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The jerking around of Zac Lowther


Tony-OH

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1 hour ago, wildcard said:

I think if Elias projects his future rotation it doubtful that Lowther is in it.   Means, Grayson, DL, maybe Bradish.  There are others like T Wells,  Kremer and Zimmerman that are ahead of Lowther.  He projects as a bullpen pitcher going forward.

Someone has to do the job he has been doing.  On call to the majors.  With Baumann hurt or ineffective, and  A Well starting slow,  Lowther kind of fell into the job as next man up.   That does not mean its his future though.

How nice is it that someone with Lowther's resume is projected for bullpen at best? I'd like to see Lowther get more of a chance at some point but you are right, he has several options ahead of him long term even for the back end. Still, I could see us DFA Harvey and trade Lopez. That would open up some innings this year for Lowther and Kremer to get some more consistent reps. Of course, they have competition.

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48 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

How nice is it that someone with Lowther's resume is projected for bullpen at best? I'd like to see Lowther get more of a chance at some point but you are right, he has several options ahead of him long term even for the back end. Still, I could see us DFA Harvey and trade Lopez. That would open up some innings this year for Lowther and Kremer to get some more consistent reps. Of course, they have competition.

Your comment makes me wonder if Lopez has garnered some trade value? He seems to be trending up, even though he doesn’t seem to be consistent after five innings or about 70 pitches. But for a creative staff, such as Tampa Bay, for instance, five solid innings, or even four solid innings, is a valuable arrow in the quiver.

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18 minutes ago, Philip said:

Your comment makes me wonder if Lopez has garnered some trade value? He seems to be trending up, even though he doesn’t seem to be consistent after five innings or about 70 pitches. But for a creative staff, such as Tampa Bay, for instance, five solid innings, or even four solid innings, is a valuable arrow in the quiver.

Right, for teams that are smart enough to use him that in a way to give him a reasonable chance for success, he'd be useful.  But since the O's haven't really done that for the most part, he likely has very little trade value.  

I concur with Aristotelian about Lowther.  Lowther and Kremer should be given major opportunities with Baltimore throughout this year.  

 

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1 hour ago, waroriole said:

I haven’t seen anything that suggests he’s more than organizational filler. Straight FB, low 90s, not great command. He hasn’t given them a chance to keep him in Baltimore because he gets lit up every time he’s out there. 

If organizational filler is our #11 prospect then isn’t all the hype about our system just so much BS?

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1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

His stuff is that of an org guy. It doesn’t take much watching to see that. 
 

That said, I’d rather see him getting bombed instead of Harvey. 

If Lowther had just pitched better and gotten hitters out, it's likely this thread wouldn't be a thread. 

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30 minutes ago, Philip said:

If organizational filler is our #11 prospect then isn’t all the hype about our system just so much BS?

No. 

27 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

If Lowther had just pitched better and gotten hitters out, it's likely this thread wouldn't be a thread. 

Well it’s obvious as to why he’s not getting hitters out. He’s got a Doc Brown fastball and his other offerings don’t seem special either. Either he’s nibbling or he has command issues, hard to tell which. 
 

He needs more innings and more consistent innings, I don’t disagree with the premise of the thread. I’d like to be wrong about what he brings to the table and his future and he should be given every opportunity to prove me correct. 

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I don't like the way he has been handled this year either. Second tier prospect or organization guy? I don't know yet, and it doesn't really matter right now. They don't know for sure yet either. I would bet that Elias does not like the way he has had to move Lowther around, but had to do it out of necessity. They had him at the Alternate sight, so they got a good read on where his innings are. I think he is a candidate to replace Paul Fry when he is traded in July. Or perhaps he does that in 2022. Better get him some better sticky stuff, though. 

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Every team had optionable pitchers that haven’t become established ML guys.  The move up and down in the first full season post pandemic.  Pitch well and you’ll get more chances.  Wells has grown from a Rule 5 guy that had to be hidden to a higher leverage pitcher vying for some starts.  Why?   Because he’s pitched well when given a chance.  Lowther hasn’t.

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7 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

No. 

Well it’s obvious as to why he’s not getting hitters out. He’s got a Doc Brown fastball and his other offerings don’t seem special either. Either he’s nibbling or he has command issues, hard to tell which. 
 

He needs more innings and more consistent innings, I don’t disagree with the premise of the thread. I’d like to be wrong about what he brings to the table and his future and he should be given every opportunity to prove me correct. 

You’ve (we’ve) seen him pitch at his worst.   Let’s see how he looks when he’s at his best before we judge what he can do.   But he needs to get consistent innings somewhere and sharpen up before we can do that.    

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16 hours ago, Surhoffan17 said:

100% agreed!  I don't like someone like him being shuttled back and forth like this.  He has some potential and needs to be consistently given starts at AAA IMO.  He's succeeded everywhere prior to COVID and I think could be either a 4/5 starter or maybe LH relief specialist.  

This should be a spot for Tom Eshelman or Connor Greene or one of those types.  

You want to spend a 40 man roster spot on Eshelman or Greene?

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