Quantcast
Channel: The Maryland Sports Blog» Steve Johnson
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Norfolk’s Rotation

0
0

Every year, in every season, all teams, no matter the league they are in, have to deal with injuries to their starting pitchers. The Norfolk Tides are no different.

Two of the Tides’ original five-man rotation, Suk-min Yoon and Steve Johnson, are on the disabled list. Yoon was placed on the DL on Monday and Johnson has been on and off the DL all season. Eddie Gamboa took Johnson’s spot in the rotation earlier this season due to Johnson never been healthy long enough to keep his spot.

On June 13, Eddie Gamboa was suspended 50 games for using exogenous Testosterone. Kevin Gausman has been called up and down between Norfolk and Baltimore as of late. T.J McFarland has been with the Orioles for a good portion of the season as a relief pitcher.

With McFarland being with the Orioles and Gausman potentially being the sixth starter for the Orioles, Mike Wright is the only pitcher left. Wright is the one pitcher who was named to Norfolk’s starting rotation at the beginning of the season that has been with Norfolk or has not gotten injured yet.

With the slew of injuries, Norfolk has used 12 different pitchers to start games, 10 of them have started at least two games. In comparison, the Orioles have used six players: Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Ubaldo Jimenez, Bud Norris, Miguel Gonzalez and Kevin Gausman.

For now, Norfolk’s rotation is a mystery. Not knowing what the Orioles will do with Gausman is one of the biggest parts that make it so mysterious.

Gausman has a 3-1 record with a 2.74 ERA in four starts with the Orioles this season. For Norfolk, Gausman has a 1-3 record with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts. Obviously, Gausman has pitched far better with the Orioles this season.

Gausman has also proved that he can go out, pitch six or seven innings per game and put the Orioles in a spot to win a ball game. Gausman has done something Ubaldo Jimenez has not done yet this season, win three games.

I think it is best for the Orioles and for the Tides to have Gausman stay with the Orioles for the remainder of the season. If Gausman stays with the Orioles, Tides’ manager Ron Johnson will be able to figure out a viable option for a fifth starter, after he finds three replacements for the others.

Tonight, Josh Stinson will be making just his third start for the Tides this season. Stinson has appeared in nine games for the Tides and has posted a 0-3 record with a 5.19 ERA.

Opposing Stinson for the Pawtucket Red Sox is Chris Hernandez. Hernandez, like Stinson has not started all the games he has appeared in this season. Hernandez has a 3-6 record with a 3.04 ERA and has started seven games.

This game is very important for Josh Stinson. If he is able to pitch well and give the Tides’ a quality start, he could stay in the rotation for the remainder of the season. Stinson started 23 games last year for Norfolk so starting is not something he needs to adjust to and I do not believe it would be a problem for him to be in a starting role for the rest of the season.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images