Orioles prospect Cody Sedlock placed on DL with elbow flexor strain

When it comes to the Orioles and pitching development, the bad news seems to outnumber the good by far. The latest example of this came on Saturday afternoon when last year’s top pick, right-hander Cody Sedlock, was placed on the 7-day DL for Frederick with what was announced as a right elbow flexor strain.

This is the kind of news that makes you want to figuratively throw something into the wall, or perhaps just step outside and scream dramatically at the sky, “WHY?????” When you start hearing about flexor strains and the elbow, that is sometimes - though not always - the precursor to a Tommy John situation.

Now that fear will be following every Orioles fan who follows Sedlock until it’s resolved one way or another. And if it goes a bad direction, it will be more fuel for the crowd that thinks the Orioles ruin every starting pitcher. This belief has not been given much to contradict it in recent years, and especially not this year.

Sedlock, 22, was the 27th overall pick in last year’s draft, the first the Orioles got to make since they lost their first round pick with the ill-advised Yovani Gallardo signing. The O’s picked Sedlock from the University of Illinois with the compensation pick they received for losing Wei-Yin Chen to the Marlins.

Could the Orioles have possibly done something to damage Sedlock? He has only been in the organization for 12 months! He’s only thrown 89.2 innings as a professional. When they had him debut for short-season Aberdeen last season, they never had him throw more than three innings in any one outing.

Maybe it was just bad luck. Maybe the Orioles did something to him to make him get hurt. Maybe there were warning signs from his amateur workload that they ignored or did not know.

It’s fair to wonder whether this has been a lingering injury this season. It was exciting when the Orioles jumped Sedlock up to High-A Frederick to start this season, skipping Delmarva. The results just haven’t been there, though. Sedlock had a 6.46 ERA through 13 starts.

Is the fact that Sedlock mysteriously did not pitch from June 11 to June 26 connected? It is a little strange that he didn’t pitch and then after one more poor outing when he came back, he goes on the DL with an injury.

Whatever the ultimate diagnosis ends up being, here’s hoping Sedlock can get back to good health as soon as possible.