DrungoHazewood

But just to be safe, shouldn't we fire Hyde? One bonus of 3:58 games is I go to sleep before turning into a pumpkin, so I don't get to see them blow late games most of the time.

He had a lower BABIP last year than this. And a higher strikeout rate. But almost exactly half the FIP this year.

I wouldn't say it's a hard no, but Britton would probably make more next year than the entire 2022 Orioles' bullpen put together, and they're 7th in MLB in relief ERA. Last five years he's averaged 35 innings. After the O'Day extension, Baez, Walker, Klein, Gregg I'd be pretty okay just never signing a higher-end free agent reliever ever. I'm still mildly disappointed by Don Aase.

He said something last night in the postgame interview... what was it? I think he used the phrase "we were contemplating" some strategy. Not a typical cliche you'd hear from most guys.

I don't follow. Because there's now a draft lottery? The main point of tanking is to save ownership tons of money and (perhaps) build up infrastructure, scouting, analytics, etc. Drafting 6th instead of 2nd barely moves the needle. There are seven teams that could still lose 100 games this year.

Also somewhat less like to be thinking "screw it, it's past my bedtime and I gotta go use the can".

Theo Epstein: We're thinking about a pitch clock to speed up the pace of the game. MLB powers-that-be: Okay, but have you considered just calling everything the batter can reach a strike?

I'm eagerly anticipating next year's 35th anniversary of Fantastic Fans Night. Hopefully not on the heels of a 21-game losing streak. Also next year, the huge 26th anniversary celebration of Eddie's 500th homer. The 32nd anniversary of Chito Martinez' debut. 30 years of Fernandomania in Baltimore. 30th retrospective of Todd Frohwirth's last game as an Oriole, featuring a crowd of Jim Nabors impersonators all throwing submarine first pitches.

I have to think this is why they've done this now. Don't want to pull a Hall of Fame (not in Brooks' case, but they have a habit of remembering a guy was great when they read his obituary) and honor the guy years after he's gone.

Speaking of Dylan Bundy... unfortunately for him, I think he's cooked. Fastball sitting at 89 and his strikeout rate is straight out of 1986. 4.78 ERA in the year of the humidor.

I think that's easy to say in retrospect, but remember the circumstances: - The Orioles were crashing - He was going to be a free agent the following year (or the year after?) and may not have been interested in extending - The Braves waived him, then the Reds claimed him but declined to resign him at the end of the year It's not like the O's didn't try to resign 2020-present Gausman. They traded a guy three orgs couldn't fix who was on an expiring deal, and they were heading into a big rebuild. Also, the 2018 Orioles didn't have the coaching, scouting and analytics they do now. They weren't turning Dean Kremers and Kyle Bradishes into solid MLB pitchers, they were scratching their heads about why Dylan Bundy had a 5.00 ERA.

Yes, that is all true. I'd still like to see a legitimate inside-the-park homer every once in a while that doesn't involve the ball being trapped in the pocket of a passing kangaroo.

OAA is pretty solid. Where did you start, how hard was it hit, how far did you have to go, what was the hang time, how often does an average player make that play? All tracked with pretty darned high precision. I don't know what else you'd want out of a metric.

Another thing to consider is pitching staff. The Braves pitchers have over 300(!) more strikeouts than the Orioles, meaning about 300 fewer balls in play. A pretty fair number of those go towards the shortstop, so you could argue Mateo gets quite a few more opportunities than Swanson.

1899. When Jimmy Sheckard and John McGraw finished 1-2. Oriole Ducky Holmes finished 4th, with St. Louis' Emmet Heidrick keeping them from a top four sweep. The Birds stole 364 bases that year. Every starter except catcher Wilbert Robinson had at least 19 steals. In 2007 Brian Roberts tied for the AL lead and Corey Patterson was 4th, but several National Leaguers were ahead of each of them and it doesn't meet your criteria even for just the AL. In 1896 Joe Kelley led the majors with 87 under the old definition, while teammates Dirty Jack Doyle (73), Hughie Jennings (70), and Willie Keeler (67) finished 5th-7th. In '95 McGraw, Kelley, and Jennings finished 3, 4, 5. In 1919 Orioles Fritz Maisel and Otis Lawry finished 2-3 in the International League in steals with 63 and 56.

I guess I should have added "and without the outfielder misplaying the ball." I want to see an ISTPer that's just hit in a gap or over someone's head, nobody does anything wrong, and they just can't get it back fast enough to stop him from circling the bases.

The first permanent enclosed ball park was the Union Grounds in Brooklyn in 1862, so up to that point all home runs (and they weren't infrequent in that era) were inside the park. Or probably more accurately, inside the field but not over a fence. I've seen references to a park in Pennington Gap, Virginia being the last minor league field without a fence as late as the 1920s. So in the beginning God made baseball without fences and at least in some places it stayed that way for a good, long while. Hall of Famer Jesse Burkett hit 75 home runs, including 55 that were inside-the-park, and two which bounced over the fence and would be counted as automatic doubles today. I'm guessing that the excitement-per-second value of Burkett's homers was significantly higher than any players' today. Sometime I'd like to see an inside-the-park homer that doesn't involve an outfielder falling down, injuring himself, running into another fielder, or having a Nyjer Morgan tantrum. Just a long line drive and bunch of people running really fast. That's essentially impossible with today's ballpark architecture.

An errant Dalkowski pitch was really behind the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Cal Sr. swore on his unfiltered Camels that Dalkowski once broke the sound barrier with one of his pitches. It was a change up.

Remember when everyone was advocating for The Golden Toe to get a 1B GG the year he had a -5 UZR?

I have to think that wouldn't be allowed in the majors. That's crazy bright. But it did make me think of something... Some parks sill have CF bleachers, like Fenway. What if they had a giveaway day where everyone in that section got a shirt. The front is all black, the back all white. When the home team is up, everyone just sits in their seats with their black shirts on. When the visitors are up, they turn around and present a nice white hitting background.

I'd hope he also knows that Stowers' splits are probably illusory, and that essentially every batter is somewhat better against opposite-handed pitching.

Swanson has played nearly 200 more innings than Mateo. Scaling to the same playing time he's only 2-3 OAA ahead of Mateo.

I'm sure a lot of it is opportunity. In Reynolds' time the strikeout rate was about two per game higher. I'm guessing the GB/FB ratio was lower. Some might be differences in pitching staff handedness and ground ball tendencies. But some of it is clearly ability. This year the Cardinals 3B (primarily Arenado) have 498 chances, but the Mets (mostly Eduardo Escobar) 353. OAA has Escobar as -6, Arenado as +14. So I'm reasonably confident that the difference in range between two first basemen could be 50 plays a season or more.

Dalkowski was a lefty and once threw a baseball through a 6" steel plate.