Tony-OH

Just two starts, but it's starting to look like McDermott is going to be who he is going to be. He's a guy with a starter's repertoire by reliever command.

Looks like they would have won it if it was challenged.

Three leadoff walks thru 4 innings is no bueno!

Yes

100% Holliday needs to catch that perfect one-hopper.

Nick Maton

Ha, I looked at statcast before making my comment! It had more movement then his previous ones and was low and away in the zone. So nope, you be wrong!

At least it was a 97.5 MPH ground out.

That double by Perez was actually on a pretty good low and away slider. Good piece of hitting by him.

Good job.

May not have been warmed up fully for that first batter, because he looked much the rest of the inning.

There's 95 swing and miss for a K. Seems like he needs to warm up a little. Threw a couple nice changeups in there as well.

Well the lineup included Maton and McKenna to stifle it so there's that!

Ok, starting to pop 94 by the 3rd batter.

McDermott just 91-92 with no command to the first batter. Interesting. Not in a good way interesting either.

And next year, it would not be surprising if Samuel Basallo is starting 2025 season in Norfolk and could very well be the #1 prospect in all of baseball with a great year this year.

Ha, it took Maton and McKenna to slow down the offense by striking out back to back.

Helps to have no Orioles game. lol

Stowers gets down 1-2, then just misses a homer by a few feet for an RBI double.

Three batters in and it's 1-0. They actually got an out when Mayo popped up.

I'm very happy he's getting a lot of outfield time. I hope once Holliday is promoted, they don't put him back at 2B very often. He's got the speed and arm to play outfield and the more experience he gets out there the better he's become. Plus, he need a lot of injuries to become a viable effort at 2B for the Orioles. I realize he may need to be showcased at some point to another team come the training deadline, if that team needs a 2B, then you play him there again (assuming Holliday is already promoted), but until then, play this man in all three outfield positions. While I think he's more than a Ryan McKenna, he's AT LEAST a Ryan McKenna in the big leagues if he can make himself a viable defender out there.

Burnes was exactly what we had hoped for in ace last night. He's the guy when he didn't have his A-stuff or A-command, kept his team in the game when they weren't hitting ball at all. Gave them 5 2/3 innings and left the game down only 2-0. That is exactly what "aces" do when they don't have their best stuff/command. I was impressed with how he battled and how he made pitches when he needed to.

This is the most important piece to Povich. He needs to show he can do this consistently. I've seen Great, good, eh, and terrible Povich and too often that's over 4 starts. While his WHIFF rate was low, he threw a lot of strikes and didn't get hit hard with an 83.8 MP EV. That tells me that while he didn't miss bats, batters also aren't barreling him very often either. He had a 50% GB rate which is better than he's had in the past. Again, I'm not thrilled with 100% zcontact, but at least it was soft contact.

Stowers is one of the reasons why I wanted O'Hearn or Santander moved this offseason for prospects or a quality relief pitcher. Elias likes to hoards talent. That's good from an organization standpoint, but it hurts legitimate major league prospects from breaking into the majors when they are ready. Instead of moving Hays or Santander or O'Hearn this offseason for legitimate lower level pitching prospects or a reliever, he's short a quality reliever and lower level pitching prospects. Instead, he's got an absolute logjam in AAA but he's playing lesser players like O'Hearn in RF or Kemp at 2B (though I understand why Holliday and Mayo are in the minors).

No doubt. Walke is a good example of a guy starting a little late and becoming very, very good. Of course I've always been on the Stowers bandwagon. I said even after last year that he was going to be a good major league hitter if a team can live with the K's.