They are pitching from a point of confidence against him right now. He is also getting some bad calls on strikes. Probably also the first time in 3 or 4 years he isn’t the best player on the team. I’m not worried at all. It is kind of like last year when some people wanted to send Gunnar down, the kid will figure it out.
Plus, would you rather have a struggling Holliday or Kemp?
His first strikeout on 4/16 - he got three fastballs that were 95-96 mph perfectly painted on the corners, both at the top of the zone and the bottom. They were perfect pitches, all three of them, and by a mediocre mlb pitcher. I'm sure he has never faced that type of pitching in his life. It will take some getting used to. And it seems all these pitchers are determined to not be the pitcher that Holliday gets hot against - they don't want to be on the highlight reel. They are making his life difficult. It's going to take a lot of watching film and working with hitting coaches to figure out how this league pitches him.
97 mph tonight with a bunch of sweepers. Sweeper = keeper. In all seriousness, the dude has a live arm. I could see him giving us a “Webb” type of run. Everyday Webby. Ramírez is out of options so he’s literally pitching for his job everytime out there.
Honestly, I was banging the drum for us to sign one more vet reliever like a David Robertson, Ottavino, or Brasier, but there probably isn’t too much difference than Ramírez right now other than track record and salary. That’s a $5-$10 million security blanket that Elias didn’t think we needed.
If ST tells us anything, it will be Suarez over Zimmerman. Suarez pitched 15.2 IP to Zimmerman’s 7.2 IP. So they must like him a bit more.
Banuelos gets DFAd to make room for him. He was only added to roster last night because he was with the team and it was a reward. We basically plucked the bullpen catcher and added him. There was no reason to IL Wells yesterday other than to give Banuelos a moment. It’ll be a bizzare piece of O’s trivia years from now and possibly inspire a future handle.
Ugh… I think the problems are that he’s 20 years old and two years removed from high school. Everyone wanted this dude up here. He’s batting 8th/9th. Now we just got to let him get a sample size and some ABs.
Also, keep in mind that Jackson Holliday is a legit 20. He’s not Albert Pujols 20. 🤔
The first couple games did seem like he was nervous and feeling the pressure of all the expectations, but I think right now he's mostly past all the butterflies. Seems like he's just now starting to get eyes for better pitching and the pitchers he has faced have done a good job painting the corners against him.
I'm encouraged that he's starting to make better contact even if they are fly outs. It says to me that his eyes and coordination are in the process of adjusting to the major league pitching, albeit slowly.
I'll defer to the professional coaches on the Orioles about what could help him adjust faster and get better. I think he needs to study his opponents more and figure out their tendencies.
Also teach him to watch how deep the pitcher puts his throwing hand in his glove and how deep he grips it. That can be a clue/tip on whether a fast ball or breaking ball/offspeed is coming.
This. I think the early book on Holliday is to keep feeding him changeups. Jackson has taken several borderline ones that umps have called strikes and others he has waved over the top of them. So I would tell him to sit on changeup and hopefully he can tattoo a couple and begin altering pitcher perceptions.
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