Slow start, big finish: O's pitching prospect ended 2015 season with a flourish

Can a pitcher who had an ERA of 5.83 last June 20 for Single-A Frederick be considered one of the Orioles' top pitching prospects?

He can if he was able to turn his season around to the point where he got a late-season promotion to Double-A Bowie. And then he pitched two huge games in the playoffs to help the Baysox claim the Eastern League championship.

Right-hander David Hess, 22, didn't just turn around his season. He pitched so well that he was the O's minor league Pitcher of the Month for both July and August.

Over his last 16 starts of 2015 - including 12 for Frederick and four for Bowie, two in the playoffs - Hess went 10-1 with an ERA of 1.58. Over 91 innings, he gave up just one homer, walked 33, fanned 78 and gave up a batting average to opponents of just .177.

So the obvious question is, what enabled Hess to make such dramatic improvement from early to late in the year?

"I think it was just the ability to throw my off-speed pitches for strikes and I also had a little better fastball command," he said. "Early in the season, I felt good about my pitches, but just wasn't as comfortable with them. But as time went on and we were working on things, I was able to throw my off-speed pitches in hitter's counts and use them for putaway pitches more. That opened up my fastball to more opportunities. Really just understanding a little more about what it meant to pitch and not just throw."

A fifth-round pick out of Tennessee Tech in 2014, Hess features a solid four-pitch mix. His fastball usually sits in the 91-94 mph range and he also throws a slider, curveball and changeup.

"I feel good about all my pitches," Hess said. "I really love my fastball - I've always felt that way. But I feel comfortable with all my pitches. Looking back on last year, to where I started to how I finished, it is a big difference."

In two playoff starts for Bowie, Hess went 2-0 with an ERA of 0.64, allowing just four hits over 14 innings. In Game 4 of the Eastern League championship series, Bowie was down two games to one and faced elimination. Hess gave up just three hits and one run over seven innings as Bowie routed Reading 9-1. The next night, the Baysox won Game 5 to win the Eastern League title for the first time.

"It was kind of a crazy year and didn't start out exactly the way I wanted it to," Hess said. "But I think what happened was, when the All-Star break rolled around, I was able to refocus a little bit and make adjustments based on what I learned in the first half, and kind of let my mind catch up with everything that I learned and then I was able to apply those things in the second half. I had a lot of help from Kennie Steenstra, the pitching coach in Frederick.

"Kennie is a great pitching coach and really helped me talk through things. He would explain certain things during the game and gave me a lot of information that I could apply. He was a huge help to me."

For the season, Hess went 10-5 with an ERA of 3.64 in 28 games between Frederick and Bowie. Over 143 1/3 innings, he gave up 122 hits with 57 walks and 122 strikeouts. In January, Hess was one of the pitchers invited to the pitching minicamp in Sarasota, Fla., with Orioles pitching coaches Dave Wallace and Dom Chiti and manager Buck Showalter.

While Hess was not listed among the Orioles' top 10 prospects by Baseball America, he is not far off the top 10. He should begin the 2016 season where he ended last year, in Bowie's rotation. He could be knocking on the door to the majors as soon as sometime during the coming season.

Not only did he show solid talent last year, he showed some mental toughness, as well. He didn't let a slow start and poor stats in June spiral into a bad season. In fact, it ended with him pitching as well as any pitcher on the farm.

"You know, baseball is a game of adjustments. Whether it is pitch to pitch, game to game or month to month," Hess said. "I think I tried to keep sight of that even though things may not have been going the way I wanted them to then.

"I knew I could turn it around, if I stayed patient and kept working at it. I like to think of myself as a very competitive person and it just doesn't occur in my mind to give in. Just had to keep pushing myself to turn it around."