Say O!

Yes no stride. Darn autocorrect. I’ll fix in prior post.

I get a kick out of all the posters giddily talking about 2024 or 2025. Perspective — if Basallo does not debut until 2026, he will still only be 21yrs old.

IIRC from the prospects game, Etzel has pretty unconventional no stride hitting motion (at least that is what appeared to be from my vantage point along 3rd base stands. Not to say that cannot succeed with that approach, at least to me his batting did not appear as fluid and athletic as other prospects. Honestly it kinda looked slap hitterish, and it was just one days look from me so comes with big grain of salt, certainly Etzel has been getting solid results so far though.

Before even considering into additional budget given Forbes report and new ownership willingness to spend, Elias has ~$25M available next year given departures of Kimbrel and Santander. So there is definitely $$$ to sign Burnes in the near-term.

It’s Corbin Burnes day (and for that I will always be excited).

Let’s hope the batters exhibit a bit more patience at the plate, rather than just hunting ANY fastball in the zone. Seems like only Adley, OHearn, and Mounty are having quality takes.

Thx for sifting the data and early observation. It will be interesting to follow. Jackson does have some swing & miss in his game (and that might always be there), but he does seem to make better/harder contact when putting bat to ball. Just to add a bit more context, MLB average WHIFF% is 25%. Freddie Freeman (who is probably a 70 hit tool guy) is right about average. Bryce Harper and Shohei Ohtani are ~30%.

Encouraging to see. Curious if will be deployed as one inning leverage reliever or multi-inning guy he was in 2022.

For prospects who have elite talent, the Os have shown they prefer virtually ALL development to occur in the minors and these guys to arrive at the show “fully baked.” It’s their approach and frustrating to fans who want to see the most exiting guys playing right away (me included). Could Holliday hang in MLB today? Of course (and that is what perplexing to evaluators). Could he operate as lead off hitter for playoff team right now? Because I think once he arrives in Baltimore he will bat lead off everyday against both LHP and RHP.

Curious about this as well.

Bryce Harper is max effort. To me, Holliday is more fluid and he recruits full body for his torque giving the appearance of high effort, but it is more akin to a golfer generating high swing speed with proper sequencing of kinetic chain.

The media (and we) know the answer. Hyde will point to defense (and the recent diving catches) as to why they are getting starts in the OF. Hyde has already answered about hitting scuffles where Hays/Mullins timing is off right now, but essentially he’s not worried about it. that’s the answer for now. It will become a louder voice if the status quo continues throughout the rest of April.

Coby Mayo has played exactly ZERO games in the OF in his minor league career. Discussion of his viability out there is hugely premature and extremely unlikely to be a MLB possibility in 2024. So far, the Os seem committed to assessing his capabilities at 3B, and for as much Os state preferences for positional versatility, I find that to be very revealing.

Upcoming series against Boston which is nearly exclusively RHPs. I would expect Adley to catch all three games since no day games after night game. Will be interesting to see how the lineup stacks (Mounty? Kemp at 2B? Cowser?).

Will Hyde let Akin pitch the 8th inning?

The guy was pumping 100mph and overmatching AAA hitters. Clearly too advanced, trying to manage workloads is fools errand, all pitchers break — see Strider, Cole, Strasburg. The break point is random but they all break so why not use bullets in MLB?

Such bad swings on mediocre (at best) fastballs

Weak sauce swings when hunting the first fastball in the zone. Gotta do more damage/barrels or work the count a bit more.

Finally locating the high fastball

Seems like that doesn’t it? I am not a fan of location being exclusively outside for the most part. I’m sure the analytics support it, but to me It becomes too predictable. Rather throw inside on the hands to both left and right handed hitters (yes even right on right). Maybe it’s not swing and miss when located there, but may induce weak contact and also I think the variety changes batter eye to set up other pitches.

Cutter hanging, otherwise Wells stuff has looked good.

Concur with all of this.

Or if Santander and Hays are not back.

I believe WAR is context (game situation) neutral so for relievers impact it may also be useful (better?) to look at WPA which had The Mountain at 4.5 last year.

Loving the statcast metric availability. These numbers from Povich start are eerily similar to Ragan’s pitch mix% with Logan Allen speed/spin from yesterday.