Tony-OH

Nice post. I do wonder if he's throwing a new pitch or just finding it difficult to repeat his slider this year. He's a guy that may need reset if he can't get it together soon, especially with Tate rehabbing and may need to be added to the roster soon. A pothole could be in his future.

His velocity and spin rates were down last night and his command was obviously not good as well. These are all classic signs of being fatigued. This is one of the reasons why I did not like seeing him pitching the other day with a 4-run lead. I get it that he was already warmed up, but that's why you have two relievers warm up in the bottom of the 8th so if you get that 4th run, you sit your closer down. The Orioles have been in a lot of close games, and Hyde has pitched Bautista in 13 games already. I think you have to hope that we don't need a closer over the next couple of games and he can get at least two days off. There is no way he pitches tonight after 31 pitches last night, so Cano is probably the closer tonight. Either way, the good news is he's been able to make pitches when he absolutely needed them and that's the sign of a great closer. He never freaks out and we should appriciate that.

McKenna makes sense with Hays out in left field because of his defense. Unless Santander is dinged up, I'd rather have him in RF with McCann at DH. But hey, because I said this Frazier will go 3-for-4.

Agreed. although Cowser has hit lefties in a SSS this year, historically he's struggled against them. The only way he comes up in my mind over the next series is if they make the decision to IL Hays.

McCann just got a punch in the face with this lineup. They just choose Frazier's bat over his against a lefty. lol

I would not put it past the Orioles to do something like this, but it will be a waste of a mlb ready player to have him as the right-handed hitting side of a pure 2B platoon. The Orioles already had 4 infielders for 3 spots and now they have 5. Someone will need to give up some PAs and I'm hoping it will be Frazier, though I fear he will continue to get those PAs a very light hitting corner outfielder/DH.

Defensively yes, but I think McCann's bat is better against lefties overall. He hasn't hit great so far but historically he should hit lefties.

That's the $24,000 question. The best lineup the orioles can put on the field against left-handed pitcher is: 1B: Mountcastle 2B: Ortiz SS: Mateo 3B: Urias LF: Hays CF: Mullins RF: Santande C : Rutschman DH: McCann That's a hell of an infield defense by the way.

After Stowers, I have zero faith that the Orioles will start the best player on the roster. Maybe Ortiz will be used differently, but for now, I would expect Ortiz to get very few starts against right-handed pitching. I hope to be proved wrong, but I just don't see them benching Frazier and besides, Urias still needs PAs. Speaking of Urias, I wonder why they never gave him some experience in the outfield? Seems like if he could play corner outfield ok it would increase his ability to get in the lineup.

Frazier has a quick release and an accurate arm, but I agree, his arm strength is below par. His 72.4 MPH avg throw is 20th of 24 2nd baseman's with at least 50 throws this year. Saying that, he does have the 4th highest max throw from 2B at 87.1 MPH so it may be an issue of him using just what he needs to get the ball there in time. I find him adequate at 2B, but his defense doesn't outweigh his well below average stick. I much rather run Ortiz out there everyday at 2B.

He'll be much better. Ortiz has much more range and a better arm than Urias. He doesn't have a ton of experience turning DPs from 2B, but when i have seen him do it, he looked just fine.

Ortiz has been very good at 2B during the times I've seen him play there. He doesn't have a lot of games there, but I have little doubt he will be an elite defender there.

I have Ortiz over Westburg now mainly because of the big defensive advantage Ortiz brings. I do think Westburg brings more offensively when it comes to power, but Ortiz is a solid gap to gap guy who will get into one occasionally.

I don't think Gunnar is going to be benched all three games, but I do think we'll see at least two out of three games this combination. I'm just hoping Ortiz is not treated like Stowers when it comes to right-handers. He's a better player all around than Frazier. Hopefully Frazier moves into Vavra's role as 26th man, but I would bet on it.

Everyone including the players are high from the early winning, and that's ok. I want the players to feel that way and I want them to believe they are the better team going into every game. Obviously it's hard to be down on the team and I'm certainly not, but Elias can't rest on his laurels because this team just happened to get hot pitching wise just as the hitting got cold. Now maybe that the mark of a good team, but as we discussed in the Time to bring up Cowser thread, there are moves that make this team stronger. The really good news is the Orioles are 16-8 with no one really over achieving offensively outside of Mateo. The Orioles are running out out machines like Mountcastle (.255 OBP), Santander (.274 OBP) and Frazier (.288 OBP) almost everyday and are still winning. That's a 3rd of their regular lineup that is underperforming. Now I expect Mountcastle and Santander to do better, and I even doubt Frazier is as bad he's been since the Boston series (.156/.239/.203/.443 in 71 PAs) though I still believe the team is better with him in a bench role vs a starter's role (I'd really like to see him of the team but I know that's not happening anytime soon due to his salary). Pitching wise, 2 of their 5 starters have ERA's over 6 (Kremer - 6.20 and Bradish - 6.30), but Bradish's ERA is most driven from his last bad start and his 4.64 FIP is better indicator. Gibson, Wells and Rodriguez have been solid more times than not. Wells has been the best overall so far and he showed the ability to hold his stuff to 100 pitches in his last start, something he's never done at the big league level. The bullpen has gotten absolute huge infusion with Cano and Coulumbe becoming go to high leverage guys while Baker and Baumann have been very good as well. The only relief pitchers that have struggled at times this year is Perez (4.66) and Voth (6.39) but Voth has settled down and has a 2.70 ERA over his last 4 appearances covering 6.2 IP. Neither of those guys have options so I doubt the Orioles will risk losing them on waivers. That begs the question what do the Orioles do when Tate and Givens come back soon? It probably means that Elias needs to be on the phone prepared to move a reliever (Voth most likely) but either way, the talent in the bullpen is pretty deep. So that brings as back to the talent on the roster. It's a good problem to have when you don't need to bring up the Gillaspie's of the world but may have to send a Baumann to the minors or risk losing Voth or Perez (a certainty so he's not going anywhere).

Idiots will be idiots, no matter what city or team the fans come from. There is zero, and I mean zero reason to throw things or spit on someone because they are member of another team. Good Lord. It might make sense though to have a security guard/usher/police officer stationed out there to dissuade the idiots.

What does this post have to do with this conversation? If you are not going to add to the conversation, perhaps lurk through it would be a good idea. Not one single person has said they want to "blow it up." They are looking for ways to improve the team with the major league ready talent in Norfolk.

Yep, I didn't do the WAR because I can only break it down by year but my guess is Mullins will end up with the same or better WAR over that 3 year stretch.

It's like woobey for comfort. His English certainly seems to have improved enough for him to not need one now.

Is it sunny in Baltimore? I'm at work about 15 miles away in Annapolis Junction and it's raining here.

Well that was easy! lol

I'm not a fan of using closer bullets in non closer situations unless he needs the work.

Henderson over his last 11 games and 40 PAs: .273/.400/.424/.824 with 6 BB and 10 Ks. He's starting to come around.

Kinda cool new stats for sure. I still keep wondering when they're going to put together a defensive runs saved score for first baseman picking throws.