now

Sounds about right. It's so irksome to see 90% of the blown calls favoring the pitcher. You hardly ever see a true strike called a ball, whereas the strike called 1-4 inches outside the box is practically automatic these days.

Also, the race with the Yankees and O's for the AL East lead seems almost unprecedented (in my poor memory). Neck and neck virtually all year, with the O's riding between 4.5 games down and 3 games up, and since July 27, tied or within a game (+/-) of NY.

Taking out the COL (3) for each team, here's a comparison of the opponents' records the last ten games: NYM 4-6 HOU 9-1 LAD 7-3 BAL (5-5) opponent total 20-10 --- CLE 5-5 WAS 4-6 STL 3-7 NYY (5-5) opponent total 12-18 --- This is as challenging a stretch for the O's as it looks at first glance. Fortunately, they do seem (sans research!) to play up to the competition, and with the MFYs lately, you never know. Fingers crossed...

Finally it appears he's getting appreciation and respect as a rotation stalwart--as he's been mostly overlooked or dismissed while we bemoan the loss of our more known starters. Takes time, I guess... and continued success, to override preconceptions. BTW, his ERA (as he approaches qualifying IP) of 3.18 matches Ragans for #12 in the AL as of now.

Glad we got our new closer, anyway: Dominguez.

Agree the bullpen is our achilles heel. If only it were that easy to stock it with good, reliable hired guns. Some research could prove me wrong, but my sense is that bullpens are by far the most unpredictable, variable, inconsistent components of a team, year to year and over shorter spans. Is there even much of a correlation between reliever performance and salary, draft number, past performance, organizational approach, or any other metric? Throw in injuries and you're back to square one. A good bullpen is baseball's secret sauce, but the recipe remains mysterious.

Right on, Roy. To your point, I was even getting some Boddicker '83 vibes from that curve with command, a thing of beauty.

All this certainly jibes with the O's MO. LH, check. Versatile D, check. Matchups, check. Heck, they might even yo-yo him back for a series with a bunch of lefties (tho probably not).

I was shaking my head seeing MLB rank Povich with the best control (50) among O's prospects. But this helps explain it: he has AAA control. Not the first time we've seen the control artists become nibblers, either. Seems like the norm.

Awesome summary, thanks for that. The one really new insight I haven't heard before from Elias (who usually deflects with generalities) is the expansion of the familiar point about MLB being a quantum leap above AAA. The logic of it--that the best pitchers in AAA are of AAA quality, but the best pitchers in MLB are 5 or 6 levels above AAA--is startling yet makes sense. I for one never thought of it that way before, or heard it expressed so clearly. (I suppose someone could even lay it out with stats and graphs to demonstrate it more precisely.)

True--and as with the guests they interview at length, the play-by-play kind of gets put into the background. I understand, they (like us) want to multitask during baseball's long spaces between the action, but come on: the action comes first and foremost.

I like Brian too and Ben even better, on par with Palmer though different. The thing about Roberts is, he talks fast and talks a lot, which gets Ben going and he gets excited and talks faster and more too, so it gets a little out of control and I find myself wishing there was a speed setting on the audio, cause it sounds like those guys are going about 1.25 to 1.5, to put a metric on it!

It's not like they hit on any of the pitchers they drafted, either. Gillespie, Baumler, Tavera, McLean, Bright, Weston, Baumeister, Lord, Sharkey, Fruit... though Baumeister helped land Eflin and you've got Weston and Bright in your top 15 (hard to say if we can count any Major Leaguers after our top 10 anymore, though!).

Currently my confidence level pretty well matches the existing rotation order: Eflin, Burnes, Suarez, Rogers, Kremer (Not sure about those last two). In other words, my playoff rotation right now would include Suarez.

And didn't the same thing happen to Adley last year?

You're right, I confess he wasn't on my radar yet, even though I see now you have him ranked #27 right behind golden boy Jud Fabian! Not too shabby for a 17-year-old (as of... today!) Happy birthday, Stiven!

Stiven Martinez is now featured on an MLB.com writeup on fast risers in each org. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-top-prospects-on-the-rise-2024?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage Orioles: Stiven Martinez, RHP [sic!] Signed in January for $950,000, Martinez wasn’t on the Orioles’ preseason Top 30, but worked his way on thanks to his solid start in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League. He’s just turning 17 now and has tremendous raw power from the right side of the plate. He’ll need to work on his approach, but he was drawing walks and making a ton of hard contact during his debut. BTW Roster Resouce ranks him #44 in the O's org, between Reed Trimble and Jean Pinto.

Totally agree it's a gut punch. Yet, giving up on the season is an overreaction IMO. As an Oriole fan there is always hope, by definition! To be more specific, for example look at the start Grayson's replacement gave tonight. Some guy named Suarez. Who? On the season, here are the most basic results stats: Rodriquez: 116.2 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.24 WHIP Suarez: 83.2 IP, 3.66, ERA, 1.34 WHIP

I can see where the thought of his lat going out would make him sick to his stomach.

And Mullins, and more lately, Urias too.

Sorry, why did we acquire Pache in the first place? Just hoping to pass thru waivers for that backup RH CFer in Sept.?

Good points, thanks for the reality check on a persistent impression from all those hard grounders to the left side. It did seem to me that this year was much better than before.

Good point... tho I certainly don't miss the Austin Hays version of putting ball in play (automatic DP).

Just marinating, on this day off, in the good vibes after those last two series-saving wins in Cleveland. With all cylinders clicking, the youth movement and new acquisitions out in force. And in such stark contrast to the shoddy play in all aspects in the opening two games of that series. Fan sentiment around here certainly reflected that extreme mood swing between agony and ecstasy. How quickly it can turn around, in the space of one game or two. And of course it could still shift back the other way too. But I sense this is one of those larger moments in a season, like last year's pivotal series in Tampa, that signals a real turning point. Not to overhype it or jinx it, though! Because it's baseball, and the cliches still hold: You're never as bad as you think when you're losing, and never as good as you think when you're winning. And, you're only as good as the next day's starting pitcher (or however that goes).

I note that Roster Resource has McDermott & Povich ranked 1, 2 in all of AAA right now. So our minors pitching might be thin in terms of quantity, but that "power ranking" ticks the Quality box!