A look at Bergesen

Brad Bergesen is making his MLB debut tomorrow against the White Sox in Camden Yards.

In 480 innings in the minors, Bergesen has compiled a 3.75 ERA, 307 K's (5.79 K/9) to 87 BB's (1.6 BB/9). Bottom line he's a control pitcher who doesn't strike a lot of batters out. So to have success, he'll have to keep the ball low in the zone and stay ahead of hitters in the count.

We saw what happened with Garret Olson last year, a guy who like Bergesen, didn't have overwhelming stuff. Olson nibbled a lot, fell behind in a lot of counts and was forced to throw a hitter's pitch. More times than not, the hitters made him pay for it.

Hopefully Bergesen has a more aggressive mentality and trusts his stuff.

One thing that will have to improve for Bergesen to have success: the defense. The O's have made some costly errors recently and with a pitch-to-contact guy in Bergesen, they'll need to stay on their toes. Bergesen isn't the kind of guy who can come back from an error with a strikeout to end an inning.

It'll be interesting to see how Bergesen does tomorrow, that's for sure. Hopefully he looks good enough to become a fixture in the O's rotation as it transforms into what we hope is a rotation that will allow the O's to contend for the playoffs.