Frobby

Honestly, I could see the decision either way. O’Hearn is a hot hitter historically vulnerable to lefties. Hays historically hits lefties well but has been as cold as you can get. He’s a significant defensive upgrade to O’Hearn for the rest of the game. So what do you do? If my only concern was to maximize the chance to win today’s game, I’d probably stick with O’Hearn, for a reason not mentioned yet. This was the leadoff batter in the 7th inning, and if anyone gets on base the next three innings, that means the batter will get one more AB after the one in the 7th inning, and decent chance that AB will be against a RHP. So, that favors leaving O’Hearn in. At the same time, I don’t believe that maximizing the chance to win this game was the only consideration. Simply put, Hyde wants to keep Hays involved in things, and wants to give him opportunities to break out of his slump. And that’s important for the long term benefit of the team. So, as I see it, it’s a close call, and I wouldn’t criticize Hyde either way. We won the game so I’m certainly not going to obsess about it.

It makes the games go faster, so I like that tradeoff.

I believe he’s referring to platooning.

The truth is, a middle reliever is pretty much what you get in a trade of a 1B/COF/DH who has one year of service time left, unless the guy is a superstar level hitter. I think though that Trae value doesn’t always define a player’s value to the team he’s on. There’s no question that O’Hearn brought more value to this team last year than a middle reliever would, and it looks like he will again. Now, could we get similar production from Kjerstad or Stowers? Maybe, but we’re not going to find out unless someone gets hurt.

I’m not in the mood to tangle with you or do research. I clearly recall though some posters declaring in March and April that we had to take Jones and that failing to do it would be GM malpractice. And I recall saying (1) they don’t make these decisions in March/April, and (2) I don’t care what the pundits think, I care what Elias thinks. Now I just want Holliday to start hitting and prove Elias correct.

Yeah, there have been a few CRAZY team HR totals the last few years. But I’d settle for 270.

So we’re better than the White Sox? Got it! We’re on pace for 270 homers. Is that good?

Mullins’ swing is so beautiful when he’s dialed in. Which he certainly is right now.

Just read the OP.

Rough numbers: Opening series 94 k vs. 105 k (-10%) 2nd series 34 k vs. 32 k (1st 3 games) (+6%) 3rd series 92 k vs 68 k (+35%) 4th series 48 k vs. 38 k (+26%) Lower attendance in that first series is partially explicable by (1) spring break, (2) Easter Sunday, (3) Angels instead of Yankees. It should also be noted that the this last series was up 26% despite the opponent being the Twins instead of the Red Sox. The next homestand is 3 weekend games with the A’s and 4 weekday games with the Yankees.

How about the most important source there is? https://forum.orioleshangout.com/topic/45136-poll-who-do-you-think-the-orioles-will-take-with-pick-11/ https://forum.orioleshangout.com/topic/45137-poll-who-do-you-want-the-orioles-to-take-with-pick-11/ 40% thought we’d take Holliday, 36% thought we’d take Jones. 60% wanted Jones, 17% wanted Holliday. My memory is that the early consensus in March/April was that Jones was the clear no. 1 and that was pretty unanimous. But it became less clear as the high school/college season progressed, not because Jones did badly, but others emerged, including Holliday, who wasn’t on the radar early. Still, it was a helluva pick. Now the kid needs to prove it.

I thought his swing looked better last night. More direct to the ball than I’ve seen in a while. I’m glad he’s in the lineup today.

Automatic balls and strikes (robot-ump).

The latest from Roch: John Means, meanwhile, remains on his rehab assignment with Triple-A Norfolk and is starting tonight. Asked whether Means is one more rotation turn away from rejoining the Orioles, Hyde said, “Yeah, at least.” —- Sounds like he’s likely to max out his rehab time, which ends April 30.

Yeah, another thing we’re not going to see from Westburg is head slapping plays where you wonder WTF he was thinking, or plays where he misses the ball because he didn’t attempt to field it in the proper way. So that’s all good.