DrungoHazewood

BABIP plummets with Manny playing rover.

They went extinct. Going to have to clone some Tony Gwynn DNA from a mosquito in amber.

Sure, it's a combination of batters all trying to get max launch velocity and optimal launch angle, along with a never ending stream of pitchers who go max effort all the time and use things like biomechanical analysis to maximize velocity and spin rates. Current field dimensions were designed for the Drungo-sized, cholera and thyphoid-ridden folk of 1893. They should fix that.

I see a perfect candidate league for moving the mound back 3'.

In 2010 the MLB rate was 7.2 per nine, or thereabouts. The rate in the mid minors was about 7.7, the Midwest League was highest at 8.0. The MLB rate so far in 2021 is about 9.1 or 9.2. In Delmarva's league it's now 12.3. So all the stuff happening in the majors driving strikeouts to crazy levels is happening at a much more accelerated pace in the lower minors. Texas has a team in Low A that is averaging more strikeouts (over 14 per nine for the whole team!) than Randy Johnson did at his peak. The Down East Wood Ducks pitchers literally have had more strikeouts than outs in play this year.

FYI, so far in 2021 from AA down through A ball the overall strikeout rate is over 11 per nine, or 184 per 600 PAs (I think this one is just the Shorebirds' league), whichever you prefer. That's all.

Say what?

All three of Valdez' blown saves were of the one-run variety. An average team wins 86.7% of games when they're the home team going to the ninth with a one-run lead. 81.8% going to the bottom of the ninth as the visitor. Presumably some of that 86.7% is allowing a run and then winning in the bottom of the ninth or later. So average save percentage in those situations are... maybe 80%? 75%? It just so happens that all the earned runs he's allowed have come in one-run chunks with a one-run lead. In any case, 72.7% of 11 save opportunities in mid-May of 2021 is not a concern. One save difference on either end is a 25% swing. Not a concern unless finishing in 4th place instead of 5th is a huge deal this year.

Not a huge deal, but it's still the first stat everyone looks at. Even on Fangraphs, first box for any pitcher, year, team, level, age... then Wins and Losses. And it's broken.

They haven't fixed it because of inertia. Would be so much better if they simply redefined the win as going to whomever on the winning team the official scorer deems to have pitched the best. I can hear the rebuttal: "that's too subjective for me!" Of course the current rule is stupid, and clearly and obviously gives the win to the wrong guy on a regular basis. But that's the way it was in 1920 and that's the way it'll always be!

I guess it depends on if the low batting averages keep up. Offense is always (or almost always) lower in April/May/September, than June, July, and August. If the league is hitting .230 in June they might wind up the balls a little tighter. And luck. No hitters are partly luck.

Bumbry struck out in 12.6% of PAs, which was almost exactly league average in 1980, probably a bit less than average across his career. He had an ISO of 0.096, compared to a league mark of 0.122. Mullins is striking out 20.2% of the time, in 2021 the league mark so far is 24.1%. ISO (career) for Mullins is .140 vs. league of .171. In context Mullins strikes out about the same and has more power. Mullins may not hit for as high an average, but the way baseball is trending few will. We have a long way to go in '21, but right now batting averages are the lowest in all of MLB history. Lower than 1968, lower than the deadest years of the deadball era.

Your definition of functional is different than mine. Certainly could have improved the team by releasing Pujols and finding a waiver wire pickup.

Sure, he was half a win to the positive over those two years combined. In 2019 he was slightly less valuable than Austin Wynns for $28M.

I don't know if C was ever average, and it's certainly not thought of that way today. If C was really average than there would be as many people flunking out as there are As. I'd guess there are 10 times as many As as Fs, and that's how people think when they assign letter grades to something like their GM. B is thought of as average, C as just barely getting by. At some point during an elementary school awards ceremony I did some counting and back-of-the-napkin math as they were announcing honor rolls, and determined that approximately 75% of kids in my one of my sons' grade didn't have anything below a B.

The Angels paid $240M for Jeff Manto.

I think the average fan (or at least the average fan who posts on a site like this) would grade out their team's manager and GM at about a C-/D+. Like my Dad, who is a more casual fan, but believes the average professional manager/GM is about one or two brain cells removed from not being able to find their way home at night.

Of course you're one of those people. How do you know there wasn't a year zero? There could have been. And I can define a century/millennium any way I want.

Really a quick, decisive, gutsy move to cut him a mere five years and $140M after he sunk below replacement level.

One other John Means note... there have been 57 games in the bb-ref database where a pitcher in a nine-inning game had a game score of 98 or higher. Three of them by Orioles this century: Mike Mussina, 8/1/2000, Erik Bedard on 7/7/2007 (my brother's 30th birthday), and Means. Mussina had another a year later after he'd left for the team that must not be named. And Jake Arrieta had one for the Cubs in '15.

I've long thought that Vander Meer had a big advantage because his 2nd no hitter came in a night game (actually a 9:20 pm start). Night games in the Majors began in 1935, but most games were still day games prior to WWII. The 1938 Reds only played 11 night games, the Braves 22ish. That year NL batting averages were 30 points lower at night (only .239), OPSes 50 points lower. In other words, the lights weren't very good.

In Oriole wins Mancini is just OPSing .705, while in losses .801. His state of mind changes with the score, and while it's admirable that he fights harder when behind it would be nice to have some insurance runs when already winning. As a first baseman he's only OPSing .678, but as a DH .994. The stress of fielding is burdening his hitting performance and should be closely monitored. Batting second he's clearly pressing, trying to set the table for others, and only OPSing .581. But in the 3rd and 4th spot he's relaxed and driving the ball to the tune of a .900 OPS. In his at bats that ended on a 1-1 count he's OPSing 1.051. But 2-2 is just .250, so perhaps when the at bat reaches that state he should be pinch hit for. With no one out in the inning he's OPSing .908. But with one out .652 and two out .705. Clearly he's becoming dispirited when the inning begins poorly. With two outs and runners in scoring position he's OPSing a fairly robust .805. But in late and close situations obviously the pressure is too much, and he falls off to .708. In high leverage situations he's crushing it at .899, but needs to work on those still important medium leverage situations where he's basically Cesar Izturis with a .657. Perhaps he should take batting practice with someone standing on first base with the scoreboard showing the 3rd inning down by one run. He's OPSing .856 in day games but .670 at night, so we should target the Cubs and their higher percentage of day games when considering trades. Also, he's OPSing .958 in interleague play, so this again directs the GM to a cross-league trade.

After three or four years of being the 25th-best team in the country and not making the tournament I stopped watching. It was clear and obvious the universe is out to get us. Let me rephrase... has already gotten us.

Sometimes? Every year since '83 we've packed it up in October knowing full well that the umps, fate, the Gods, Angelos, money, the press, the GM, the Yanks... they've all screwed us. Getting screwed is a fundamental part of the Oriole ethos.

Two of the best games in Orioles history were extra-inning games where players had to play weird positions. Lenn Sakata and Chris Davis. But that's two games in 40+ years. I loved them. But literally 95% of extra inning games I've gone to bed before the end. Is this for the fans, or for the die hard fans, or for people who like rules to be enforced? Because the overwhelming majority of fans go home or tune out when the game goes into extras. Playing 15-inning games is primarily for accountants and lawyers and literalists who can't abide by the slightest inconsistency. And I'll repeat for the millionth time... this is really just a symptom of the pace and length of baseball games in general. The 26-inning tie the Dodgers and Braves played in 1920 was under four hours. Today we have nine inning games that are longer. If there was a 26-inning game today that started at 7:05 it would literally last until five in the morning. There would be no need for runners at second in extras or seven inning doubleheaders if they could play nine innings in two hours, as was common for a century.