Prospect Profile: Sean Watson

[dabvu2498]

Name: Sean D. Watson
Date of Birth: 7.24.1985 (20)
Height: 6'1" (was listed as 6'3" at UT)
Weight: 210 lbs.
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Position: Relief pitcher
Team: Billings Mustangs (Pioneer-R)
Number: 49
Draft: 2nd round (52nd overall) of the 2006 draft
School: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Florida Christian HS, Miami, FL


Career Statistics at the University of Tennessee:

Year ERA W L App GS CG SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR BF B/Avg WP HBP BK SFA SHA
2004 4.54 4 5 15 14 0 0 75.1 73 54 38 47 51 8 7 5 344 .254 6 5 3 3 2
2005 2.85 7 3 29 6 0 7 79.0 64 31 25 47 82 13 0 4 350 .220 7 3 1 3 6
2006 4.61 4 3 29 0 0 11 41.0 42 23 21 17 47 8 0 7 187 .263 0 5 0 3 2
Totals 3.87 15 11 73 20 0 18 195.1 179108 84 111 180 29 7 16 881 .243 13 13 4 9 10

His utsports.com bio:

2006 - JUNIOR
Served as the Vols' closer throughout the season, with a team-high 29 appearances and 11 saves ... Named to SEBaseball.com's All-SEC second team ... Was one of 30 pitchers named to the initial watch list for the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award, presented annually to the nation's top relief pitcher ... Went 4-3 with a 4.61 ERA ... Recorded 47 strikeouts and 17 walks in 41 innings of action ... Became just the second player in school history to log at least 10 saves in a single season (Todd Helton did it twice) ... Logged saves in each of his first four appearances (FAU Feb. 5, two saves vs. Eastern Michigan Feb. 10 and Morehead State Feb. 17 ... Also notched saves against Oakland March 5 and Akron March 10 ... Worked the final inning of UT's 10-9, come-from-behind victory over Siena March 14 and logged his first win of the season ... Closed out the Vols' 8-7 come-from-behind win over Hartford by tossing two perfect innings and picking up the win to move to 2-0 on the year ... Also made a pair of two-inning appearances during the home series against No. 26 Kentucky, earning a victory in Friday's contest by allowing one run on one hit with one walk and four strikeouts ... Pitched a perfect ninth inning against ETSU March 29 ... Suffered his first loss of the season April 2 at No. 10 Arkansas, during which he allowed three runs on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts in three innings of relief ... Tossed 2 2/3 hitless innings of relief at ETSU April 5, striking out five Bucs batters ... Took his second loss of the year April 9 against LSU after giving up five runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings ... Pitched a perfect ninth inning against UNC Asheville April 12 ... Had a brief relief appearance vs. Florida April 16 ... Logged his seventh save of the season by tossing a perfect ninth inning at Tennessee Tech April 18 ... Pitched the final three innings of UT's 11-inning triumph at Georgia April 21, allowing just one hit and recording four Ks while earning the win ... Also picked up a save during the series-finale at UGA April 23 ... Logged single-inning relief outings against UNC Asheville April 26 and at No. 22 Ole Miss April 30 ... Saw action in each game of the Saturday doubleheader against Vanderbilt May 6, picking up his ninth save of the year in game one and taking the loss in game two to fall to 4-3 on the year ... Recorded saves in each of Tennessee's wins at 15th-ranked South Carolina May 12-13, giving him 11 saves on the year and 18 for his career ... Tied former Vol R.A. Dickey's school record for pitching appearances when he took the mound for the 73rd time May 19 against No. 8 Alabama ... Finished the year with an opponents' batting average of .263 ... Left-handers hit .264 against him, while right-handers hit .261.
2005 - SOPHOMOREEntered the 2005 season as Tennessee's Saturday starter but was eventually moved to the bullpen as an effective closer ... Posted a 7-3 record with a 2.85 ERA that ranked second on the team ... Struck out 82 batters and issued 47 walks in 79.0 innings while recording a team-leading seven saves ... Ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in hits allowed (fifth with 64), runs allowed (sixth with 31) and earned runs allowed (seventh with 25) ... As a starter early in the year, he notched wins against Bethune-Cookman (Feb. 19), James Madison (Feb. 25), Morehead State (March 5) and Radford (March 12) ... Made his first relief appearance March 25 when the Vols hosted Ole Miss in the second SEC series of the year ... Worked a perfect ninth inning against the Rebels to log his first save of the season ... Posted a Saturday save and a Sunday win during the Arkansas series April 16-17 ... Struck out two batters in 1.1 innings while picking up a save at Vanderbilt April 22 ... Struck out the side in the ninth inning of a 3-2 win over South Carolina May 6, earning his fourth save of the year ... Followed up his Friday save over the Gamecocks with a win Saturday, working two hitless innings of relief ... Picked up his fifth save May 17 vs. Lipscomb ... First postseason save May 27 in the SEC tournament, tossing a perfect ninth inning during a 4-1 victory over South Carolina ... Threw one inning of relief June 3 against Austin Peay in the opening game of the NCAA Knoxville Regional to log his seventh and final save of the season ... Came out of the pen to pitch two innings vs. Georgia Tech in the NCAA Atlanta Super Regional June 10, earning a win over the national No. 2-seed Yellow Jackets ... Worked a combined 3.2 innings while seeing action in both of Tennessee's College World Series games ... Ranked second in the SEC with an opponents' batting average of just .220.
2004 - FRESHMAN
Led the team with 14 starts as a true freshman, starting in all 10 Southeastern Conference series ... Posted a 4-5 mark with a 4.54 ERA in 15 appearances ... Ranked second on the team with 75.1 innings, striking out 51 as opponents hit .254 off him ... Tossed three scoreless innings with five strikeouts in his debut against Morehead State G2 Feb. 14 ... Was 4-1 in his first seven starts ... Allowed three or fewer earned runs in 11 starts ... Struck out a season-high six in 3.0 innings against Auburn March 27 ... Went 2-4 with a 5.33 ERA in SEC play ... Pitched a season-high 8.0 innings twice against Georgia State March 6 when he shut it out on five hits and Kentucky April 3 when he limited the Wildcats to one run on two hits ... Earned a win over Mississippi State March 20 in his first SEC start, allowing one earned run in 7.0 innings.
HIGH SCHOOL
Graduated from Florida Christian School in Miami, Fla. ... Drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 21st round in 2003 ... Rated as the No. 36 overall prospect and the No. 14 right-handed pitcher among incoming freshmen by Baseball America ... Fashioned a 12-0 mark as a senior with a 0.67 ERA, striking out 127 in 74 innings with just 20 walks ... As a first baseman and designated hitter, he batted .500 with nine home runs and 46 RBI ... Helped his team reach the state semifinals in 2003 ... Was a four-time All-City selection ... Led Florida Bombers to the 2003 WWBA Senior Championship in East Cobb, Ga. ... Named most valuable pitcher at the tournament ... At the 2001 WWBA Championship in Jupiter, Fla., he pitched a one-hit shutout ... In 2002, he appeared in the Underclassmen Showcase at Fort Myers, Fla., the National Showcase at St. Petersburg, Fla., and the East Coast Pro Showcase at Wilmington, N.C. ... He won two of the seven games the USA Youth National Team won at the World Championships in Veracruz, Mexico in 2002 ... Also played for the Florida Bombers national championship 18-and-under team for four years ... Coached by Ernie Padron ... Also attended Westminster Christian and Gulliver Prep.
PERSONAL
Full name is Sean Deer Watson ... He was born July 24, 1985, in Miami, Fla. ... Son of John and Eileen Watson ... Has two sisters, Jilayne and Ashley, and one brother, Mark ... When not on the diamond, he enjoys boating, fishing and snow skiing ... Academic major: Arts & sciences.

SEAN WATSON UPDATED SEASON STATS:

Sean Watson: Individual Stats (Pitching) 
Team                 From  To    W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB SO 
Billings Mustangs   06/20 06/22 0 0 0.00 1  0  0  0  0 3.2 0 0 0   0   0   4

[Superdude]

Is their any reason why he's not a starter?

[JaxRed]

Nice outing so far for him tonight. 3.2 innings 0 hits

[KoryMac5]

He did have a nice outing have to love those 4k's he got too. Also Stubbs went 1-3 with a triple and scored a run, most importantly he didn't strikeout tonight.

[Aronchis]

Terrell Young k's 2 11k's on the night.

[Redmachine2003]

Is their any reason why he's not a starter?

I don't think the Reds have decided yet on if he will be a starter or reliever yet. They did stretch him out a little tonight going 3.2 innings.

[Superdude]

It says he's got 4 usable pitches in his scouting report. If that's true, then his frame and delivery look more like a workhorse starter than a late inning reliever.

[Caveat Emperor]

Is their any reason why he's not a starter?

Probably because he's already thrown innings in relief during the college season, and it wouldn't be prudent to put him in a starting rotation right now. I imagine they'll make a switchover next year, when he starts the season in low A (presumably).

[dabvu2498]

Looking at his appearances at Tennessee, 3.2 would represent the longest appearance for him by far of the season. Doing a quick scan, the longest I found on UT's website was 2.1 IP.

[cincy09]

this is surprizing news to me. I was under the assumption that he was strictly going to be relief. I do however like the fact that they are stretching him out to see if he's able to be a starter.

[dabvu2498]

He has shown he's capable of doing this:

Led the team with 14 starts as a true freshman, starting in all 10 Southeastern Conference series.

[Willy]

He has only thrown 41 innings so far this year(44 counting pro ball). I don't think the Reds will wait to turn him ino a starter. They may be just trying to stretch him out of the pen to start with.

[Doc. Scott]

I'm intrigued by the Reds' new idea of drafting college relievers and turning them into starters. The kicker is how effective that conversion process is communicated and executed by the player-development system. It's successfully happened under Buckley before (David Bush, 2003), but the scouting director isn't the guy standing there in the bullpen.

[NewEraReds]

i think you def wait. he hasnt been used to throwing a lot of innings lately. stretch him out a little this year, then let him prepare in the offseason to be a starter next year. and go from there

[OnBaseMachine]

How hard does Watson throw?