Michael Kirkman
| Michael Kirkman | |||
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Kirkman with the Texas Rangers
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| Atlanta Braves | |||
| Pitcher | |||
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Born: September 18, 1986 Lake City, Florida |
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| MLB debut | |||
| August 21, 2010, for the Texas Rangers | |||
| MLB statistics (through May 4, 2016) |
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| Win–loss record | 2–6 | ||
| Earned run average | 5.25 | ||
| Strikeouts | 103 | ||
| Teams | |||
Michael Scott Kirkman (born September 18, 1986) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is currently in the Atlanta Braves Organization. He previously played for the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres.
Prior to playing professionally, he attended Columbia High School in Lake City, Florida. He was drafted by the Rangers in the fifth round of the 2005 amateur draft and began his professional career that year.
With the AZL Rangers in 2005, Kirkman went 3–1 with a 3.44 ERA in 14 games (nine starts), striking out 58 batters in 52 1⁄3 innings. He split 2006 between the AZL Rangers (eight games) and Clinton Lumber Kings (six games), going a combined 1–5 with a 9.70 ERA in 14 games (10 starts). He walked 51 batters in 34 1⁄3 innings while striking out 30. Despite posting an ERA near ten, he did not allow a single home run in 2006.
Kirkman pitched for the Lumber Kings (five games) and Spokane Indians (nine games) in 2007, going a combined 1–5 with a 7.14 ERA in 14 games (eight starts). He pitched for Spokane and Clinton again in 2008, improving to a combined record of 5–4 with an ERA of 3.84 in 17 games (16 starts).
2009 became a breakout year for Kirkman. In eight Bakersfield Blaze games Kirkman threw 48 innings with a 2.06 ERA, striking out 54 and issued 18 walks. Kirkman was promoted to AA Frisco, threw 96 innings in 18 games and earned a spot on the 40_man roster after the 2009 season. In an interview with Jason Cole, Kirkman attributed his 2009 improvement to watching film of Cliff Lee.
He began 2010 with the Oklahoma City RedHawks and was ranked as the 15th best prospect at the start of the year by Jamey Newberg. In his major league debut with the Rangers on August 21, he struck out the first three batters he faced and retired all four.
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