When it comes to developing top tier pitching talent, the Orioles haven’t had the greatest amount of success in recent years, despite having numerous highly rated prospects.
Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta, and Zach Britton were all expected to be mainstays in the Orioles’ starting rotation at this point. Tillman, of course, put together a solid year and a half from mid-2012 through 2013. Matusz found a home in the bullpen. Arrieta is now with the Chicago Cubs and Britton is currently handling ninth inning duties for Buck Showalter.
Adam Loewen and Matt Hobgood come to mind as others (both first-round draft picks) from whom much was expected.
The current crop of minor league arms fans are hoping can reverse an unfortunate trend includes Tim Berry, Mike Wright, Hunter Harvey, Eduardo Rodriguez, Dylan Bundy, and Kevin Gausman.
We received a glimpse of the last name on that list in 2013, as Gausman made 20 appearances (five starts) and pitched to a 5.66 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in his first taste of big league action. As a starter, both numbers were higher (7.66 and 1.62 respectively) and opposing batters knocked Gausman around to the tune of a .333/.367/.618 slash line in 102 at-bats over 24.2 innings.
If you thought the club rushed Gausman to the majors last year, you probably wouldn’t be alone. And while we’ve seen a few instances of young starting pitchers experiencing success almost immediately (Miami’s Jose Fernandez for example), sometimes it’s easy to forget that isn’t the norm.
Thus far in 2014, Kevin Gausman looks like a different (in a good way) pitcher. Three of his four starts have been quality starts. He has cut his ERA in half to 2.74 and has done a better job of limiting base runners, as his 1.18 WHIP shows. Overall, Gausman has held teams to a .238/.293/.310 batting line in 23 innings.
He’s done so primarily utilizing two pitches (fastball and changeup), with the fastball his bread and butter. Unfortunately, it didn’t serve him well last season. Gausman used his fastball 491 times (62.87% of the time) in 2013, according to the indispensible Brooks Baseball, with batters producing a .313 average and .536 slugging percentage versus it.
In 2014, the 23-year-old has thrown his fastball 275 times. Opponents this season are hitting it at a .262 clip with a .344 slugging percentage.
In particular, the success (or lack thereof) by left-hand hitters has been noticeably different against Gausman’s main pitch.
Last year, lefties handled Gausman’s fastball well, posting a .340 average (254 pitches). This year, they’re hitting .212 (153 pitches). His velocity has remained essentially the same and he’s actually using the fastball more this year versus left-handers than in 2013 (55.64% compared to 51.73%).
Thanks to Brooks Baseball once again, we can see a shift in the percentage of Kevin Gausman’s pitches versus lefties from right down the middle and the middle-away portions of the strike zone towards the inner third, especially down and in.
2013:
2014:
Heading into the 2014 season, fastball command was an area many wanted to see improvement in from Gausman. Working the inner part of the plate when you’re at a platoon disadvantage (as Gausman has been 57% of the time so far this year according to Baseball Reference) is a good way to show steps are being taken in that direction.
Though he has significantly fewer starts than those with whom he’s vying with to stay in the starting rotation, Kevin Gausman is displaying the type development that gives Buck Showalter a good problem to have in terms of having six capable arms for five spots. He has Oriole fans thinking this recent call up from AAA might be his last one and that he’s here to stay.
