Every season brings its busts and its surprises. The 2000 season brought the Orioles the unlikely saga of Jose Mercedes. Mercedes was signed coming off a season in which he did not pitch in the majors. There was SOME hope for him…he had pitched mediocre-to-decent ball for a couple of seasons with the Brewers. The O’s were hoping they could count on him to be among the contenders for the fifth starting job, and when the 2000 campaign began, that was exactly where he was.

Unfortunately, he did not get off to a solid start, as pitchers with little track record must if they expect to keep their jobs. As a matter of fact, he was brutally bad…among a plethora of poor pitching performances, his still managed to stand out. He averaged only four and a half innings per start, allowing an ERA of 6.38. The weaknesses of the bullpen and the stellar pitching of Jason Johnson at Rochester compelled Mike Hargrove to remove Mercedes from the rotation.

There was a problem, however. Johnson continued to show that whatever lessons he learned at AAA were quickly forgotten, and Mercedes was even worse in relief than he had been as a starter. The ERA ballooned to a spectacular 8.59, with 19 baserunners in only seven innings of work.

The club tried to drop him, but a procedural error kept him with the O’s. Little did they know that for once, a dunderheaded move was in their favor. Mercedes paid Hargrove an office visit and pleaded for a chance with a more regular workload. Whether Hargrove was moved by Mercedes’ display of steely resolve flying in the face of the facts at hand, or he was just sick of the other terrible bullpen performances, we’ll never know. But for whatever reason, in the second week of June, Mercedes got his wish…and he responded. By the end of the month, he had posted the bullpen’s only sub-4.00 ERA for June.

Once Johnson failed, and Erickson was out of the picture for good, Mercedes found himself back in the rotation with another chance…and this time, he took full advantage. The rest of the way, Jose Mercedes was the best starter on the Baltimore Orioles. His second half looked like this:

11-3 with a 3.03 ERA, throwing 101 innings and giving up only 91 hits, a .244 batting average, and a .383 slugging percentage.

How did this turnaround occur? A spitball? Froot Loops?

Actually, if you ask Jose, it was being healthy, and pitching every fourth day, and knowing he had the stuff to get out ML hitters. We’ll have to see if he can keep this up. Certainly, his past stats reflect some ability. It’s safe to say that no one expected this kind or performance.

The big thing was his batting average against. He simply wasn’t allowing many baserunners. Secondarily, he didn’t allow big hits in the second half, either.

Perhaps another factor was pitching a lot on Sunday. Mercedes was a whopping 7-1 with a 3.46 ERA in day games. The only standout difference in his stats in day games was home runs allowed…only 3 in 52 innings.

What does the future hold? Well, unlike some one-time wonders, Mercedes does have some foundation for success. There are, however, some concerns.

Overall, his hits per innings pitched ratio does not reflect his overall success…even with his monster second half, Mercedes allowed 150 hits in 145 innings. His strikeout/walk ratio isn’t anything to write home about, either…it was less than 1:1 for the season, and only slightly better than that in the monster half of his season. And it’s not that he had a great ground ball to fly ball ratio, either…that was actually 1.02.

So, he appears to be a pitcher with promise, but a thin margin for success. There are lots of guys like that who pitch well, but there are also a lot of guys like that who develop the slightest hitch in their mechanics, or the slightest loss of confidence…and fall off the edge of the earth.

Time will tell.

TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE 2001 ORIOLES, MERCEDES MUST:

Improve his walk/strikeout, ground ball to fly ball, and hits per innings pitched ratios. Hard to believe he could win 15 games with his current mediocre numbers.

Pitch as often as he can in day games. (see story)

Provide the same quality approach to the 2001 season. A duplicate of 2000 would be gratefully accepted.

NOTES: One of few Orioles’ pitchers to hold runners on. Only allowed 4 stolen bases in 9 attempts…very tough on righties, only giving up a .252 average with a .323 OBP and a .390 slugging percentage…watch out when Jose is in the game after 8…offensive numbers soared after 90 pitches.