now

Well, good on posters who proved the SSS side of "Guards Ball." I just found it striking in terms of the narrative in that article, which was basically the same as what most around here were complaining the O's lacked: clutch hitting, passing the baton, aggressive running, getting runners in from third, etc. I guess the real bottom line is "whatever works." Which of course varies from case to case. The old Bill James postseason wisdom was that HRs are the ticket, since you face good pitching and get so few hits. So back to you, Elias, keep crunching those numbers...

Memo to Mike Elias: For an eloquent antidote to the failures of the recent "Oriole way" of run-killing offense, please see the latest report detailing the success of "Guards Ball." Whaddya think? Small sample size, or wave of the future?

Not fired up, per se, but engaged in the ramp-up to playoff baseball. On one hand, it's like the spring training phase of gearing up for playoffs. On the other hand, it's like the playoffs have already begun. We're qualified for round 1, which consists of the next 6 games. Even watching the other teams play now is entertaining, as they jostle for entry to the next round.

Slight topic tangent, but in the hindsight 20/20 dept., what if the Orioles had decided to do minors graduation in stages by ages: promoting Ortiz (25) and Norby (24) for key roles on this year's contending team, and letting the younger Holliday (20) and Mayo (22) get further seasoning in the minors while things played out in Baltimore. Yeah, there is the Corbin Burnes factor, but a comparative WAR exercise might be a wash even just for this year, never mind future retained value. (Not to forget, too, DL Hall). Oh well, a couple of good playoff starts from Burnes and Eflin, with timely hits from Holliday and Mayo, puts all this to rest.

LOL I thought that just had to be Just Regular satire.... but the link is real, and the Yank-dissing (in effect) quote. Sometimes you can't beat real life for satirical effect.

Thx for the breakdown. We have to finish ahead of two of these four teams. Mariners and Tigers both 6 GB in loss column, but also the hottest two of the five teams. Therefore, an actual dogfight, who'da thunk? We also still have a 3G advantage over KC. The order of difficulty in schedule, offhand, looks to be: SEA, BAL, MIN, KC, DET. So I see our best chances with the elimination of SEA (-6/7) and MIN (-4).

Me too but I couldn't bear to do it!

I imagine there's a big increase in errors on defense that coincides with our struggles in the second half. And not just by second-string players replacing injured starters. (cough*cough*Gunnar)

Sorry but that response from Fuller sounds to me like too many words, concepts, abstractions, and if that's how he communicates, wordy and convoluted, it's a lot for hitters to carry "into the box." Not to mention all the specifics involved, re. what pitches and locations to look for, all the analytics of how to do the swing and torque the body, etc. I'm no coach but I can imagine a whole season of this approach just becomes information overload. Maybe it's not rocket science, after all (with all due respect to ex-NASA Sig). Maybe the antidote is more Zen: just see the pitch and hit the dang thing. BTW I think the analytical, overthinking approach is better suited to the pitching side, where you can plan your attack based on all the data. Hitting is more reaction, no time to think. You can't beat pitching using the same approach--rather, need the opposite approach, to counter with instinct and intuition. At least, that's my cheap (2 cents) advice!

Not much to argue with here. Though regarding the struggling young un's, might as well keep throwing them out there most days, to flush their yips and get them "battle tested" this year. Then they'll be in a better position to succeed next year (or get lucky in playoffs). Certainly nothing left to prove in AAA.

Bowie and Norfolk both win today 2-1. With basically a shout out from long lost prospect (#5 pick) Carlos Tavera. Day before yesterday, they also both won 2-1. Baseball is a funny game.

At this point anything is possible. We could do a 1-game WC and Adley could hit a bomb, and everything's cool, we go from there, rolling dice. (Tito Landrum says hi). I mean, last year we were sitting pretty, and it meant nothing. Conversely, this year we look cooked, and it still means nothing in Oct.

To me the OP implies "... so far." So, yeah, Holliday so far is pretty disappointing, and Mayo too. I would rank these two tops, since disappointment also implies expectations, which were sky-high, can't-miss for both (albeit age-adjusted). Beavers and Fabian always had more question marks about their swing and miss, with upside more as projects (hope for the best).

I wonder what the pecking order is for lefty relievers, or if they can even carry all four: Coulombe, Akin, Perez, Soto?

The line that made my smile the chirpiest: "Go to War Miss Agnes!" Orioles Magic in them thar words.

Mind you, it's not like we missed all of that quartet this season. Combined they made 35 starts, good for 17-6 (mostly GRod at 13-4) to add to our winning record.

And the question that goes with it is, does that always make a difference? When it works, and the firebrand is a peak Frank Robinson, we hear all about it. When it happens and doesn't work, it doesn't make for a good press narrative.

To me #3 is the item that doesn't belong here, since there's no reason to think the Orioles should suffer more from fatigue than any other team. If anything the roster age skewed toward youth/prime years should be in their favor. The one detail that might make a difference is having your franchise player be a catcher (Adley), or older player (Kimbrel), where fatigue could have more of an impact. Injuries in general, probably yeah. Every team has them, but I imagine ours are objectively worse than most this year.

I'll take the "both things true" option on this question. In other words, the above is obviously true and a popular sentiment; yet, here's the other side of it: The playoffs don't matter at all anymore. The Rangers weren’t the best team in their division last year, much less the AL, and certainly not in baseball yet they were the champs. They got hot in the playoffs and won it all despite their crappy pen. Our Orioles may do the same, or they may not. It's a roll of the dice. A better gauge of our quality is the full season, even though the drama is spread out over six months instead of one game/week/month. Just finish strong and be proud of our division title. Marginal teams can win it all in the playoffs, so stop living and dying with that short sample size. The days of a meaningful championship died with playoff over-expansion.

Those scorecards quantify what I was griping about earlier, that irks me the most: that the umpires generally are way more prone to expand the strike zone to favor pitchers, by a factor of 97% compared to 88% calling balls inside the box... in a game that's already inherently favoring the pitcher, plus the increasing advantage of extreme velocity and breaks. The ideal should be an elegant balance between pitcher and hitter, so for the umps to routinely favor the pitcher just seems fundamentally unjust. As many commenters note, it's just like they want the game to end quicker so they can go to dinner.

Cool idea in theory, but imagine the gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair if an Oriole got injured in the tuneup(s).

Red Sox have failed to take advantage. And now look who's just 1/2 game behind them and closing fast (8-2), the Tigers! Still nine games behind us, though.

Yeah, funny how the intangibles lost their flavor when the tangibles started declining.

You make a good case for that plausible scenario. Only Elias or an insider would know. All the second guessing aside (why not? that's what we do here), I think Elias (and fans and the media spotlight) were all gaga over Adley until this latest tailspin. But as this season progressed, the two players' trajectories crossed dramatically (Witt up, Adley down); where before, Adley was in the lead, albeit 2 years older. 2022-23-24 WAR: Adley 5.4, 4.3, 2.8 Witt 0.9, 4.4, 8.7 Can't turn back the clock, but can't dispute that Witt looks like the clear leader from here on in.

Yeah, actually he was.