We are two starts into Kevin Gausman’s career with the Baltimore Orioles and there are many fans out there who are already calling him a bust. This is absolutely ridiculous. Has he been great in his starts? No, but there have been things to like.
You see flashes of the guy that in my opinion will be a top of the rotation starter in the near future. The Orioles decided that he Gausman was ready for the Bigs and I’m sure they knew there would be some growing pains. I don’t really buy into this theory that he needs to learn more at the minor league level. I personally feel like he was too good for AA and that’s where the game’s best prospects are these days. He will take his lumps in the majors but I think he will learn from them.
Yesterday was an interesting case study of Kevin Gausman. In the first inning he was having some control issues. He got behind every hitter and eventually gave up a three-run home run to Adam LaRoche. He was good in the second and absolutely filthy in the third. He was spot on with both his fastball and breaking pitches, putting them exactly where he wanted them.
Then in the fourth inning he walks LaRoche on a 3-2 pitch. He follows that with a hanging slider 0-2 to Tyler Moore who deposited it into the seats. Roger Bernadina was up next and he elevated a fastball to him 1-2…back-to-back home runs.
Gausman will learn to be better with his stuff moving forward but you need to understand he was facing Ole Miss a year ago. He could get away with mistakes like yesterday’s against college hitters and minor leaguers. More time in the minors won’t fix that.
It’s on the job training for Gausman and I personally think he’ll be fine.
The Orioles lost yesterday but I personally am more concerned with the fact that Troy Patton gave up runs again than I am with Kevin Gausman struggling in his second major league start. I wouldn’t send him down. I would keep pitching him every fifth day. He will get better! At least that’s what I believe. I’m looking forward to seeing Kevin Gausman pitch important games for this franchise in the future.
6 Responses
We have a pennant to win, why is he learning on the fly at the major league level? If this was 2009, I’d have no problem with it, but this is 2013 and we’re here to win. The O’s plan to just keep throwing him out there every 5 days until something clicks? What if that takes a month, and suddenly instead of 3 games back in the standings, we’re 8 because we lost 5 of his starts. At this point in time, I’d much rather see Steve Johnson or TJ Macfarland starting in the O’s rotation until Gausman learns to not leave those meatballs over the plate.
Agreed 100%…in addition to your points: what about the kid’s confidence? if we send him out there and (god forbid) the loses start piling up, will he have the mental fortitude to keep his confidence up?
I am quit sure he knows not to “leave those meatballs over the plate” but I can tell you from experience, knowing it and being able to do it on a night you have little command of your pitches is two very different things. We have seen a lot of pitchers both O’s and others who have been in the majors for many years leave meatballs over the plate, do they need to be sent back down to the minors to until they know not to do that? I think not. He didn’t have good command last night, that was the issue, nothing else. He will be fine. Johnson left meatballs over the plate on his spot start this year, should he stay down in the minors longer? No I think he can contribute know. I think the part of the problem is this guy is highly hyped and many expect perfection. In more cases than not you won’t see perfection so you get the learning experience. I would be willing to bet that Gausman doesn’t cost the O’s a chance at the pennant. I would be more worried about a bullpen that can’t hold a lead (and I am not talking just JJ here) than I would Gausman. How many games has the bullpen blown for the team this year. I know I can count roughly 9 so they should be in first place even with the 2 loses from Gausman. My focus right now is on the bullpen not Gausman’s lack of command last night. He was much better in Toronto and will be good moving forward. To small of a sample size to make a snap judgement about his ability. I say you have to try to run him out there until at least the All-Star break and then see what happens.
A good compromise if he struggles in his next start would be the bullpen. A lot of good young pitchers have started out in the bullpen and developed into starters. He has electric stuff and was great the first time through the lineup against Toronto. With the fact that O’Day, Strop and Johnson have been fairly shaky this year it can’t hurt to add a strong arm to the pen to increase its depth. Playoff teams mentality are if you have a young talented player that you think can pitch at the Major League level find a place to put him, and I think trying him in the pen would be a good idea.
I think he will be fine. I know he struggled last night, but Toronto was a much better game with one or two poorly located pitches. I agree that he won’t learn everything he needs to learn at the minor level. That is some of college is for. That is similar to a minor league and that is why the O’s feel so much more comfortable giving him the chance. If he was Bundy coming out of HS then you probably wouldn’t see him up here yet. As far as Johnson starting instead, he didn’t look all that sharp in his start up here earlier this year and he has been in the minors for a while. If the minors are the place to grow then he didn’t grow very much (oh by the way I really like Johnson and think he does a great job, I am only using his performance as a devil’s advocate against your argument). So I agree that I am more worried about the bullpen blowing leads and games the offense sets the team up to win than I am about Gausman learning on the fly. I think he will learn quickly, and I will say that if he doesn’t seem to be improving by the All-Star break than you need to think about sending him down, but I would be willing to bet that you start to see a more polished pitcher within the next two starts. He has great mechanics that are very repeatable so it is a lot easier to fix issues than if you have a Pedro Strop type of mechanics. He also has shown a lot of poise and didn’t seem lost when he gave up the home runs. He looked like he know exactly what he did and you could see him trying to fix it, but he just didn’t have command last night so he wasn’t able to fix it. I say leave him hear for awhile and see what happens.
Ken – I agree with so many of your comments, and I also feel like there are other issues to be ironed out before we turn the page to review where Gausman will be. However, the realist in me also compares the track of a guy like Kevin Gausman to Hayden Penn, Daniel Cabrera, Brian Matusz, Ben McDonald. True, the minors won’t teach him how to avoid pro ball players’ bats, but there is something to be said for developing pitches, and location. Bad habits (mechanically and mentally) are often picked up by a guy who is going to do ANYTHING he can to not surrender another gapper, or another long ball.