Frobby

Yes they can. Interestingly, Statcast stats are inadmissible.

No.

He’s not a star at the plate but he was still a 2.8 rWAR player last year despite missing 1/4 of the season with injuries. I’ll accept your opinion that he didn’t look as good visually early as his OPS suggested, but even if so, he didn’t look anywhere near as bad as he has recently.

I agree with your characterization. See my earlier post before all the expert analysis of Holliday’s weightlifting exploits. I’m just making a general observation that Cal needs to be more careful now. This comment doesn’t particularly concern me.

He’s under the ball, and pulling everything. It’s either strikeouts, pop outs, or grounders to the right side. I agree it’s very tough to watch. I still say he he’ll get at least another 4-6 weeks to snap out of it before the O’s make any significant change to his role.

My hope is that someone will be anxious to have him and will trade us something in order to jump the line.

I’ve been on this website 20 years. I can’t even count the number of times that posters wanted to relegate a long time starter to the bench, or cut him, or lower him in the lineup, or pinch hit for him in key situations, based on a few weeks of poor performance. It’s a fact: actual GM’s and managers are less reactive than fans to slumps. Doesn’t mean they’re always right or the fans are always wrong. But the professionals give their vets a pretty long time to work their way out of slumps. And it doesn’t matter who the GM or manager is.

He’s an owner. He has the right to an opinion but he shouldn’t express it in public. I totally disagree that Boras or M. Holliday had any bearing on decisions to promote J. Holliday. The only pressure was created by Jackson’s performance on the field.

Also, here’s their age 21 seasons: Markakis: .859 at A+, .992 at AA. Beavers: .832 at A+, .894 at AA Though Markakis clearly was a bit better, it says a lot about the relative quality of our farm system and major league team that Markakis was jumped to the majors while Beavers was returned to AA.

His slider was a good pitch in 2021-22 before his lat injury. What you saw in early 2023 was not his normal slider.

After a really disappointing April that saw his ERA balloon to 7.78, Alex Pham has found his bearings in May, allowing 3 ER in 14.1 IP, allowing 8 hits and 4 walks while striking out 17. Yesterday Pham allowed a run on 2 hits and a walk in 4.2 innings, striking out 7. 53 of 72 pitches were strikes. The sole run charged to Pham scored when reliever Kyle Virbitsky allowed a 2-out double to the first batter he faced after relieving Pham in the fifth. Due to the poor start, Pham’s ERA still rests at an unimpressive 5.29, but he’s definitely been headed in the right direction. Also, he’s struck out 40 batters in 34 innings.

I can’t emphasize enough how stupid that rain delay was. No rain at all for 45 minutes, then two hours of light mist, the kind that teams play through all the time. I was standing near the kids play area during most of the delay and believe me, that rain didn’t deter any kids from using the playground equipment for two hours. Then, 15 minutes before the game is going to start, the grounds crew is watering the infield. What? The game itself was not worth the wait, needless to say. But what annoys me most is the complete lack of communication during these delays. How about letting the fans who are there know what the thinking is about how long the delay will be? How about an update every 30 minutes or so. Nope, nothing. Just a generic message on the scoreboard saying that the start of the game will be delayed to to the “threat” of inclement weather. My phone was showing .05” of rain expected in the next six hours. Some threat! On the bright side, the team did announce that ticket holders would be given vouchers that could be used for a Monday - Thursday game. That was the least they could do.

19,286 for that rain-delayed mess of a game. I’d say about 2/3 of those stuck through the 3 hour delay and were in their seats at game time.

And paid Scherzer, and Zimmerman, and Corbin, and Werth. They didn’t all work out, but nobody could say the Nats didn’t spend to put a winning team on the field during their run. The run basically ended because Stras II and Corbin blew up in their face. But there’s always 2019.

I can’t believe that 8 hours after Grayson stepped off the mound, I’m the first person to update his thread. After a 19-day IL stint and without a rehab stint, Grayson threw 6 innings of one-hit shutout ball last night. The one hit was an infield squibber hit 59.5 mph off the bat. His command was a tad shaky at times, as he walked three and hit a batter, but he still breezed through 6 innings on 82 pitches, 50 for strikes. If it hadn’t been his first outing in three weeks, he certainly could have pitched the 7th inning. Unfortunately, the bullpen blew it for him. Fastball topped out at 98.4 and he was still hitting 97 in his final inning.

I think half of Fangraphs’ staff over the years came from Lookout Landing. I rarely read other teams’ sites, but I agree Pinstripe Alley is one of the best Yankee sites.

For one thing, they don’t have Bautista shutting things down in the 9th inning or extra innings. Second, 30-16 just doesn’t happen every year. I’m actually pretty encouraged that the O’s have played .650 baseball without winning a disproportionate number of close games.

Four more shutout innings for Chace last night, 2 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts. His ERA is 0.91, WHiP 1.21, K/9 12.7. The only blemish is his 5.2 BB/9. He’s pitched 8 games and has only allowed runs in two of them. Yesterday he threw 45 of 68 pitches for strikes. For some reason the O’s kind of have him under wraps, as he’s only been allowed to exceed 70 pitches twice, back in April. He’s also been kept to four inning outings. They’re clearly being very careful with the 20-year old (turns 21 in three weeks). In fairness, they did need to shut him down for a month late last summer, so I’m guessing it’s more season load management than game-by-game decisions. In any event, it’s been a promising campaign for Chace.

I can’t even believe the grasping of straws going on here. Why don’t we just bring up every guy at Norfolk who has an .800+ OPS, since they’re obviously better than their major league counterparts? Oh wait, everyone at Norfolk has an .800+ OPS! As to Mullins, yes he’s looked awful at the plate for a month, but the O’s are nowhere near the point of regularly benching him or pinch hitting for him in key situations vs. RHP. You know why? Because even good players have slumps, and the best way to get them out of it is to keep playing them until they emerge from them. And Mullins has a long enough track record where the odds of him coming out of this eventually are decent. Not 100%, but a lot more likely than not. I mean, the guy had an .859 OPS the first 3 weeks of the season. That guy didn’t have some instantaneous physical decline that has turned him into the second coming of Chris Davis permanently. I know it’s frustrating to watch him right now. I’m as frustrated as anyone. But every major league team would be doing what the Orioles have been doing, for another 4-6 weeks at a minimum.

I will be shocked if he isn’t claimed. Shocked. Worse guys than him are claimed all the time.

I think Cal needs to be very careful in expressing any opinions about how the team is or should be run, now that he’s in the ownership group. I don’t know that this remark was a problem, I’m just making a general observation.

We lost this game because four consecutive relievers did poorly. Not because of letting Mullins hit.

When Markakis was Beavers’ age he was putting up a .799 OPS in the majors.

That’s Povich’s best outing in a couple of weeks. Great to see him get through 6 IP in only 88 pitches. It’s astounding that Ort and Hoffmann almost blew a 10-run lead for him. But they fell one short and Povich got the well-earned win.

I think we’ve all noticed that more calls have gone against the O’s than for them in the last few years. It was only the Alomar part of your thesis that made me shake my head.