Player Profile: Brad Lincoln

During some down time, let's take a look at some of the Crawdads roster. We were most recently introduced to Mr. Brad Lincoln. Brad was the Pittsburgh Pirates' first round draft pick in 2004 (4th overall pick). He was drafted as a junior in college from the University of Houston and signed with the Pirates on June 22, 2006 after agreeing to a $2.75m signing bonus.

Brad's professional career started with the Pirates in the Gulf Coast league where he pitched 7.2 innings in two games. During those innings, he gave up six hits, no earned runs, achieved nine strikeouts and gave up only one walk.

On July 19, 2006, Brad made his first appearance on the mound with the Hickory Crawdads. He faced some of the toughest batters in the South Atlantic League as the Lakewood BlueClaws went to work on his 0.00 ERA. During his 4.2 inning game on the 19th, Brad gave up 7 hits, 7 earned runs, 5 walks, and achieved 2 strikeouts. My personal opinion is that a case of the jitters coupled with facing some of the toughest batters in the league combined to get Brad off to a weak start and a 13.50 ERA after his first appearance in Hickory.

During the next 3 games against the BlueClaws, Brad spent some time with a few other Crawdads pitchers charting pitches during the game. I don't know when Brad's next appearance will be, but it will likely be on the road against Columbus next week. I'll be keeping tabs on those games and I'll report back when there is some new information.

If you would like to read some more biographical information about Brad's college career and awards, check out this link to the University of Houston Athletics page. It's quite impressive. I'm looking forward to seeing Brad in the future and I have high hopes for many great performances on the mound.

John M. Setzler, Jr.
(the guy with the camera)