Sydnor

@Tony-OH recently said Norby may be a better OF prospect than at second. I saw him play outfield once or twice in August, but he wasn’t challenged and I can’t glean much regarding his jumps, etc., I think he is probably athletic enough to play out there if he gets sufficient reps. Whether he does that in this organization is a separate question.

A nice year for Santander with 2.7 fWAR, 3.0 rWAR, 70 extra base hits, and a 121 OPS+. In my opinion, it was his best year to date. He is also now 26th all time in home runs with the Orioles. He’s also seems to be an important clubhouse presence, which I think the organization values. On last week’s episode of the Adam Jones Podcast, Andy Kostka stated that Santander is “a very valuable guy to talk to for the young players . . . [he’s who] other players bounce ideas off of, and see what does Santander think about something, and if he thinks it, they’ll probably think it to.” He also homered against some good pitchers this year… I couldn’t be happier for Santander that he is going to get to experience the playoffs this year. I think/hope he has a few big hits in that bat.

Good thing Norby went deep.

Cowser destroyed that ball.

Perez over the past 2 months has a 1.29 ERA, a 2.40 FIP, and 1 K/Inning. He is the last bullpen arm you should want off of this team right now. You cannot pitch these guys 4 out of 5 days and expect perfection.

It feels a little reactionary. From August 19 through September 18, Fuji had a 3.68 ERA with a 2.10 FIP. He had the 10th inning against the Angels where he struck out 2 and left the ghost runner stranded to close out a 5-4 win. Prior to the first game of the Astros series, he had 7 straight scoreless appearances, including that Angels game, that were not all low leverage (admittedly, he was lucky against the Rays on Sunday). He is slumping right now. It’s not a good time for it. Should he be in the playoff bullpen? I don’t know yet. I don’t really trust anyone out there right now except for Perez who everyone wanted to DFA earlier this season and Coulombe. Hall has control and command issues. Baumann seems over-worked to the point that his pitches lack life and he has been both hit hard and lacking command. Cano has been shaky, particularly against left handed hitters, and has 3.00 ERA with a 4.01 FIP since August 19. Flaherty seems like he could be good in shorter stints, but needs to prove it. Webb has a 5.11 ERA and a 3.10 FIP since August 19. So I am hoping Fuji can find the strike zone again because the bullpen would benefit. He certainly has the whiff rate to be impactful, and I am not going to write him off after 2 bad games (particularly given the overall shakiness of the pen since Felix’s UCL injury).

They called it oblique tightness, but it’s probably strain. I don’t know if he’ll play again this season.

It isn’t working for me if I’m using my phone, but you’re correct that it works fine from a computer.

Anthony Santander is the first Orioles switch hitter with consecutive seasons of at least 25 home runs since Eddie Murray in 1987-88. https://x.com/nathansruiz/status/1696348605940953512?s=46&t=xHfuzpktr9XCjYeDiRO6Ew

From an article on The Athletic about the most underrated players on the “contending” teams: The Orioles have the best record in the AL and are stacked with some of the best young players in baseball, from the sport’s best overall catcher (Adley Rutschman) to the front-runner for AL Rookie of the Year (Gunnar Henderson) to a recent member of the 30 homer–30 stolen-base club (center fielder Cedric Mullins) to the power bat of Ryan Mountcastle to future ace Grayson Rodriguez. However, one player who seems to fall under the radar is right fielder Anthony Santander, who has been the Orioles’ 3-hole hitter all season long and an important force in their clubhouse. Santander has slashed .250/.324/.473 (115 OPS+) with 29 doubles, 23 home runs and 67 RBIs. He’s been a 2.2-WAR player. Mike Elias, general manager: “He is the glue on this team. He bats third every night.” https://theathletic.com/4801620/2023/08/24/mlb-playoff-contenders-2023-players/?source=user_shared_article

This is unquestionably true in my opinion. I haven’t read every post in this thread, but according to Statista (who I can vouch for the accuracy of), the Orioles already have the 10th highest average ticket price in MLB. https://www.statista.com/statistics/193673/average-ticket-price-in-the-mlb-by-team/

Kenny Lofton should probably be in the Hall of Fame (or at least should’ve received significantly more consideration based upon his 68.4 career rWAR, which is higher than numerous players in the Hall). If only we can be so lucky.

I wouldn’t say that, but I also wouldn’t just assume that he will be helpful. TJ impacts everyone differently, and though it seems routine, it is not. For all I know he was focusing on one pitch tonight given that this is essentially spring training for Means. I am hopefully that Means will help in September, but I am not counting on anything from him. I saw DL in Norfolk on 8/5, and it inspired confidence that he can help because his velo was pretty steadily 95-97, and he threw some nice changeups. I honestly have more confidence in DL than Means right now, but that could certainly change.

Cedric actually has the second highest walk rate on the team (behind Adley). I am not opposed to him settling in a bit after his injury, but would like to see him higher in the lineup so he gets more ABs.

He’ll blame Urias and talk about the leadership Cowser showed by accepting blame for a play that wasn’t his fault.

2014 for me.

Pure speculation, but it seems like Ramon might have tweaked something running out the ground ball to first. I agree with you. No way they make that substitution for defense.

Fastball is 94-95 in his second inning of work.

As I write this, he throws 2 tremendous changeups with fade. Changeup was about 85.

DL Hall is sitting 96-97 on the stadium gun. Just got a guy looking at 97 on the outside corner. Mostly changeup for the secondary. Maybe 1 curve so far. Not a lot of command of the changeup. The curve got hit hard, but Ortiz made a very nice play to his left.

In Norfolk. Kjerstad laced a line drive to right center for a triple. Joey followed up with a hard hit double to left. Almost had a HR earlier in the AB, but it hooked foul.

On an episode of his podcast earlier this year, he talked about how he had never met Elias and Sig until spring training this year. It didn’t seem like there was any bad blood there. He said they had good conversations. Also when he was down at spring training, he went out to dinner with John. He said it was productive and they hashed stuff out. I think he’ll be around in the future (when he’s not in Spain or traveling).

Agreed. I think he can field. I don’t think he’s ever going to be prime Alex Gordon, but he should be fine. However, you had posters that confidently said that he would be worth more fWAR or rWAR than Santander and/or Hays for the remainder of the season if the team would just call him up (I personally disagreed, didn’t really voice my opinion, but everyone is entitled to an opinion). People said he might not hit for as much power but the corner OF defense will be better. Unfortunately, it hasn’t yet (-2 DRS, 0 OAA in RF v. Santander 4 DRS, 0 OAA in RF). So there is a weight of expectations that he isn’t currently living up to. I think *hope* he will come around, and think it’s far too early to draw any conclusions, but it just isn’t there yet and because the team is fighting to win the East, you’re going to get overreactions.