Despite having an abundance of pitchers to chose from to fill out the starting rotation, the O’s may have the worst group of starters at least in the AL East. With numerous great starters out on the market this offseason, Baltimore failed to sign anyone big until the very end. O’s new starter, Yovani Gallardo, is not a an ace nor a #2, but his continuation of being a consistent big league starter could be the deciding factor in whether or not Baltimore makes a playoff push.
The former Brewer’s ace and NL all-star, hasn’t pitched in over 200 innings with 200+ k’s since 2012, but he hasn’t fallen off that much. For the past 3 seasons, Gallardo has been able to start at least 31 games in at least 180 innings of work. Almost every campaign of his career, he has managed to average 100+ pitches/game started, while only once recording an ERA over 4 (has never allowed more than 84 earned runs in a season). Experts always link James Shields with the definition of consistency, but what about Gallardo? The O’s have two other starters who can give the team 180+ innings (maybe), but the two back end starters are question marks.
Chris Tillman has been the ace of this staff for a few years racking up over 200 innings in 13’ and 14’, but it dropped back down to around 170 in 15’. He can also tend to get hit hard (has allowed as many as 33 homers in a season, and allowed hitters to collect a .270 AVG against him in 2015). However, when he is on, the O’s can expect 6+ innings with 2 earned runs. Ubaldo Jimenez, a former 19-game winner for Colorado back in 2010, gave the O’s a solid 184 innings of work last season after signing a 4-year contract in the Winter of 2013-2014 then having a disappointing 2014 campaign. Since a great 2010, Ubaldo Jimenez’s ERA+ has been jumping on either side of the 100 boarder several times, hinting at inconsistency. Kevin Gausman has the stuff of an ace according to scouts, but hasn’t been able to put it together for a whole major league season yet. Miguel Gonzalez had a solid 2013 campaign as a middle rotation guy going 11-8 starting 28 games, but since, his innings worked have dropped. With that said, the O’s need a for sure starter, as every winning team has at least 1.
Yovani Gallardo winning 14 games in 190+ innings with an ERA below 4 is very likely considering his track record, and may be the beating heart to the O’s 2016 rotation. His performance may not be a make or break for a playoff spot because of the potential for the rest of the rotation, but if Gallardo has a down year, the chances of an O’s postseason appearance is slim to none. The Red Sox now finally have their ace in David Price (remember how good they were the last time they had an ace), Tampa Bay has a rising star in Chris Archer along with other great arms, and the Yanks have a lot of rotation guys with question marks as well, but they have a lineup of 9-men deep, while the O’s have two big holes in an injury ridden lineup. Other than Yovani Gallardo, at least one of the 4 other starters is bound to have a great season, but of the five, the Baltimore Orioles need at least one to be the beating heart, hence Gallardo.
