As Bruce Zimmermann arrives, add another young arm to rotation

The Orioles' improving rotation will see another young starter get his chance tonight. Left-hander Bruce Zimmermann, an Ellicott City product who grew up rooting for the Orioles, will get the start in Game 2 of the doubleheader with Tampa Bay. That is after another young pitcher, right-hander Dean Kremer, starts Game 1.

And after another young pitcher, homegrown lefty Keegan Akin, threw five scoreless last night against a very strong lineup and first-place team in the Atlanta Braves. Akin is 1-0 with a 2.20 ERA in four starts and Kremer is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in two starting assignments, both against the New York Yankees, who have scored 33 runs in their past two games versus Toronto.

Zimmermann, a 2013 graduate of Baltimore's Loyola High School, who also played two years at Towson University, will become the 12th native Maryland to ever start for the club, according to STATS, Inc.

Zimmermann was acquired by the Orioles in a July 31, 2018 trade with Atlanta. He had a very solid year on the farm in 2019. Not only did he take to the new technology and analytics, but he thrived with it and produced a year in which he went 7-6 with a 3.21 ERA between Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Norfolk. In 18 games and 101 2/3 innings with Bowie, he was 5-3 with a 2.58 ERA and a .227 average against. In 38 2/3 innings with Norfolk, he pitched to a 4.89 ERA.

He was solid as a non-roster pitcher during spring training in Florida and was building some momentum as mid-March approached when baseball was shut down. In his last spring start, he threw three scoreless innings and retired the last seven batters against the Tampa Bay Rays, the same club he faces tonight.

During a spring training interview, I asked Zimmermann what it would mean to him to make his major league debut with the Orioles.

"It will definitely be the height of my baseball career and probably in my life," Zimmermann said at Ed Smith Stadium. "It will mean the world to me and I do have a lot of family and friends in Baltimore, so I know there will be a lot of people out there supporting me. It will be a career highlight. I can't wait to toe that rubber and hear them call my name."

Unfortunately, his family will have to watch on television when Zimmermann gets the ball tonight. But he'll get the first chance to pitch for his hometown team and manager Brandon Hyde said today that he anticipates Zimmermann staying with the club after this start.

During our spring interview, Zimmermann talked about the progress he felt he made on the farm last year.

"We just had some talks about adjustments in my game that comes with some of the analytics and things like that we thought would make positive adjustments," he said. "And kind of took them and just went all-in on them. Made those little adjustments to my game and saw really good results with how we implemented them. And not doing that for just a month or two, but extended over the life of an entire season and into this offseason and continue to build on it, and saw success and want to build on that going forward."

And he saw results in an area that is important for any left-handed pitcher.

"One of the big ones was how I attack righties," Zimmermann said. "Obviously, as a lefty pitcher, you are going to sacrifice a few more hits or whatnot. Definitely being able to attack righties and have better success against them was a highlight of it, and that came from the adjustments we made.

"I think it was (a huge boost for me). It was big enough that it made the difference in my season and helping get to Triple-A and having success at the higher levels. And I think we haven't reached the ceiling, by any means. Just being able to have the resources now in this organization that they've implemented in the past couple of years behind Sig (Mejdal), it's been exciting."

During this Aug. 14 interview, Zimmermann revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He only experienced mild symptoms for a few days. On Aug. 3, he was added to the Orioles' 60-man player pool, joining the group of players at the Bowie alternate site.

Zimmermann's fastball sits in the 90-94 mph range and he adds a curve, slider and changeup. The fastball-changeup combo is big for him, and so is pitching inside to set up his off-speed stuff away.

Now he joins a rotation that features two homegrown pitchers in Akin and John Means and two other young hurlers in Kremer and Jorge López. One that was, like him, acquired in a trade and one via waivers.

Zimmerman will look to keep the recent good pitching going as he debuts versus the Rays.

In the last nine combined starts by Means, Kremer, Akin and López, that group is 4-1 with a 1.79 ERA and 30 hits allowed and 50 strikeouts over 45 1/3 innings. The Orioles went 6-3 in those games.

Hyde said developing young starters is critical to any rebuilding effort.

"Very important. And you know, we have more coming too," he said. "So we're excited about all the pitching we have in our organization. You definitely want to develop starters. It's great to see. Kremer coming over in the trade, Zim coming over in the trade, Akin being a second-round pick. It's nice to have our guys do well in the minors and now get here and get off to nice starts. Pitching is so hard to develop. So when they get here, you are excited about it. A definite positive sign for our organization going forward."