The Crystal Ball: Rodrigo Lopez

You know, I was going to write up a whole Crystal Ball article on Rodrigo Lopez but most of what I wanted to highlight has already been posted over at Camden Chat by silverstadium. To quote:

“Give him a long reliever position and let him know he's first in line for a
starting job if someone gets shelled (e.g. Benson...see a future diary) or
injured. Also let him know that we'll send him elsewhere as soon as we get a
fair offer for a pitcher of his skills. I suspect the market will be much more
favorable once the season starts and other teams find they need starting
pitching more than they thought.”

Couldn’t agree more. Lopez can still be useful to the O’s in various roles and his terrible 2006 was not as terrible as it looks.

I don’t know what 2006 holds for Lopez but if he stays and works out of the bullpen, a 4.00 ERA is not out of the question. As a full-time starter? I am less optimistic. Rodrigo still got hit hard last year, even if he was unlucky.