Tony-OH

The only chance the Orioles have is if Holmes makes an absolute mistake pitch.

I'm surprised it's not higher. He's a right-handed Zach Britton in his prime.

A birdie going 97 MPH

There we go... Now we just need a few more seeing eye singles!

Good point. Kevin was probably like, I'm getting this in before it's too late.

Basically if they get out it was a mistake. lol

Kevin still struggles to know when it's story time or not.

There's a reason they are in the playoffs. Dominant relievers are just that.

You mean like Santander did and popped up?

Yep. He's really good. To dominate two very good hitters shows how good the stuff is.

The Santander pop up on the first pitch after the pitcher walked a batter and hit a batter changed the whole inning.

Tough game, but we shut them out in the first game and the bullpen has actually been good this whole series.

Holmes has good stuff. Dominated Henderson and Adley. DOMINATED as in no chance.

Updated

I don't think so, not with both Means and Bradish coming back. Now I do think he's next in line.

Why would Grayson want to fight the team on this? If he thinks it will be best for him come October, why would he fight it? It's not like he's fighting for a salary since he's not arbitration eligible or anywhere near free agency.

The training room is nowhere big enough to add in an MRI machine. Not to mention all of the logistics involved in maintenance, staff, etc. If the Orioles or any major league team felt a MRI every month would show potential injuries before they happen, I'd imagine many more would routinely happen. Pain is almost always the first indicator of a problem. The body is set up that way.

Maybe this is why you don't sign a 31-year old 6-7, 280 pound player to a 9-year contract. LOL Yankees. I do expect Judge to be better this year than he's been, but he's going to be a huge anchor for them for years to come. Never pay for past performance!

It's been several years since I actually felt like my Boogs was really good. The quality has certainly gone downhill.

I don't see Tate coming back anytime soon with the bullpen crunch as it is right now. I do imagine Bradish will push Suarez to the bullpen which means someone else has to go. I imagine it will be to DFA Ramirez. With Grayson on the IL, the rotation should be Burnes, Bradish, Means, Kremer, Irvin (not in that order, just the names) once Bradish is activated.

That's a good point and hopefully all this is. They need Grayson to be strong in September and October and may just look at this as a perfect opportunity to shut him down for a bit without losing a pitcher due to DFA. I didn't see anything in Grayson's last start to suggest he was hurt, so maybe a little soreness, which probably every pitcher feels after starts, is a good reason to be able to load manage him for the year. Saying that, he did throw a 163.1 innings last year between Baltimore and Norfolk and was very strong last year into October, where he was too hyped up (sitting 100 MPH) vs worn down.

I don't get everything right. I'm fine with you "calling me out" over some comments I made a few years ago. Feel free to find more as I'm sure there are more. Also feel free to not ask me any questions or read what i have to say about players and judge on your. I may have been a bit harsh to suggest firing people, because we don't know whether it's scouting or development or both when it comes to the international/rookie league department struggle to have hitters find success above rookie league. Basallo of course is a huge hit, and Bencosme is a nice job, especially since he was a late bloomer. Now while I see what you are doing here and trying to make me look impatient, it's more than the terrible starts by the first big crop. And I'm not saying that these guys are busts, just that their ascension to full season ball has been similar to other DSL/FCL grads outside of the two I mentioned. Go take a look at Isaac De León, Anderson De Los Santos, Stiven Acevedo (my personal disappointment because I love his tools), Luis Gonzalez, Brayan Hernández, Angel Tejada, Erison Placencia, Rolphy Cruz, Moises Ramirez, Josué Cruz, and Mishael Deson. None of them were able to compete well out of rookie ball. And I won't have mention the million plus bust that is Maikel Hernandez. Now there are varying talent levels amongst those guys, but the one constant is their almost complete inability to compete in A-ball of above. Not struggle, but sub .600 OPS numbers which to me means they were no ready to compete at this level. So now we have Tavera (who has been doing better of late and controls the strike zone), Sosa (good gap power, but Ks are becoming a red flag), Estrada and Velasquez (who actually got a nice bonus) all struggling. Tavera and Sosa certainly have tools to work from and their stories are far from written, but what I'm talking about is whatever they're doing to get guys ready to compete at this level is not working very well. Sure, they're young, but they're not significantly younger than other Carolina League teams. So I'm not saying this new wave of hitters are busts after a month, but I am saying that every single guy going through DSL and FCL teams besides Basallo and Bencosme (Luis Valdez to a lesser extent but was a much older guy late signee) have absolute struggled above the FCL. So at some point, the Orioles need to look internal on how they are developing hitters coming out of this program or maybe even how they scouting them. I understand how hard the system is over there to hit on kids at 14 and 15 years old, and we all should expect most of these players to fail at some point in the minor leagues, but I would like to see a few more be able to have success in A- and A ball before maybe having AA be the fail point.

I know there is some chatter about Etzel being a great 10th round pick and he's doing well, but don't sleep on Vasquez. In his limited action last year he intrigued me because of his defensive abilities, but this year, he's made the jump to Aberdeen and not only is he still showing legitimate tools to play SS at the major league level, he's more more than holding his own so far this year with the bat. Player Round A Ball Stats Vasquez 20th .302/.456/.453/.909 with 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 10 SB/1 CS, 14 BB, 10 K in 68 PAs Etzel 10th .329/.422/.529/.951 with 7 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 12 SB/3 CS 14 BB, 20 K in 102 PAs Bradfield Jr. 1st .203/.311/.281/.592 with 3 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 13 SB/0 CS, 10 BB, 12 K in 75 PAs Add in that Vasquez is a plus defender tools wise (though he has some throwing accuracy issues at times) and I'm liking what I see early on for the 30K signing bonus 20th rounder.

I totally updated these and forgot to post them. If you don't see them updated this evening by 9, remind me! Sorry about that!