The Orioles start a West Coast swing tonight, which means there will be a lot of late nights in Baltimore, leading to heavy eyes and extra coffee in offices all over Charm City. After another Boston Red Sox loss, the O’s now have a 4.5-game lead in the American League East.
Speaking of the Red Sox, they decided to hold a team meeting after their recent loss and former Orioles pitching prospect Eduardo Rodriguez has been demoted to the minors after struggling once again.
It’s a good time to be an O’s fan right now.
Schoop Taking His Game To Another Level
Many fans had high hopes for Jonathan Schoop heading into this season after the second baseman hit 15 home runs in only 305 at bats in 2015. The 24-year-old has not only lived up to those expectations, but he has exceeded them through the first two months of the season.
Not only is Schoop on pace to hit over 25 home runs, but the .292 average makes him one of the more productive second basemen in all of baseball. Due to Schoop’s lack of walks, I never thought he would hit for a high average, but he is proving me wrong on that. Schoop has only walked 11 times – which is actually more than last season already in fewer games – so that will continue to be a concern, but all we have to do is look at Adam Jones as a player who has been able to be very successful while not walking often.
In the end, Schoop may settle in as a .270-.280 hitter who consistently hits 25 home runs and plays Gold Glove-caliber defense. I think we would have signed up for that any day of the week when he first became an everyday player in 2014.
Pomeranz/Liriano Trade Rumors
You can go right down the list in the American League and outside of the Cleveland Indians, every contending team needs starting pitching help. This is why I don’t fully buy into the argument that O’s can’t succeed in October due to their rotation – every team’s rotation is a disaster.
Anyway, due to this, pitchers like Drew Pomeranz and Francisco Liriano who are rumored to be on the trade market will be overvalued. Unfortunately, these are the type of pitchers that O’s will have to attack as they don’t have the top-end talent in the minors to acquire a top-of-the-rotation guy.
Here are my concerns for both:
Liriano is currently walking 5.9 hitters per nine innings. Who does that remind you of? Let’s go with Ubaldo Jimenez, who is walking 5.2 hitters per nine innings this season. Liriano is a proven pitcher which makes him attractive, but for a guy who is owed nearly $14 million next year and whatever is left on the contract for this season, his control issues, to me, make that contract too much to take on.
As for Pomeranz, he’s a guy who will be a hot name over the next month due to being under team control through the 2018 season. He’s the perfect player for a team to target as he is pitching extremely well, is cheap and plays on a team that is terrible so they will be more than willing to move him. Throw in that he’s a lefty, and teams will be lining up to talk to San Diego at the deadline.
However, my concern with Pomeranz is that this is the first time he has been a full-time starter on the big league level since 2012. The 27-year-old has pitched 88 innings this season which is already more than last year when he was used as a reliever, and he has never thrown 100 innings in a season in the big leagues. The question is, will he tire down the stretch? The Orioles wouldn’t be acquiring Pomeranz for next year, so I think that is a legit concern that not many people are talking about.
Pomeranz is on pace to throw nearly 190 innings in the regular season and if all goes well, another 20 or so in the playoffs. Expecting a pitcher who has never thrown 100 innings to have the same quality in his pitches that late in the season is a very risky proposition.
Harvey On The Mend
Hunter Harvey appeared in his first game since the summer of 2014 over the weekend and struck out five over two innings in the Gulf Coast League. After another start in the GCL, the oft-injured right-hander may finally head out to an affiliate and try to get back on track to becoming the top prospect many believe he is.
GulfBird Sports/Craig Landefeld
If Harvey is able to stay healthy through the rest of the year, he will probably accumulate more innings in the Arizona Fall League and then head into next spring training as a pitcher who could help the O’s at some point in 2017.
Obvious, staying healthy is a big if, but as we are currently seeing with Dylan Bundy, it’s possible this is all behind Harvey. Here’s to Harvey finally getting back to what he loves and is great at, and continuing his road to the big leagues.
