Owings Seeks Asylum In Petco
Micah Owings has been an interesting character over the years, garnering plenty of attention for his bat — .349 wOBA with nine homers in 217 career plate appearances — while leaving much to be deserved when on the mound. The two-way right-hander is closing in on 500 career innings (479.1 to be exact) with a 4.91 ERA to go along with his 4.95 FIP and 4.93 xFIP, so there’s no funny business here. He’s giving up runs as often as expected. Owings signed a one-year deal worth $1 million with the Padres recently, courtesy of the tireless Ken Rosenthal.
During his five years in the show, the long ball has been Micah’s biggest bugaboo. He’s surrendered 63 homers in his 479.1 innings, or 1.20 per nine. That’s not terribly surprising as a fly ball pitcher — just 36.1% grounders in his career — who’s played in two hitter’s parks (Arizona and Cincinnati), but of course Petco will help with that problem. The spacious gaps turn homers into doubles, and the ocean breeze turns rockets down the line into foul balls, singles, doubles, outs, basically anything that doesn’t leave the yard. The ballpark switch alone will help him do a better job of keeping the ball in the park.
Owings’ other big problem is left-handed hitters, mostly because he’s a low arm slot guy without a knockout changeup or splitter. It’s a classic righty specialist package. Here are the career splits…
| RHB | LHB | |
|---|---|---|
| tOPS+ | 86 | 116 |
| K% | 18.5% | 14.1% |
| BB% | 8.0% | 11.8% |
| HR% | 2.8% | 3.2% |
| GB% | 33.9% | 38.5% |
| FIP | 4.48 | 5.51 |
| xFIP | 4.62 | 5.30 |
Petco Park completely buries left-handed pull power according to StatCorner’s Park Factors, which will help Owings in a big way. Assuming he steps in as the swingman/multi-inning relief guy, his new home stadium will help mask his two biggest weaknesses on the mound. Furthermore, Bud Black has proven to be pretty adept at maximizing his bullpen’s effectiveness with matchups during his five years at the helm, so Owings also has that going for him.
And finally, there’s the offense. Owings doubles as an extra right-handed pinch-hitter, which heightens his value as one of the last guys on the roster. He’s a right-handed power guy, which again plays well in Petco Park. Or at least it plays better than left-handed power in Petco Park, that’s probably a more accurate statement since no one has an easy time going deep there. The Padres didn’t get a bargain at a million bucks, but they did a good job recognizing that their ballpark’s tendencies will help cover for Owings’ faults. They could end up squeezing half-a-win out of this investment if things break right.
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Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.
We’ll miss Micah in Arizona, but I bet the familiarity with Josh Byrnes and AJ Hinch sure helped in making the decision. Good deal for him.
I’ve always wondered how he would do hitting full time.
I suspect if his pitching doesn’t improve at PETCO we may find out.
Isn’t Ownings’ other big problem his walk rate? Every pitcher gets helped in some way by Petco. Walks can be killer because every run ends up being precious and it ups the pitch count. The faster the pitch count rises, the more the (rest of the) bullpen has to work. The bullpen already has to work a lot due to Petco’s close games. Owings’ stats may improve, but I don’t see how he provides much more value that any other replacement level pitcher that moves to Petco.
I’ve been saying this for 3-4 years now: Owings is a position player masquerading as a pitcher. He’s a better athlete than people give him credit for and should have been switched to playing the field after 2008 and could have carved out a nice career for himself. I’m actually astounded that teams keep giving him innings since he obviously is just not that good of a pitcher.
A long reliever that can hit for himself, that has value. Good move by the Pads.
Would Owings be an OK right fielder? He obviously would have a good arm for the position.
Just my opinion but I think 3-4 years ago he could have made the switch to a corner OF position and MAYBE even 3B or 1B. I question whether a guy who is already 29 though can make the switch from pitcher to a position player other than 1B. Most of the crossovers you see are the other way, from position player to pitcher and the one from pitcher to position player that pops to mind is Rick Ankiel and he made the switch at age 25 in the minors and it took him 2 years to get to the bigs.
And I’m not sure making the swtich now that he could hit enough to play 1B. If he had switched 3-4 years ago, he’d have a whole bunch of training and in-game ABs as a hitter to improve. Now, he’d have to learn on the fly.
I guess I’m not seeing at this point.
How good of a hitter would he have been if he was brought up as a hitter? 349wOBA for a guy who never got regular ABs even in the minor leagues. And a bunch of MLB ABs were pinch hits which even regular position players find difficult.
The red flag is his 389 BABIP but you’d have to think that would be more than offset by an improved BB/K rates that 1000 PAs would cure.
The Padres are going to make Owings their second baseman so they can trade Hudson to the Orioles. Their former 2-bagger, Mark Loretta, is in the front office, and he avoided surgery by doing footwork exercises. He thinks infielders should use dance steps to improve their agility, and Owings will be able to handle 2B after a few dance lessons. You heard it here first.
Too bad that his best skill (hitting) is marginalized by being in a pitcher’s park. Imagine that, a pitcher who, because he’s a better hitter than pitcher, is hurt by pitching in a pitcher’s park.
When runs are so hard to come by at Petco I think his bat will be more valuable than ever.
A Micah Owings article? Seriously?
It is possible that Owings could resurrect his career in San Diego, others have namely Garland (DBacks) and Harang (Reds) each of the two last seasons. The Padres have two respected pitching coaches in Black and Balsley. With Owings really needing to learn a new pitch i.e. a change-up may be he could spend some time with Trevor Hoffman during Spring Training. I remember the Padres had a pitcher named Lollar who was College All-American DH who helped himself often but as with Owings never a truly great pitcher. Micah will have opportunities to harness his God given talent.