haven’t thought of a clever title for this feature yet. or any of the others, either. heck with it.
yes he’s drew pomeranz‘s brother. drew and stu. they probably enjoy hearing jokes about that.
stu appears to us as a 27-year-old minor league drifter. recovering alcoholic, they say, hit bottom in independent ball, freshly sober, newly rededicated to life and the craft of pitching, and so on.
so he has a narrative, and he’s certainly pitching like it. came out of the gate this year putting up lolcat numbers in the minors – struck out 13.5 per 9 in AA, they promoted him to AAA, he blinked a couple times and struck out 13.5 per 9 in AAA. didn’t walk much of anyone either. gave up zero runs for a zero ERA. almost zero hits. BABIPs so low they smell like raw too-good-for-the-level dominance, not luck.
also he’s 6’7″ and fangraphs says his average FB velo is bumping 94. so that’s all pretty interesting.
far as his situation. he got called up once, threw 4 scoreless, went back down. now he’s up again. not clear for how long, but at the very least he’s on the 40-man, in the mix. jim johnson has the closer role in baltimore wired down for now, and pedro strop (himself also a personal favorite of mine, more on that later) has pretty clearly taken over the primary RH setup / apprentice closer niche. luis ayala and darren o’day are both pitching well, and i suppose lindstrom comes back soon. so i’m not saying pomeranz is some kind of sleeper for next week’s saves or even holds. but the weather can shift quickly in any given bullpen, so you never know.
at any rate, if he can keep throwing the way he’s been throwing, sooner or later he’ll become relevant somehow. be hard not to.
now with all of that said i haven’t even seen him. but i’m keeping an eye on him anyway. and i mean come on. he’s 6’7″, he throws 94… you don’t need to see him. (i’m just kidding. but you don’t.)
apparently i’m a jinx – pomeranz tweaked his oblique warming up today, sounds like DL. at least he’s still tall.