Tony-OH

What's the over under on Holliday grounding to second or K'ing?

Westy doing everything right now.

You know, we have to give credit to Mountcastle for how good he's gotten at picking throws. That pick last night on Burnes bullet and now this last one from Gunnar were outstanding.

His versatility by being able to play 2B too is a plus for him for sure. But, the team would still have Urias, Mateo and now Holliday to play 2B.

Huh? Is this some kind of sarcasm?

Not every player need a ton of adjustment. We don't know. And by the way, I'm not questioning Elias for not trading Westburg for Cease. I was just admitting that I was willing to move him for two years of Cease. Maybe Mayo would have struggled, or maybe he would have started off well, we don't know. What we do know is that Westburg has looked very good this year and it appears Elias made the right move not to include him.

Everyone using that word can suck it! Hey, I'm 54, I got no time for this Tik Tik vocabulary!

I can't believe they left him out there for that many pitches. Crazy.

It was a crew chief review. The only thing I can think of is they wanted to check to see if it went off a fan vs off the railing. I thought it was obvious on the first live view that hit off the fence below the fan railing and was still play.

I'm not a Brown hater, but if I need to use an urban dictionary to understand the terminology he can suck it!

Me too, because I felt Mayo could have replaced him. Though, maybe Mayo would be doing the same thing?

You should be replaced then too..

The rumor has it that the White Sox wanted Westburg but the Orioles would not include him.

Feels like when Holliday does make contact, he just grounds out to 2B. That was a very hittable fastball by Lugo.

Do not throw Westy inside!

Back-to-back

Whoever gives Hyde the thumbs up to review should be replaced.

Now that was a bomb!

While birds fly around his head and a windy thunderstorm is on the horizon.

Vinny Pasquantino sounds like a mob hitman.

Can we just walk Salvadore Perez all game?

There are always going to be "pollyanna" fans that seem to think if you show any concern, even when you have the statistics to prove the concerns, will just laugh it off. I haven't seen anyone say he's a bust or that he'll never hit in the majors, but it's been 8 games of absolutely domination. Even Cowser last year made some good contact at times and walked some during his terrible performance. Now Cal Ripken took his lumps in his short debut at the end of 1981 slashing .128/.150/.128/.278 in 39 PAs similar to Holliday though he "only" struck out 9 times in those 39 PAs. I have little doubt Holliday will figure things out, and it very well may start coming soon, but once he gets on that 50 PA range, the Orioles need to make an assessment of what good for the team this year and whether Holliday may need a reset back in AAA. Many good players have needed to go back to the minors after learning what didn't work in the big leagues. Who knows, maybe the Orioles knew some things wouldn't work but needed Holliday to fail before he would make some changes? I don't know honestly and I'm not a hitting instructor. I just know that I'd feel better if he were driving the ball more often and just whiffing a lot less. That whiff rate is unsustainable.

He does that a lot, even in the minors he's done that. I'm not really sure why because it looks bad, but so far he hasn't mistimed it with his lobs. OAA loves him for some reason though. I have to admit the eye test is not good, but OAA loves his range.

Let's be honest, there is only so long you can have success with a 91.6 MPH sinker at the major league level. I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop on Tate because the stuff is just not very good. Sure, he has good movement on the sinker, but he has to have pinpoint control because if not, last night is going to happen. With an option, Tate is the guy that is going to go when the Orioles need to make a move. Of course besides activating Bradish or Means, there's not a lot of Norfolk relievers banging down the door. We knew going into this season the Orioles were short in the pen, especially at the tail end, but with Tate and Baumann having struggles, they are getting short on guys you can count on in the middle innings. At least Baumann will flash you stuff. Tate on the other hand looks like a dime a dozen AAA sinker-sweeper reliever.

I know there are a lot of people, that rightfully so, are saying to give him time, and I agree to a certain extent. But the one thing that has to be recognized is how badly Holliday is being dominated by major league pitching right now. He's whiffing way too much. He's not having competitive at bats. When he does make contact he's hitting the ball way too much on the ground, which was something I mentioned about him as he was coming up through the minors. Now it's been 8 games, and I have no concerns that he won't one day be an amazing player, but he's getting into historic levels of futility to start off a major league career. It's clear, what worked for him at the minor league level is not working for him against major league pitching. Whether it's the leg kick or the fact that his head is all messed up at the plate currently, it's definitely an issue. If he was controlling the strike zone and making good swing decisions then ok, but at some point he's got to produce up here or he needs to be sent back down before he hits those historic numbers. I still think the target date is the May 1st area, if he's not making more contact and starting to make more solid contact, then I think he needs to go back to AAA. This isn't a rushed judgement, but rather you can't keep running a young kid or really any player out there for too long when they are not having competitive PAs. This is the big leagues, and while it's fine to take some lumps, just like the many players mentioned in this thread who started off poorly, but those lumps can't continue to be absolute domination.