Woes Left Behind
SEATTLE--After three years in the Mariners organization and still stuck at short-season Everett after the 2005 season, righthander Joe Woerman had a very pointed self-evaluation.
"It was really a reality check for me," said Woerman, an 11th-round pick in 2003. "I realized I needed to improve if I didn't want to lose my job. I saw a sports psychologist, and I just worked hard. It's not that I wasn't working hard before, but I became more focused."
Woerman focused his way to a long scoreless streak with the Rattlers and an eventual promotion to the California League.
Woerman's work at Wisconsin earned him a promotion to high Class A Inland Empire, where he was 2-0, 2.67 with 31 strikeouts and 15 walks in 30 innings.
"I had to make a few adjustments," he said. "The same pitches that were working (in Wisconsin) were getting hit."
Now Woerman hopes to make another jump next season, to at least Double-A West Tenn, which would get him closer to his dream of playing for the team he has rooted for since childhood.
Woerman was born in Edmonds, Washington, moved around a bit, and came back to the Puget Sound area in his youth.
"My dad was in the military so we moved around some," he said. "It was during those years when I was back in Washington that I started to follow baseball, and the Mariners were my team."
There is also a bit in there about his time in Hawaii Winter Baseball.
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