Tony-OH

CoC is not known for his sense of humor and understanding context!

Damn that Royals defense!!!!

Man, we need a big hit to break this open right here.

Yeah, he takes real good PAs. Really is interesting to see how how he's been rejuvenated with the Orioles.

That's the problem with this world. Some people get there early in order to make a buck and some kid who really wanted one probably didn't get one.

I like that Hicks went back into the box and said, "My fault" to the ump. Then got Ball 4 anyways.

Nice pitch but Hays should have been looking away. I think he was definitely sitting slider away and got fooled.

It's not perfect no doubt, but it gives a good idea of a ball hit towards a fielder. It agree it's not perfect, but it if a ball has a .520 xBA on a ball hit in your direction and you make the catch, it's hard to say he made it look harder than it was.

That's the distance before it hit the ground.

Hohum, another HR for Westburg!

Try using https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?gamePk=717818 and checking the xBA on a play before making comments like that. It helps vs making a decision based on your eyes. Just a thought.

Got to love baseball. The two balls hit hard were outs and the two hit weakly were hits!

Brian Roberts has color today.

Nice catch by Santander there. that had a .510 xBA so it wasn't a case if him making it look harder than it was.

Yep, will do.

Dennis Martinez looks darn good for his age!

Cutters can be a good pitch, but a pitcher needs to have real good command of it because cutters left in the middle of the plate end up BP fastballs.

Str% includes pitching swung at out of the zone and fouled off, whiffed or hit in play. I agree getting guys to chase is a good thing with two strikes, but most of chase whif was fastballs up, not on offspeed pitches down or away besides a couple of heinous swings and misses by undisciplined hitters.

As of now, this is the best option amongst options. Hall is not ready to start and should be converted to relief in my opinion, and Rodriguez pitched last night and while his numbers have been decent, he's still struggling to throw quality strikes in AAA. Denoyer has regressed, Povich is going through a tough period and can show flashes his brilliance along with the inability to throw enough quality strikes (sound familiar?), and McDermott is still AA (needs to be promoted but also struggles to throw consistent quality strikes at times. I think we're also seeing the downside of drafting almost exclusively hitters in the first ten rounds. Not a lot of teams want to trade upper level pitching prospects who look good for hitting prospects. So yes, right now, Irvin, who was acquired for Darrell Hernaiz, is probably the best option as the #5 starter. If he can get back to where he was last year with Oakland, he should be fine in that role.

Rutschman and Bautista are shoe-ins to be voted in. Cano, Mullins and Hays are in the conversation as of now. Henderson still could get in the conversation if he stays hot through June.

I agree. I've said since Stowers was here there are ways to get everyone PAs and keep guys fresh longer. Westburg has earned his way up. Mountcastle has earned less playing time. seems like Mountcastle down and Westburg up is the smartest move right now though Urias needs to get going a bit.

I should be able to, but the Orioles don't seem to want to play him there. While I would have zero issues with him playing 3B or 2B, he would fill a need at 1B. Saying that, I'd have no issue with him playing all over. He needs to be up here at this point.

Kjerstad needs a lot of work at 1B to become playable there. He's only made 15 starts at 1B all at Bowie. Since he's been at AAA he's been playing LF/RF and DH. I agree that he needs a lot more experience there and with the Orioles playing Lewin Diaz (who is a very good defensive 1B) at 1B in Norfolk, they don't seem to think too highly of Kjerstad's defense there. Santander is better defensive 1B with less experience.

He still only threw 46 pitches of his 98 in the strike zone. Getting AAA hitters to chase is not super hard with his stuff so I would have liked to have seen him work more in the zone. Pitches in strikezone: FB - 22 of 46 CH - 10 of 18 CB - 6 of 13 CT - 2 of 8 SL - 1 of 9 He got most of his WHIF on fastball's up from what I can tell. A little better on getting his offspeed pitches over.

No wins are embarrassing. They get paid too.