Photo: Daylife.com
In 2002, the Baltimore Orioles selected lefthanded pitcher Adam Loewen out of Chipola Junior College with the fourth overall pick in the draft. A native of Surrey, British Columbia, Loewen was taken higher than any other Canadian in the history of the draft.
After an arm injury ended Loewen’s pitching career in 2008, he decided to pull a Rick Ankiel and become an outfielder, a goal he has worked towards in the Blue Jays organization for the past two seasons.
Adam and I sat down before Monday’s game against the Portland Sea Dogs and talked about the changes in his daily routine, his improvement as a hitter, and how his past life as a pitcher makes him a better base runner.
When you realized you weren’t going to be able to pitch anymore, at what point did you turn around and say, “I think I can make it back as a position player”?
Well, I think I first started thinking about it when I first had the stress fracture in my elbow. I had the surgery, came back the next year, and I kinda said to myself, “You know, if it happens again, if the doctors say, ‘You can’t pitch anymore,’ what’s gonna be my second option?” And you know, I enjoyed hitting in college and high school. I always wanted to hit but never had the chance to, so I already had my mind made up once it happened.
How does the elbow hold up now that you’re playing in the field every day, where obviously you’re not throwing 95 miles an hour a hundred times a day?
Actually it holds up great. I only have to make, at the most, three hard throws a game. That’s probably the most I’ve made. It responds pretty well. It’s just the everyday grind of being a pitcher, and throwing bullpen sides, throwing a hundred pitches as a starter every five days, you know, it takes quite a toll on your arm, and you can see how many guys are having Tommy John and shoulder surgery now. It’s really demanding to be a pitcher. As a position player it’s not the same kind of stress.
Do you ever come out here and look at what the pitchers are doing and wish you could get back out there and do it?
No, I really don’t. I enjoy playing the outfield so much, and coming to the plate four times a day. Playing every day, that’s the biggest thing, I love to play every day. Coming to the ballpark knowing you’re gonna be in the lineup is a great feeling, and even if you have a couple 0-for-4s or 0-for-3, you know you can get them back the next day.
How has your daily routine changed? Obviously, it’s a huge difference, but what do you different now that you’re playing every day? How did it change from before?
That was something I had to get used to because the first time I played a position I didn’t really even know when to get dressed. So it was all kinda learn by experience – what gets me ready for the game, how many swings should I take, what I should be working on, that kind of thing. That all comes with experience. It’s not something you can start with right off the bat and know, “This is what I gotta do to get ready.” And that’s why you don’t see guys going straight from the major leagues to high school or college. They always spend a couple years in the minors so they can get repetitions.
What was the easiest transition to make and what was the most difficult?
Easiest was probably playing the outfield. That came back pretty quickly. Hitting is obviously the hardest part. Learning what kind of hitter you’re gonna be, learning what makes a short swing. Last year I was just up there hacking, I didn’t have an idea of what I wanted to do, when I came up to the plate what I was gonna get. I just couldn’t put the same swing on the baseball every time, and now that I’ve been hitting more, it’s not the same swing every time, but it’s close.
When you decided you were going to make this transition, did you set yourself any goals? Did you say, “Okay, 2010 I wanna be in Double-A, 2011 I’d like to be able to move up to Triple-A”? Did you give yourself a sort of timeline that you set?
No, it’s really something that’s out of your control. Some guys get moved up and they’re hitting .260 and you just, “Why is that guy getting moved up and I’m not?” It’s just not like that with me because I’ve been through it as a pitcher and I always wanted to move up as fast as I could when really I wasn’t ready when I thought I should get moved. I just go at my own pace right now. I don’t even worry about that. It’s for the club to decide when they think I’m ready. It really is out of your control as a player. You have no say in anything.
You have ten homeruns right now, you have eleven steals. I looked it up, and only three guys with your size – 6’6”, about 230 – three guys with that size – Dave Winfield, Corey Hart, and Adam Dunn – have ever done that in the major leagues, have had a 10-10 season.
[Surprised] Really?
Yeah, I kinda thought the same thing.
That are 6’6”?
That are 6’6” and about 220 or bigger*. Is that sort of a conscious decision that you made, that you wanted to be a guy who is able to steal a bag here and there?
Yeah, I wanted to do everything to help make me the best possible player I could be, and once I started getting back into position player shape – I lost a little bit of weight; I’m like 230 right now, I pitched probably at 240 most of the time – and I can move around pretty good. I wasn’t really fast in high school. I’m still not that fast, but I can run the bases pretty well, get good reads and that kind of stuff. I want to do everything possible to help my chances to get back.
*I looked at this more at Baseball-Reference during the game, and it turns out that only five major leaguers have stood 6’6″, weighed 200 pounds or more, and had 10-10 seasons: Winfield (9), Darryl Strawberry (9), Hart (3), Dunn (1), and Dave Kingman (1). Only two of those, Dunn and Hart, equaled or surpassed Loewen’s 230 pounds.
Do you think having been a pitcher helps you as a base stealer?
I know what lefties are thinking. I know what I did, I read runners when I was at first. I can pretty much tell if a lefty is reading somebody. I hit seventh in the lineup so I have a couple guys to look at – if somebody gets on first base I can see what a lefty’s trying to do, or if he’s reading him, or anything that gives it away, his move. In that respect it’s helped me.
From what I read, when you were injured, it seemed like Baltimore was willing to work along with you as you were making the change. So what ended up happening there? I know you became a free agent at one point, but why did you end up leaving the organization?
I grew up watching the Jays, they’ve been my favorite team ever since I was old enough to watch baseball. That was one of the reasons. And then another reason was, where am I gonna get the best opportunity to succeed and make it back to the bigs? And I just thought, the Orioles had Adam Jones and Nick Markakis locked up. And then there was left field, Nolan Reimold, I thought he was a great player, and they had Luke Scott. They had all these guys that filled that position and I just thought I had a better opportunity with the Blue Jays.
