Adam Loewen: The New Rick Ankiel?

[smoovethug]

Adam Loewen is giving up pitching after his latest setback with his elbow and will try to make it back to the majors as an outfielder/first baseman.
Complicating things is that Loewen is out of options. However, there's probably not going to be a host of teams looking to grab him off waivers when he's physically incapable of pitching at the moment. Had he chosen surgery on his elbow, he likely would have been out until 2010. Given that Loewen never hit in the minors and has just two major league at-bats since being drafted in 2002, it's hard to imagine him becoming a useful hitter for the Orioles.

Sad to see a young pitcher with promise "give up pitching" before he could ever really cash in on his potential. Even weirder is that being in the AL he's never haad many opportunities to hit. It'd be nice to see him make it back though. Your thoughts...

[cnote23]

I don't think much of him as a useful outfielder Ankiel did have about 200 minor AB before he came up in the minors the first time.

[jackie hayes]

That sucks. I'd love to see the O's have a revival at some point, and I was hoping Loewen would be a part of it. I enjoyed watching him pitch.

His hitting stats in his one season at Chipola College:

.361 avg, .458 obp, .510 slg, 2 hr, 24/19 bb/k, in 147 abs. Link:

http://www.chipola.edu/extrac/athl/base ... /20033.htm

Nice stats, though not the best hitter on that squad. But, compare Russel Martin's numbers at Chippola the year before (17th round pick):

.324/.404/.478, 4 hr, 22/20 bb/k, in 207 abs.

http://www.chipola.edu/extrac/athl/base ... /20023.htm

Anyway, good luck to him, I hope he makes it.

[Nemyar]

It'll be a tough road, and the odds are certainly stacked against him. Guess we can always hope, though.

[mweir145]

I wonder if he can make the Canada team as a hitter instead of a pitcher this time around?