Malike

I'm not sure they are pitching with smoke and mirrors. The big O of the Orioles scored 1 run on their own and 1 thanks to Anthony Volpe and amassed a whopping 4 hits. I don't think that was luck on the pitcher's side.

Catching the ball is probably the reason. He doesn't seem adept in the field.

I am under the impression (possibly, maybe, usually wrong) that he is up here until Hays gets off the IL. I don't think the intention was to keep him on the team all year and then not play him. I think they are probably a bit concerned with his defense being a liability in this series with the Yankees. I do believe he will get his chance at some point this season and hopefully, he runs with it. The job was his to lose in spring training, IMO, and he did just that.

I think it's difficult to put anyone in your rearview mirror in April. The Rays started 30-9 and never put anyone in the rearview mirror. I get what you are saying about the goal to win as much as possible and I personally believe the team is trying to do that.

Okay, I was just curious because you seemed to be suggesting that winning 100 games (.617) isn't acceptable. .650 is 107-111 territory, and personally, I think that is setting an unrealistic bar. Does it happen? Occasionally, and I'm sure the goal for every team is to win 100% of the games, but I don't think we'll ever see that in baseball. If they play .620 I'm not going to fault them for winning 101 games or think they aren't putting their best players in positions to succeed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do you think they should have a higher winning percentage over the course of the season than .650?

Right, I think this gets lost. Kids in the MiL know the strike zone and it will be consistent. See thousands of pitches over the course of a few seasons with a strike zone that is consistent, then come up to the ML where a ball 6 inches off the plate is a strike as much as it's a ball. The ML umps calling balls/strikes can't be replaced fast enough.

Holliday had an absolutely elite eye and plate discipline in the MiL. He walked as much as he struck out. We've seen that ML pitching can make "phenoms" in the minors look awful. I don't expect Mayo to walk in an kick the door down from the get-go.

You likely lose games. I'm not sure how much that is worth.

I think this bullpen is suffering from not having any elite velocity out of the pen. Everyone they run out there is 92-96 for the most part and as we've seen in the A's series, and by having Felix, having guys who can throw the ball by you is pretty valuable, and we don't have one of those guys this year.

The downside of an otherworldly start is the inevitable regression to the mean and the hope is it doesn't come crashing down all at once. Everyone knew Cowser wasn't going to keep up what he was doing and pitchers have been throwing him a lot of breaking balls now. He'll have to make the adjustment and we'll have to live with the inconsistency until he shows he can.

It's also a bit different having very few guys with options so if you lean hard on a guy, and he has options you can send him down for a fresh arm for a bit. The shuttle bus is much smaller this year and we have a bunch of guys who would be claimed if they were DFA'd. (Not Ramirez).

I think the human eye hasn't evolved enough in the past several decades to accurately judge the movement on pitches thrown at high velocity these days. Spin rates and velocity are through the roof.

And he's not hurt every year.

I'm wondering when they are going to stop throwing him breaking balls and challenge him with fastballs. His OPS is not good against power, he's crushing breaking balls. Just give him the smoke.

He was.

Had to pick Coulombe for the Player of the Game, given the state of the pen and circumstances.

BOOYA!

NOBODY BREATHE!

Hold your breath, here.

Man, they're going to get Soto at the plate at this rate.

He was in for Torres because Cabrera is a SH and hits a lot better against RHP.

Is this redemption time for Coulombe after letting Tyler Nevin torch him for a dong?

Crap.

The pilot turned the seatbelt light on, and turbulence is expected.