deward
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Posts posted by deward
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1 hour ago, foxfield said:
The wall has helped and it has infuriated Aaron Judge. What more could you possibly ask for in a park change?
I don't think there's any proof the wall has made any difference to the team's record, and I couldn't care less what Aaron Judge thinks about anything. I'm not a fan of changing parks to create an artificial gimmick, and that's all the wall is.
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40 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:
But most of those new guys had poor track records.
Who are you referring to? Looking at last year's team, the new guys in the rotation (compared to 2021) were Bradish and Grayson (prospects) and Gibson. Gibson pretty much pitched to his career norms, and was actually a little worse at home than on the road. Cano's whole game is ground balls, so I don't see how it would be crucial for him. Coulombe doesn't seem like someone who needed help. The middle-relief guys? Baumann/Baker/Perez? It certainly didn't help Flaherty or Voth.
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17 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:
GRod, Bradish and Bautista would be good anywhere but there is no question other pitchers were greatly helped out.
Im not saying we wouldn’t be a good team but the pitching improving and the wall being moved back aren’t coincidences.
No question? If you say so; I have a lot of questions myself. Which pitchers? Kremer? Wells? Cano? And how were they helped out in a way that didn't help out opposing pitchers just as much? Is this the argument that without the security blanket of a giant left field that they all would have mentally melted and never recovered the first time they gave up a cheap home run? The pitching didn't just improve, the bad pitchers from before 2022 were mostly replaced. The only significant holdovers from the 2021 staff are Means (already good), Kremer (a rookie), Wells (a Rule V rookie who pitched pretty well in the pen), Akin (bombing out of the rotation), and Tate (first full year, was so-so). Tate didn't pitch last year, Means barely did, and Akin was terrible, so it's really just Kremer and Wells for last year's team. Wells looks like the same guy to me as he did in 2021, so I guess the argument would be that Kremer doesn't improve from his rookie year without the wall? Everyone else is new since then, so I would argue that the turnover in personnel is the real difference maker, and the wall being moved back at the same time is very much a coincidence.
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56 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:
It made the pitching better and our staff wasn’t some outstanding staff.
I don't see it, at all. The pitching staff has been nearly completely rebuilt since 2021. Bradish and Rodriguez (the 2nd half version) would have been good pitchers anywhere last year. They might have given up a few extra home runs, but so would the opposing staffs. It just made the numbers on their baseball cards look a little better. Good pitchers with good coaching don't need a gimmicky park to be successful.
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6 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:
I think so, yes.
I disagree, a good team is a good team. Changing the park dimensions doesn't make a team better or worse, it's a superficial change.
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12 hours ago, Sports Guy said:
It was a brilliant decision and the team has won a lot and pitched much better since.
The roster getting more talented had nothing to do with it? Would the record have been worse last year without it?
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1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:
When I say this, I’m talking more about the overall idea of having 3 lefty OFers. I’m not saying you can’t do it but is there an overall issue with too many lefties?
I believe Mayo is going to end up in RF, 1st and DH. Eventually Basallo is up at first, C and DH.
Holliday is a lefty. Henderson is a lefty. Bradfield (if he makes it) is a lefty.
We would have Mayo, Westburg and maybe Norby as the only righties long term. There may not be enough balance there.
I'm old enough to remember when Elias was hailed as a genius for moving the LF wall back to the Bromo-Seltzer Tower and stacking the org with LHH. I do worry about being too lefty-heavy; although I think that is likely to be a much more glaring issue during a short playoff series than during the regular season. I guess you have to hope the Kjerstad and Holiday prove to be platoon-neutral, and that Gunnar continues to make strides against LHP. It's also worth noting that Basallo murdered lefties last year.
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And the weather looks terrible for the game I have tickets to (Thursday). Figures.
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12 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:
It appears that he is getting pretty unlucky.
He looks to me to be having a similar issue to last year, where he's barreling plenty of baseballs, but the ones he pulls are getting pounded into the ground and the ones he gets in the air are going to the big part of the park. I was actually happy to see him hit one to the wall in left yesterday; even though it got caught, it was at least a well struck fly ball that he pulled. I imagine that he'll figure it out.
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14 hours ago, Since1984 said:
I think the wall will get moved in some places as part of an overall change to the stadium. If I can find the quote from ME, regarding this potential, will quote the his.
One year free agent signings and rookie pitchers in general were the reason it needed to go back.
It didn't "need" to go back, Elias just preferred it.
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5 minutes ago, FlipTheBird said:
Well if you offer them the right deal, any of them.
But if you're looking at a right-handed hitter that's probably going to sign a one-year, "prove it," deal... he's very unlikely to choose the Orioles, from a sheer park effect standpoint. That's about it, only person you've boxed out.
You could say the exact same thing about pitchers under the old configuration. The idea that the wall was going to have a dramatic impact on free agency one way or another was always far-fetched.
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I think the "iron sharpens iron" cliche is pretty much meaningless. Most pro athletes got to the big leagues by being very competitive. I don't think very many of them are holding back from some higher level of performance that they will magically access once they feel pressure from below. Irvin will be the one to go, because he's the least talented of the group.
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14 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:
Skip: Brnovich, do you know how much Tommy John costs? We need to get the most out of that ligament!
"Babying pitchers isn't working, so we've decided to try something new. From now on, I'm going to ride everyone like I'm a 90s college baseball coach. No idea how long any of you will hold up, we're just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks at this point."
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3 hours ago, Sports Guy said:
No chance that went 23 feet further than the one Mayo hit last night.
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50 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:
BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
Get off the stage!!!!!!!!!!!
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13 minutes ago, emmett16 said:
OMG the bomb Mayo just hit was insane. 106.6 EV @ 27 degrees. Statcast said 408, but that thing went way further.
Visual evidence...definitely looked longer.
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6 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:
That sounds insufferable.
Well, the Hays part. I like Mullins and Santander for the most part.
It wouldn't be my preferred plan, but that's what the behavior up to this point seems to suggest. I'd have traded Hays and Urias this offseason. I'm good with Mullins until a replacement is ready, although I'd be open to a stronger platoon partner if he doesn't get back on track vs LHP. I think Santander means a lot to this team, and I'd be open to the concept of a 3-4 year extension (especially if they can identify the next Cole Ragans and trade Kjerstad for him).
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4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:
Service. Time.
That's it. That's all that it is. They want to be able to gain an extra year of control, trading a few weeks of the 2024 season for an extra year in 2030 or 2031 or whenever.
It's all service time, that's all it is. No way they'll ever cop to that, but that's all it is.
And practically everyone here, ESPECIALLY the regular posters that have been here for years know it, too.
I'm confident that we'll see Holliday, Mayo, Kjerstad up in Baltimore at some point this summer. Might not be next week, but it'll happen.
If I had my way, Hays would have been gone before ST started, so would Mateo, and it'd break my heart but I think I'd have to get rid of Tony Taters, too. I think Urias is a good guy to keep, but whatever, I get why people want him gone, too.
But I digress.
Service. Time. That's the front office's rationale behind not making any room for our logjam at AAA.
For Holliday and Mayo, sure, but I'm not as convinced about the others. I think a big factor is also that Elias is inherently very conservative about these decisions. He's made it pretty clear that he doesn't like having more than one rookie trying to get his feet under him in the big league lineup at once. I think he also likes the relatively safe, predictable outcomes that the vets give him in a year where he expects to contend. I can't recall an instance of Elias dumping or benching a productive vet to make room for anyone (unless you count Frazier as productive). Based on what we've seen, I expect him to let Santander/Hays/Mullins all play out their contracts, then replace them with the prospects one at a time.
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1 minute ago, Spy Fox said:
Hey Brandon Hyde, how about this for a development program: if you make a bad swing decision, you're assigned homework to read the five page OH discussion about it. We will see flawless hitting in no time.
Feels cruel and unusual to me.
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7 minutes ago, Frobby said:
Much credit to the Tides, but I believe the hitting conditions have been extremely favorable, with the wind blowing strongly out.
Perhaps, but they've also been posting some impressive EVs.
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6 minutes ago, RZNJ said:
I can’t hold my liquor either but I agree. Never sleep on it. Hell, I don’t even like too see it or smell it. Just makes me hurl again.
I hurled while sleeping once....it was not awesome.
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22 hours ago, Sanfran327 said:
Cowser can play CF. Nobody would want him to for an extended period. And I don't get the impression that ME thinks Kjerstad or Mayo are ready for a permanent promotion right now. Either way, this situation will resolve itself in due time, and we'll win a ton of games along the way.
Cowser won't contend for any gold gloves in CF, but a team could definitely live with him out there every day.
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2024 Ongoing Lineup Thread
in Orioles Talk
Posted
I particularly don't understand sitting Westburg in a RHH friendly park like Fenway, right after an off day. It really doesn't make sense.