Tony-OH

I think this is really the key but the operations is really second class now since they've become a full-time affiliate. It's like the Ripken's have lost interest and whoever is running the day to day has a very limited budget. At least they added an announcer to their MiLB feed this year though they still don't have a center field camera angle for the batter-pitcher matchup. The lack of food, beverage and dessert options (there was no ice cream at all on the game I went to last year) and the lack of atmosphere is real there. Say what you want about Frederick's stadium especially the locker rooms for players that were sub par, the stadium experience was always top notch and why they drew so well.

The statement about hitting right-handers and left-handers equally well is on his overall season numbers vs what would be a small sample size over his slump.

I actually copied and pasted those stats and assessment from Facebook and didn't really think about it honestly as it was just more information for the post. On a side note, I've lost faith in rWAR as an accurate representation of value and now prefer the fWAR model. Regardless, the key to my post is that the Orioles are no longer using him as an everyday player and that's a good thing. Saying that, he's been 0-for-6 in August coming in as a pinch hitter so he's not been doing much off the bench either.

Frazier has been very streaky but the good news is he's only had 11 starts in August so the Orioles have finally transitioned him to the bench role that he's a better fit for. On the year he's now put up: 0.0 fWAR (-2.2 Off, -10.5 Def) 93 wRC+ - below replacement level I think the real surprise was how bad defensively he was at 2B this year. His -14 OAA is 1 percentile making him one of the worse, if not the worse defensive 2B in baseball this year. His surprising uptick in power was nice while it lasted, but he has one homer in his last 82 PAs (since his two homer game). Saying that, I'm ok with him as a bat off the bench for the playoffs because his ability to make contact is skill that could be needed late in close games, but Westburg should be the everyday 2B at this point.

It's been a tough go of late for Stowers who is slashing just .177/.292/.339/.630 over his last three weeks covering 72 PAs. He's struck out 25 times with 9 walks and 3 HRs over that span. It's been a tough year for him overall, but I still believe that he will end up an everyday player at the major league level. The good news for him is he still hits left-handers as good as right-handers and that will look good on his resume. This year started with him buried on the major league bench where he proved he's not a very good part-time player. When he did get his chance he just was not seeing the ball at all and shortly after going back down to the minors he was put on the IL so you have to wonder if something was bothering him at the major league level. Defensively I think he's fine in RF though his foot speed was down this year. The emergence of Ryan O'Hearn's bat this year really limited his opportunities. With the Orioles needing the DH for Rutschman at least 40 times a year, the question of the future will depend on a few things. Let's take a look at current outfield depth. Mullins - CF Hays - LF/RF Santander - RF/1B O'Hearn - RF McKenna - LF/CF/RF Hicks - LF/CF/RF (FA at end of year) Minors: Cowser - LF/CF/RF Kjerstad AAA (RF) Stowers - AAA (RF/LF) Without an injury it's doubtful that the Orioles will bring up Stowers in September. Hicks is most likely one addition since they said he's taking live BP now and will most likely be activated when the rosters expand. Cowser has been hitting well in AAA since his demotion and is the best defender between him, Stowers and Kjerstad by a long shot so he could be added as well. The Orioles will most likely add a bullpen arm like Baker or Baumann as the 3rd player that can added for the expanded roster. The future? Stowers is a prime target to be traded this offseason since he's buried behind Hays, Mullins, Santander, Cowser and Kjerstad and some team could see his potential as an everyday guy. I would be surprised if he's in spring training with the Orioles next year though I don't see Elias just giving him away.

No, I haven't heard anything else. There would only be one more series left in their season when he's eligible to so they may just shut him down. I guess it just depends on the severity.

Yep. I never can understand how people expect sweeps. Obviously we want to sweep people but I'll take 2 of 3 any series.

^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^^ When it was new and shiny people came out and they only needed to come out during the very short season of the NYPL. Frederick's stadium may have needed upgrades, but it was much more populated and better suited for better attendance. Plus, I went last year and you would thought we were still in COVID with the lack of people to work there. Almost everything was closed. It was a bad minor league experience.

Apparently umpires hate him! Pretty nuts how many bad calls he gets. Umpires should know by now if he holds up on a borderline call it's a ball.

But still after two months.

Now that is funny!

Losing Bautista is obviously going to hurt no matter how we look at the situation. Can Cano, Hall, Fuji, and Perez pick up some of the slack, sure, but none of them are the guy you feel good about with a runner on 3rd and less than two outs like we did with Felix because of his ability to strike anyone out at anytime. Without that absolutely dominant guy at the end of the game, a guy who can just mow through any middle of an order when he's got the split working, it's going to be a tougher. There's no way around it. We don't know the severity of the injury but does anyone know of a UCL injury for a pitcher where the guy came back after a few weeks off? Even with a "strain" I doubt we are going to see Felix the rest of the season. My worse fear is they try to rest and rehab the injury over the winter, and then next spring he comes back and it's not right and they end up doing surgery then. That means he's out all next season and probably part of 2025. Now I did some research and did find players who returned to pitching without surgery, but two months was the earliest they came back. Maybe someone can find something else. Now, I have no idea the severity of the injury to the UCL for Bautista and hope it's a strain vs a tear. If it's a grade-1 sprain, I have a better feeling that he will be ready to go next spring. But anything more, I hope they go ahead and knock out the surgery before they lose him for a whole season and potentially more if they wait until next spring. https://www.bonsecours.com/health-care-services/orthopedics-sports-medicine/hand-wrist/conditions/ulnar-collateral-ligament-injury#:~:text=A UCL injury is classified,3 sprains — Complete ligament tear. https://rothmanortho.com/stories/blog/ulnar-collateral-ligament-injury https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7905078/

I agree that the new kinder gentler official scorers have created less errors then 20 years or more ago. Somewhere along the line someone told them that if a play requires any difficulty at all it should not be considered an error. I disagree. Errors can be subjective of course which is why they are not the be all, end all defensive statistic, but they are not a "trash" stat. I do think taken into the entire myriad of better defensive stats from fangraphs and statcast, they can help shape the use of a player. In other words, I may not want a guy at a position late in a one run game if he tends to make more errors than a guy who may have a little less range or arm but is very consistent and doesn't make many errors. I just want to point out that I'm not saying that about Gunnar. I'm perfectly ok with him at SS or 3B late in games.

I do think if Hyde has to put his best defensive lineup on the field in the 9th and can put whatever and whoever in positions, he's putting Mateo at SS and Gunnar at 3B. Gunnar has shown to be a good defensive SS overall (the numbers prove that out), but Mateo has the experience factor that managers like.

That's a little extreme. Errors do tell you how consistent a fielder is. Not all fielders commit more errors because they get to more balls. Some are just bad fielders so I would not call errors a "trash" statistic. Is it the only statistic you should look at defensively, nope, but a player who makes a lot of errors regardless o how many balls they get too can be troublesome. Saying that, I don't believe errors have been a big problem for Gunnar this year. Considering he's bounced back and forth between SS and 3B, I think he's done a pretty good job. He just made a bad error in a key part of the game yesterday. It happens. As was pointed out in this thread, Mateo has thrown away several routine plays late in games and he's the team's best defensive SS overall. Sometime errors happen at the worse time where they are clearly magnified.

I like Bright a bit, but he definitely needs to find his consistency a bit more often. He can be cruising along and just lose it. I don't have the breakdown by innings, but he seems to do well early in his outings and then struggle later. That could suggest he may need to be moved to a reliever at some point but too early for that yet. The Orioles did take Kyle Bradish from a two-pitch guy to the starter he is now so have to give him a little more time. Nice to see him get a taste of AA. I expect he will start there next year. Next year should give us a better idea of who he's going to be.

It's hard to know if it's the long season that has worn him down or the injuries or a combination of both. We know that Aberdeen can be a hard place to hit, but yeah, the lack of improvement throughout his time does spark a little concern. I wonder if that shoulder injury in July has bothered him more than we think for someone allowed to play? Since being removed on that game on July 16th, he's slashed .143/.225/.196/.421 with only 1 HR and 3 2B in 129 PAs with 9 BBs to 38 Ks.

I agree. It's hard to be too hard on him because he's been a great player this year and have won several games. It was a poor play and probably one in the future he will not do in that situation. Tough game for him, but he'll win a whole lot more games than he will contribute to the loss.

That's ashamed. Probably ends his season, but it was a great season for him.

When Gunnar is Cal Ripken at SS he can do that in the 9th inning of a tie game. Until then he should have turned his body and made an easier throw.

The more I watch Mayo at 3B the more I think he can play there at the big league level. Yeah, there will be some errors but damn he can make some plays with that arm that very few players can make. He just made a play after he took two or three steps into fair terrirtory and threw a guy out at first by a step.

No, I think he had plenty of time to turn his body, plant his foot and make an easier throw. Even if he was a little late, that's better than the spin throw because of the risk of throwing it away like he did.

I rarely ever watch the post games show anyways, especially after losses, but LaCanfora on there is an instant channel switch.

I know exactly why he did it, he just didn't need to especially in that situation. It's all about risk/reward. It's the top of the 9th, if he's on first ok, that stinks, but it's significantly worse with a runner on 2nd and no outs. No time for high risk spins moves. I didn't see how close the second baseman was but he also could have flipped it to him. It just ended up a real poor throw by Gunnar is a key situation. Then again, we've seen Mateo choke multiple times late in games on routine throws so it is what it kinda is.

This is honest question. How long have you've been watching baseball. You do know that even the worse teams typically win 60 games in a season.