The Baltimore Orioles completed their second trade of the week yesterday, sending Will Ohman to the Florida Marlins for P Rick VandenHurk.
I think this deal (and the other pre July 31st non-waiver deal of Tejada to San Diego for Wynn Pelzer) are positive additions to the system.
Both VandenHurk and Pelzer are power arms, whom have racked-up a fair amount of k’s in the Minors. Both have been mediocre starters, but have potential and value as Major League relievers.
We discussed Pelzer the other day (http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/07/feel-good-for-tejada.html) so lets take a look at VandenHurk.
In 2007 VandenHurk was the winning pitcher in the Futures Game played at the All-Star break. He was also named the Marlins organizational Pitcher of the Year.
He has appeared in 35 games in the Majors, and has 32 career starts. In 155.2 career innings in the Majors, he has allowed 174 hits, 80 walks, with a 5.96 era. The positive is that he also has averaged nearly a k per IP with his 152 k’s.
This year in the Pacific Coast League (AAA), VandenHurk is 8-4, with a 4.68 era. He has pitched 98 innings, allowed 100 hits, 40 walks, with 87 k’s. In his last start, he threw a Complete Game and allowed just 1 er, striking out 8.
It is pretty clear that he has a quality arm and adds some depth to the system. As he is now 25 years old, I would have liked to have seen some improved control from him at AAA if there was desire to keep him as a starter.
VandenHurk probably has about 50 innings left in his arm for this 2010 season. I’d like to see him join the O’s bullpen in the near future. He is exactly the type of guy that can help by being capable of giving you a couple of innings at a time. I imagine he will go to Spring Training next-year with an excellent chance of coming North with the O’s. This is about as good a return as one could possibly expect for Ohman.
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