Zac Lowther 2022

[Brooks The Great]

I wonder if he's dealing with an injury, or if his stuff just isn't good enough for above the AA level.

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, Brooks The Great said:

I wonder if he's dealing with an injury, or if his stuff just isn't good enough for above the AA level.

Well, it doesn’t make sense to me that a guy with a 2.53 ERA in AA suddenly becomes a 7.51 ERA pitcher in AAA (2021-22 combined) because his stuff isn’t good enough for AAA.  To me, it’s either an injury, or something mechanical, or something that changed during the 2020 pandemic year when he wasn’t pitching.   Last year it felt like he got yo-yoed around too much between Baltimore, Norfolk and the taxi squad, but that explanation doesn’t fly this year.   14 innings isn’t a lot, so hopefully he can get whatever’s wrong straightened out, but I’m not real optimistic since he also struggled last year.

[wildcard]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Well, it doesn’t make sense to me that a guy with a 2.53 ERA in AA suddenly becomes a 7.51 ERA pitcher in AAA (2021-22 combined) because his stuff isn’t good enough for AAA.  To me, it’s either an injury, or something mechanical, or something that changed during the 2020 pandemic year when he wasn’t pitching.   Last year it felt like he got yo-yoed around too much between Baltimore, Norfolk and the taxi squad, but that explanation doesn’t fly this year.   14 innings isn’t a lot, so hopefully he can get whatever’s wrong straightened out, but I’m not real optimistic since he also struggled last year.

When a pitcher has a high 80's/low 90s fastball his margin for error is very low.   We are seeing some guys on the O's pitching staff overcome that but its not easy.

[OriolesMagic83]

On his tombstone it should read "he gave his prospect life so that other prospects might live."  The O's have treated him like a disposable prospect.  I assume he has lifetime medical from the small time he spent in the majors.

[interloper]

8 hours ago, Brooks The Great said:

I wonder if he's dealing with an injury, or if his stuff just isn't good enough for above the AA level.

Even Alex Wells finds success in AAA, so it's weird that Lowther is struggling this bad. He doesn't have the command that Wells has, maybe, and that might be a factor, but he has a little bit better stuff. 

I like the missed 2020 season theory. That feels like the beginning of his struggles. Something got out of whack mechanically or mentally. Might say the same about Kremer. 

[Tony-OH]

I wish I knew what was going on with his command. It really has been bad this year after looking much better last September. 

[glenn__davis]

I feel like he's one that struggled ever since the Elias regime took over.  He was pretty steady through 2019, and then once the new regime hit and 2020 was lost he's never been the same guy.

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

I feel like he's one that struggled ever since the Elias regime took over.  He was pretty steady through 2019, and then once the new regime hit and 2020 was lost he's never been the same guy.

The Elias regime was there in 2019, no?  Admittedly, Bowie’s 2019 pitching coach was a holdover from the prior regime, Keenie Seenstra, who’s now gone.

As I said before, I don’t buy the idea that a guy who posts a 2.53 ERA in AA can’t compete well in AAA if he’s bringing the same stuff he had before.   So something clearly changed.   I can’t say if it’s coaching or just some mental or physical thing that developed since the pandemic.  Hopefully he’ll figure it out.

 

[glenn__davis]

9 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The Elias regime was there in 2019, no?  Admittedly, Bowie’s 2019 pitching coach was a holdover from the prior regime, Keenie Seenstra, who’s now gone.

As I said before, I don’t buy the idea that a guy who posts a 2.53 ERA in AA can’t compete well in AAA if he’s bringing the same stuff he had before.   So something clearly changed.   I can’t say if it’s coaching or just some mental or physical thing that developed since the pandemic.  Hopefully he’ll figure it out.

 

You're correct, he had a year under the Elias regime, I had thought his struggles started right at the start.  He just seems to have never really come back after the pandemic.  He and Wells were both guys that relied heavily on command and I wonder if missing all of that time was just too much for a guy that was somewhat fringe-y to begin with.  Not giving up on him but just never seems to have "come back".

[Sports Guy]

 

[emmett16]

When you throw 91 mph beach balls with no command you are going to have an ugly BABIP.  

[Frobby]

Lowther finally pitched a decent game today: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K’s.  He got through 5 innings in 73 IP.   Hopefully this is the start of him turning the corner.   

[Tony-OH]

Lowther yesterday had me wondering what's going on with him. The command was absolutely awful and was either uncompetitive pitches or middle of the plate. I looked at his pitch movement from 2021 to 2022 and his slider is absolutely trash now after having plus vertical and horizontal movement last year. I know he said he was working on a new grip on it for some reasons, but if this is the results, it's a terrible development.

His fastball is never going to be a good pitch because it doesn't have good velocity and his vertical movement is below average. He'll always need to spot that pitch but the change has ok movement but he just struggled to command that as well.

He just looks lost right now and nothing like the guy we saw last September who gave us thoughts that he could still turn into something. 

I've been one of his biggest supporters but he's really imploded this year into a guy with almost no command and with poor stuff to boot. He really is not a big league pitcher right now and the question is whether he can refind things. 

He may be a guy where I've just got to admit I was wrong about him. They probably need to send him down to AAA and just let him be until he can refind his slide and his command. He still probably doesn't have much of a chance of being more than a fifth starter, but he did eat innings and went 100 pitches yesterday and so he ate important innings in a game where the Orioles started a AAAA reliever.

I know some think he should be DFA'd but there are at least 5-6 guys who can go before him still. Still a lot of mediocre AAAA guys on this 40-man.

 

[Frobby]

On 6/1/2022 at 11:22 AM, Tony-OH said:

So weather Lowther yesterday had me wondering what's going on with him The command was absolutely awful and was either uncompetitive pitches or middle of the plate. I looked at his pitch movement from 2021 to 2022 and his slider is absolutely trash now after having plus vertical and horizontal movement last year. I know he said he was working on a new grip on it for some reasons, but if this is the results, it's a terrible development.

His fastball is never going to be a good pitch because it doesn't have good velocity and his vertical movement is below average. He'll always need to spot that pitch but the change has ok movement but he just struggled to command that as well.

He just looks lost right now and nothing like the guy we saw last September who gave us thoughts that he could still turn into something. 

I've been one of his biggest supporters but he's really imploded this year into a guy with almost no command and with poor stuff to boot. He really is not a big league pitcher right now and the question is whether he can refind things. 

He may be a guy where I've just got to admit I was wrong about him. They probably need to send him down to AAA and just let him be until he can refind his slide and his command. He still probably doesn't have much of a chance of being more than a fifth starter, but he did eat innings and went 100 pitches yesterday and so he ate important innings in a game where the Orioles started a AAAA reliever.

I know some think he should be DFA'd but there are at least 5-6 guys who can go before him still. Still a lot of mediocre AAAA guys on this 40-man.

 

Seems to me like the pandemic really disrupted his progress more than most guys.  Hopefully he can regroup in Norfolk.   He’s still got 3 months to get his act together.  But yes, it’s worrisome.  

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

3.2 innings, 10 runs an ERA of over 10 at AAA….and drum roll….on 40 man