Tony-OH

This is how statcast classifies his pitching repertoire. It seems he has gone from a slider to a cutter this year. Much less horizontal drop. Not sure why since his slider was very effective last year. Both his fastball and cutter have been hit a bit this year when you look at XWOBA.

Kjerstad is pretty locked in at the plate right now and just looks like a guy who is 100% ready for the big leagues. But he's completely blocked right now and I don't see how they get him on this roster without an injury to Santander, Mountcastle, O'Hearn or Cowser. Yes I left Hays off the guys above because the Orioles need a right handed hitting outfielder and I'm not sure they want Kjerstad in LF for any extended time. I think if Hays went down, Norby would get that RH bat opportunity. Tough to be him right now, but he's definitely ready to be adding his power bat to the Orioles lineup.

Had a couple of base hits up the middle last night, one of which was off a 98 MPH fastball, so maybe he's starting to get his timing down. He's still not driving the ball too much yet, but that will come. I think he's close to a breakout game.

You've been on quite the roll lately. The curmudgeony is starting to melt away!

You get a free year of my continued analysis. You're welcome!

Thanks. Never heard of that until now. I would not be surprised if the Orioles try this with Means.

Nah, I understood you way more so try harder! Love ya @Just Regular

I've seen Stowers "lollygag" a lot this year. I wonder if he's just frustrated being stuck in AAA once again. No matter how everything is presented, these guys have to be upset that they are stuck in AAA when they could be playing in the MLB with other orgs. Of course the best way to get out of that is to perform, but that's easier said than done. Saying all that, Stowers has always been a streaky hitter. He's white hot or ice cold.

Here's John Means statcast info from this last start. Here was his main problem. He couldn't throw many quality strikes and was pulling almost everything glove side. I'm no pitching expert, and I don't know where he was standing on the rubber, but Ben McDonald talks about this all the time where the pitcher needs to make an adjustment on the pitching rubber when he missing to one side too often. Here's his movement since 2019 T The one thing to note is Means' stuff has been pretty average to below average since 2021. He's always relied on changing speeds and location vs incredible stuff. He had no location in this last start but everything else like velocity and movement look similar to the last few years. So I'm not overly worried about Means. I also don't expect him to be much better than Irvin if and when he comes back, but you never know.

Well, he didn't know he was going to have a short stint when he was pitching.

The Orioles should just walk "OLd Man" Perez every time they can. For some reason he seems to own us the last few years. The Royals pitching has been amazing this year so far but something has to break. They are not going to pitch to a 2.79 ERA all year. The Orioles offense has been fairly hot overall so either the Royals are going to cool the bats, or the Orioles are going to bring the Royals pitching back to earth. Burnes vs Ragans on Saturday should be a heck of a pitching duel. Of course that means the game will end 9-8.

Great recap and story. Thanks for sharing. I was only 6 and 7 years old back then so knew of these guys, but didn't remember anything about them when they played for the Oriole. Holtzman had a nice career and in the end, he got several pieces that helped us when an AL pennant in 1979 and our only World Series championship in the last 50 years in 1983.

They're easy to get mixed up. Close first names, 2nd round picks, bat first, right-handed hitting power hitting third baseman. Both are 6-foot tall, from the ACC, hit 20+ homers their junior seasons. Both got a taste of Aberdeen in their draft year, and both started their first full seasons there, struggling mightily early on. Both have been tried at 2B as well at 3B. I'll be honest, they're basically the same guy. It's like Elias was like, let me get two of these guys and hope one makes it!

Right now Hays is in McKenna's role but will probably get a little more PAs once summer gets here and players start to wear down a bit. His only way out is for him to start hitting and either Santander or Cowser to go into a long funk themselves. There is no doubt Cowser is an everyday guy now in the Orioles mind.

He's on the Bowie IL. Not sure what is injury is unfortunately.