Malike

Scholtens is throwing a perfect game right now, I dunno about runs.

Very impressive young man and he's stuck on that team with a very friendly deal of ~8M per year through 2025 with team options for 26-27.

They're lousy.

If it gets Urias the black hole out of the lineup, maybe.

Let's get this out of the way now. O's bats are lifeless, they are going to be shut down by this mediocre pitcher, and we NEED to win this game, it's the most important game of the season.

Giolito has been atrocious for the LAA which is odd. Dude had a 117 ERA+ with CWS and 66 with the LAA in 6 pretty awful starts.

Westburg is getting more playing time at 2B and he's not really a platoon candidate, that I can see. His OPS vs. RHP is .694 and against LHP .699. He should be playing more based on his defense alone, but he's not hitting much more than Frazier right now, so there is no clear offensive upgrade. His OPS was .928 in June, .676 in July, .670 in August, and .696 on the season. There is absolutely no guarantee that he's going to get better with more ABs this season, he's actually trended downward, which isn't unexpected, he'll have to adjust as the pitchers have adjusted to him.

Right, but the numbers NOW are what matters, not what he might do next season. I suspect the reason that Frazier keeps his average above .200 is because he puts balls in play, when you do that, anything can happen, even if the exit velo isn't great. Guys have made long careers of flicking balls into the outfield.

He's lost his fastball, he used to have elite velo on it. It's not bad now at 94-95 but he used to be 100 regularly and he used to say his goal was to throw 105+. More concerning is his walk rate. It's never been good, at any level. His K rate is okay, but his FIP is really bad every year. I get he was a top prospect and the allure for elite arms is strong, but he's really not an elite arm anymore. He has problems with his fastball, when he throws it above the zone he gets swing and miss but the slugging on it in the zone is very high, the same goes for his slider, it gets hammered. He's given up 28 HRs, his stuff in the zone doesn't play and with a 6 BB/IP, people are waiting him out to get back in the zone or take a walk.

Westburg has a WRC+ of 90. His OBP is driven mostly by his batting average and just cracked .300 in his last game, I believe. He's superior defensively, so he should be getting most of the starts, but right now, he's not an offensive upgrade over Frazier by the numbers.

The inning they scored, 3rd I think?

If I'm buying on Kopech, I'm buying really low...really low.

They are on the team with years of control, you can't just send them to AAA. You definitely aren't trading them for superior starters, we have more IF than we can play, I guess they could look for OF upgrades, but it wouldn't be smart to trade them for BP arms.

Not getting a ton of strikeouts but I think they've just told him to fill up the zone and not walk people. His fastball plays as long as he keeps it out of the middle of the plate.

I'm not as worried about the rotation as you are, I guess. These guys are all young and inexperienced ML'ers with the exception of Irvin and Gibson. Is it out of the realm of possibility that GRod, Bradish, Wells, and Kremer aren't as good or even better next year? Now, I'd love to trade one of the MiL IF they aren't going to get time up here whether it's Ortiz, Westburg or Norby, it doesn't matter, but they should look to add controllable SP this offseason. There are always a million guys every off-season to pick up as bullpen arms. Our best relievers were all scrap heap guys, they aren't too hard to find.

You haven't missed any news.

MLB.TV's commercials are terrible. Balance of Nature, a 90-dollar supplement package for fruit and vegetables. I'd spend less at the grocery store.

It wouldn't be the worst thing, but yeah, he'll get a chance to fail as a starter first.

@Can_of_corn Joan brought a Tiefling to the game with her.

Man, look how happy Joan Jett was.

It hasn't, he had back issues and had to spend a ton of time in Florida. He's going to get a real look next year if he's healthy.

Turns out he's a radio host who is a Market Manager and happens to be an Orioles fan. Yeah, I'll keep listening to Elias.

I have no clue who he is, probably a regional radio guy or something?

I'm going to trust Elias saying he's going to be a starter over Joe Polek. The Orioles want him to be a starter, not just Hall wanting to be a starter.

He's 28, Roy. He's ancient. We have 23-year-olds waiting to come up and take his place and production.