Loewen Retires From the Mound

8/8/08
By: Clint Cox

It’s been a long and tough road for former Chipola Indian Adam Loewen. After re-fracturing his elbow for the second time recently while pitching for the Baltimore Orioles, Loewen has announced that he plans to retire from pitching and become a position player again. The decision was made after consulting with the Orioles Team Physician Jon Wilckens and noted Orthopedic specialist James Andrews. "They believe that the only reason that my arm feels the way it does is strictly from throwing off the mound at a high intensity," Loewen said. "So if I was playing first base or outfield or just having time in between throws, not throwing 90-93 off a mound, then my arm’s going to be fine. It’s not going to bother me swinging the bat, and I won’t have to have surgery.
Loewen, the fourth overall pick in the 2002 First-Year Player Draft, was a member of the 2003 Chipola Indians baseball squad. In addition to his pitching duties while at Chipola, Loewen was also played first base and outfield. He showed that not only could he pitch well but he swung a pretty good bat. During that season he batted .353 for the Indians. He knows however that was five years ago and that it will be hard to overcome that long of time spent without swinging the bat. But he also knows that it’s virtually his only choice.
"The good news," added Andy MacPhail, the team’s president of baseball operations, "is that we have a player here that, as an amateur, [was] very much a hitting prospect as well, and he has assured me that he can still hit and wants to hit. So the club is prepared to embark on that path with him, and once this season is over, we will start career No. 2 for Adam Loewen, which will be in the outfield somewhere in the Baltimore Orioles system, provided we can sort through a number of obstacles and technicalities that we have to agree upon to sort of get this career re-started."
"We talked about starting in the Instructional League," he said, "the decisions after that become self-evident after he plays. Maybe he’s ready for something very fast and maybe he does something on a slower track and maybe he needs more time. Those things become more evident as we approach them, but there is no sense in speculating now other than that we think the Instructional League is probably the right first step."
Loewen’s coach at Chipola, Jeff Johnson, said if anyone can pull off the career switch it is Loewen. "He is probably one of the few players that I know that has the ability and talent to be a big league pitcher or hitter. During his senior year before coming to Chipola he played for Team Canada and hit .700. But his size (6’5") and the fact that he is a left hander made the pitching route the most attractive to the scouts. He is a very good hitter and hopefully this will work out for him," said Johnson. Johnson also hinted that Loewen may come to Chipola later in August to work on his hitting before heading off to the Instructional League.