Eligible: 2020 MLB FA Eligible: Rule 5 Eligible: 2017 Added to 40-Man: Options Remaining: 3 MLB Service Time: 0.000 |
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TRANSACTIONS
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| June 7, 2014: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 20th round, 611th overall pick; signed on June 12. |
