SteveA

Two other former Oriole players who also just had one or two seasons with the O's, passed away in the last week. Whitey Herzog, best known for his managing the Royals and Cardinals, died this week at 94. And Odell Jones, who pitched for the Orioles in 1986, died at 71.

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Gametime: 7:40 pm ET Forecast: 58 degrees, parlty cloudy Matchup: Dean Kremer (R) vs Alec Marsh (R) Lineups SS Gunnar Henderson L C Adley Rutschman S DH Ryan O'Hearn L RF Anthony Santander S 1B Ryan Mountcastle R CF Cedric Mullins L LF Colton Cowser L 3B Jordan Westburg R 2B Jackson Holliday L 3B Maikel Garcia R SS Bobby Witt R 1B Vinnie Pasquantino L C Salvador Perez R LF MJ Melendez L DH Nelson Velazquez R 2B Michael Massey L RF Hunter Renfroe R CF Kyle Isbel L Orioles Bench Austin Hays (R) Jorge Mateo (R) James McCann (R) Ramon Urias (R) Orioles Bullpen Available Keegan Akin (L) 0.1 IP, 3p Wednesday; 0.1 IP, 16p Monday Mike Baumann (R) 1.1 IP, 25p Tuesday Danny Coulombe (L) 0.2 IP, 10p Wednesday Craig Kimbrel (R) 1.0 IP, 12p Wednesday; 1.0 IP, 13p Monday; 1.0 IP, 21p Sunday Yohan Ramirez (R) 1.2 IP, 28p Tuesday Dillon Tate (R) 1.1 IP, 21p Monday Jacob Webb (R) 0.1 IP, 15p Wednesday Probably Available Yennier Cano (R) 1.0 IP, 20p Wednesday, 1.2 IP, 20p Monday; 1.1 IP, 22p Sunday

Totally closing my eyes and throwing darts here with less than 30 seconds thought: Griffey Jr, A-Rod, Olerud, Alvin Davis

9/9, 54, 7 Orioles. A little hack for under 3.00 ERA is there is no minimum inning requirement so if you can think of a good reliever who played for a team, chances are they had one year where their ERA was under 3. I filled two spots with Orioles using that. Couldn't come up with Orioles off the top of my head for two Twin spots, so rather than guess and risk a 9/9, I just put two obvious answers that wound up giving me 45 of my 54 rarity points.

I did it again! 9/9, all played for the Orioles. 36 points.

Where are you getting this "world would end" shtick? I said I felt Hays was the correct move, nothing more. On the other hand, I think the most drastic "world ending" came from people who opposed the move and said it was horrible. If any side in this argument was using hyperbolic "the world is ending" kind of language, I think it was the people opposed to the move, not any of the people in favor of it.

Did it ever once occur to you that maybe one reason O'Hearn is hot is because he is being used by Hyde in situations where he can excel... vs RH pitchers. Maybe the fact that 98% of his plate appearances have come vs righties is PART of the reason he is hot. Using him almost exclusively vs RH is working, and it is working damn well. Maybe it would be a bad idea to change it.

Padres place Yu Darvish on the IL and call up Logan Gillaspie.

We were talking about platooning and LH/RH matchups. Earl did it all the time. Just like Hyde does.

Hyde managed like that all last year and won 101 games. But it didn't "work", according to you. Earl Weaver managed like that for decades and is in the Hall of Fame. But it didn't "work", according to you.

Why not? Against lefties over their careers Hays has an OPS that is 200 points higher. Yes, he has been in a slump. A bad one. Players are in slumps. Until they come out of them. You are vastly overreacting to 40 at bats. I'm glad our manager doesn't.

Hot hand = smaller sample size = less valid in determining who will succeed than long term performance (obviously weighted for more recent, but not to the point of considering 39 at bats the past 3 weeks more valid than 500 last year.

Suarez wasn't lifted for Webb. Coulombe was. Suarez was probably always going to come out for Coulombe when that L-R-L portion of the order came up. If Suarez hadn't hit the batter and had had a 1-2-3 6th, Coulombe would have been on to start the 7th. When I looked at the bullpen rest before the game, it was obvious that Webb was going to see the mound today. He was by far the most rested guy in the bullpen, a 9 pitch outing Sunday being his only action in the last 4 days. So I wasn't surprised to see him in. Tate threw 21 pitches Monday, so not quite as rested. So I think the plan was that Coulombe would relieve Suarez when there was a lefty heavy portion of the order. And when it was time to go back to a rigthy, the more rested Webb would be the choice over Tate. Cano/Kimbrel would be 8th/9th if we were winning or tied, probably Akin/Tate if we were losing. And if we hadn't won it in 9, we would have seen Tate in the 10th most likely, really with no one behind him if the game went multiple extra innings.

My thoughts on managerial decisions today: O'Hearn in RF: don't like it. Only way it is acceptable if there was a legitimate [health] reason to have Santander DH today. Are they trying to keep him under 100 or 120 games in the OF this year, for some reason? Pinch hitting Hays for O'Hearn vs LH reliever: the right move. Taking Suarez out with 2 outs in the 6th: close call. There were 2 lefties in the next 3 batters, a great spot to use Coulombe. We had already gotten more than we could reasonable expect from Suarez. But his pitch count wasn't at danger levels yet. I can go either way. Bringing in Cano for the 8th, after Akin had recorded one out in the 7th. Don't like it. Yes, there were 2/3 RH hitters due. But committing to Cano(8) and Kimbrel(9) would mean going into extra innings with basically just Dillon Tate (or the two guys that threw a lot of pitches last night). The game was 2-2, extra innings was a strong possibility. I would have tried to use a combination of Akin and Cano for the 8th and 9th, maybe getting Akin through the next left in the order at least. Then Kimbrel for the 10th, and we wouldn't be down to our last viable option until the 11th. Though this decision worked out well. I would have tried to get more out of Akin. At the time Cano came in, I actually typed a post in the game thread saying I felt it was not the right move, but I was busy at work too and forgot to hit send. I might have pinch run Mateo for Mounty in the 9th when he got on with one out. Chance to steal and score on a single, or better chance to score all the way from first on a double. We would have had to use Urias or McCann at 1B in extra innings. But I'll take a chance on that if I think it improves my chances of ending the game in 9. Now Mounty is actually a pretty good baserunner, so I can see the argument for keeping him in.