A recent glimpse into the far corner of the Orioles’ clubhouse showed a snapshot of the team’s future.
Adam Loewen sat at his locker with his elbows on his knees, as he chatted with teammate Nick Markakis. Markakis is a budding superstar and a major piece of the team’s foundation. Meantime, Loewen has become the posterboy for potential erased by injury.
Loewen, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2002, was expected to be its next great pitcher. But two major injuries to the elbow on his pitching arm later, Loewen is trying desperately to make it back to the majors — as a hitter.
Loewen returned to Baltimore on Monday to work with esteemed hitting coach Terry Crowley — the man Markakis has credited to turning him into a one of the game’s better young players. If anyone in the Orioles’ organization can transform Loewen from a once-promising 6-foot-5, 235-pound left-handed pitcher into a power-hitting outfielder or first baseman, it’s Crowley.
But here’s the problem: Loewen hasn’t swung a bat with any regularity in six years, since batting .353 (53-for-150) with a home run and 38 RBI in 45 games with Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla.
“I think the challenging part is going to be when I face live pitching and that’s going to be a strain for me,” Loewen, who was 0-2 with an 8.02 earned-run average before being pulled from the rotation in early July, said. “But I’m not expecting anything significant. From the start, I know I’m not going to be that great. [Crowley] just told me to work on the same swing and eventually, I’ll develop my own swing and my own style and then hook them up with an approach to what kind of hitter I’m going to be.”
Loewen, who went 8-8 with a 5.38 earned-run average in 35 games the past three seasons, spent about an hour in the batting cage on Monday. He used half the time talking with Crowley, the other half taking swings.
He’ll report to the Orioles’ instructional league at the end of the month, when the team will decide to send him to the Arizona Fall League or the Hawaiian Winter League.
If he responds well, the former “future ace” will be plopped in a Single-A lineup somewhere next spring, looking to make good on the $3.2 million signing bonus he received in May 2003.
It won’t be easy. He’s lost his spot in the rotation and not even Orioles manager Dave Trembley knows when — or even if — Loewen will return to the big leagues.
“I think he is [too far way],” he said. “I think he needs to go to Instructional League and swing. It’s going to be a long process with him making some adjustments. Sure, we’re interested in how he does and everything, but I don’t expect him to go out there and look like Lou Gehrig.”
Loewen, of course, wants to prove Trembley wrong.
“The best thing for me is that I want to do this,” he said. “I think I can do it. That’s what’s most important, that I have confidence in myself, that this isn’t just a last option. It’s actually realistic.”
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