Pitcher-Slugger Micah Owings Signs With Padres

By Rob Neyer - National Baseball Editor

Feb 1, 2012 - According to Dan Hayes, who covers the Padres for the North County Times, that club has signed pitcher Micah Owings to a minor-league contract and invited him to spring training.

Jeez, one would hope so.

Owings went 8-0 last season with the Diamondbacks. Sure, he didn't actually pitch as well as his record. But a 3.91 ERA in that ballpark and nearly twice as many strikeouts as walks is highly creditable.

Granted, he probably benefited from shifting to the bullpen after spending most of his professional career as a starter. But then, most relief pitchers are failed starters so there's little shame in that. And this seems like a great fit, as Owings is a fairly extreme fly-ball pitcher and his new home ballpark -- assuming he earns a spot on the squad -- is where fly balls go to die terrible deaths.

Of course, Owings remains best-known not for his pitching, but for his hitting. Career line:

.286/.313/.507

That's only 217 plate appearances and we have to regress his performance because we're big nerds but he's still probably a better hitter than a bunch of every-day shortstops and Chone Figgins. Owings spent a little more than four months with the Diamondbacks last season, and Kirk Gibson deployed him as a pinch-hitter exactly once.

Of course, if you're going to deploy a pitcher as a pinch-hitter -- even a pitcher like Owings -- you're probably going to do it relatively early in a game that you're losing ... and if you're losing a game relatively early, you probably don't want to use one of your relief pitchers who might be needed later. Still, it doesn't seem to me that Gibson used Owings nearly as much as he should have.

We've been blessed with Micah Owings. Now we just need the blessing of a manager who can get the most of this unique-in-the-21st-Century talent.

Update: According to Ken Rosenthal, Owings is actually getting a major-league deal, $1 million for one year. Which obviously gives him a better shot at making the 25-man roster this spring.

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Rob Neyer

National Baseball Editor

Rob Neyer began his career with legendary baseball author Bill James, and later worked for STATS, Inc. and ESPN.com, writing more words for that website than anyone else. Rob has written or... Read full bio

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Comments

The first "opener"?

If the Padres are willing to try something truly radical, why not use Owings as an “opener” to pitch the first inning of away games, batting 7th, and then substitute in the “starter” to pitch the second (unless the relatively rare 1-2-3 1st and 2nd innings occurs)? Each PA of his is worth about 0.1 runs over a league average pitcher, so as long as his ERA is within 0.9 of the starter’s ERA, the Pads make out. (And since the bullpen usually has a lower ERA than the rotation, this should be true). If the game is a blowout (either way) after 1.5 innings, you could choose to have Owings keep pitching. But usually, you get two pitchers pitching on a consistent schedule. The hard part is convincing a starter to accept a scheme that reduces his already near-zero chance of pitching a complete game/no-hitter/perfect game to actually zero. But in the end it’s wins that we’re after.

by Michael Scott Cuthbert on Feb 2, 2012 10:36 AM EST reply actions

Stats all a-funny

Weird stuff…..the SB Nation player page you link to for Owings gives completely different pitching numbers for Owings than what you listed. OTOH, ESPN etc. agree with you that he went 8-0 last year but seem to feel that his ERA was 3.57 and not 3.91….. what’s up with all this?

by dans489 on Feb 4, 2012 7:28 PM EST reply actions