Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

We recently made a roster move, which I am no stranger to from this season, to acquire another first baseman named Adam Loewen. The only problem is that he is, or should I say was, a pitcher. He spent the last few seasons as the top of the rotation pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles until an injury this year forced him to end his pitching career. Then, a la Rick Ankiel, he decided to pick up a bat and see if he can make it all the way back to the top as a hitter. Now, he was picked up by the Blue Jays and is having his first professional hitting experience out here with us. I must give him credit, that really is not an easy thing to do, because if I was told I could never pitch again that would be it for me in terms of the game of baseball no matter how good a hitter I thought I was in high school. And I will say right now that don’t be surprised if you hear something about him working his way through the system because if batting practice is any indicator, there is some serious potential there. I can usually think of analogies to put along with situations like this but for this one I am drawing a big blank, because I don’t know what to compare this switch to. Basically it would be like leaving a CEO position of a company then coming back and having to work your way up from mailroom detail (for all you 30 Rock fans out there). So I guess I can think of one, but really it doesn’t matter because if he gets back to the big leagues as a hitter I know that I was there to see the first steps of his career.