Tony-OH

Let's hope this isn't serious. Mateo has been great so far, but if he does go down for a bit, I think we're going to see Ortiz if they want an everyday replacement and keep the Urias/Henderson/Frazier rotation between 3B/2B.

Well that was some damn fine pitching in this series. Hard to find any fault with the starters or the pen. Now let's hope Hyde doesn't use Cano until his arm falls off.

Honestly, you are acting like the Karen right now. Would you like to talk to a manager/moderator... Hold on I'll get him... Can I help you?

Emojis help understand connotation and tone. Otherwise it's hard.

Tell you what, the pitching has been pretty special the last two nights so far.

I guess the good news is he at least hit an offspeed pitch decent.

Use a smiley face if it's a joke or if your just busting my balls. I'm fine with that. Otherwise it's looks bad.

Well Brooks is 85 years old!

Sounds like something someone who wants a break from this site would say!

Why, because I can back up my posts? Give me a break.

Yeah, I don't think Irvin is a goo player to point towards. Irvin only makes $737,600 this year only $17,600 over major league minimum. Frazier is the 2nd highest paid player (Not counting McCann since most of that is picked up by the Mets) on the team. I can't see Elias admitting failure on Frazier for quite some time due to his salary. Certainly not before July. Now could he come up with an "injury" if he's really struggling before then. Possible. Let's hope he turns it around because I'd rather have Pickles running victory laps with "That's why we signed the man!" and the Orioles win, vs him continue to be bad and the Orioles lose more because of not going with a better option.

It could very well normalize upwards, I really don't know. At the end of the day, it was another data point that I used this offseason to show of his decline and why signing a declining 30-soemthing player is no a smart activity, especially when your farm system literally has three possible replacement and your major league team had one (Urias). At the end of the day, let's say he's a mild improvement over Odor (not a high bar to get over). Who cares? Anyone that says that, do they really think Ortiz or Westburg or even Norby wouldn't be an upgrade over Odor either? I know we're beating that horse again, but so far, Frazier has done nothing to prove the naysayers wrong besides one good series. Trust me, I'd rather be wrong and see him do well, but I still MUCH rather of had Ortiz or Westburg taking everyday 2b reps this season and I think the team would be better.

Lol, cherry pick. It was a legitimate place to grab a point since people do 1st half/2nd half all the time. If anyone is cherry picking it's you in your failed attempt to try and support him and the signing. Not liking where I picked is ridiculous. I didn't start it at a slump in the middle of a month but after the All-star break. I never said he wasn't good for stretch since then, I merely pointed out his stats since then. Just because they don't fit your narrative does not make them any less true. As for your WAR numbers, give me a break. What's his WAR look like after the Red sox series? Taking WAR now and trying to extrapolate out is utterly ridiculous. You are too smart to play this game and clearly you are just trying to play devil's advocate against my stats based, argument of truths. Nothing I said was false. Every stat was true and on point. I pointed out the truths and then I restated my OPINION that Ortiz or Westburg would be better. But every single stat I put down was true, including his fallen foot speed. None of us know how he'll play going forward (Probably better then he's played since the Boston series) but he has not played well since the Boston series. Whether you like it or not does not change the truth. I'm not claiming victory, I'm just saying that so far, outside of one series, Frazier has not been good. You did nothing to prove me wrong or anything else other than to get all Karen on us because you didn't like where I started my stat breakdown. He did slash that over his last 911 PAs. You can go cherry pick some weeks here and there or maybe a month or two all you like, it will not change the statistical evidence I provided.

Sorry, just bringing out the stats. It's amazing how much a good start or bad starter affects how people think a player is doing. We still have some people thinking Frazier was doing well and we still have some people who think Baker has been bad, but neither are true. Frazier had a hell of series and Baker had one bad appearance in Boston. Again, I want Frazier to do well overall because i don't see Elias pulling him out of the starting lineup all that much except against tough lefties. Unfortunately, the way Elias has built his roster he has two infielders that need to be benched against lefties (Henderson and Frazier) and only four infielders. Had he gone with Westburg or Ortiz at 2B, then he could have rested Gunnar against lefties and gone with a Urias (3B), Matteo (SS), and one of Westburg/Ortiz against lefties. And I haven't even brought up Norby.

It's still him. He was too lazy to look up the stats when he was trying to prove a point.

Since the All-Star break of 2021, Frazier has now slashed .246/.309/.319/.628 over 911 PAs. His foot speed has gone from 27.1 ft/sec (53 percentile) to 25.7 (22nd percentile). But hey, he doesn't strike out much.

I just went back through this thread and it was amazing the amount of posters taking victory laps after the Boston series. Since that series, a series where pitching looked like it was going out of style, he's slashed .163/.265/.163/.428 with no extra base hits. Defensively he's been ok, but not what he was billed as with -1 OOA and -3% success added with -0.8 UZ/150 at 2B. He does have 0.1 double play runs above average so right about average. On top of it, and maybe most shockingly, his spring speed has fallen to 25.7 ft/sec putting him in the 22nd percentile in MLB. For contrast, Santander is 25.8 ft/sec and James McCann is 25.4. So he's been a little below average to average defensive 2B, with back up catcher speed who has hit like a pitcher since Boston. At the end of the day, Joey Ortiz would be a better defender at 2B, would be faster, and most likely hit more than Frazier and cost major league minimum. Saying all that, I hope Frazier is just in a cold streak and will at least be average all around because I don't see Elias admitting his mistake anytime soon with Frazier making $8 million this year. The Orioles will need better when they have to play the better team's in the league.

No idea honestly. Saying that, he's still throwing too many non-competitive fastballs even at the lower velocity.

Gunnar has always been an emotional guy at the plate. He was definitely one of the few players that would be visibly get upset after bad at bats in the minors and frequently would jaw with umpires in what he perceived as bad calls (some of which were not). I agree with you that his frustrations are getting more and more noticeable after the strike outs. I think the Orioles are going to keep running him out there unless he spirals really badly. Right now, he's in his own head both offensively and defensively throwing. His error yesterday looked like a guy thinking, "don't overthrow this high" then triple bounced it to O'Hearn (Who should have picked that throw).

So far the Orioles are 10-7 while Henderson goes through these struggles so I'm ok with being patient. The good news offensively is he's hitting fastballs just fine putting up a .452 (elite) WOBA against them. The bad news is he hasn't gotten a hit this season of anything but fastballs going 0-for-23 with 14 Ks. Another thing of concern is his two strike approach so far this season. He's 0-for-26 with 22 Ks with two strikes. So those are concerning numbers to some extent since a hitter can't be successful long-term with the inability to hit offspeed. Henderson has been able to be somewhat productive because of his ability to hit those fastballs and his eye at the plate that allows him to lay off the junk. The one thing I think Gunnar needs to go back to trying to hit the other way for awhile. They've been getting him down and in especially with two strikes, but they've been getting ahead of him pitching him away a lot and he hasn't been able to make them pay often by taking that outside pitch to left field. Either way, while he does have some concerning stats against non-fastballs and with two strikes, his ability to get on base has allowed him to bring some value even during these struggles. Saying all that, I think he gets until Mid-May to correct this stuff before the Orioles will potentially do anything, and only then if the Orioles are scuffling. I still have confidence he can make the adjustments.

This is really the biggest part to his game that will help his value as a player long term. Unlike Mountcastle and even Hays when he's in a funk, they don't walk enough when they are struggling and they end up out machines. While Gunnar's start has been slow, and his inability to hit offspeed this year is a bit of a concern, he's getting on base and his WOBA and XWOBA that Frobby pointed out is a good indicator that he can bring some value to the lineup even when he's not hitting for average or power. He's going to be fine long-term and considering the Orioles are 10-7 with his struggling a bit, it makes me feel good that once he gets hot he could be a real monster at the plate.

This is the guy that I saw on video a few times when he we in the Twins system. I'm not sure Cano was 100% when he came over last year in the trade. Obviously he's been real good so far and the more success he has the more confident I feel when he's out there. Last night was really interesting because it was a 1-0 game and Baker should have been available and rested. The fact that Hyde went to Cano and that he went right through his three batters speaks volumes about what the Orioles think of the stuff right now. He throwing mostly sinkers and sliders but also throws the occasional changeup. All three have plus movement. The sinker has 45% more movement than sinkers thrown around his 95.4 MPH average. That's going to be a real worm killer pitch if he can continue to throw it for strikes and keep it out of the middle of the plate. He's added over six inches of sink to his sinker this season and is throwing about .5 MPH faster. In fact, if you look at his stuff, all of his pitches have more movement. He's also been able to keep the slider down and away from righties. Overall, the stuff screams that this is not just luck of a one trick pony that the league will catch up to. I think he's for real as long as his command doesn't relapse.

Damn, he had to battle there. Glad he got through that!

Maybe the slider?