Round 21: Todd Simko, LHP, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

(from A&M CC's official site)

Baseball-Reference                                                                                                                 FanGraphs
MiLB                                                                                                                        Texas A&M CC Bio

2011 Stats:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
2011	22	Nationals	GULF	Rk	WSN	1	2	.333	6.75	5	0	0	0	0	0	5.1	9	12	4	0	3	0	4	3	0	1	32	2.250	15.2	0.0	5.1	6.8	1.33
1 Season						1	2	.333	6.75	5	0	0	0	0	0	5.1	9	12	4	0	3	0	4	3	0	1	32	2.250	15.2	0.0	5.1	6.8	1.33

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/23/2012.

Sean's one sentence analysis: Simko's collegiate 4.31 BB/9 and 6.38 K/9 make me a little wary, but he found a way to get things done with a 4.31 ERA and 10-6 record.

Thoughts from the community:
"Simko is said to resemble Andy Pettitte in terms of physical size and demeanor. Throws 89-91 fastball as a starter, touching 93-94 in relief and two other unnamed pitches (best guess: curve and change) for strikes. Weak peripherals at both collegiate and GCL levels indicate he's another project." - Luke Erickson, Nationals Prospects (@nats_prospects)

"Another mid-round draft pick from a small college, Simko joins a slew of southeastern prospects this team has drafted lately (we must have a very convincing area scout working the Texas-to-Alabama circuit). His 2011 season is an incomplete; he had four appearances in July, the last of which on July 16th featured him facing 6 batters without getting an out (though 3 of those batters reached by way of error, part of an ugly 6-error effort from the team that day). He didn't pitch again for another month, so I'm assuming he got hurt in the effort. I'd guess he'll compete for a full-season bullpen job in 2012. - Todd Boss, Nationals Arm Race (@toddeboss)

Previous analysis and notes:
Nats.com roundup: "Simko had a 4.31 ERA and walked 46 batters in 96 innings but set a school record with 10 wins."
Simko has an extraordinary backstory: as Andrew Masuda of KSBY reports, "Simko broke his neck and his throwing hand and nearly died in a major car crash when he was in high school. Now, five years later, he's a major league draft pick." The San Luis Obispo Tribune went into further depth on 3/21/07, writing that "an off-duty emergency doctor was riding a bicycle when he came upon the wreck and prevented Todd from being moved — an eventual life-saving move considering doctors later told Todd he might have been paralyzed or killed had his neck shifted a minimum of two millimeters." Crazy stuff.

Simko signed with the Nats on June 16, 2011.