The Rockaway Wave
Originally published July 21, 2023
There seems to be a trend among starting pitchers for the Brooklyn Cyclones this season — a lot of them were relievers in college.
Tyler Stuart, who dominated in his 14 starts for the Cyclones this year with a 1.55 ERA, started a total of four games at Southern Miss. Christian Scott, who posted a 2.28 ERA in his six starts for the Cyclones, only started five games at Florida. Both of them have since been promoted to Double-A, but there is still a third former college reliever who is now starting games in Brooklyn, and his name is Cameron Foster.
“Yeah, [I feel] a lot better as a starter,” Foster said. “I just feel healthy going out there every time, and just knowing that I prepared myself to have a good outing.”
Foster spent three seasons at McNeese State University where he made 55 appearances, with only four of those being as a starter. Three of them came in his first season, the shortened 2020 season, before being transitioned to the bullpen full-time.
In 2021 he had his ups and downs, appearing in 22 games and putting up a 5.32 ERA over 44 innings. He went at least two innings in 10 of those 22 games, and pitched as many as 4.2 in one game, doing so twice. Then in 2022, Foster turned a corner.
“He knew who he was in ‘22, if that makes sense,” Just Hill, the head coach of McNeese State baseball, said. “I think in ‘21, he was still trying to figure out who he was and how he fit in. … The ‘22 year, man, he was phenomenal. He was good from the beginning.”
Hill described Foster as kind of a throwback reliever, one who can go multiple innings and probably could have been a starter. He came out of the bullpen for a couple of reasons. In 2021, the team already had a frontline starter in Will Dion, who would wind up being selected in the 9th round by the Cleveland Guardians in the 2021 MLB Draft.
The other, he said, was because he was trying to get his best pitchers into the game in the most important situations. He wound up the team’s closer, picking up 12 saves on the year — 11 more than any other player.
“I can go one inning, I can also go five innings,” Foster said. “Just different, but it was fun because I threw two times, three times a week, so it was good to be out there on the mound all the time.”
Foster didn’t start his college career at McNeese, he pitched two years at Wharton County Junior College first.
Keith Case, the current athletic director and Head Coach of the baseball team when Foster was there, said they initially planned to use him out of the bullpen but was forced into starter duty after some injuries.
“[He] probably should have been out of the pen, would have been better for him,” Case said. “But in the long run, as far as development, it was good for him because he came back the next year and was a starter, and was our No. 1 guy.”
Case said Foster and Ryan Jennings, who wound up being a 4th round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, formed a one-two punch of guys who were really both No. 1 starters.
He said he remembers being told that Foster has big-league spin on his pitches right now, and that being backed up by the TrackMan data.
Case also touted Foster’s competitiveness, calling him a bulldog, and saying he had the look in his eye you want all ballplayers to have. He wanted the ball when the game was on the line, and that’s something that goes back all the way to high school.
“His competitive nature would not just make him better, but it made everybody else better around him,” Robert Gilbert, Foster’s coach at George Bush High School in Richmond, Texas, said.
Foster did a bit of everything in high school Gilbert said. At that level, roles aren’t as defined as they are once you get to college and the pros. Foster started games and closed games, played shortstop, first base, outfield, you name it. Wherever he was needed, he went.
This year for the Cyclones, it’s limited to just the first one — starting games. Foster has appeared in 15 games this season, 13 of which were as the starter. The only two that weren’t both came in April, and he has since made 12 straight starts.
His ERA for the season sits at 4.25, but he has been exceptional lately, putting up a 2.51 ERA in six starts since the start of June. His most recent one came on July 18 vs. the Hudson Valley Renegades when he went a season-high seven innings, giving up three earned runs and striking out seven.
“I like the idea of him being a starter right now, because it gives him a bit of a routine,” Hill said.
Foster said he’s been working on a new slider, and it’s something he’s planning on upping the usage of going forward.
That said, it’s his curveball that has gotten him this far.
“Curveball,” Foster said when asked what pitch he’d throw with a full count, bases loaded and two outs. “I can tell you that confidently too.”
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