Tony-OH

DeLeon's shocking regression at Aberdeen has to be the biggest one for me. His command literally looked like it disappeared (Career worse 6.3 BB/9) and not only that, his strike out rate dropped (career low 9.8/9). The good news is his GB rate was pretty steady (59.1%) and his FIP (4.46) and xFIP (4.34) out paced his ERA (5.73). Stuff wise, his changeup regressed, but his slider improved movement wise, and probably led to some of the walks. He threw way too many uncompetitive pitches. He allowed A+ batters to slash .289/.397/.384/.782 but some of that was attributed to a .379 BABIP, partially driven by Aberdeen's sometimes awful defense behind him. He's definitely got big time relief vibes to him so he can't be written off, but at 21-years old, he was a disappointment in his first go through the Sally League.

Never drama free, but another save for Dominguez.

Here's how I see this outing going. Dominguez gets the first two guys, then gives up a homer, then walks a guy, then strike out the last guy for the save.

Lol, that is not tricky KB. That's just a miss by Rivera.

I'll be honest, O'Hearn kind of deserves this slump for that haircut.

Tavera has been out of my top 40 for awhile now.

Slow bat, no power, poor defensive player. That .741 OPS included zero homers and three extra base hits in 82 PAs and was driven by an unsustainable .396 BABIP. Now he was 20-years old and the Orioles invested a decent amount money in him, so he very well may get an opportunity to play again next year. Especially since it's not like there is anyone knocking on the door from the FCL. But he's not a prospect.

You and Puck are welcome to believe in anything you like. I mean, if the hard hitting journalists at SI wrote a piece on the O's hitting, it must all be true. I mean afterall, they used the word Stunning resurgence, on a team that has gone 33-38 over it's last 71 games, mostly because the hitting (I posted the stats of many players over the time period in another thread) has gone ice cold. Quite stunning indeed.

O' Hearn wasn't in a middle of a season, and Hicks suddenly went back to a pumpkin, so I guess he forgot everything once again. Must need more magic hitting pixie dust. Believe what you want. I guess the magic fairy dust doesn't work on players already here? Wonder why this offense is not fixed and players like Adley and hmmm, I don't know, O'Hearn, have been in long slumps. Maybe the dust doesn't work more than once? Maybe it has some kind of amnesia effect after some amount of time where players just forget what the dust fixed?

Seriously? You think the Orioles remade these guys because they did better with them? It's not like you just pick the two guys that did a bit better with them and say, "Look, our hitting coaches did great with them." But maybe I' missing the interviews where the players talked about how the Orioles hitting coaches were able to change them in what, a day or two?

Huh. Do we have any proof the Orioles made him better or that a change of scenery did him good. Maybe I missed the interview where Hicks pointed toward the Orioles hitting "gurus" for re-making his swing. Guess he forgot once he left. Even Sig said they were surprised by O'Hearn and even pointed out that they sent him to AAA first. Maybe I missed the O'Hearn interview where he explained how the Orioles reworked him from spring training on into the hitter he became. My point is that there is no "magic hitting dust" and the Orioles don't have some secret code to hitting that allows for a hitter to suddenly start putting the ball in the air and become a better power hitter. Even Eloy said this is the hitter's he's always been, even when he was hitting some home runs with the White Sox.

I guess I just don't understand what magic hitting fairy dust the Orioles can put on a guy in the middle of a season that makes a hitter suddenly start hitting the ball in the air? Do you have any examples of where the Orioles tweaked an acquired hitter in the middle of the season and made them better?

Adversity is sometimes a great thing to learn from. Let's hope the Orioles are able to do so.

Mountcastle would make a great fit in St. Louis or the Astros with their ballparks.

This is where I'm at. We have to see where he is and how he looks. The fact that he's not throwing in games yet has me concerned about him being ready for the playoffs.

Burch is who he is and will be the guy DFA'd as soon as one of Webb or Coulombe comes back. I'm starting to get a little worried though that we never saw Webb again after his bad outing in AA last Wednesday.

Crazy enough, yeah. the fact that KB was gushing over him and they gave him an in person interview during game probably got some fans excited about him. There's probably 50-100 guys in AAA right now that are better than Eloy.

I have a better chance of getting a contract next year from the Orioles than Kimbrel.

I'm a pretty big proponent of trying to go the other way during a slump. Let the ball travel and work those oppo line drive singles. Once that's complete, go ahead and start going back to what you were doing, but get that timing down. I love seeing those oppo hits. Mountcastle is a guy that every time he start driving the ball oppo he's about to get hot. Hopefully Adley is getting there because we all know he's better than what's he's been.

I sure hope that's not even vaguely being considered.

Hey, if you are going suck, you might as well suck royally.

But I was told 50 games was an arbitrary number. lol

Well the Orioles have gotten 6 hits tonight. That's a pretty good showing for them.

That's a manager/coaches issue. If they can't get across that it's bad optics to be yucking it up in the dugout in clear view of fans and the cameras, they probably don't have a lot of control of that clubhouse.