FoxSports.com’s Jon Morosi broke the news last night that Orioles prospect Kevin Gausman is headed to the big leagues for Thursday’s start in Toronto against the Blue Jays. The beat writers and other reporters quickly confirmed Morosi’s report and the Bowie Baysox announced that Gausman has been scratched from his scheduled start at Akron tonight.
So yeah, it’s pretty much official.
Gausman isn’t on the Orioles 40 man roster, so they’ll likely wait until tomorrow to make the official announcement. They could place Taylor Teagarden on the 60 day disabled list or DFA one of their fringe players to make room for the 22 year old.
The righty heads to the big leagues after an outing in Trenton in which he struck out a career high ten batters over six innings. He leaves the Eastern League with a 3.11 ERA, .246 batting average against and (my personal favorite stat) 9.80 K/BB.
There’s tons of hype regarding Gausman, a lot of which comes from people who have never actually seen him pitch. If you’re looking for some solid information on the kid, I recently posted a reactionary piece on a FanGraphs’ column about Gausman being ready to face big league hitters.
For some more detailed information, definitely check out Zach Mortimer’s scouting report on Gausman over on Baseball Prospectus. Here’s what I took away from reading that.
- Gausman is a power pitcher who’s fastball velocity is between 96-99 MPH. Mortimer says Gausman’s command on the pitch is above average with “late heavy armside run.” He grades it at 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale.
- His slider is a work in progress. “Fringy,” according to Mortimer with “sharp late bite” between 82-85 MPH. A 45 pitch. This is the first season he’s used the slider as his primary breaking ball.
- But I’m most excited to see Gausman’s changeup, which he throws between 84-86 MPH. Mortimer writes that Gausman uses it on both sides of the plate and fools batters with good arm speed a sink.
The changeup is devastator with great life and great command. He is not afraid to back it up in any count either. Kevin Gausman brings the total package, three potential plus pitches with a near elite level fastball. The arsenal combined with the demeanor leads me to believe that Gausman is one of the rare minor leaguers that you can throw the no. 1 ceiling out on.
Everyone I’ve talked to about Gausman raves about his command. That’s evident in the K/BB. The Orioles had previously been working with Gausman on throwing more pitches out of the zone in pitcher’s counts because they thought he threw too many strikes. Certainly a good problem to have.
With 46 1/3 innings under his belt at Double-A, Gausman will likely throw 100-120 more this season. The Orioles have had three straight quality starts, but their rotation without Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez (prior to yesterday) was certainly exposed during their recent six-game losing streak.
It only makes sense for them to call on Gausman, even if it is before the Super Two cutoff.
Let’s hope this is the ACE that the team has been looking for.
Let’s hope that the fans will give him a few starts before making a judgement.
Every time Gausman records a strikeout at home, the Orioles should replay the gangster from Dumb and Dumber saying “The Gas man? How the hell do they I know I got gas?” Or else it wasn’t really worth it to bring him up in the first place. But really, I expect Gausman to be very good.
Yea, it would be a beautiful thing if he can come up and solidify things in the rotation. I’m sure there will be some stumbles but keep your fingers crossed.
I hope Kevin comes to the bigs and has a stellar career, but I ain’t getting why now and at what cost? I understand Jair was sent back down and Kevin is making his start-why? Jair had a 4-1 record at AAA and 53 career major league wins and he gets one audition of five innings? Kevin is 2-4 in AA with no major league wins. I appreciate that Kevin is the number two O’s prospect but why the rush and why now?
I hear ya Will-o, valid points. I guesss I’m just interested in seeing the guy pitch. Curiosity has gotten the better of me.
Don’t leave any bullets in the gun. I love Jurrjens, he was a key cog on my fantasy team a few years ago, but he was only hitting 88 mph with his fastball, which is more like a meatball for ML hitters.
Go get ’em K-Man!
I agree , why wait if you really feel he can help the team,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have said all along if the O’s had a true ‘number one’ it would change them from maybe’s to contenders……….If this kid is for real and it’s not too early for him it actually could propel the O’s to the playoffs,,,,,,,,,,,let’s hope so…………….
Again, to the naysayers who spout “Nestor-isms”…If the O’s had waited 2 more weeks to bring this kid up, they would have saved themselves another year towards salary arbitration.
Pay your guys, continue building the farm, get an occasional mid-tier free agent, and stock pile pitchers…
I was excited for Kevin and he did show poise for three innings…than the wheels came off the cart for the O’s. Not Kevin’s fault as the relief pitching and defense evidently stayed in the USA last night. Josh, Stevie J, Jair and Kevin all were brought up for one start and quite honestly all had about the same results…now what? Stay the course, bring up Zach for a start. Wait for Wada? DD and the O’s brass are looking for instant gratification and so far no one has stepped up. It seems like there is no room for error when you are auditioning to be in the O’s starting pitching rotational revolving door…talk about pressure. I don’t get it?
First things first, I thought Gausman showed poise and did well for a debut. He will be giving this team solid innings sooner rather than later. Will-o, if you don’t get the next man up concept, call your brother, he loves to tell me how its the wave of the future and to lead, follow, or get out of the way with the current O’s philosphy.