Malike

I'm still in Act 1 at 6 but I've been slow rolling after burning out of the gate and screwing myself in a lot of ways early on hah. Plenty of playthroughs ahead, though.

I'm fighting for my lost saved games! Stupid patch.

Cakes sounds congested as hell.

Wasn't it a 1 pitch out, walk, 1 pitch out? I'm trying to follow along, but not certain.

Snell is walking 5.3/9 and 4.1 through his career, I'd say he has his normal command.

Kremer is going to need to pitch well to keep this close.

I watched the 2nd inning where he recorded 1 out. He wasn't able to really throw anything over the plate. He was spiking his fastball or leaving it way outside on his arm side. He hasn't thrown much, I am not worried about the results, just his health.

Gunnar's walk rate has slowed down some. He's at 10.6% which is above average, but not great or excellent, and his K rate is 27.2% which is scaled as awful according to Fangraphs. Average is 8% for walks and 20% for K's.

Not sure what kind of defense he'll play in a corner spot, but he seems athletic enough to play there. Statcast does have his arm in the 20% percentile, but I'm not sure if that's just a product of playing 2B and not having to really air it out.

This is your fault.

He knows their kryptonite!

He faced him last year, where does 6 years ago come from?

I think familiarity helps, yes.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with Frazier having a .951 OPS in his career against Wacha.

They said guys that throw that hard need TJ surgery eventually, yeah. They remarked that he might be lucky and get it late in his career like Verlander or something dumb.

I was cursing the Padres announcers who were marveling at how hard he was still throwing in the 7th inning and then said he still hasn't had TJ surgery yet, and guys with that velo will need it.

Final line hard 45 pitch limit. 30 Strikes. He was pulled in a 3-2 count and Richmond walked the batter which is credited to Means. so 2BB.

I'm not pining for Hicks. Honest question, who do you trust more for the last 2 months of the season to produce, Cowser or Hicks? Which of these players do you want up in a big at bat? As bad as Hicks has been this season he's been worth 1.1 oWAR since he's been an Oriole. His OPS+ is 96 vs Cowser at 27. You can't honestly say with a straight face that you trust Cowser more than you do Hicks in the last two months of the season. The only glimpse of anything that Cowser had shown in his opportunity at the big league level was to take walks, then they started throwing him strikes and he struck out in 1/3 of his AB's while not getting hits.

You keep understating how bad Cowser actually was. He was on pace for -5.0 rWAR over a full season. Hicks couldn't be that bad if he tried. Mullins, Santander and Hays are getting the most reps in the OF, if you get rid of Hicks, then McKenna comes up, because he's shown he can actually not look like a deer in the headlights at the ML level. You can go back and read my post history, I'd have been happy with them letting everyone learn on the job record be damned, but it's very clear they are trying to win now and it's also clear Cowser isn't going to help them do that. Westburg came up and took advantage his opportunity, Cowser had a golden opportunity and he choked. He'll get it right and he'll be in Baltimore in the near future.

Not to completely derail, but I'm not a huge podcast guy either, but does anyone have a recommendation for a good Orioles podcast?

The Athletic did an article on the biggest sleepers for each contender. Bradish was ours. He's a stud and I am very confident when he's on the mound.

The only reason you could say it is because Hicks isn't a part of the future. Apparently, the FO thinks the future is this season, so yes, Hicks is likely worth the roster spot, unless you want to let the kids take their lumps and potentially punt on the rest of the season. I don't think the FO is willing to do this on 8/15.

Hays is our best OF by DRS he's +7, he's not calling off the 3B and then letting a ball hit the ground by not catching it. He still brings a net positive. So if Cowser is not hitting or playing acceptable defense, then yes, they'd be an idiot to replace Hays with a much inferior defender, who also isn't hitting.

He literally said he's frozen at the plate. He's caught in between and seems like he's not ready to hit at this level. He didn't use useless cliches. He said the league got aggressive with him and he's not able to relax in the box and got frozen.

Witt is looking like he's going to be a 400M player in his first FA contract.