Former Blue Jays Pitcher Shawn Hill Starts a Revolution

Mississauga native and former Toronto Blue Jay Shawn Hill is creating a revolution of sorts in York, Pennsylvania. 

As a member of the York Revolution, an independent team in the Atlantic League, Hill has not given up a run in his last five appearances and extended his club-record scoreless inning streak to 27.2 innings. 

Hill was drafted in the sixth round of the 2000 draft by the Montreal Expos. He showed great promise in the minors, as evidenced by a career ERA of 2.96 in 600 innings. But for whatever reason, that success never carried over when promoted to the big leagues. 

In six professional seasons that spanned three teams (Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays), Hill’s numbers weren’t all that outstanding. 

Hill has a 9-18 career record and an ERA hovering in the high 4.00s. Unfortunately, his additional stats do not attract much attention compared to the Justin Verlanders and the Clayton Kershaws of the word. He is saddled with a WHIP close to 1.5 and only recorded, on average, 5.7 strikeouts per nine innings.

In his short stint with the Jays, Hill performed rather well, registering a 2.60 ERA in 20 innings. He even rang up 14 strikeouts with only four walks. 

The numbers game caught up with Hill in 2010, and despite some very positive performances with the Jays at every single level, he found himself out of a job. 

Recently, Hill had surgery on his shoulder to relieve a circulation issue in February. It was no surprise that Hill got hit hard in his first to outings with the Revolution. On May 12 his ERA sat at 36.00. After his recent run of dominance, it now sits nicely at 2.43. 

With a mid- to high-80s fastball, Hill is once again showing why he can compete with the big boys. Performance likes this garner notice and warrant applause. He has been performing so well that MLB scouts are beginning to show up at games. 

According to the York Daily Record, a Rangers scout attended one of Hill’s games last week, and two more scouts were at his last outing against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. In that game Hill undoubtedly had one of his best performances of the year, holding the Blue Crabs to four hits over six innings, walking two and striking out six. 

We tend to underestimate when we hear that ex-pros are playing indie ball. But like I’ve always said, indie ball gives people that one last opportunity to do something great. In this case, Hill is doing everything expected to get the second chance.

Devon is the founder and executive director of The GM's Perspective. He is a former professional baseball player with the River City Rascals and Gateway Grizzlies. Currently, Devon is a manager at a financial institution in Northern Ontario Canada, and can be reached at [e-mail]. You can follow The GM's Perspective on Twitter and Facebook. His full bio can be seen here.