The headline is a little misleading. It should probably read: "Brian Matusz's Return Puts Orioles Back On Track To Do Oriole Things." It's not as if Matusz is the missing cog of some well-oiled winning machine.
Brian Matusz’s Return Puts Orioles Back On Track
The Orioles’ prized young left-hander is coming off the disabled list to face the Mariners on Wednesday. What does he mean for Baltimore?
But the Orioles had a plan in the offseason, and Matusz was a huge part of it before his injury. The plan was to cobble together a decent offense from undervalued veterans, which would take some pressure off the talented young pitchers the Orioles had collected. It was a great idea that would have worked swell if any of the veterans would actually hit. Vlad Guerrero and Derrek Lee have been disappointments, the team is discovering that J.J. Hardy's biggest asset is that he's not Cesar Izturis, and Mark Reynolds has been Rob Deer without all of those pesky home runs.
But the young pitching is still the most important part of the Orioles' rebuilding plan, and the results there have been more encouraging. Zach Britton is in the Rookie of the Year discussion, flummoxing hitters with his sinker right out of the minors. Jake Arrieta has been inconsistent, but he's flashed strikeout stuff. Chris Tillman is making incremental improvements with his command.
With young pitching, though, there are always, always, always growing pains. Young pitching means 90 pitches through four innings. Young pitching means walking a punchless middle infielder to get to a hitter with power. It’s maddening, but it’s unavoidable.
Except it’s mostly avoidable with Matusz. He’s a veteran in a youngster’s body, the rare young pitcher who showed up in the majors with plus command and strikeout stuff. He’s not the most important young Orioles pitcher just because he has the highest ceiling (though he might). He’s the most important member of the staff because he’s like an “After” picture compared to the other young pitchers -- a polished prospect that Orioles fans can hope Arrieta or Tillman will emulate. Matusz takes some of the discouragement out of a pitching-based rebuilding project because he’s already good, and he has room to get better. It’s much nicer to have a guy like that mixed in with the talented-but-inconsistent types who can be kind of a pain to watch night after night.
His return on Wednesday is big for the Orioles, not just because he'll help the team win games, but because on a team filled with young pitchers who play the part, he's already over a developmental hump. If he's fully recovered, he'll team with Jeremy Guthrie to give the team 40% of a steady rotation. And with a young rotation, steady is an important first step, for the sanity of Orioles fans if nothing else.
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