Andrew Stetka: Concern over Gausman leaves O's with another rotation worry

Starting pitching has been a concern for most of the season for the Orioles, but has appeared to turn a bit of a corner over the last month or so. Much of that is credited to the emergence of Dylan Bundy in the rotation. He's been nothing short of great. Sending Bundy or Chris Tillman to the mound gives Orioles fans confidence, but a third member of that rotation isn't holding his own.

Kevin Gausman has all the talent in the world, but his recent stretch has to be concerning for the Orioles. The 25-year-old's stuff is electric at times, but he's not aggressive with it like he should be. Watching him walk six batters in four innings on Saturday night against the Giants was alarming. Gausman seemed to dance around the plate rather than attacking and engaging hitters. He was getting too cute around the plate rather than throwing the ball over it.

Gausman compounded his bad night after the game by complaining about the strike zone. I'm not one to give an umpire a free pass, but it wasn't an inconsistent strike zone. It was just one that Gausman didn't like. Pitchers have to be able to adjust to what the umpire is calling on a given night. Instead of using his defense and allowing hitters to put the ball in play, he danced around the zone and griped that he wasn't getting calls.

Gausman has shown flashes of brilliance this season. In fact, he's had single starts in May, June and July that proved why he's one of the top young arms in baseball. Shutting down the Yankees over eight innings on May 5, the Rays on June 25 and the Indians on July 23 shows that Gausman can go out on any given night and take control. That leaves me with more questions as to why he's not able to do it on a more consistent basis. I don't think anyone is asking him to throw seven shutout innings each start, but it's the consistency that the Orioles lack in the rotation. That's what Gausman needs to bring them.

Perhaps the underlying factor in all of this is a word I tend to use a lot - expectation. Maybe the expectation that Gausman will be a front-line starter needs to be tamped down a bit. Again, I'm not giving up hope on him. I think Gausman can be a very good pitcher for many years to come. But the Orioles have been through a lot with a guy who is still so young. They sent him up and down on the Triple-A Norfolk shuttle over the past few seasons, leaving many to speculate about the quality of his development. The Orioles need to be playing the long game with Gausman. They need him to be a presence in the rotation, no matter where he slots. If he turns out to be a top-of-the-rotation starter, that's great. But there's nothing wrong with him being a constant part of a rotation as a No. 3 or No. 4.

The key to all of that remains consistency. The Orioles can't afford to have Gausman give them one great start a month. That's not enough. An ERA over 4.00 and a high walk rate isn't enough either. More than just for this season and a playoff push, the Orioles will need Gausman to step up and become part of something bigger with this rotation. Otherwise he's going to get left behind.

Andrew Stetka blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AStetka. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.