SEASON SUMMARY

John Wasdin spent the first couple of months being hammered as a member of the Colorado Rockies--a combination of Coors Field and lousy pitching--and was released in late May.  The Orioles signed him shortly thereafter and assigned him to AAA Rochester before being recalled in time to make his first appearance with the club on July 1.  Wasdin's time with the Orioles was as good--if not better--than any full season he'd had anywhere earlier in his career.  And that in itself speaks volumes, because Wasdin didn't pitch all that well with the Orioles last season.

Wasdin's problem throughout his career has been two-fold:  first, he allows too many hits (10.5/9IP); he chopped this down some with the Orioles (9.8/9IP).  The second problem has been the real Achilles Heel:  home runs allowed (everywhere, not just Denver).  In nearly 600 career innings, Wasdin has allowed nearly 1.5 HRs per nine innings, covering seasons spent with the A's, Red Sox and Rockies.  With the Orioles in '01, he allowed four HRs in 49.2 innings (0.7/9IP), less than half his career total.  Forgive me if I don't find the 26-game sample with the O's last year particularly convincing.

2001 was John Wasdin's seventh at the big league level and it's pretty obvious what he offers:  bulk right-handed relief, nothing more.  His career ERA is 5.08.  So, of course, when the chips were down and the Orioles were facing the pressure of more bodies than 40-man roster slots, naturally--naturally--they assigned Wasdin one of those slots.  They did what?

It's still not guaranteed that Wasdin will be with the Orioles next year.  If they make a number of deals this off-season they could still find themselves waiving and/or releasing Wasdin to free up space.  But the fact that they granted him a spot on the roster in the first place at least implies that they think a whole lot more of him than I do...and more than his career performance warrants.

TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY NEXT YEAR, HE MUST:

1) morph into someone else

2) keep the HRs allowed to a career low

3) drop the hits allowed to a career low

NOTES

Really struggled vs. LHB in '01:  .299/.397/.523; overall, opposing hitters were .292/.352/.485...not exactly the guy you want in there when behind in the count; once opponents moved ahead in the count 1-0, they lit Wasdin up to the tune of .371/.447/.676 in 105 ABs...the 44 first batters faced by Wasdin hit .357 with a couple of walks and four home runs.