harp6

Don't forget about Kimbrel's 27 wins and 0 losses as a reliever.

After the Pittsburgh series, the O's were 5-4 and I told my wife that besides the first 2 games, many of the players in the line-up haven't started hitting well, yet. I said, "Just wait until all the players in the line-up wake up." Well, they were wide awake for the next nine games. Hopefully, this continues.

I am also in favor of rotating the outfield. I want to see Cowser getting as much playing time as the 3 veteran outfielders. Now that Holliday has been called up, I would like to see all the young infielders play every day. As you mentioned, Urias is fading. His role should now be the utility infielder that occasionally gets a couple of starts or late inning replacement. I would like to see a consistent infield from left to right of Westburg, Henderson, Holliday, and Mountcastle.

I once had the privilege to listen to Pat Kelly speak at our church's weekend youth retreat. Of course, he told his story of his conversation with Earl Weaver. I am sure many of you heard the story before. Of course, Pat Kelly told the story must better live, but this is a summary of the story from an article on Pat Kelly. During his days with the Baltimore Orioles at the end of the 1970s, Pat Kelly talked a lot with skipper Earl Weaver. While Weaver spoke about baseball strategy, Kelly – who became a born-again Christian in 1975 – persisted in talking about Jesus Christ. In one of those dialogues, Kelly proposed to Weaver, “Why don’t you walk with the Lord?” Weaver answered, “I’d rather you walked with the bases loaded.” https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/pat-kelly-2/

I think overwork or underwork is a problem, but it is only part of the main issue. Yes, it you work to often or to long, fatigue can set in and that increases the chance for injury. But, the biggest issue is no longer workload. The biggest issue is what pitchers are now trying to do with their pitches. Pitchers are trying to increase their pitch velocity to the upper nineties. They are trying to increase their spin rate, etc. As you mentioned, this is putting more stress on their arms. They have access to all these modern pitching metrics and they believe that in order to become a great pitcher you have to work on improving and increasing all these things. There is some truth to this. But these are also the things that are putting to much stress on pitching arms and it is ultimately what is causing these major injuries. Pitchers can work on improving velocity, spin rate, etc., but there needs to be balance to figure out how much is to much. The price they pay is sacrificing a long pitching career for a half dozen or less good years. The number of big injuries to pitchers has increased greatly in the last dozen or so years. We have the metrics, but there needs to be more science on how much these arms can take and how can a pitcher become a smarter pitcher and stay within what their arms can handle.

At first, I was surprised that they did not use subs, either. But as some have said in their post here, the O's want to showcase some of their AAA players for possible trades. I also think the O's want the other players that might get called up to get as much experience as possible. So why put a sub in for a player that you want playing as much as possible for experience or for trade. It will be an interesting trade deadline. I think they waited to make trades because they know that these young players value will increase by the deadline. It will also be interesting to see if the Orioles trade a veteran player at some point to make room for a prospect. A veteran trade may be able to get a strong reliever or possibly include them in a package to get a starter. Would you trade a veteran outfielder or infielder to a potential playoff team for a reliever or starter knowing that you are giving the playoff team a player to plug into a hole in their lineup?

MLB Network just highlighted Kjerstad's night and showed the grand slam. They put up the score and then showed the game stats of the top 5 players in the Norfolk lineup commenting on all the homeruns and doubles in the game. One of the commentators said that the O's are going to be a dynasty for years. The only major thing that is lacking...pitching. Norfolk is giving up 8 runs a game.

Grand Slam and 10 RBIs. That is crazy.

The hangout survey of last year's favorite game was also my favorite game. It was the O's/Rays game to clench the playoffs. It was an edge-of-the-seat, down to the last at-bat game. It was the most memorable game from the season. Unless the score is ridiculous or records are broken, the laughers are fun at the moment, but are soon forgotten. That is why the walk off is better.

It looks like the Norfolk opening day game is MiLB Free game of the day. https://www.mlb.com/news/watch-minor-league-baseball-games-for-free?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

Hayes and Mullins are still under team control next year. Unless the O's trade them, they will still be in the outfield mix. I would like to see an outfield rotation of Cowser, Stowers, Kjerstad, and Bradfield in 2026 or possibly some time in 2025. But I can't see that happening if the orioles retain the current vets. I think that Cowser has an edge on Stowers. Therefore, I think the O's won't hang on to Stowers for another 2 years.

I am fortunate. I live in central PA and I was able to push off a decision on xfinity for two years. I was able to upgrade my plan today from Standard+ to Ultimate TV and increase my internet speed from 500 mbps to 800 mbps. The upgrade to my plan gives me a $50 discount per month for 2 years. So I got this upgrade for $3 less a month than I currently pay. The contract is for 2 years. Then I will have to figure out what to do because I do not plan to pay $50 more per month. I don't know how many of the other additional new channels I will watch. I am just happy that I still have MASN and now have MLBTV for the next two years without having to pay more than my current plan.

I live in central PA and have the Comcast Standard+ TV package with 125+ channels. I have the regional sport package which is $18.10 a month. When they dropped the pittsburgh network from the regional sport package they promised a reduced rate in the regional sports package. It amounted to less than a $2 reduction. With MASN gone, what will that regional sports package include. There is not much left. When I just went on to look at what it would cost me for the Ultimate TV package with 185+ channels, I would have to pay $50 dollars a month more. That is $600 dollars a year for me to get MASN. BYE BYE COMCAST. My bill for internet and cable was about $100 dollars a month 5 years ago and is currently a little over $200 a month. Now they want to increase it another $50 for me to get MASN. I have had enough. I will be looking into the directTV streaming package.

Exactly. If you add Gunnar and Rutschman and move one of the guys to first base, then you have a future lineup. I agree with Basallo and I also can't wait to see Bradfield some day in CF.

For those that think they will reach an agreement, it is comcast that we are talking about. The company that has a monopoly and keeps raising prices at a ridiculous rate. Comcast recently dropped Pittsburgh sports from my lineup. They did that at the same time they raised rates. So nice of them. I can live with that, because I am only a casual Penguins fan when it comes to hockey. I am a lifelong, diehard Oriole baseball fan, so I will be totally pissed if they drop MASN.