emmett16

Gunnar has already bested that at 22 with 40+ games left. I’ll take Gunnar in OPACY over Witt 10/10. Who’s the “other C” They could have realistically drafted/acquired that would have put up Adleys #s? Witt is a fantastic player, but even in hindsight the Os played their hand perfectly.

Catcher is the most important position in the game. C + SS > SS +SS(3B)

If they are planning to start holiday in MLB next year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come up and get some time this year. Solid PR & branding opportunity for the development team if he makes MLB in year one.

No doubt. He’s killing it. He did get a hometown HR on an E9 the other day, though.

I’ll take Adley + Gunnar all day, every day. Drafting Witt would have been a mistake in hindsight even with his solid performance this year, next year, and the year after, and the year after.

I completely agree. Honestly, I can’t believe it’s taken this long. Just goes to show the level of athletic increasing in MLB. It’s amazing to see.

I think they use his talent to net a first round pick. Maybe he gets his feet wet this year and starts the season in MLB next year. I think the opportunity for the extra pick has to be part of the calculus.

They continue to improve and gain confidence. I think they will keep the pedal to the metal while others wilt. I think they have another big winning streak in them. Going pure optimist 104

Incredible balance & body control. Wow.

Watch what he does right before he sets. He takes one measured step to the plate and puts bat on outside corner. Everything he does is calculated.

Need to start a “Free Joey Ortiz” chant at next Os game lol. All this kid does is ball out on both sides of the field.

Nice to see. He had been scuffling.

He is so fun to watch. Electric.

I’ll reserve game of year (reg season) for the night we clinch 1st place on tbe AL East. . That said, what a gutsy performance in a must-win game. Irvin starting to contribute a little is very nice. Can’t keep these guys down long and that’s the hallmark of a great team.

I went back and looked at some video from the last couple years and some recent ABs. Below is a picture of him driving a middle-out FB to LCF for a double in last nights game. He’s on time and in a good power position. He starts with his right toe in line with the middle of his back foot. When he loads and puts it back down it is almost in the identical spot, only difference is that he has opened his foot ~45 degrees. He’s doing this to be able to clear his hips while creating hip/shoulder separation. This creates his elite bat speed. You hit the outside pitch off you back side, behind your belly button, almost behind the plate. So long as your weight is firmly on your back leg you can still cover the outside part of the plate no matter where your front foot is. A good/typical warm up routine to practice letting the ball get deep/hitting off back side is to stand completely square with your chest/stomach facing pitcher and to drive balls to opposite field. To me it looks like he is looking/baiting the pitcher to throw a FB away but has his body positioned and coiled to turn on anything inside.

His plate coverage is good. I think he baits pitchers to throw outside.

Went 2/4 with a double and his first Aberdeen HR

That was his 3rd (5h) game this season. He’s also had 2 (4h) games, 4 (3h) games, and 20 (2h) games. 29 multi hit games in all. 1/3 of his 87 games this year. Incredible.

Heh? It’s pretty common practice in training. Also, some teams use “dummies”. I’ve always thought it was a no brainer for guys getting ready to come int ok the game. Why wouldn’t your prepare as close to game situation as possible?

Duh! I air balled on the new(ish) rules. Of course he has to go 3 batters. I completely agree on the body language. He looks like a pitcher that is focused on what happens after the ball leaves his hand vs. a guy trying to execute a pitch and move on. He gets so caught up in the close calls that it’s anxiety inducing for the audience. I have zero faith in his ability in the near term to be effective. Just way too much of a gamble. I’d love to get him signed on a 1-2 year deal and see what the dev team could do, but I don’t want to see him in a tight game any time soon.

I’m still dumbfounded BP guys warm up w/o a batter standing in the box emulating a batter. Seems to me you need to make the warm up experience as similar to the game as possible. But it’s not rocket science. As @Frobby said after 2-3 pitches you know what kind of an outing it’s going to be. I’d like to see the quick hook when it’s obvious things are going to go south. Keeping him in is a double whammy. He pitches poorly in a tight game + in doing so he can’t pitch the next day or potentially day after.

My main takeaway from this whole situation is that the organization is not in a stable place. The on field product has distracted for over a year now and has been a joy to watch. But there is no way a stable org can have something like this go down + have dozens of national talking heads jump all over it and come out unscathed. The entire thing makes me feel sick to my stomach and has me questioning why I spend so much time supporting this POS franchise.

JA must really really like Mateo.

First of 6. We go to Hou in late September. The 6 games season series is the next big test. They are the team to beat IMO.

This reminds me of the Duquette to Toronto crap. Just when you think you’ve turned a page and that you are going in the right direction, you get Orioles’d.