Loewen's First Inning

[BBdad]

As for Dennis, he is pitching through the flu. He got sick sick on Sat. and threw Sunday, and today. Body ache, congestion, etc. He said he hopes to be better by the end of the week.

He could be a long guy if they really wanted him for that. He was a starter his entire life until last year when he was converted. He actually gets stronger as he goes, so that loss of velocity comment is not correct. In college he was 94-96 in the 9th inning of one game at around 110 pitches.

[wickedwitch]

Oh, prolly... if he was missing by 2 feet all the time.

He did hit two batters.

[ejf1025]

Hate to say it but this guy really does have "bust" written all over...

The walks, the injuries--heck, I was even disappointed last year when I saw him living around the late-80s, low 90s with his fastball.

I know he's shown flashes, and you don't need to pop the gun to be successful and he's been hurt, yada yada...but for a tall, high draft pick, lefty with a major league deal...well, I haven't seen what I was hoping to see.

[Rolotomassie]

He could always go the Rick Ankiel route and become a power hitting OF....

[byrdz]

Heck, he wasn't throwing mid 90's when everything was right. He may have touched 93-94 but he generally threw 88-92 IIRC.

This BA scouting report is 4 years old and but says his fastball was 90-95 then. This more recent one does as well. I can't imagine he's lost velocity pre-injury and I surely don't remember 88mph fastballs from him.

[turtlebowl]

Hate to say it but this guy really does have "bust" written all over...

The walks, the injuries--heck, I was even disappointed last year when I saw him living around the late-80s, low 90s with his fastball.

I know he's shown flashes, and you don't need to pop the gun to be successful and he's been hurt, yada yada...but for a tall, high draft pick, lefty with a major league deal...well, I haven't seen what I was hoping to see.

I also lean in this direction. I always invisioned him to be a power pitcher with some control issues. I don't see what so many others see in him. He's 89 to 93 on the gun with erratic control. The thing he does have is movement. He also seems to have a good makeup.

I think he will be a servicable pitcher, and may have a couple of above average years but I don't see Ace or anything close to it.

My other concern is his arm. He seems like the type that would be very relunctant to admit he has an injury. I fear that the shoulder could be a bigger issue than he is leading on to.

[Frobby]

I also lean in this direction. I always invisioned him to be a power pitcher with some control issues. I don't see what so many others see in him. He's 89 to 93 on the gun with erratic control. The thing he does have is movement. He also seems to have a good makeup.

I think he will be a servicable pitcher, and may have a couple of above average years but I don't see Ace or anything close to it.

My other concern is his arm. He seems like the type that would be very relunctant to admit he has an injury. I fear that the shoulder could be a bigger issue than he is leading on to.

I've seen him pitch live twice. Believe me, he doesn't need to throw in the mid-90s to dominate. He's got great movement on his fastball, a tremendous curve ball, and a very effective changeup. If he can throw strikes, he'll dominate, no question in my mind.

On your second point (being reluctant to admit an injury), I agree. He did that last year, pitching several outings before admitting his elbow was bothering him, and even then trying to downplay it. I hope he is not doing that now.

[turtlebowl]

I've seen him pitch live twice. Believe me, he doesn't need to throw in the mid-90s to dominate. He's got great movement on his fastball, a tremendous curve ball, and a very effective changeup. If he can throw strikes, he'll dominate, no question in my mind.

On your second point (being reluctant to admit an injury), I agree. He did that last year, pitching several outings before admitting his elbow was bothering him, and even then trying to downplay it. I hope he is not doing that now.

I know you don't have to throw mid 90's to dominate. If he devlopes better control he could be better than I'm predicting at this point. He needs to be able to control the strke zone better, which he has never been consistantly able to do.

At this point we need to hope he is healthy. He really needs to get some innings in. That is what he needs the most at this point.

It would make me happy to DL him to get him some rehab time in the minors (little less pressure) and get Hayden up here and hopefully prove he's ready

[Frobby]

O's putting a happy face on this: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080319&content_id=2444083&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal

"I think he's a lot closer than he thinks," said Kranitz, finding the silver lining. "While I'm watching the game, it sure looks like he is ready to get out of the inning and then it gets away from him. And then things snowballed on him today. Obviously, we've got to not throw that many pitches to get out of an inning. There's no question about that."

Loewen's second inning was cleaner and crisper, if not more aesthetically pleasing. The 23-year-old allowed a single to the first batter he faced, and one bunt later, he loaded the bases by hitting two consecutive batters. Former pitcher Rick Ankiel followed with a run-scoring single, and Loewen struck out Ryan Ludwick before calling it a day.

"It wasn't really frustrating, the first inning," Loewen said of his emotions. "The second inning, I started to get frustrated, because I thought I was going to make the adjustments, get the ball down. I hit Pujols and [Troy] Glaus back-to-back, and that wasn't a good situation to get into. Those two pitches totally screwed up my second inning."

"They ran the counts real deep against him and he obviously ran his pitch count up way too much early," said Baltimore manager Dave Trembley. "There's command and control, and his control was not very sharp."

The Orioles are now beginning to worry about getting Loewen ready for the season. Trembley said the plan is to get his starters up to around 90 pitches by the time the year begins, and Loewen said he's not particularly concerned that he hasn't gotten his best work done during his first four starts of the Grapefruit League season.

"I'd better come to pitch the next time out, so I can get my innings and be ready," he said. "A lot can be done in two weeks. I can probably get two or three bullpens in and probably two games in, so I should be on schedule."

Meanwhile, Kranitz said that he's liked everything he's seen from Loewen thus far. The veteran coach said that Loewen's stuff is good enough to get outs and that his intangibles give him an even better chance of finding success.

"I'll go to war with him any time. He's a tough kid," said Kranitz. "Whether he does well or not, he's going to go out there and give it everything he got. He's going to compete on every pitch. Those kinds of guys, you'll take any day."

[Old#5fan]

I believe he will come around. He is a lefty with movement on his pitches. He doesn't need to throw 95 but it would be nice if his control improves. It makes me wonder who works with these kids in the low minors on control (apparently nobody with much success) as too many young Orioles pitchers have the same control issues. (Cabrera, Lowen, Olson, Liz) to name a few. I always thought control was mainly achieved by good consistent mechanics, which should be stressed until second nature in the low minors.

[wildcard]

Loewen has two more starts on a five day rotation before the season starts. He can pitch on the 24th and 29th. If he can get to 4 effective innings in either start, he will probably stay in the rotation. 5 innings in his first start of the season would be just fine.

It is probably too early to count him out of the rotation. It is not too early to worry though.

[Frobby]

Loewen has two more starts on a five day rotation before the season starts. He can pitch on the 24th and 29th. If he can get to 4 effective innings in either start, he will probably stay in the rotation. 5 innings in his first start of the season would be just fine.

It is probably too early to count him out of the rotation. It is not too early to worry though.

Right on the money.

[Sports Guy]

Just a few reminders on Loewen:

Last year, he threw 30 innings...His BB rate was terrible but remember, he had blisters as soon as he came north and then had the strained forearm which turned into his injury that required surgery.

Basically, you need to throw out last year's stats in the majors.

I can't find his ST last year but I remember him pitching well(not that it matters all that much).

In his entire pro career, Loewen has thrown 472.1 innings.

In 2006, many of you will remember that he came up briefly, went to AAA and dominated and then came back up for good.

In the first half of that season, Loewen threw 30.1 innings...In those IP, he had a BB rate of 6.23 and had an ERA above 7. In the second half of the season, he threw 82 innings and had a BB rate of 4.5 and that rate was 4.2 in the last 2 months of the season.

In the minors(except when he went from Aberdeen to Delmarva...only 23 IP in aberdeen), he saw his walk rate improve at every level.

He has missed a lot of time due to injuries twice in his career now. He hasn't thrown many innings and has had to undergo a lot of changes to his delivery(thanks in large part to McGregor screwing him up to begin with).

He turns 24 this April, so it is time for him to start being healthy and getting some innings under his belt.

He has always shown the ability to keep the ball in the park...He was an extreme GB pitcher in the minors and has been very good at that in the majors...His K rate is above average.

It is going to take some time with him. You all are expecting way too much out of him especially considering he has barely thrown a baseball in the last year.

The #1 concern with Loewen is health.

He seems mentally ready...He has a strong work ethic and desire and he has the stuff to be successful. In other words, he has all the intangibles and physical talents.

Now, it is up to him to stay healthy.

If you aren't willing to be patient with him then you mine as well stop watching this team because many of these guys are in the same boat.

[Sports Guy]

I watched a lot of games last year. I'd say the times he hit 93-95 on the gun were very few and far between. I'd say he's consistently in the 89-92 range. I'm interested to hear if I'm in the minority though. As Frobby said however, Loewen's pitches have a lot of movement and he can dominate without throwing mid 90's heat.

If you are, its only because people are remembering wrong....He is usually in that range...He can touch higher than that but works comfortably in that range.

[ejf1025]

Just a few reminders on Loewen:

Last year, he threw 30 innings...His BB rate was terrible but remember, he had blisters as soon as he came north and then had the strained forearm which turned into his injury that required surgery.

Basically, you need to throw out last year's stats in the majors.

I can't find his ST last year but I remember him pitching well(not that it matters all that much).

In his entire pro career, Loewen has thrown 472.1 innings.

In 2006, many of you will remember that he came up briefly, went to AAA and dominated and then came back up for good.

In the first half of that season, Loewen threw 30.1 innings...In those IP, he had a BB rate of 6.23 and had an ERA above 7. In the second half of the season, he threw 82 innings and had a BB rate of 4.5 and that rate was 4.2 in the last 2 months of the season.

In the minors(except when he went from Aberdeen to Delmarva...only 23 IP in aberdeen), he saw his walk rate improve at every level.

He has missed a lot of time due to injuries twice in his career now. He hasn't thrown many innings and has had to undergo a lot of changes to his delivery(thanks in large part to McGregor screwing him up to begin with).

He turns 24 this April, so it is time for him to start being healthy and getting some innings under his belt.

He has always shown the ability to keep the ball in the park...He was an extreme GB pitcher in the minors and has been very good at that in the majors...His K rate is above average.

It is going to take some time with him. You all are expecting way too much out of him especially considering he has barely thrown a baseball in the last year.

The #1 concern with Loewen is health.

He seems mentally ready...He has a strong work ethic and desire and he has the stuff to be successful. In other words, he has all the intangibles and physical talents.

Now, it is up to him to stay healthy.

If you aren't willing to be patient with him then you mine as well stop watching this team because many of these guys are in the same boat.

Nobody is saying run him off the team.

It just looks bleak. He is about to be 24--that's not really all that exciting considering how little experience he actually has. He is behind the curve and sitting on a ML deal, out of options.

Hope I am wrong, and it may be too early to throw "bust" around..but for a top 5 pick who cost a lot of time and effort to sign, it just doesn't look good.