Throughout his big-league career, Micah Owings has earned a reputation as a pitcher who could hit.
Now he’s looking to turn the tables and become a hitter who can pitch.
After four-plus seasons as a pitcher, Owings will work toward becoming an everyday player…
Owings has appeared in 132 games as a pitcher and has a 32-31 record with a 4.91 ERA in 473 1/3 innings.
In 203 big-league at-bats, he’s hitting .286 with nine homers, 14 doubles and 35 RBIs.
“I’m not doing this because of the injury [strained right forearm],” Owings said. “I’m doing it because I have a passion for hitting and have the ability.
“And down the road, pitching might be an asset for me.”
Owings, 29, was the Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year at Georgia Tech in 2005 as a first baseman/outfielder. He then transferred to Tulane before playing first base for Team USA in the 2003 Pan Am Games…
“Micah has never hit fulltime,” Padres general manager Josh Byrnes said. “Obviously, he has had some success doing it in bits and pieces. We’ll let him do it on a regular basis and see what happens.”
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Throughout his big-league career, Micah Owings has earned a reputation as a pitcher who could hit.
Now he’s looking to turn the tables and become a hitter who can pitch.
After four-plus seasons as a pitcher, Owings will work toward becoming an everyday player…
Owings has appeared in 132 games as a pitcher and has a 32-31 record with a 4.91 ERA in 473 1/3 innings.
In 203 big-league at-bats, he’s hitting .286 with nine homers, 14 doubles and 35 RBIs.
“I’m not doing this because of the injury [strained right forearm],” Owings said. “I’m doing it because I have a passion for hitting and have the ability.
“And down the road, pitching might be an asset for me.”
Owings, 29, was the Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year at Georgia Tech in 2005 as a first baseman/outfielder. He then transferred to Tulane before playing first base for Team USA in the 2003 Pan Am Games…
“Micah has never hit fulltime,” Padres general manager Josh Byrnes said. “Obviously, he has had some success doing it in bits and pieces. We’ll let him do it on a regular basis and see what happens.”
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1. Drew (Primakov, Gungho Iguanas) Posted: July 08, 2012 at 12:18 AM (#4175960)poorrich man's Rick Ankiel?Even if this "works", it's still not a sure thing that an organization will be creative enough to actually take advantage of it (cf. Brooks Kieschnick, who had positive WAR in a PH/RP role for minimum wage, but was dumped anyway.) I'm cautiously optimistic to see how it goes.
Something tells me a 9/1 K/BB ration aint gonna cut it long term. Sure he was pitcher looking to get his hacks in, but plate discipline is a very likely issue for him.
And odd thing for him too is he has a massive reverse split. SSS to be sure, but it's really big.
They should have tried this 3 years ago. He's going to be 30 next year.
As a pitcher Owings has a career 3.88 BB/9 ratio. Too bad Owings the hitter can't "face" his doppelganger!
Well, Satch did, and who knows how old he was?
He was Satch, though. That makes a lot of difference.
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