now

On yesterday's broadcast they noted the O's starters top MLB in ERA (2.52) since June 19. That's three weeks of Wells, Lyles, Kremer, Watkins, and Voth. Talk about miracles! Apparently all that analytical juju is finally bearing fruit. (Not to mention the chorus line of waiver nuggets in the outstanding bullpen.)

Hitting will probably improve, but sketchy starters and historic bullpen are destined to average down. Especially if the bullpen falls off it will cost a lot of those close wins we have enjoyed in the first half (Lopez exhibit A). On the other hand the offense will recover some of those close losses. So as always, the starters are the bottom line. I predict 70 W.

Wild card fantasy aside, we did hang tough with 1st-place Twins and came within a couple of pitches of sweeping them.

As our recent stretch demonstrates, the O's tend to do better against the better teams, and struggle against the pushovers. Same with opposing pitchers, raking against aces and being shut out by AAAA rookies. It always seems like that for the Orioles. So short samples aside, I suppose that's just a trick of perception (more emotional impact when thwarting expectations).

In a sport where a 10% difference marks scrub vs. star (.200 BA vs. .300 BA), this spread of .700 vs. .440 is outlandishly slam-dunk, as far as which side to go with. At least, it should be.

Good research, milking that 5% improvement for even more value added!

So we're talking about going from 60% to 65% strikes, a 5% difference. But the balls also decrease from 40% to 35%, another 5% improvement. Is this double counting? If so, it's like playing head to head with an opponent, and any win or loss has double the impact. Or is this math twist off base??

Totally a tangent but I just noticed today how much Rutschman reminds me of Brooks Robinson.

Funny, from the thread title, at first I thought this was a trade thread. (It still could be, but not sure we would "clean up" on the return).

Fixed that for you. (Yeah I know, can't help wishful thinking!)

And this post is about baseball? Please ding, admins.

Josh Towers (and John Stephens?)

Which gets back to all those college bats in the draft. (Barring black swans like myocarditis, that is...)

... as long as you don't do stupid things like sliding headfirst into first base, punching dugout walls, or hitting yourself on the head with your bat after striking out...

Without any objective analysis at all and purely on subjective response, Melanie's voice/personality turns my stomach. As for Palmer, he's the best in the biz. But she's so bad that if that's the pairing, I have to shut the audio off.

Rocky Coppinger, 1995?

First legit lineup in quite a while!

So much ado about replacement level players. Alongside the revolving door of AAA and AAAA fodder, how much does the needle move with the Maikel Francos and F. Galvises and J. Lyles of the world? Face it - contention, and quality outside acquisitions, will come when the true prospects arrive and are ready to perform at contention level.

Yet again... Sell low seems to be the O's M.O.

Any other oldtimers around here who see McNally and McGregor when this lefty pitches?

Can't decide which was prettier: the hustle infield double, or the double play running full speed toward left, spin and throw a rocket to first.

5. Consistently dropped that 12-6 curve in for strike one, all night.

Great team win, when it seemed all but certain they were going to blow it. But you're right, those gaffes were butt-ugly.

On the broadcast they said 6'8".

Yes. And if were to choose between Gaus and Zimm right now I would take the Z. Would make an interesting poll.