Rick van den Hurk

VandenHurk perfectly demonstrates the lack of pitching depth in the Orioles' organization. Despite a weak 4.43 ERA in 26 starts at Triple-A, the Orioles still found it necessary to give VandenHurk two MLB starts, in which he struck out seven batters and walked eight. If VandenHurk remains in the majors, it says more about the team employing him than his ability as a pitcher. The Blue Jays gave him a split contract in February and will get a look at VandenHurk as a potential bullpen option this spring.

The Marlins gave VandenHurk several shots at the rotation, but he has not transformed minor league success into MLB success. Baltimore snatched him up in a minor deal and he pitched well in September, concluding with a start in the last week of the season. VandenHurk can miss bats (career 8.9 K/9 rate in the majors) but also offers up too many walks and homers. VandenHurk should be on a list of four or five pitchers competing for a rotation spot in spring training.

VandenHurk showed some real development in 2009, absolutely dominating Triple-A and holding his own in the majors in 11 starts. Barring a trade or injury there doesn’t seem to be immediate room in the Marlins' rotation for him, and despite his robust strikeout rate, he still gets hit hard when big league hitters make contact on him, but if he takes another step forward this spring expect the club to find room for him somehow.

For the second straight season Vanden Hurk earned major league innings without offering much statistical validation for why he should getting them, but to their credit the Marlins figured out much more quickly in 2008 that he wasn't ready to tackle big league hitters. He does get his strikeouts, but he's still way too wild both inside and outside the strike zone to be a reliable pitcher in the majors. He's still got time to avoid a Quadruple-A label, but his current path has him pointed squarely towards becoming the next John Wasdin.

The 22-year-old Dutchman and unheralded prospect was supposed to be an emergency call-up from High-A in April, a move made to protect the Marlins' "better" young pitchers, but he performed well enough that the Marlins kept turning to him even as the "emergencies" got less and less severe. He ended up with poor numbers for his 81.2 major league innings, but his 11 excellent starts at Double-A and Triple-A (75:25 K:BB combined in 65.2 innings) showed that whatever the Florida coaches thought they saw in him might just be for real. He's got four potentially useful pitches (mid-90s four seam fastball, curve, slider and change-up) and doesn't seem afraid of anything on the mound, perhaps due to the fact that he made it through two surgeries as a teen-ager with his baseball future still intact. If more emergencies arise for Florida in 2008, as they most likely will, look for someone other than Vanden Hurk to be the sacrificial lamb.