MurphDogg

Bannon and McCoy each got three hits yesterday, including a home run for Bannon and a double for McCoy. McCoy's line is now .343/.452/.457. Bannon's is .236/.259/.309. McCoy and Kremer will represent the O's at the Fall Stars game on Saturday.

Harvey definitely has not graduated. Pitchers exceed rookie eligibility with 50 innings or 45 days on the active roster excluding the period of roster expansion following September 1st. Harvey pitched 6 and a third innings and was called up in mid-August, accruing around 15 days prior to September 1st.

Callis has the Orioles taking Hancock, with Torkelson going first and Martin going third.

According to Roch, looks like Wasdin, Clark and Beyeler will be the only coaches who won't return.

Stewart struggled in his first 10 games, but over his last 31 games, he batted .280/.370/.473. Smith's OPS was decent in mid-May, but it was driven by power that he had never shown at any level of professional baseball. From May 15th onward, Smith hit .210/.272/.343 in 233 plate appearances (44 more plate appearances than Stewart has had in his career). Smith had a stretch worse than Stewart's first 34 plate appearances of .121/.147/.121, it just didn't stand out as much because it was in the middle of the season instead of his first 10 games. From July 1 to July 20, Smith batted .031/.113/.063 over 35 plate appearances. That is crashing through the earth's core. Their wOBA was identical (.299) Smith's wRC+ and OPS+ were both a single point better. Hardly fair to say Smith made more of his opportunities when he had nearly 3 times as many plate appearances and they batted basically the same. Stewart hasn't gotten the same opportunities that Smith got this year.

No AFL for Hays. In the lineup today, batting second.

Stewart since August 19 (including his first inning home run today), .289/.375/.489.

Hays is out of the lineup today.

Picked up 4 more at-bats tonight, as he walked in the 9th. At 124 with 2 games left, so has 6 at-bats remaining.

The Saguaros are playing their 8th game of the season tonight, a quick statistical update: Dean Kremer made his second AFL appearance tonight, going three innings and allowing one run on one hit (a home run) and one walk while striking out 5. Over his two appearances Kramer has pitched 5 innings, allowed 1 run on 3 hits with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts. Alex Wells has also made two appearances, going 4 innings over those two appearances, allowing 1 run on 5 hits with no walks while striking out 6. David Lebron made his third appearance tonight. After allowing 4 runs on 6 hits with one strikeout over an inning and a 2/3rds in his first appearance, he has bounced back with 4 innings allowing no runs on no hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts over his last two appearances including tonight. Cody Carroll has pitched three times, allowing 1 run on 1 hit (a home run) with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts over 2 and 2/3rds innings. Rylan Bannon is batting .333/.368/.333 in four games. Mason McCoy is batting .417/.500/.500 in three games. Both Bannon and McCoy are in the lineup tonight and these stats do not include the game tonight.

Rookie eligibility update: Hays had 115 career at-bats coming into tonight's game and players lose their eligibility once they "exceed 130 at-bats". He went 2-5 tonight, reaching 120 at-bats with 3 games remaining.

The Tigers lost their 111th game of the season tonight, clinching the worst record and the #1 pick in the 2020 draft.

With the Orioles win and the Tigers loss, the Tigers magic number for the #1 pick is 1. Any Orioles win or Tigers loss clinches the number 1 pick for the Tigers. The Marlins lost and the Orioles won, so the Orioles magic number for clinching (at least) the #2 pick remains at 1. Any Orioles loss or Miami win will clinch (at least) the number 2 pick for the Orioles.

Give him a break, probably an auto correction on Guglielmo Chrome...

Remember this Devon White catch against the Orioles?

Sounds like Jones and Schoop to me.

Heh, a little easier to market a guy who is robbing home runs and beating his chest than a guy throwing 6-7 solid innings every 5th day on a team with 100+ losses.

Maybe ask him to draw a walk or two or hit a sac fly or a sac bunt. It is definitely feasible to play 5 games and only get 19 at bats while still getting additional plate appearances. The 8 at-bats last night really hurt those odds though. If he has 19 at-bats going into like the 5th inning of the last game of the season, on the road, I would rather he get pulled than get two extra at-bats. Just from a marketing standpoint it is nice to have a rookie in contention for the various awards.

With the Orioles loss and Miami's win, the Orioles magic number for clinching (at least) the #2 pick is now 1. Any Orioles loss or Miami win will clinch (at least) the number 2 pick for the Orioles. The Tigers magic number is 3. A total of 3 Tigers losses or Orioles wins clinches the number 1 pick for the Tigers.

In case anyone was curious about his rookie eligibility for next season, Coming into the game tonight, Hays had 103 MLB st-bats. He managed to rack up 8 ABs tonight, so if he has more than 19 at-bats over the final 5 games, he will not be a rookie next season. Note: this designation only matters for Rookie of the Year eligibility (and other rookie awards) and appearances on prospect lists, it doesn't have any service time implications.

Kansas City has mathematically secured a top 4 pick (either 3 or 4). The worst the Blue Jays can do is 99 losses and KC already has 100. The could still catch Miami with 101 losses, but even if they lost out and the Orioles won out, the O's would have the tie-breaker. The Orioles could mathematically finish anywhere from 1-3 with two being overwhelmingly the most likely. Detroit has secured a top two, with one being overwhelmingly the most likely. Miami can finish 2-4, with 3 most likely, followed by 4, and 2 still possible.

Still haven't seen enough to pass judgment either way. The reports are that his defense was playable so I am still sticking with that over a handful of bad plays. I would much rather see him out there than Smith or Wilkerson, because I have a much more solidified opinion as to whether they can be starting corner outfielders at the MLB level. Hope he has a chance to win an every day corner outfield job in the spring. I don't expect to see Diaz until after the All Star Break at the very earliest, based on how much time he spent at AA and how long Mountcastle was at Norfolk.

Mancini named AL Player of the Week.

Didn't get a great jump on it, but still a great catch. Nice to have a real center fielder out there.

Makes sense to have more evening games with the season starting three weeks earlier. A little disappointed that neither Bannon nor McCoy were in the lineup for game 1.