Scott Baker

Timothy Scott Baker (born September 19, 1981) is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher.

He stands 6 ft tall and weighs 215 lb. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers.

He bats and throws right-handed.

Baker grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and attended Oklahoma State University.

Baker was born September 19, 1981, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

He attended Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport, graduating in 2000.

He was selected to the All-State team his senior year and played college baseball at Oklahoma State University.

In the 2001 season, he was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American.

In 2002, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and was named a league all-star.

He was drafted by the Twins in the second round of the 2003 Major League Baseball draft and reached the major leagues in 2005.

In the 2003 season, he was named to the second team All-Big 12.

Baker was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the second round (58th overall) of the 2003 Major League Baseball draft.

He began his minor league career with the Class A Quad Cities River Bandits that same year.

In 2004, he played for the Class A-Advanced Fort Myers Miracle, Double-A New Britain Rock Cats, and Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, where he would spend the rest of his minor league career outside of rehab assignments until 2014.

In 2004, Baker went a combined 10–8 with a 3.24 ERA in 26 minor league starts.

He pitched the majority of his 2005 and 2006 seasons with Rochester.

Baker was called up on May 2, 2005; Baseball Prospectus speculated he might make starts in place of Kyle Lohse; Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire said he might be used to start if Lohse did not continue to improve.

Baker did not wind up starting, making his MLB debut by pitching one scoreless inning out of the bullpen in an 8–1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on May 7.

That was his only appearance with the Twins in May.

He was recalled in July to make his first major league start.

On July 5, he pitched five innings, giving up just two runs on five hits and striking out five; however, he took the loss in a 2–1 defeat to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Though he was expected to get sent back to Rochester, Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire had praise for him, saying after the game, "We think we have a quality major leaguer ready to go, and he kind of proved that theory again."

A few weeks later, on July 23, Baker had his first career win in Detroit with a 5–2 victory over the Tigers in Game 2 of a doubleheader.

He started and pitched seven strong innings, allowing just two runs, but was sent back to Rochester immediately after the game, as he had been called up specifically to start in the doubleheader.

On August 29, he returned to the Twins starting rotation for the remainder of the year, making seven consecutive starts to close the season as he replaced Joe Mays in the rotation.

Baker finished his rookie year with a record of 3–3 and an earned run average (ERA) of 3.35 in 10 games (nine starts).

Baker beat out Francisco Liriano to earn the Twins' No. 5 starting spot out of Spring training.

In 2006, he made their starting rotation out of Spring training but struggled and was sent to the minor leagues for most of the rest of the season.

Beginning 2007 in the minors, he was called up in May and nearly threw a perfect game on August 31.

He pitched just seven games in 2007 for the Red Wings before being called up to pitch the rest of his 2007 season with the Twins.

He went 11–4 in 2008 and posted a 3.45 earned run average (ERA).

In 2009, Baker logged a career-high 200 innings and started the American League (AL) tiebreaker game against the Detroit Tigers which the Twins won to advance to the postseason.

In 2009–10, Baker became part of Captain Shreve's "Circle of Honor."

He had a 12–9 record in 2010 but battled injuries towards the end of the year and was left out of the Twins' postseason rotation.

Injuries limited Baker in 2011 again, but he was the only Twins' pitcher to post a winning record.

He missed 2012 after undergoing Tommy John surgery; this also caused him to miss most of 2013, which he spent with the Chicago Cubs.

He began 2014 in the minor leagues but was later added to the Texas Rangers' roster.

Baker started eight games for the Rangers but was used mainly as a relief pitcher.

In 2015, he signed with the New York Yankees but was released before the season started.

Signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, he started two games for them, the last appearances of his major league career.