Making an impression: Chris Lee is throwing well in camp

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

March 11, 2017, 6:06pm

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The Orioles felt that if left-hander Chris Lee could prove to be healthy this year, that he could impact their 2017 pitching staff. He probably would have gotten his first callup to the majors last season, but he didn't pitch after May 23 when he had a start where he went eight innings and gave up just one run for Double-A Bowie.

Lat and shoulder issues slowed him last year and he took a few months off from throwing late in the year and into the offseason.

But Lee, who ended 2015 going 4-2 with a 3.08 ERA at Bowie, began 2016 with the Baysox and was 5-0 with a 2.98 ERA before he was shut down. A pitcher who struggled to throw strikes earlier in his career when with Houston posted a 2.28 walk-rate for the Baysox in 2016 and that was a career-best.

The 24-year-old lefty was acquired by the Orioles in May of 2015 for two international bonus slots worth a combined $655,800. At least in this case, dollars not spent on international talent, went to add a pitcher with promise.

Lee was ranked as the Orioles' No. 6 prospect by Baseball America after the 2015 season and is No. 10 now. He is ranked No. 5 by ESPN, No. 7 by MLBPipeline.com and No. 10 by Baseball Prospectus.

Added to the Orioles 40-man roster after the 2015 season, Lee is having a strong spring. Over eight innings in three Grapefruit League games he has allowed five hits and two runs with one walk and eight strikeouts.

"I'll tell you, Chris Lee has been real impressive down here," Orioles skipper Buck Showalter said Saturday. "He's had like three outings as good as you'd want to see down here."

He added that Lee is a candidate to move into the rotation if Chris Tillman or some other pitcher is not ready early in the year.

A lack of strikeouts was a potential red flag for Lee last year at Bowie where he fanned 19 with 13 walks over 51 1/3 innings. O's officials I talked with downplayed the lack of strikeouts and said they were impressed with Lee's improved control and the ability to pound the ball down in the strikezone. They felt that as he continued to perfect his secondary pitches, they would become better putaway pitches and his strikeouts would increase. But Lee sure did get groundballs, and in fact, he had a 2.24 ground-to-air out ratio at Bowie in 2015 and a 1.95 mark last year.

The scouting report on Lee says his fastball can range from 89 mph to 95 mph with sink, sitting mostly in the lower 90s. He has a real solid and consistent changeup and he features a slider that flashed plus last year. He held lefties to a .155 average off his slider.

In his latest spring outing on Friday night vs. Boston in Ft. Myers, Lee showed that ability to pound the ball down in the zone with sink and he also threw a real solid slider. He fanned four in three scoreless innings. He struck out the side in the bottom of the fifth, ending that inning with a strikeout of baseball's No. 1 prospect, Andrew Benintendi.

If Lee continues to impress and can help the Orioles at some point this year, his acquisition will have proven to have been a solid one. The bonus slots total he was traded for is the equivalent of the allotted bonus slot last June for the No. 92 pick in the First-Year Player Draft. Essentially they got him for the value of a 2016 third round pick.

Great game in Miami: I felt the United States versus the Dominican Republic game could help put the World Baseball Classic more on the map in this country. The Dominicans rallied for a 7-5 win seen by 37,446 frenzied fans, which is a Marlins Park attendance record. This game may have greatly helped the WBC gain traction in America, even though the USA lost.

The Americans took a 5-0 lead through five and a half innings, and looked in control at that point, but a Manny Machado homer off the Nationals Tanner Roark in the last of the sixth got the crowd in the game and pulled the DR within 5-1. Machado crushed the homer 435 feet and it had an exit velocity of 109.5 mph. An RBI double by the Orioles' Welington Castillo cut the DR deficit to 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh.

An inning later lefty relief ace Andrew Miller came on. The former Oriole hit Jose Bautista and then Carlos Santana singled. Another former Oriole then took the game's biggest swing. Nelson Cruz drilled an 0-2 pitch to left for a three-run homer and reporters at the game said the stadium was shaking as the DR went ahead 6-5. An out later, Starling Marte's homer made it 7-5. Miller had given up two homers in one relief appearance just once in his MLB career. But the Dominican Republic team thrilled its fans and stunned the USA squad at the same time.

The United States plays Canada tonight. A win would give the Americans a 2-1 record and they would advance to the second round along with the Dominican Republic. Both teams would play three games as part of another four-team pool - this time in San Diego. In that grouping the USA and DR would play again next Saturday night and this time a berth in the semifinals could be riding.

Orioles and former Orioles have had a big part of this tourney, which is just beginning. Not everyone will agree with me, but the play in the WBC has been awesome in my opinion. We've seen some great games and I hope this event is here to stay. Bring on the rest of the tournament.

The Dominican Republic completes the comeback and beats @USABaseball 7-5! They haven't lost a @WBCBaseball game since 2009! #WBC2017
-- MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) March 12, 2017

Team Dominican Republic's Manny Machado on his sixth inning solo home run off Team USA's Tanner Roark. #WBC2017 pic.twitter.com/nxIuZa0XwM
-- MLB Network PR (@MLBNetworkPR) March 12, 2017