Baltimore Orioles: Has Miguel Gonzalez Done Enough?
Does a decent final spring training start of Miguel Gonzalez for the Baltimore Orioles salvage a place for him in the starting rotation?
The end of the 2015 season was a rough experience for Miguel Gonzalez. And most of the spring training season has been a rough experience for Miguel Gonzalez, entering Tuesday evening’s game with a 12.56 ERA in Florida.
Without doubt, his effort against the Braves was his best showing this spring. He went five innings, giving up one run on seven hits and a hit batsman. Fortunately, the hits were spread out and he escaped a number of jams.
With a number of the starts this year where the results of O’s hurlers have been sub-par, the actual performance was better than the numbers might suggest. Flares dropped in or second-tiered defenders failed to make a play.
Against the Braves, honestly, Gonzalez’ start might not have been quite as good as a single run yielded in five innings might appear. There were some hard-hit outs and fine defensive plays behind him. Miguel essentially admitted the same, saying …
“I had some good command in some other outings against the Red Sox, the Yankees. Today was that day that I had a little luck on my side and that definitely feels good.”
At the same time, whereas too many pitches were being left over the plate, Gonzalez had one of the best two-seam fastballs I have witnessed him throw. There was some very fine movement. He mixed his pitches just well enough to get the outs needed when they were necessary.
So is this enough to see him kept in the rotation? Given Showalter’s clear affection for Gonzalez and appreciation for his body of work since coming to the O’s in the middle of 2012, I am going to presume that Miguel will likely be starting the fourth game of the season for the Orioles.
Should it play out this way? I would say that both Tyler Wilson and Mike Wright have been better. But with Kevin Gausman not certainly available before the second week of the season in a best-case scenario, probably the Orioles are not going to want to go with a pair of young pitchers in the fourth and fifth rotation slots.
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In other news, it is clear that the Orioles are not going to have Hyun Soo Kim on the roster for the beginning of the year. How this works out will be interesting to follow, be it to go to AAA or to somehow be returned to Korea. There are contractual details that come into play in this determination. Having seen very little of his spring training performance, it is difficult to evaluate. It would stand to reason that his KBO accomplishments would be sufficient for him to make a successful transition at some point, but it has not happened yet, and it may not happen in Baltimore.
Garabez Rosa did it again by getting a key two-out hit in the bottom of the ninth inning to drive in the tying run and avert an Orioles loss. He is now hitting .529 on 9-for-17 … not bad! Darren O’Day, Zach Britton and Dylan Bundy all looked great in relief. And that a relief to see!