Daniel Alberto Cabrera (born May 28, 1981, in San
Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic) is a
right-handed starting pitcher for the Baltimore
Orioles.
Cabrera throws three pitches: a fastball, a
curveball, and a changeup. His fastball is strongest
pitch—he is able to throw it consistently in the
upper 90s, with significant sinking and tailing
action. He throws two different curveballs. One is a
sharp-breaking, hard curve that behaves like a
slurve and tops out in the mid-upper 80s. He also
throws a looping, 12-6 curveball that tops out in
the high 70s. Cabrera's changeup is improving,
though in 2005 it was extremely inconsistent. He
featured this pitch with more effectiveness while
representing the Dominican Republic in the inaugural
World Baseball Classic.
Cabrera's mix of velocity and pitch movement have
enabled him to rack up impressive strikeout numbers,
as evidenced by his excellent K rate in 2005 (8.8
K/9). However, he has had difficulties with control,
as is often the case with a power pitcher of his
size and level of experience. His career walk rate
is an extremely high 5.1 BB/9; his career high for
walks in a single game is 9, most recently in a
bizarre outing where in addition to his walks, which
loaded the bases in three of his five innings,
fanned 10 batters and allowed only one run to cross
the plate, on a wild pitch.
Though displaying tremendous potential for success,
Cabrera is sometimes chastised for his perceived
lack of mental toughness and overall inconsistency.
Often, when the Orioles catch a bad break in the
field, Cabrera will struggle to regain momentum and
will let the inning fall apart. One example of
Cabrera's immaturity occurred during the 4th inning
on September 7, 2007 game against the Boston Red
Sox. Cabrera completely lost his composure after
being beaten by a Coco Crisp bunt and then stepping
off the mound in the middle of his windup (this is
considered a balk) to let a run score from third.
His next pitch was a deliberate 98 mph fastball
pitch to the head of the next batter, Dustin
Pedroia, and he then challenged the opposing
players, having to be mockingly restrained by an
umpire (untucked his shirt and challenged the Red
Sox) , resulting in his ejection from the game
following a benches-clearing affair. It was so bad,
pitchers in the bullpen jumped over the walls of the
bullpen.
