Tony-OH

Baseball is a funny game sometimes, but you're right, we are going to battle with starters that were not even projected for the opening day rotation. Yet, here we are. Obviously anytime we have a series against the Yankees it's big, but even if we lose 2 of 3, we'd only be 2.5 games back. The loss of Coulombe is huge and that bothers me more than the starters honestly. Perez, Akin, Baker and Tate filling key roles if Cano or Kimbrel is not available does not make me feel great. Baker threw the ball in his debut back and has been throwing well in AAA for a bit, so maybe he's a little bit of lightning in a bottle that this team needs in the pen.

Count me in, but the Orioles have never really subscribed to that theory of splitting time like that. They really put an emphasis on everyday players and bench players with everyday players rarely getting days off.

That barrel% regression is really surprising. I haven't looked into his repertoire or to see if there is some difference in how he's pitching, but that's a crazy drop off. I wanted him and was willing to give up Westburg for him before the Burnes trade. I'm glad I'm not the Orioles GM now! lol Saying that, I do think the Orioles may have gotten a bit better out of him. Plus, out of those last seven starts, he's really only pitched poorly twice including the last game where he allowed seven runs to balloon his ERA. With all the injuries we've head, I still wouldn't be upset with him in the rotation now. But if Suarez can keep it up and start getting through 6 more often, he's basically what we had hoped Cease would have been for us.

You've never really been a Stowers guy and have always put a huge emphasis on K-BB ratio. While I agree that K-BB ratio can be important, I believe you had misgivings with Mountcastle as he moved up the chain for the same reason. Stowers is always going to have a lot of miss, but he's not getting much regular playing time and pinch-hitting against relievers is not normally a time to work pitchers so I'm not surprised he's been more aggressive. I still think if Stowers was given 500 PAs he's going to hit 25-30 bombs and put up an OPS north of .780. And I think he's improved his defense enough that I would feel ok with him in LF in Camden Yards.

Mullins is a guy that has very little chance of getting an extension or a large contract from anyone. He makes sense as a 4th outfielder type on a team with a right-handed hitting CF, something the Orioles won't have unless Jud Fabian just completely turns it on. I have to imagine this will be Mullins last year with the Orioles, which should move Cowser into center opening up left field for Stowers next year.

It's a great question. I really don't think Stowers was as slow as his first spring speeds. He never seemed that slow in the minors so I was surprised by his original times. Now maybe he did do some speed training to help him improve, but I also think he may not have been 100% when he came up the first time. But since this is Mayo's thread, I'd be very surprised if he's not activated today back to the Norfolk roster.

Is that you Jim Hunter?

Obviously you really didn't get the point of the thread if that is all you got out of it. I'll be honest, if that's the best you have to offer, please try and avoid quoting me in your replies as to not waste my time.

A 35.2% increase in attendance over a playoff team that won 101 games last year is pretty impressive. With upgrades to the stadium that should come this offseason now that the lease has been signed should also help as well as having two playoff teams in a row.

Yeah, but now they'll be back to complaining about Mateo and still about Mullins killing rallies.

I put it in some thread, but now I can't find it. I'm a work now so I'll need to get back to my computer and my notes at home unless someone finds what I wrote. Basically He's a 92-94, low-3/4 almost sidearm righty with a sinker, slider, change repertoire. The funky arm angle and the ability to throw strikes has certainly helped him. I haven't watched his last few outings so I need to go watch him again anyways.

That's really hard to say without looking at the data. Similar to Povich, just a few too many pitches that are balls out of the hand.

Nice to see him getting live action. Ashamed he missed so much of the season. I'd love to see him do well and have them push him up to Delmarva for addition PAs that he lost out on, even if he struggles at that level.

While I still think he could become a reliable defensive 3B, I'd still like to see what he looks like in RF. An outfield of Kjerstad/Stowers in LF, Cowser in CF, and Mayo in RF would be about as scary as it gets for pitchers. Imagine this 2025 lineup: 1. Henderson - SS 2. Rutschman - C 3. Mayo - RF 4. Kjerstad - DH 5. Westburg - 3B 6. Cowser - CF 7. Mountcastle - 1B 8. Stowers - LF 9. Holliday - 2B Who the hell do you pitch around?

Well, he's supposed to be a good defensive shortstop but he's been pretty brutal this year defensively too. At least he got a pretty big pay day and hopefully will be able to use that to better himself and his family, because the only reason he's still playing at all is because they invested so much money in him.

Well he's almost off the list! He's been injured some and I still can't believe he's this bad. But at some point he's got to produce and he's not. I really thought about dropping him this week off the top 30, but decided to give him another week to do something.

Updated through Jun 17th. Two new guys into the top 30 as Aron Estrada and Billy Cook make their way. Some of the Latin guys who are not hitting are getting dropped and even some top ten guys moved around. New guys on the Players to watch scene as well.

Just to keep track.

I feel bad for writing this but Maikol Hernandez clearly can not hit professional pitching. He was Orioles first top 50 rated International prospect when he was signed for $1.2 million. He was rated higher than Samuel Basallo though I remember Koby Perez saying Basallo had a higher ceiling. I'd say he was right on the mark on that one. As a Venezuelan, he probably had less eyes on him then if he was Dominican, but a lot of this just goes to show how hard it is to access these guys at 14 and 15 years old or younger, when these agreements need to be made. Hernandez is the first of several high priced shortstops (Luis Almeyda and Emilio Sanchez) that have struggled to hit in the early parts of their careers. Now the book is not even close to be written on the last two, but neither have gotten off to good starts and Almeyda has been very injury prone in his short career. When you add in Braylin Tavera's struggles in Delmarva before getting hurt, the million dollar guys have all struggled to hit outside of Basallo. Luckily, Leandro Arias, who I believe was a $500K guy is really starting to hit in Delmarva and Thomas Sosa shows flashes of his promise and was also a just a $300K guy. In the end, it's such a crap shoot and you can see why the Orioles tend to spread out their money vs throwing them at the million guys too often. It also may be a good case for a draft. This would allow clubs to evaluate these guys at least at 16 or 17 years old vs 13-15. Still a tough gig, but it would seems to be a little better than throwing millions at teenagers with agreements that were made when they were 14 years old.

Cook is starting to make himself look like a Steve Pearce kind of player. He's done a nice job this year controlling the strike zone better and still has popped some homers. He's a guy that's probably never going to be plus defender anywhere he plays and he's too short (5-11) for 1B on a regular basis though that's probably his best position. He's also a lefty masher at .288/.447/.509/.956 so as you say, he could be a good compliment to the left-handed heavy outfield the Orioles could have next year if they can live with the defense.

McDermott is probably the next guy up to be given a shot if they need a starter. For now I think they'll go back to a 5-man rotation and Povich is here to stay.

The best most likely scenario is they can nurse his elbow back and forth all season on the IL and have him for October for a few starts. Then have him undergo TJ surgery which would put him out all off 2025,, but with a potential return in October on 2025. It's sad but not surprising with the way these guys are dropping like flies around baseball. I wonder if the lack of grip due to not having sticky stuff available is a contributing factor since these guys are trying to create spin with great velocity.

I agree. Suarez has been a season saver so far. To find a starter basically off the scrap heap is pretty darn good/lucky.

There is some accounting for the Aberdeen dip on production with Bradfield. Yesterday's home run was nice to see.

He looks bigger that his listed height and weight to me. Another hot week and he'll squeeze back on but I'd like to see him develop some positional strength.