Tony-OH

the fact that Frazier is 5th on this team in rWAR really shows the limitations of that metric. I once was a pretty big proponent of WAR but better metrics are out there like WOBA for hitting and OOA for fielding. How Frazier is worth 0.6 oWAR with a 91 OPS+, a .307 WOBA (.316 is mlb average) as well as 0.4 dWAR when is OAA is -3 tells me there equation needs to be adjusted. Do you really think he's the 5th most important Oriole this season? rWAR really gives too much weight to walks and strike outs, two areas where he does do well in because there's nobody with an ounce of sence that thinks he's the 5th most valuable Orioles on this team this year.

I see you found a way back to Fiorentino! As for Cowser, it's hard not to find a way to get him some ABs up here at some point. Stowers has really struggled of late and Vavra is just an extra bench guy. Now, I don't want Cowser riding the bench like Vavra so I'm fine with him in that role overall, but I do think he could replace Stowers and be that corner outfield guys that mixes in with Santander and Hays between LF, RF and DH against righties. Obviously rutschman is going to get his DH time too, but there should be plenty of at bats for him if they want to get him those.

This is what I get out of his press conferences. What is going to say about his current players other than they are all doing great? Is he really going to say, "You know, I messed up this offseason when I unnecessarily wasted $8 million of Angelos' money when I had multiple prospects ready to play at the major league level." We're all happy with the current record, but we do see weaknesses in his current roster that could easily be improved by mid 20-year old prospects with plenty of AAA time. Saying that, I'm not in a rush to change the current formula majorly since they are winning. Should Westburg be up at the major league level at this point, yes, he should. Right now his best chance for playing time is at DH, corner outfield, and spelling Gunnar against tough left-handers at 3B. Now I don't want him up here unless he's playing at least 5 times a week since I don't think you bring up a guy like Westburg to be a part-time or platoon player. Other good news in AAA is that Irvin has been pitching better and of course, Ortiz is waiting his opportunity there as well. Add in a great start by DL Hall, and there are plenty of options in roles that may need adjustment at some point.

Very happy to hear about your wife. The Lord works in mysterious ways for sure and thankfully this time it worked in her favor! And it's always a good idea to celebrate a series win from a Divisional rival too!

It was part of the reason. He just did want to comply on several things and was doing things out of spite after I asked him to stop.

If it makes you feel better, at least half a page is discussing Jeff Fiorentino!

Maybe you should reread this thread and then post the number of "panic" posters vs the ones with a defensible opinion. I really hate when I see general takes on the board that try to paint it as reactionary or panicking. It's just not an accurate take.

I thought about that but I think the difference is the velocity and the fact that Cano has two plus-plus pitches and Valdez had a slow trick pitch. Once batters laid of Valdez's filthy little bugs bunny changeup, he had to come in with his low 80s fastball and boom went the dynomite. Cano's sinker has so much movement that when they do swing and hit it, they are killing worms with hard chopping ground balls. Right now, it's all about command with Cano. If he can maintain this new found command, i don't see him suddenly turning into a pumpkin. Saying that, no body has ever been this good over a seasons so he's going to have off days. So far he hasn't. No one saw this coming.

Wow. Even when I looked up those amazing streaks that Britton went on in 2016 in the game thread last night, I never could find a streak where he wasn't even allowing base runners like Cano. This is historic and extraordinarily special.

How would I know that you would be the one to remember that? Not to derail this thread, but to this day that is the weirdest promotion that I've ever seen from any Orioles executive. Luis Matos had gotten hurt on May 10th that year and the Orioles were playing Larry Bigbie in CF when he really was a corner outfielder. With Melvin Mora ingrained as the everyday 3B, there really was no one else who could play CF effectively on the major league roster. This is where the Orioles lack of AAA depth hurt them because no one wanted to sign with the Orioles and play in Ottawa. The AAA CF was Tim Raines Jr., a failed prospect at this point, but one who was a pretty good defensive outfielder in CF. For some reason, he was not the choice. Then they could have gone with 27-year old former major leaguer Peter Bergeron, who had been released by the Cubs in spring training, but they signed him on May 13th and sent him to play CF in Bowie - AA, probably because he didn't want to go to Ottawa. While probably no good either, he had major league experience in CF and could have been jettisoned off the 40-man when Matos came off the DL. So in early May they reached all the way down to High-A and plucked Fiorentino who was not really a centerfielder because had neither the footspeed of instincts to play effectively out there. Fiorentino was only in his 2nd full minor league season and had less than 900 minor league PAs under his belt. He didn't need to be put on the 40-man for another year and was nowhere near ready to be in the big leagues. Now Fiorentino did go 6-for his first 10 at bats at which point @Frobby fell in love with him and was ready to battle to the death with anyone who questioned the almighty Fiorentino ( ). I'm not saying his weird promotion hurt his development, because in the end, he just couldn't get to his raw power enough in games and wasn't a very good defensive outfielder overall, but Beattie-Flanagan added him unnecessarily premature to the 40-man and held onto him unto 2008 when they finally DFA'd him. After bouncing around between Oakland and St Louis orgs, Flanny got his man back again 2009 wher he slashed .281/.351/.297/.648 before signing with a Japanese team where he hoped his lack of power would play up. It did not. But in 2011, a 28-years old, much to the joy of Frobby, the Orioles signed him to a minor league contract and he played at Bowie once again. He as out of baseball by 31 after a few years in INDY ball. I believe Frobby is still penpals with him.

Gunnar is struggling over his last 10 games slashing .111/.294/.296/.590 but the Orioles are 6-4 while playing two of the best teams in baseball. My thought is as long as the team is winning, you allow him to take his lumps and hopefully he makes some adjustments. The good news is he has a .111 BABIP over this span so he's gotten very unlucky so you have to expect some improvement based on his "luck" inevitable improving. Now, I don't think Henderson gets an unlimited leash but I don't think that time has come, especially with Urias out for a bit. The good news is that Henderson's defense has improved of late at 3B and I feel he's providing some defensive value now even though his overall defensive metrics are poor. Westburg and Ortiz are certainly making cases to be on the major league roster so I do think at some point, if Henderson is not showing signs of improvement or goes into a bigger funk, that we could see a move that sees Henderson get reset a bit in AAA. That's probably closer to the end of the month for me.

Yeah, that's a good one too. This was Britton's best and longest scoreless streak.

I don't know if I can ever remember a pitcher dominating over this long of a span already. To think this is the same guy as last year is crazy.

Maybe, maybe not. The guy only throw 8 pitches. He seems like he has a runner arm. He gets tomorrow off so he should be fine for Friday.

Maybe Dennis Eckersley in his prime with the A's. He's just unbelievable. 18.2 IP, 3 hit and one hits batsman, 21 Ks and 0 BBs? Crazy.

Cano for President!!! The man is amazing! 8 pitch save!!

I'll be honest, I'd rather have a guy named Jesus Mateo batting right now.

Dude, easy on the beers.

Or pop him up like a Little Leaguers again.

That should tell us what they think about Mateo.

Man, that's just bad luck!

Why, he throws 100?

I'd like to get at least one run here!

I'll need to go back and watch, but it looked like he went too far up and got handcuffed from my first view.

He had that one ready, because Brown clearly set it on a tee. lol