SEASON SUMMARY

B.J. Ryan is a tall left-hander with a funky delivery, a better than average fastball and a plus breaking ball who may have turned the corner last year in his quest to become a reliable big league setup man.  Ryan was up and down through the first half of the season.  Through July 15, Ryan had appeared in 30 games covering 34.2 innings, posting a 5.79 ERA, allowing 33 hits, six homers, 24 walks and 34 strikeouts. From that point on, in his final 31 appearances, Ryan tossed just 18.1 innings as the Orioles moved him to a lefty specialist role, allowing 14 hits, no home runs, walking six and striking out 20.  His ERA over the final half of the season was 1.47; he allowed runs, a total of three, in just two of his final 31 games.

Obviously part of the difference from the first half to the second half of Ryan's season was how he was used--he was facing far fewer batters for one thing:  5.43 per appearance in the first half of the season, 2.39 per appearance in the second half.  The Orioles appear to have found Ryan's real forte, a role much like that Jesse Orosco held while with the team, where he'd come in to face a batter or two--by design, left-handed batters--and then hit the showers.

There was really nothing to complain about in any of Ryan's stats over the final half of the season; he allowed 6.9 hits, 0.0 home runs, 2.9 walks and fanned 9.8 batters per nine innings.  Contrast that with his first half stats:  8.6 hits, 1.6 home runs, 6.2 walks and 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings.  The hits fell, the home runs disappeared, the walks were more than cut in half and the strikeouts rose modestly.

Expect Ryan to start next season as the lefty specialist in the Orioles bullpen, freeing up Buddy Groom for other, more flexible duties.

TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY NEXT YEAR, HE MUST:

1) duplicate the second half of last season

2) keep his delivery under control; Ryan's unusual motion, while making it hard for batters to pick up the ball, has a tendency to get fouled up from time to time, and when his delivery is messed up Ryan can't hit the strike zone if it's the size of the Atlantic Ocean

NOTES

As expected, Ryan had a large platoon differential:  righties were .261/.364/.405 against him in 111 ABs, but lefties managed just .198/.298/.264 in 91 ABs...only two of the 18 hits off Ryan by lefty swingers were for extra bases...opponents hit just .194 against him with the bases empty, but .273 with runners on base...but just one of the six homers Ryan allowed in 2001 came with runners on (99 ABs)...strike one was Ryan's best friend; after reaching 0-1, opponents hit just .194/.256/.259, but when he fell behind 1-0 they were .246/.414/.369.