Frobby

I thought Babe Ruth set that one. Six barrels of beer in September 1927, while he was also hitting 17 homers. Judge only has 25 hits this month, so it’s kind of amazing that he has 25 barrels. The year he hit 62 homers, he had 106 barrels but 177 hits.

True. I hope to see more games with an approach like tonight’s. Positive reinforcement!

Helps to play a crappy team.

He had some good swings.

Player A is struggling and you’re paying him $6 mm because he’s been a solid player for your team for several years. Player B is struggling and you’re paying him the major league minimum and can easily option him back to the minors without disrupting the clubhouse. Those two players are not going to be treated the same. Player A will get lots of opportunities to get out of his struggles, Player B will be back in the minors working on his stuff there and hoping he gets another chance. That’s the real world.

5/23, Geoff Arnold to Jorge Mateo: “What does it say about the resilience of this team that you’re able to win this one after a tough series in St. Louis”? The answer I would have liked to have heard: “it really doesn’t say anything about it. You know the White Sox suck, right? And we almost blew it anyway!”

That was truly awful.

I own my own private island, but I don’t like to talk about it much. Or my Nobel Prize.

Hmmm, your profile says you joined as a member in June 2022. So, I’m guessing you got banned and joined under another screen name? How surprising. Yep, I was against signing the 34-year old Cruz for the 4+ years it would have taken. He beat the odds and proved me wrong in his case. I don’t regret my position though. I don’t think signing guys for ages 34-37 is sound practice.

Let’s be clear. What people took exception to was your absolutely absurd assertion, last August 12, that the Orioles might not make the playoffs. That was a ridiculous position. You also said “and that is OK.” And no, it wouldn’t have been OK to miss the playoffs given the position the O’s were in on August 12. And they didn’t, not even close. They clinched playoff spot with two weeks left to play. I don’t know anyone who thought the odds were in favor of the Orioles winning the World Series. Of course, we hoped they would. But it wasn’t a surprise to many when they didn’t. Here’s the thread if anyone is masochistic enough to re-read it.

Such a good post. The O’s already have made adjustments. They’ll continue to make them gradually if certain worrisome trends continue. They are not going to wholesale pull the plug on veteran players. Not happening.

His chase rate has gone from 35.6 to 37.8 to 41.6 to 44.6 the last 4 years.

People act like getting Flaherty was an idiotic move, but it was a decent move that just worked out poorly. He’d pitched to a 3.45 ERA in the dozen starts before we acquired him. And he’s showing now that he’s not done. We just got the short end of the stick. It happens.

I’m hoping they’ll test out the new guy, Ben Wagner. He’s sounded decent on the radio broadcasts the few times I’ve heard him. Geoff Arnold is also serviceable.

It’s partially you, because I certainly don’t see him doing that in almost every single at bat. But I do see him doing it with some frequency, more so than in prior years. I think he’s trying (with some success) to increase the launch angle on his swing, and that’s what’s causing the drop to one knee thing as he tries to get a little more under the ball. His average launch angle has gone from 12.6 to 18.0, and he’s also pulling the ball more (42.5% to 38.4% last year) and hitting to the opposite field far less (20.3% to 28.3% last year). I don’t think any of that is an accident.

It’s really hard to watch veterans struggle, but I still think the O’s are a month away from doing anything more significant than they’ve done already to adjust playing time, etc. Hopefully some of the vets wake up before then.

After I posted, I saw @LGOrioles’s post about Adley’s xwOBA being lower than last year’s. So, fair point. Adley’s last 4 games have been rough, 1 for 16 with one walk, the one hit being that soft liner that was trapped on the second play of the series finale. He’s been red hot up until this recent 4 game stretch.

2023 walk rates vs. 2024: Rutschman 13.4/5.0 Henderson 9.0/9.5 Santander 8.4/7.1 Hays 6.7/7.4 Mullins 9.5/5.8 Mountcastle 7.9/5.7 O’Hearn 4.1/10.1 Westburg 7.0/6.6 Urias 6.8/3.2 Mateo 6.3/4.2 McCann 4.0/0.0 That’s 8 of 11 mainstay holdover players whose walk rate has dropped. Adley’s drop off is downright crazy, though it must be said, his overall offensive performance is right at his career norms. Of the other 7, 5 (Santander, Mullins, Mountcastle, Urias, McCann) have seen overall drop offs this season. I have to think that there’s been some overall directive to be more aggressive this year. That worked for a month; now it’s not working. Either the league has adjusted to what the Orioles are doing, or it’s just a slump. Or, maybe we’ve been facing better pitching this month. I think there’s some truth to that last one, but I doubt it’s the only reason the offense has struggled of late.

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of lazyish outfield fly balls lately. Not hit hard enough to clear fences at that launch angle, and too high a launch angle to fall in for hits. The Cardinal series seemed full of those.

I wouldn’t say so. I’d say Hunt adds to the competition as back up C.

Hunt was part of the trade where Tampa sent Blake Snell to the Padres in the 20-21 offseason.

I’m glad the command issues that plagued him in April seem to have disappeared in May. April: 21.1 IP, 23 BB May: 21.2 IP, 4 BB

If he’d previously pitched for Nebraska, I wouldn’t care about the strikes. But since he pitched for Florida State, I do care.

May 3: Chayce McDermott, 6.2 IP, 11 K’s May 22: Chayce McDermott, 5.0 IP, 10 K’s

Bump…some if you may remember the compelling video from the OP when Eccel Correa learned that the O’s were going to sign him. That was late in 2022. In 2023, he did well in 3 DSL appearances, then struggled in 8 FCL appearances. Correa, 21 this year, made one start in the FCL on May 9 and threw five shutout innings. He was then promoted to Delmarva. He allowed 2 runs in 4 IP in his first outing, then threw 5 shutout innings today. Looks like he may be an interesting pitcher to follow.