Spy Fox

Two more months of sucking could change the situation, yes.

I think this is your point, but Hays would definitely be claimed by somebody. Maybe not the true rebuilders because of the $6M price tag. But any fringe contender with a questionable outfield would love for an Austin Hays to fall in their laps.

Ben is pretty mistake prone when citing facts. Yesterday during all the streak talk he said that the Orioles haven't lost a series since Adley Rutschman was promoted.

Maybe because those guys are from Alabama and Texas? If that's the path you want to take she could be saying those names with a sudden southern drawl.

That's how I felt. Her weaknesses were still on display and there were some mistakes, but I felt it was pretty watchable. I'm not sure she'll ever be that good at PBP, because she continues to phrase a lot of her descriptions in weird ways. She's in like an uncanny valley of commentary where she uses a lot of the standard tools/phrases but consistently slightly misapplies them. But, I think improvement could come from making her PBP approach more distinct from her other roles. I feel like she overpursues narratives (especially feel-good narratives about the O's) at the expense of being on her toes to describe the unfolding of the game at hand. Lots of PBP people do this (Kevin Brown does sometimes) but if they're good, they know exactly when to snap back to action mode, and describe the game crisply when doing so.

His pacing is always so off for the quick bits required of that role. When I watch him it feels like his internal clock is different than the real world's and he's like lurching around trying to find rhythm with the broadcast.

I don't mind him showing a little emotion there. Do you feel similarly about guys slamming their bats after striking out? At any rate I took it as a sign of frustration, not unconfidence.

I also thought she seemed a bit better the last two nights.

We'll find out Kevin Brown reads the OH when he goes "And Mountcastle... DEVELOPS that ball to left field!"

Ryan developed Hunter Harvey's situation last night.

I think they will DFA him. They already did it once. And the fact nobody claimed him means you’re probably right about not starting for other teams.

I had fun watching the extra innings of this game. That was good TV. Thanks Craig for serving up the evening’s entertainment!

We have threads asking for Kremer, Grayson, and Povich in the closer role. Can we acknowledge that Cano is the pretty obvious next man up if Kimbrel is removed at some point? I don’t really care about his 9th inning splits. He’s our best reliever and until he gets a chance and fails I’m going to assume that’s just noise and he’ll do the best job. Tonight makes nine straight appearances with either a Save or Hold. Overall he has held a lead 10 times in 11 chances, and the one miss was a bad outing but still nearly a SV if not for Gunnar’s walk-off throwing error.

It was 3-2 with runners on first and second. Kimbrel got two outs and then went HR-BB-BB to the 8/9/1 guys.

Dumping him from the team altogether is a bit much at this point. But, that's four out of five chances the past two weeks that he's failed to save. Two blown saves, then one excellent appearance, then twice failing to even complete the inning. I'm certainly ready to see him take a break from the closer role, via IL stint or otherwise.