Mike Loree

From BR Bullpen

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 6", Weight 218 lb.

BR Minors page

Biographical Information[edit]

Mike Loree has been a pitcher in the minors and in Taiwan.

Loree was All-Conference in both football (quarterback) and baseball in high school. In 2004, he had a 6-2, 4.81 record with one save. The next year, he fell to 4-5, 4.92 and he was down to 3-7, 5.36 as a junior. His senior year, Mike had his best campaign with Villanova at 7-4, 4.00. He was picked by the San Francisco Giants in the 50th round of the 2007 amateur draft, San Francisco's last pick of the draft. The scout was John DiCarlo, Jr.

Loree made his pro debut with the AZL Giants, going 1-1 with a deceptive 1.12 ERA as he gave up 8 runs in 16 innings but only two were earned. He struck out 20. In 2008, he was excellent for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, going 4-3 with a 2.44 ERA, 75 strikeouts and only 7 walks in 81 innings, while opponents hit just .211. He was named Northwest League Pitcher of the Week 3 times. He finished third in the NWL in whiffs, two behind co-leaders Pedro Figueroa and Ronny Morla, and led the league in ERA by .43 over Andy Reichard. He still lost the league All-Star RHP honors, to Wilfredo Boscan.

Moving up to the Augusta Greenjackets in 2009, the tall hurler was less effective at 8-9, 4.67, though his control was superb (26 BB in 123 1/3 IP). Let go, he signed with the independent Newark Bears but fared even worse in 2010 (6-9, 6.09). Among Atlantic League hurlers with 20+ starts, only Rick Bauer had a worse ERA. 2011 was a different story as Loree starred for the Long Island Ducks (14-5, 1.98, 131 K, 28 BB in 122 2/3 IP). He led the Atlantic League in wins (one over former big leaguer Corey Thurman) and strikeouts (20 more than Thurman) and ERA (1.35 better than Thurman) to win a pitching Triple Crown. He was named the league's Pitcher of the Year. The Pittsburgh Pirates signed him late in the year and used him four times with their Altoona Curve affiliate (1 R, 11 K in 7 2/3 IP). Despite his fine run, he was back with the Ducks for 2012 and did not start as well (5-7, 4.92).

Loree then signed with Taiwan's Lamigo Monkeys and had a 6-1, 2.50 record for the remainder of 2012. Lamigo turned to him for game one of the 2012 Taiwan Series and he tossed a gem, giving up only 3 hits and one run in 7 1/3 IP before being relieved by Paul Phillips. He also won game 4, but lost out Taiwan Series MVP to Chih-Sheng Lin, Lamigo's hitting star of the Series. Loree returned to shine in the 2012 Asia Series, with a 11-K, 3-hit shutout to upset the Samsung Lions of Korea.

Loree remained a star in Taiwan. When he won the pitching Triple Crown in 2015, he joined Chao-Chi Sung and En-Yu Lin as the only pitchers to perform the feat. He led the league in wins and ERA in 2016 then won another pitching Triple Crown in 2017 (tying Zack Segovia for the most wins). He won the Best Ten all three years, joining Yi-Hsin Chen as the only pitchers so honored. He won another strikeout title in 2018 and a fourth ERA title in 2019. He became the 1st four-time Best Ten pick at pitcher. His pitching collapsed in 2020, as he recorded a 5.00 ERA with a league-leading 11 losses. The ace of the Guardians bounced back soon, had a 3.03 ERA and 7 wins in 2021

2022 was an important year for Loree, as he could became the first foreign player to be seen as a native player (thus not counting as a foreign player on the roster; Karl Rhodes and Alex Ramirez had accomplished the feat in Japan) if he stayed on the roster for 125 days. He met the need on August 5, but the 39-year-old pitcher decided to retire this year. On July 23, Loree notched the 100th win in CPBL, becoming the sixth and the second foreign pitcher (after Osvaldo Martínez) to accomplish this achievement. It had been 12 years since Wei-Lun Pan had been the fifth player to the mark. The Fubon Guardians announced that they would retire his uniform number, 39, at a ceremony to be held on September 5th. Mike Loree pitched his last home game that day, starting and lasting 6 1/3 innings, allowed 3 runs and struck out 6 batters. The greatest foreigner pitcher ever in CPBL then retired as a player from the league he stayed in for 9 years, then became a scout of the Guardians.

Sources[edit]

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