Tony-OH

You guys could argue over what prospect can spit the sunflower seed shells the furthest. Basallo looks like a future beast for sure, but there's a long ways to go. I do agree being a catcher is something that could cause him to move slower than a guy like Gunnar, but his bat will probably mostly determine his movement this year. Yesterday was the first time I've ever seen him catch a game and while he's got a strong arm, his release needs work and obviously his accuracy. I don't know if he was calling his own game or not as I saw him look over a lot into the dugouts, but I didn't see anything that stood out as poor in that regard. He's very athletic and moves well for his size, but he was down on one knee with a runner on 1st and was unable to get up and make an accurate throw to get the runner attempting to steal. Regardless, he's going to be a very interesting prospect to watch this year. He doesn't turn 19 until August so he's a legitimate 18-year old who already looks like a man child.

This is a good point. They should always schedule Sat and Sun games in the afternoon in April.

The two of you who downvoted this should be disappointed in yourselves! The reverse lock is an OH tradition.

I only saw two changeups but didn't see every pitch. Very well could have been a split instead since the first one was buried in the dirt. The second one didn't drop very much but he go a strike with it. That was probably the best I've seen him throw. He led the game with 13 swings and misses and although the command was not great overall, the control was much better after his first inning of work when he came into the game. The key here is consistency from outing to outing, but it was a nice start.

Strong debut, tossing 5 shutout innings allowing 5 hits, a walk and 4 Ks. Sat 93-95 with 88-89 cutter, and a 82 sweeper. Didn't see a change but didn't see every pitch as i was watching both Bowie and Delmarva.

Really nice start to the season for the right-hander. 4IP, 0 hits, 2 BB, 6 K Here were my raw notes watching him: FB 95-96 (t 97) in his 1st inning -87-89 slider - dives 83 sweeper ?? change - 88 in dirt, Lot of balls out of the hand early on then lots of strikes Curveball 77-78, for swinging K. Really nice break with good horizontal movement (12 inch break) as well as big vertical. Plus pitch By 4th inning 93-95 MPH fastball, 85 Slider, 78 CB (nice, 88 change)

Smacked a long home run to CF for his 1st home run of the season.

Yeah, they had a late start and not sure if they caught up yet.

Guys, take the insults offline and stick to baseball talk.

Kjerstad gets the opening day start at 1B for Bowie.

Voth's curveball has lost about an inch of horizontal movement and about two inches of vertical movement from last year. Last year he really struggled with the curveball until June, so I wonder if it's just a pitch that he doesn't have a good feel for in either cold weather or it just takes him awhile to find it each season. Saying that, the curveball was pretty good in April and May of 2021. Interestingly, his spin rate on it is 2910 this year and it was 2902 last April when he struggled. Last June and July, when the pitch was a weapon, the spin rate for the curveball was 3023 and 3017 respectively. I'd say the key is the spin rate for him and that could just be the feel in cold weather. Yesterday the curveball had more spin but he hung them belt high. It looked more location based than a lack of stuff which suggests he's not the far off.

Are you talking about the Baker who was bad on opening day, or the guy that has allowed just one hit and no runs over his last two appearances covering three innings? Or you can even go with the overall season Baker with the 2.65 FIP, .184 XBA, .249 XWOBA (MLB average is .315). So what you really meant to say is Baker's first outing of the year, when it was bitter cold and windy was a "huge letdown" even though the Orioles still won the game.

Well as someone who would rather go tomorrow than today (due to work), I was fine with the early call but yeah, it appears to have been done too early. Weather around here is very fickle, particularly forecasting thunderstorms and snow.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Frazier's bat so far, but I haven't seen anything from his defense that makes me think he's special out there. Either way, there's a long way to go before anyone should start drawing conclusions. BTW, Westburg's numbers in AAA don't look that great but he's been hitting the ball hard every game. Of note, he has started just one game at 2B (Norby went to LF) and didn't get a chance. But anyways, back to Lopez and his 99 MPH sinker!

And I agree that we will need a good bullpen to be competitive this year. I'm just not ready to push a panic button after two guys go down with injuries and after just six games of the season. I've already said that I have concerns about the current group, though I don't think adding a Zack Britton to is going to suddenly answer any questions. Afterall, he doesn't throw a 99 MPH sinker anymore.

On it!

All I know is that we need at least one dude with a MFin' 99 MPH sinker or we're done for this year!

Haha, I must've missed that. Clearly I remember the Frazier discussions though! He's off to a nice start but no conclusions should be made and all victory celebrations should be placed on hold until the end of May.

I don't recall anyone having much heartburn over the Gibson signing. In fact, most of us thought it was awash with a chance to be better than 2022 Lyles.

Um, last year Baker filled it quite well. After the trade: Name ERA FIP BF BA OBP SLG OPS Baker 2.39 2.73 102 .192 .255 .287 .542 Lopez 4.37 4.35 102 .271 .392 .365 .757 I'd argue that trading Lopez and giving Baker his innings helped the team stay in the playoff hunt as long as they did. Oh, and Givens was given $5 million, not $8 million and we have Povich and three lottery tickets in the system now. I don't disagree with your conclusion that Elias has struggled a bit to augment his core young players, but I think you are barking up the wrong tree with the Lopez trade. That trade was a very good one by Elias and let's see how Baker pitches for more than three games before saying he's terrible. In case you haven't noticed, he's allowed one hit, and no runs over his last three innings in his last two games pitched.

I think you jumping the gun on the panic button a bit here. I won't argue with you that the pen is not a strength, but it should be better and will be better then it's been. The team is 3-3 and should be 4-2 if not for a little league drop by McKenna. Even yesterday, it was Voth pitching poorly, not the whole bullpen. The pen was great Monday and Tuesday. Nobody pitched well in Boston. It's just too early to hit the panic button even if the current options don't exactly instill a lot of confidence. I really think the Orioles are going to bring Hall up sooner than later and put him in the pen where he belongs. That will give them another high leverage reliever assuming the velocity ticks back up. I need to see this pen for a month or so before making an assessment overall, but I do have confidence in Bautista and Perez late in games, and Baker SHOULD be better though he's probably a better 6th/7th inning guy. Gillaspie's fastball and slider are above average pitches movement and velocity wise and his curveball is 2.5 MPH faster with late dive giving him a 3rd goto pitch perhaps. If he can find the consistency he's never really had, he could grow into a decent option late in games to help set up Bautista. All is not lost out there.

Are the Orioles really desperate? We're six games into the season and while I don't think the pen is a strength, there are guys that should pitch better in Baker, Akin and Voth and Gillaspie has actually been decent. If the team finally pulls the DL Hall starter experiment and puts him in the pen, that should help things out as well. I see no reason to panic.

This is pretty silly conversation to have six games into the season. The trade was good for the Orioles when it happened, and it's still a good trade, even if this team could use Lopez right now after the Tate and Givens injuries. The Orioles have a borderline top 100 prospect in Povich and three wild cards/lottery tickets that added to the pitching depth in the organization. Lopez was replaceable last year and ultimately will be this year.

It's just a very poor use of resources, something we're starting to see a trend of by Elias. If you don't view a guy as anything more than an extra park, yet his AAA stats scream something else, then try and move him for something you could use like a legitimate major reliever. Obviously I value Stowers more than the Orioles and folks like yourself, that is fine, we're not always going to agree on players worth. But what I think we can agree on is that the Orioles don't have a limitless payroll, so if you don't value your cheap younger players, then move them to teams that may be willing to pay if they think he's an everyday guy. The longer the Orioles bury him as the 26th man, that value decreases.