Tim Norton reportedly Healthy

Tim Norton

Tim Norton is a New England guy who was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Rhode Island and went to college at the University of Connecticut. He was drafted by the Yankees in the seventh round in 2006 as a starter and pitched to a 2.60 ERA in 72 innings with a K/9 rate of 10.3 for the Staten Island Yankees. At the time his scouting report said 23, RHP (SP): mid-90s FB, sharp slider and a devastating splitter, he says that he does not throw a splitter anymore because of the injury, but apparently his slider and fastball have picked up the slack. Then he had shoulder surgery in 2007 and was moved to the bullpen after missing all of 2008, but ha another shoulder surgery in 2009 and was shut down during his 2010 campaign due to a lat injury that didn’t require surgery. Since then Norton has been lights out in the minors with an excellent ERA and a K/9 rate over 13 in 2010 and 2011. It looked like Norton had put the injuries behind him, was throwing with that same mid-90s velocity and was on the fast track to the majors last year after Soriano and Joba went down, but alas Norton got hurt again and nobody could not find any information about where he was in his recovery. 
Now we have a report from Donnie Collins, a AAA Yankees writer, that according to Yankees VP Mark Newman; Norton is “He is throwing bullpens and feeling fine,”. This is great to hear as many had thought that Nortons career was over after his injury that ended his season. Norton has blown away all the competition in AA and if he is healthy then the Yankees will probably put him in AAA with a strong possibility of he or George Kontos being the first bullpen callups when somebody gets hurt.