Frobby

In my opinion, you’re just using selective memory based on a couple of failed attempts you’ve seen. In his career, Mateo has successfully sacrificed 12 of 16 times, for a 75% success rate. Major league average is 61.4%. So, there’s no evidence that Mateo is a terrible bunter by today’s standards. Now, those stats can be misleading, I admit. They don’t account for situations where the batter attempts 1-2 bunts, doesn’t put it in play, and then swings away. They just relate to whether the bunts that were put in play were successful. But that’s true for all the other players making up that 61.4% success rate, too.

Well that’s interesting, because there’s not a single pitcher in MLB averaging 100 pitches per start. The list tops out at 99. I guess there are no aces, then. Burnes averaged 92 the year he won the Cy Young, but I suppose he wasn’t an ace then either. He’s never averaged 100 pitches per start.

They still serve a purpose at times. But objectivity isn’t their thing.

If he regularly was bowing out after 85 pitches, I probably wouldn’t consider him an ace. That’s not his history and I doubt it will be a regular occurrence this year. I’m definitely not holding it against him that he had a game where he got tired a bit earlier than usual. It happens.

Cut him!

Yep, but Seattle also is 23rd in runs scored per game at 3.82. And, their team ERA is much better at home (2.83) than on the road (4.02). So, if we win a couple of low-scoring squeakers this weekend, I’ll try not to complain too much about the lack of offense.

BB-ref shows pickoffs at the major league level, and distinguishes between pure pickoffs and pickoffs/caught stealing. Unfortunately, they don’t track pickoffs for minor leaguers. There are 15 major leaguers who’ve been picked off at least twice this year. Ronald Acuña Jr. has been picked off 4 times, Jake McCarthy 3. BB-ref also tracks outs made on the bases by plays such as: “out advancing on a fly ball, out attempting to reach another base on a hit, doubled off on a line drive, or out attempting to advance on a wild pitch or passed ball.” Nolan Schanuel leads that category with 5 OOBs, and there are another 9 guys with 4. So, I’m not sweating the one instance I know of where Bradfield was out trying to stretch a double into a triple. All the major league data I cited can be found here.

Well, I’d at least like to see him making contact in key situations as often as he does in non-key situations. His overall whiff rate is 31.3%, but it’s 42.9% with RISP, 37.5% Late & Close, 50% high leverage. Just to compare that to league norms, the respective percentages are 22.4% overall, 21.3% RISP, 23.7% L&C, 22.6% High Leverage. So, you don’t see a big increase in strikeout rate in those situations for the average hitter. But Cowser’s whiffs are coming in the biggest spots, disproportionately to other times. That really suggests he’s got a poor approach to those at bats (sorry, @Sports Guy).

I don’t know of a quick way to check quality of opposing pitchers, but I do think we’ve seen a lot of quality pitchers of late. Just looking at the 14 game span: NYY: Cortes 4.02, Rodon 3.31, Gil 2.51, Schmidt 2.95 CIN: Greene 3.27, Abbott 3.06, Lodolo 3.34 WSN: Williams 1.94, Parker 3.09 ARI: Pfaadt 4.17, Gallen 2.86, Nelson 5.33 TOR: Berrios 2.82, Kikuchi 2.60 League average starter ERA is 3.95, so 11 of the 14 starters we faced were above average by ERA. If you just average out those 14 it comes to 3.23, considerably better than league average. The bullpens we faced were less impressive: NYY 2.58, CIN 4.25, WSN 3.43, AZI 4.33, TOR 5.03. Overall though I think it’s fair to say we’ve seen above average pitching in that 14 game stretch.

The White Sox have played respectably of late. They started the year 3-22 but have gone 11-8 since then. I did note that Lopez seems to be pitching well again. Nice to see.

Very simply, they are complaining because the bats have been cold for 2 weeks or so. Since April 29, .219/.284/.407, averaging 3.71 runs/game. Before that, they were hitting .257/.314/.459, averaging 5.59 runs a game. Nobody was complaining then, though the walk rate essentially was the same then (2.63 per game) than in this current cold streak (2.57). Funny how that works! The good news here is that the team is 10-4 during this cold stretch, after going 17-10 when the bats were hotter.

And on pace to throw 197 innings. I’d sign for it in blood. Let’s remember too that last year, Burnes started slowly and got better as the season progressed. So hopefully the best is yet to come.

Here’s part of what Hyde said: "He's still got a little bit lingering effects in the calf," Hyde said of Hays. "When he was activated, that morning actually there was some soreness. That's why he didn't start today. We wanted to give him an extra day. Today it was a little sore but better. And with an off-day tomorrow, hopefully he's ready to go after the off-day." https://www.masnsports.com/blog/rutschman-walk-off-home-run-in-ninth-keeps-orioles-sweepless-streak-alive

From what Hyde said postgame, the calf started acting up a little the day Hays was activated and that’s why Hays didn’t start yesterday. From what Hyde said, it was basically a forgone conclusion that if Hays got on base he’d insert a pinch runner. So, I don’t think anything particular happened on that play. I was happy to see Hays stroke one with authority to RCF in any event.

Even Baumann has thrown well of late. The bullpen has a 1.97 ERA this month. Interestingly, in May they’ve given up as many walks (23) as hits, in 45.2 innings for a 1.007 WHIP.

I agree with the premise that the busier schedule will make it harder for Hyde to ride certain guys in his bullpen the way he has. Whether he actually will adjust remains to be seen. There are 54 pitchers in MLB who have made 19+ appearances (1.8 per team) and the Orioles have five of them: Webb, Coulombe and Cano all have 20, and Kimbrel and Akin have 19. They’re all pitching slightly less than one inning per appearance. Perez, recently activated, also averages less than one inning per appearance. Only Baumann and Suarez throw more than an inning per appearance. The O’s rank 4th in IP per start, so we’d better hope that continues.

Game 41, May 15, 3-2 win against Toronto Westburg charged a slow chopper from Bichette but his throw pulled Mountcastle off the base. Properly scored a single but its a play that could have been made. Bo Bichette singles on a ground ball to third baseman Jordan Westburg. | 05/15/2024 | MLB.com Santander missed a catch near the wall that went for a two-run double. Bo Bichette's two-run double | 05/15/2024 | MLB.com I can't find the catch probability for this play. O'Hearn made a sliding catch in the top of the 9th. 80% catch probabilty (2-star). Ryan O'Hearn's sliding catch | 05/15/2024 | MLB.com Kiermeier hit a double over O'Hearn's head. 30% catch probability. Kevin Kiermaier doubles (3) on a sharp line drive to right fielder Ryan O'Hearn. | 05/15/2024 | MLB.com O'Hearn made a running catch in the RF alley. 99% catch probability (1 star). Daulton Varsho lines out to right fielder Ryan O'Hearn. | 05/15/2024 | MLB.com

I think there were positives to take from that outing, for sure. Overall, McDermott has been trending in a better direction the last few outings. I just am amused at how On the Verge always spins things in the most positive way possible without even mentioning the negative.

I don’t hate Hicks at all but I think we squeezed the last drop of blood out of that stone. When we faced him earlier this year (0 for 8, 6 strikeouts) his bat looked slower than molasses. I don’t think we should bank on a second resuscitation.

Honestly he wasn’t at his best yesterday. But he escaped his self-inflicted jam.

Not all pickoffs are counted as CS. It depends if the runner is tagged out while trying to get back to the original base, or takes off for the next past. Only the latter are treated as CS. I looked at Bradfield’s game logs and the box scores of the three times he’s been caught stealing (twice last year, once this year). None of those were the result of pickoffs. So, any pickoffs he’s had were in addition to the times he was caught stealing. I’m aware of two pickoffs he’s had this year, once in the first weekend of the year, and then yesterday. I also know of at least once that he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple recently. Still, I don’t think any of that necessarily makes Bradfield too aggressive. It depends what his overall success rate is. His success rate on stolen bases is phenomenal even if you factor in the two pickoffs, and I suspect he’s taken a lot of extra bases too. The guy has been on base 28 times and has scored 17 runs. That’s a very good ratio.

Last week wasn’t kind. He’d hit well the week before.

Dominant start in which he allowed 4 ER on 8 hits (including a homer and three doubles) in 5 innings? Relevant facts omitted by On the Verge in their tweet.

We might see this. However, I think Hyde likes having good hitters at different parts of the lineup so that opponents never have an inning they can coast through. I’m not too fussed about it either way. Studies have shown that batting order makes very little difference in run scoring. I do think there’s logic in getting your best hitters the most at bats, by putting them at the top.

I assume you know that Mateo had a successful sac bunt yesterday, right? McCann is an excellent bunter. Last year he got one down on a pitch that nearly hit him in the face.