Zac Lowther

[bobmc]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orioles?src=hash">#Orioles</a> No. 13 prospect <a href="https://twitter.com/z_lowther34">@z_lowther34</a> has allowed one earned run or fewer in all nine career starts with <a href="https://twitter.com/IronBirds">@IronBirds</a>. <a href="https://t.co/d9gmhh3XtH">https://t.co/d9gmhh3XtH</a> <a href="https://t.co/NyG4JBnES2">pic.twitter.com/NyG4JBnES2</a></p>&mdash; MiLB.com (@MiLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MiLB/status/899834473923129345">August 22, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Ruzious]

Fwiw, people have been calling for Gio Gonzales to have problems from the inverted W (or the M, if you will) since at least 2010, and he's up to over 1,600 major league innings.  

[Tony-OH]

4 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

Fwiw, people have been calling for Gio Gonzales to have problems from the inverted W (or the M, if you will) since at least 2010, and he's up to over 1,600 major league innings.  

Like I said, it doesn't mean a pitcher will break down, it just means that research has shown a higher breakdown of pitchers who employ this delivery. For me personally, I don't think anyone can really know whether a pitcher will definitely break down or not because every person is slightly different. I would not shy away away from pitchers with an inverted W if I liked them better than someone else and they had the same amount of work load. However, if I had two pitchers I liked equally, with the same historical workload, and same lack of effort, I'd draft the pitcher without the inverted W.

[Ruzious]

Sounds reasonable Tony.  Now, if a pitcher has an inverted X, I'd stay away.  

[Luke-OH]

Lowther had another impressive outing.

6IP, 3H, 2R, 1BB, 12K

50.1IP with a 66/10 K/BB ratio and only 1 home run allowed.

[Cumberbundy]

The Lowth has some promise!

[Cumberbundy]

 

[Luke-OH]

Absolutely dominant in 4 innings today. 9Ks, 1BB, 0H, only one ball left the infield.  Plus command of the fastball was the key.  Spotted it underneath the hands of righties for some really uncomfortable swings.

[Can_of_corn]

 

[MachoMachadoMan]

20 minutes ago, birdwatcher55 said:

Is he our top pitching prospect in your opinion with all due respect to Harvey?

IMO, Harvey is our top prospect until we see him struggle when healthy. When he's healthy, he's not just good - he's dominant. 

The Aberdeen rotation this summer has been incredible. Lowther, Cameron Bishop, Michael Baumann and Brenan Hanifee have all put up great numbers. Lowther and Bishop will turn 22 at the beginning of next season and Baumann will pitch most of the season at 21. Hanifee has the most upside of the group when he turns 20 next spring. 

From a pure production standpoint, definitely Lowther. But when it comes to prospect rankings will come down to scouting projections and "stuff." I'm excited about a bunch of these arms, no matter what. 

[Luke-OH]

46 minutes ago, birdwatcher55 said:

Is he our top pitching prospect in your opinion with all due respect to Harvey?

No, he was better than I expected. The curveball is a better pitch than I thought, the command is better than I thought.

 

That said, I said when he was drafted that he'd dominate the NY/Penn league and we wouldn't know what we had until next season.  I still think that although I have more confidence that he might be something.  It's dangerous to put too much weight on short season results.  I still have Akin, DL Hall, and Harvey ahead of him.  He may have passed Sedlock though (due to Sedlock's injury/relief risk).

 

Now if he does this in Frederick next year it'd be time to get excited.

[Frobby]

Just for funsies, here's a statistical comparison of Akin and Lowther at Aberdeen.

IP: 26.0/54.1

ERA: 1.04/ 1.66

H/9: 5.2/5.8

BB/9: 2.4/1.8

K/9: 10.0/12.4

WHIP: 0.85/0.85

Pretty comparable, except that the O's didn't limit Lowther to 3 innings per start.    It'll be interesting to see how Lowther's stuff translates at the next level.

 

[Ruzious]

11 hours ago, MachoMachadoMan said:

IMO, Harvey is our top prospect until we see him struggle when healthy. When he's healthy, he's not just good - he's dominant. 

The Aberdeen rotation this summer has been incredible. Lowther, Cameron Bishop, Michael Baumann and Brenan Hanifee have all put up great numbers. Lowther and Bishop will turn 22 at the beginning of next season and Baumann will pitch most of the season at 21. Hanifee has the most upside of the group when he turns 20 next spring. 

From a pure production standpoint, definitely Lowther. But when it comes to prospect rankings will come down to scouting projections and "stuff." I'm excited about a bunch of these arms, no matter what. 

Good stuff, literally.  Gotta figure Harvey and Lowther will start together as teammates in Frederick next season - perhaps having a friendly rivalry to see who gets moved up to Bowie quicker.  It'll be interesting to see who else from that Aberdeen rotation starts there.  I'm guessing Sedlock repeats at Frederick - unless they move him down.  Akin moves up to Bowie. 

[MachoMachadoMan]

The Frederick rotation could be loaded. Between college draft picks and Delmarva, you're looking at Lowther, Baumann, Bishop, Alex Wells, Jhon Peluffo and Mattias Dietz.

Sedlock and Peralta haven't earned a promotion to Bowie, but I could see Sedlock getting bumped up just because of his age and the expectation that he should be better. We were all confused when DJ Stewart was promoted to Bowie despite middling results and then he turned it around this year. I think (may be wrong) but there was some speculation Sedlock wasn't completely healthy this season. 

I expect Harvey to open next year in Bowie. 

[Luke-OH]

3 hours ago, RZNJ said:

I've seen comments about Lowther's mid 80's velocity so I was surprised to see this when reading Baseball America's Report Card on the Orioles draft.

 

Closest To The Majors: If Lowther keeps getting awkward swings at his fastball, which can be 88-90 mph on bad days and 89-94 on good ones, he'll move quickly as a back-of-the-rotation starter.
 

I think that's pretty consistent to what has been posted about him.  I haven't heard 94, but I did hear him touching 93. He rarely sits higher than 89-91 from everything I've heard/seen.