Tony-OH

This is how statcast classifies his pitching repertoire. It seems he has gone from a slider to a cutter this year. Much less horizontal drop. Not sure why since his slider was very effective last year. Both his fastball and cutter have been hit a bit this year when you look at XWOBA.

Kjerstad is pretty locked in at the plate right now and just looks like a guy who is 100% ready for the big leagues. But he's completely blocked right now and I don't see how they get him on this roster without an injury to Santander, Mountcastle, O'Hearn or Cowser. Yes I left Hays off the guys above because the Orioles need a right handed hitting outfielder and I'm not sure they want Kjerstad in LF for any extended time. I think if Hays went down, Norby would get that RH bat opportunity. Tough to be him right now, but he's definitely ready to be adding his power bat to the Orioles lineup.

Had a couple of base hits up the middle last night, one of which was off a 98 MPH fastball, so maybe he's starting to get his timing down. He's still not driving the ball too much yet, but that will come. I think he's close to a breakout game.

You've been on quite the roll lately. The curmudgeony is starting to melt away!

You get a free year of my continued analysis. You're welcome!

Thanks. Never heard of that until now. I would not be surprised if the Orioles try this with Means.

Nah, I understood you way more so try harder! Love ya @Just Regular

I've seen Stowers "lollygag" a lot this year. I wonder if he's just frustrated being stuck in AAA once again. No matter how everything is presented, these guys have to be upset that they are stuck in AAA when they could be playing in the MLB with other orgs. Of course the best way to get out of that is to perform, but that's easier said than done. Saying all that, Stowers has always been a streaky hitter. He's white hot or ice cold.

Here's John Means statcast info from this last start. Here was his main problem. He couldn't throw many quality strikes and was pulling almost everything glove side. I'm no pitching expert, and I don't know where he was standing on the rubber, but Ben McDonald talks about this all the time where the pitcher needs to make an adjustment on the pitching rubber when he missing to one side too often. Here's his movement since 2019 T The one thing to note is Means' stuff has been pretty average to below average since 2021. He's always relied on changing speeds and location vs incredible stuff. He had no location in this last start but everything else like velocity and movement look similar to the last few years. So I'm not overly worried about Means. I also don't expect him to be much better than Irvin if and when he comes back, but you never know.

Well, he didn't know he was going to have a short stint when he was pitching.

The Orioles should just walk "OLd Man" Perez every time they can. For some reason he seems to own us the last few years. The Royals pitching has been amazing this year so far but something has to break. They are not going to pitch to a 2.79 ERA all year. The Orioles offense has been fairly hot overall so either the Royals are going to cool the bats, or the Orioles are going to bring the Royals pitching back to earth. Burnes vs Ragans on Saturday should be a heck of a pitching duel. Of course that means the game will end 9-8.

Great recap and story. Thanks for sharing. I was only 6 and 7 years old back then so knew of these guys, but didn't remember anything about them when they played for the Oriole. Holtzman had a nice career and in the end, he got several pieces that helped us when an AL pennant in 1979 and our only World Series championship in the last 50 years in 1983.

They're easy to get mixed up. Close first names, 2nd round picks, bat first, right-handed hitting power hitting third baseman. Both are 6-foot tall, from the ACC, hit 20+ homers their junior seasons. Both got a taste of Aberdeen in their draft year, and both started their first full seasons there, struggling mightily early on. Both have been tried at 2B as well at 3B. I'll be honest, they're basically the same guy. It's like Elias was like, let me get two of these guys and hope one makes it!

Right now Hays is in McKenna's role but will probably get a little more PAs once summer gets here and players start to wear down a bit. His only way out is for him to start hitting and either Santander or Cowser to go into a long funk themselves. There is no doubt Cowser is an everyday guy now in the Orioles mind.

He's on the Bowie IL. Not sure what is injury is unfortunately.

My report after last year without the statcast data that BA seems to have eyes on now. the two walks so far is what has impressed me. If he can keep that up while missing bats that's big for him. The stuff was legit at times. 53. Moises Chace – RHP (A): The 6-1 right-hander started to put things together a bit late in the summer before getting shut down for an injury. The 20-year old’s fastball sits 92-93 and touches 94-95. His best pitch is a solid average change up that works really well against lefties who slashed just 1.82/.310/.347/.657 off him. Throws a slider and curveball though both pitches are very inconsistent and have to improve. Command overall is still a big problem as his fastball tends to run up and away too often.

He seems to be doing his best Max Wagner impression. Wagner got off to absolutely horrid start in Aberdeen as well last year and never really fully recovered. Let's hope that not the same with Horvath. Still very early, but I've been following his struggles so far.

Nice, I didn't realize they got salary bumps for getting put on the 40-man for a day. Does this work for players in the offseason or only in season? Like, if a guy is added in February, then DFA'd in March before the season and passes through waivers and is assigned to a minor league team, does he still get the salary bump for that season?

Good rundown and that's what I get for making a quick comment without doing more research. Still, I think their system is pretty good at identifying these guys cheaply, and I think that's why they stated away from trading for a big arm this offseason. While I think this system works for you back half of your bullpen, I'm not sure it's great at finding the top half. That half they need to pay for. As much as I like Cano and Coulombe, I'd be more comfortable with them in the 6th or 7th then the 8th if possible. The 2014 bullpen was absolutely a monster at the tail end with O'Day, Miller and Britton to end things. Games were over for the Orioles if they had a lead going into the 7th inning and those guys were all available.

Great points all around. Also it was worth noting that Suarez had a lot of whiffs in spring training, the minors and i his debut. The stuff is legit. The question is whether he can command it consistently and be able to get more into the 90 pitched areas vs running a bit out of gas by 70 pitches.

Different evaluation. They didn't trade anyone of value for him and gave him a look while evaluating him closely. The fact that they needed another high leverage arm and they let him go spoke volumes. But yes, the Mets messed up.

It has certainly been a slow start for Basallo in AA. Still very early of course, but not loving the 11-0 K-BB ratio. That's unlike him at any level so he may be pressing a bit.

Speaking of Fuji quickly, did anyone noticed he was so bad this spring that he was optioned to AAA despite being on a $3.35 million deal and is now pitching to a 9.00 ERA in AAA. Looks like the Orioles evaluated correctly. Elias and company have only missed on evaluation with Evan Phillips when it comes to bullpen arms.

Well Vespi has been decent in AAA where almost everyone else has been getting lit up. Matt Krook who is similar to Vespi and Luis Gonzalez have been decent from the left side. Wandisson Charles may be worth a look for a little bit. I'm not convinced his fastball works despite the velocity since it's a low spin pitch and doesn't seem to have good vertical movement, but he's interesting since he can sit 98 MPH. Garrett Stallings is a guy that could be a multi-inning guy if he can find a way to get lefties out. None of these guys are thrilling, but as the 7th reliever to each a few innings for he bullpen when the team is up or down a lot, sure.

Elias and his staff are outstanding at finding useful arms like Perez, Webb, Coulombe, and Ramirez were all basically taken off the DFA/unwanted list. So I'm not too concerned if he has to DFA someone to keep Suarez. Even if he loses that 7th reliever, he can find more and there are still a couple of interesting arms in Norfolk that could fill that role.