Indians Top 100 Prospects: #91 Shawn Nottingham

91. Shawn Nottingham - Left-handed Pitcher
Born: 01/22/1985 - Height: 6'1" - Weight: 190 - Bats: Left - Throws: Left

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2003	18	AZ Mariners	R	1	0	3.72	12	0	0	19.1	17	8	2	8	17	3.7	7.9	1.29
2004	19	Everett	A-	8	3	3.15	15	14	0	88.2	74	31	8	29	87	2.9	8.8	1.16
	19	Tacoma	AAA	0	0	13.50	3	0	0	2.0	4	3	0	3	2	13.5	9.0	3.50
2005	20	AZ Mariners	R	0	0	2.25	3	3	0	4.0	3	1	0	0	6	0.0	13.5	0.75
	20	Wisconsin	A	0	1	9.53	3	3	0	11.1	15	12	0	7	10	5.6	7.9	1.94
	20	Inland Empire	A+	4	3	3.86	7	6	0	37.1	48	16	2	10	28	2.4	6.8	1.55
2006	21	Inland Empire	A+	5	12	4.17	26	26	0	155.1	164	72	13	52	136	3.0	7.9	1.39
	21	Kinston	A+	0	0	2.25	1	1	0	4.0	6	1	0	0	2	0.0	4.5	1.25
2007	22	Akron	AA	9	12	4.77	27	26	0	149.0	157	79	11	59	96	3.6	5.8	1.45
2008	23	Kinston	A+	3	4	4.58	14	14	0	70.2	76	36	4	26	70	3.3	8.9	1.44
	23	Akron	AA	0	2	7.09	19	0	0	33.0	40	26	5	16	33	4.4	9.0	1.70
		Career		30	37	4.46	130	93	0	574.2	604	285	45	210	487	3.3	7.6	1.42

History: Nottingham was a 13th round pick by the Seattle Mariners in the 2003 Draft out of Massillon Jackson High School (OH), and was acquired by the Indians in July 2006 in the Ben Broussard trade.

Strengths & Opportunities: Nottingham is a fundamentally sound pitcher with a fastball that sits around 89-91 MPH, and he complements it with a curveball and changeup. He has a good delivery, and has a good feel for all of his pitches. He is durable, and showcases some good tilt on his breaking ball.

After an impressive first two months in Akron in 2007 where he was 2-1 with a 3.06 ERA in April and 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA in May that year, his career has since been on a rapid decline as he tailed off considerably the rest of the 2007 season and was knocked around pretty hard at Akron in 2008. His troubles have mostly been mental in that he has struggled to regain his confidence, which carries over into his mechanics causing him to have issues finishing his pitches and consistently repeating his delivery. During bullpen sessions between starts, he worked with coaches to try and fine tune his mechanics and work on better repeating his delivery and improving his fastball command.

Outlook: If you look at Nottingham's minor league career before last season he had always been a consistent pitcher and the Indians were excited by his progression because he had pitched well at a young age at more advanced levels, but all that has changed after what was really a lost season for him in 2008. He will be one of those bubble guys this spring trying to hang on for at least one more year, and if he does he should open the 2008 season in the Double-A Akron bullpen.

Photo courtesy of Carl Kline

Shawn Nottingham's MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page

Shawn Nottingham's Baseball-Reference page

Shawn Nottingham's MinorLeagueSplits.com page

Shawn Nottingham video:

Posted in: Shawn Nottingham