Gavin Osteen

Gavin Edward Osteen

• Bats Right, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 195 lb.

• School Allegany College of Maryland
• High School Annville-Cleona High School

• Born November 27, 1969

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Gavin Osteen pitched professionally for 13 years, 7 of them in AAA, but never reached the majors. His father Claude Osteen pitched in the majors and his brother Dave Osteen also played professionally.

Gavin was taken by the Oakland Athletics in the 9th round of the 1989 amateur draft (between Troy Buckley and Chad Mottola), one round after they took Craig Paquette. Osteen was 2-2 with a 3.50 ERA that summer for the Southern Oregon A's. He went 10-10 with a 3.10 ERA for the 1990 Madison Muskies, walking 80 in 154 innings but allowing only 126 hits. He tied Marcus Moore for third in the Midwest League in starts (27) and was 10th in walks. In '91, he posted a 13-9, 3.54 record for the Huntsville Stars, finishing third in the Southern League in wins (behind Napoleon Robinson and Tim Wakefield), 4th in innings (173) and first in hits allowed (176, 4 ahead of Robinson). He tied Mike Mohler for the most wins by an Athletics farmhand.

Osteen slumped in 1992 with Huntsville (5-5, 3.61) and the Tacoma Tigers (0-2, 10.75 in 4 G). He was with the same two clubs in 1993, with better results: 7-3, 2.30 for Huntsville; 7-7, 5.08 for Tacoma. He led A's farmhands in wins, two ahead of Steve Wojciechowski, Miguel Jimenez and Russ Brock. He was 8-9 with a 5.27 ERA for Tacoma in 1994, tying for 9th in the 1994 PCL in losses. The injury bug then sidelined Osteen. He pitched only one game (2 shutout innings) for the 1995 AZL A's and missed all of 1996.

He next played in the Baltimore Orioles system. In 1997, he had a 1-1, 2.05 record for the Bowie Baysox, now working primarily in relief. He was 1-2 with two saves and a 3.96 ERA in 44 games for the 1998 Rochester Red Wings; he tied Bobby Munoz for second on the club in appearances, behind Steve Montgomery. Signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was 6-8 with two saves and a 5.12 ERA for the 1999 Albuquerque Dukes. In 2000, he bounced between the independent Bridgeport Bluefish (6-2, 3.06) and the Pittsburgh Pirates' Altoona Curve (0 R in 1 2/3 IP) and Nashville Sounds (2-1, 5.56 in 14 G). His brother Dave was Bridgeport's pitching coach in 2000. He fell to 4-8, 4.62 for the 2001 Bluefish. In 2002, he toiled for the Camden Riversharks (4-10, 3.35) and Mexico City Tigers (3 R in 2 IP). The former wild hurler only walked 24 in 126 1/3 IP for Camden, but was plagued by poor run support. He tied Ricardo Jordan and Jim Bullinger for 5th in the Atlantic League in losses despite being 6th in ERA (between Linc Mikkelsen and Maximo Nunez).

Overall, Osteen was 78-79 with 4 saves and a 3.97 ERA in 314 minor league games (195 starts). In 1,297 1/3 IP, he allowed 1,327 hits and walked 462 while striking out 819.

He later coached kids to play baseball in central Pennsylvania.

Sources

• 1990-2003 Baseball Almanacs
• Full Count PA
• Greatest 21 days blog