Hammel’s struggles continue in disappointing 2013 campaign

Last year, Jason Hammel was the Orioles ace and an All Star candidate with a 3.43 ERA and an 8-6 record despite battling knee problems. It’s been a different story this year.

While Hammel and I have the same amount of wins since May 27^th, he has more losses than I do though.

Advantage, me.

In his last 10 starts Hammel has been less than stellar with an 0-6 record and 5.63 ERA. His dominating win over the Nationals on Memorial Day raised his record to 7-2, but has since dropped to 7-8 with a loss to the Red Sox this past Sunday. For crying out loud, some of his starts would make Freddy Garcia’s look good.

After the loss on Sunday, Hammel spoke to reporters.

“It’s obviously very frustrating. I am not doing what I know I can do,” Hammel acknowledged. “But it could be a lot worse. If I was in my younger years, I would get myself into trouble like that, and then you could really implode. So that’s not happening.”

I beg to differ, Jason. He tied his career high in walks with five in 5 1/3 innings on Sunday, while allowing three runs and six hits before being yanked. Things also seemed to implode on June 1^st against the Tigers when he gave up back-to-back-to-back home runs and then hit the next bater, which resulted in him earning an early trip to the showers.

Hammel’s 5.20 ERA this year is his career high in seasons where he has at least 20 starts.

The right-hander’s other numbers this year compared to last years aren’t pretty either. In five more innings pitched this year than last, Hammel has given up 36 more hits, 26 more runs, 11 more home runs, and has 28 fewer strikeouts.

He has been healthy this year so his performance has raised some eyebrows. His velocity is down which isn’t good, and he’s leaving more pitches up in the zone that hitters are feasting on. Most Orioles fans are hoping the club makes a move to acquire a pitcher before the trade deadline, which would most likely end Hammel’s time in the rotation and send him out into the bullpen.

And yes it’s true that the Orioles offense hasn’t been its best when Hammel is on the mound, but it also doesn’t help that the pitcher is constantly finding himself in jams putting runners in scoring position.

At the beginning of the season, it seemed as if Hammel would remain the rotation’s top pitcher, but instead, he is the rotation’s biggest question mark. Lets hope Jason can straighten himself out, become the second half unsung hero and find his role in the rotation, or I hope he gets comfortable in the bullpen.