Brooks The Great
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Posts posted by Brooks The Great
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Just now, Tony-OH said:
In his defense, he's not good and any normal manager pimch hits for him.
Tony I hope you can see how terrible of a manager Hyde is. I've been saying it since 2022.
He's made 3 of the worst decisions a manager can possibly make today:
1. Pinch hit your #3 hitter with one of the worst hitters in baseball - should have been an error on the catcher. McKenna contact was garbage and lucky.
2. Leave in a clearly injured pitcher to give up the lead and lose the game.
3. Refuse to pinch hit Mateo - one of the worst hitters in baseball - in the 9th when you have 2 studs on the bench.
Hyde is an awful manager and this team wins despite his incompetence.
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3 hours ago, survivedc said:
He’s your least favorite of all time? Do you remember Pedro Severino?
McKenna is my least favorite Oriole of all time as well. He's way worse than Severino.
Severino was just a bad baseball player. Orioles have had plenty of those during their losing seasons. But McKenna is much worse because he's a bad baseball player who's considered to be a good defensive outfielder by the only two people that really matter - Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde. And McKenna has consistently killed this team with awful defensive plays, the one thing he's supposed to be good at. The dropped ball last season in Boston was bar none the worst defensive play I've ever seen an Oriole make, especially considering it literally cost us a game, and it was one of the easiest plays any baseball player can make. It was poor fundamentals and poor execution.
McKenna's stupid bandana makes him extra annoying. I despise him as a player, and the fact Elias values him makes me question Elias's ability to manage a major league roster. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, and I don't care what the team's win-loss record was last year or what it is this season. Elias makes a ton of questionable at best, poor at worst roster decisions, acquisitions, and transactions.
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6 hours ago, Tony-OH said:
I'd definitely DFA Ramirez first vs Baumann, but Baumann may not be far behind.
Ramirez and Baumann are easy DFAs for me. And I wouldn't care whatsoever if Webb gets DFAd also.
I'd much rather see Albert Suarez given a long look in the pen - whenever his run as a starter ends - than any of the above 3 righties. I'd also rather see Charles than those 3 guys, even if he's a longshot to stick. And by the end of the season, hopefully Povich and McDermott are options.
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3 minutes ago, Rbiggs2525 said:
We are trying to win the AL East vs the 350 million dollar Yankees. Kjerstad may have to move into Hays role as 1-2 starts per week with some pinch hitting stints. We instantly add a middle of the order pinch hitter to the lineup. He’s 25 years old and ready to contribute to this team.
Kjerstad is too good to merely pinch hit, in my opinion. If he needs an acclimation period, like pretty much every recent Orioles prospect has needed, I want him to get everyday at bats at the MLB level so that he gets comfortable and is more likely to contribute during a playoff run. That's why I didn't like bringing O'Hearn back this season, and O'Hearn is still the guy who needs to go to make room for everyday at bats for Kjerstad - O'Hearn's great start be damned.
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5 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:
We’re also all the way on the west coast. Banuelos was probably already with the team. With Mountcastle out with a sore knee we could see Kjerstad or Stowers. I think they keep Norby off of the 40 man until they have to.
I was wondering if Mountcastle was banged up when I saw Urias at 1B in the lineup tonight, so the fact Mountcastle has a sore knee definitely changes the equation completely. Makes Kjerstad the #1 option depending on how much time Mountcastle misses.
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1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:
Stowers or Kjerstad?
I'd be surprised, because Elias overvalues platoons and McKenna way too much. Elias is going to want a righty bat, although I would love to be wrong and see either Stowers or Kjerstad. I'd be happy with Norby, Kjerstad, or Stowers, in that order. ANYONE but McKenna.
Norby makes the most sense because Kjerstad should play every day when he comes up, but that won't happen in this situation. Norby will be fine in a platoon role, and be a solid option in games like tonight's against a LHP.
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4 minutes ago, eddie83 said:
May not want to use a 40 man spot for him until they want him up more regularly. Can rotate guys around last 40 man spot. Almost like options for last reliever in pen.
I really doubt there will ever be a situation to have Norby playing "more regularly" than now. Once Mayo and Kjerstad are up, it would take multiple injuries before Norby would ever see regular at bats. Even now, it would be a platoon situation. Norby is the best candidate to fill Hays' roster spot. But Elias has an absurd infatuation with Ryan McKenna (the guy Elias loves even though no one baseball claimed him for the bare minimum off waivers), so there's a good chance McKenna will be back up.
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FREE NORBY
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1 hour ago, Roll Tide said:
Cowser played in 5 straight after call up, give 5-6 days off, played in 10 straight, 2 days off, 4 straight , a day off, 2 straight, 1 day off, 1 game and then demoted. I didn’t look back to see how many of the days off that the team didn’t play. To say he didn’t get a chance is just wrong.
https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/hittinglogs.php?p=cowseco01&y=2023
"Played in 10 straight" and "played in 5 straight" includes games he came off the bench. The most games he started in a row after his callup was a whopping 4. That is NOT playing every day.
Let me clarify right now, being an every day starter means starting every day. Not getting platooned and coming off the bench. My fault for not being more clear that I expected Cowser to get a chance to start every day.
The team also came out of the All Star Break with Cowser being benched, which was preposterous for a prospect of his ability and pedigree. He only got into games following the All Star break, and a few starts, because Cedric Mullins got hurt. That's when the insane infatuation with Aaron Hicks started after Elias signed him. Hicks went on to reward Elias' love of dumpster diving with an absurdly lucky BABIP and terrible defense. And Cowser got screwed over as a result.
I watched all those games. The way Elias and Hyde handled Cowser was awful.
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4 hours ago, ShoelesJoe said:
Hays was 0-2 on Wednesday, and is 1-28 in April with 1BB and 6Ks. In his last 81 games and 265 AB he's at .204 / .268 / .332. People are asking if Hays is the new Ryan McKenna, but I don't know if McKenna was ever this bad at the plate for that amount of time.
Not even a platinum glove is worth that kind of abysmal production at the plate.
Elias should capitalize on Hays' option and send him to Norfolk to play every day. If there's an injury to one of the OF's on the major league roster or he gets into a groove at the plate, call him back up. Give Stowers an opportunity - even just as a sparingly-used 4th OF - to reward him for multiple seasons of good production in the minors.
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22 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:
I don’t think we need to talk in absolutes here. It’s possible he’s just not ready. Look at Cowser last year compared to this season.
Cowser never had the chance to play every day. It wasn't a similar situation to Holliday's callup outside of poor initial results. Holliday is being given a long leash to struggle and try to figure things out. Cowser had no such opportunity last season. Elias and Hyde were too enamored with Aaron Hicks.
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Not concerned whatsoever. This is a lineup with several guys who are patient, especially Adley and Cowser. Going back to last season after Mountcastle came back from vertigo, he's now a much more patient hitter than he ever was before in his career. He used to be a pure hacker, like Austin Hays is. Mountcastle's improved approach and so many good, young, dangerous hitters like Gunnar, Cowser, and Westburg is going to lead to more walks.
I'm not a big O'Hearn fan because he's blocking Kjerstad, but he's a good hitter with a very good approach. Santander has also been slumping really badly. When he's seeing the ball well, he has a lot of at bats where he sees a lot of pitches and takes an occasional walk. Right now, he's an automatic out, but that won't last too much longer. Mullins draws walks when he's hitting well, which he is at the moment.
The Orioles faced a decent amount of good pitching over the first few series. That's also changing now. And it's a small sample size. The walks will definitely increase significantly. Too many good, patient hitters in this lineup.
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Hyde needs to get Gunnar out of the leadoff spot. Mullins against RHP or Cowser are better options until Holliday gets adjusted. Westburg also shouldn't be hitting 8th, as others have mentioned. And having a platoon hitter in your cleanup spot is something I'll never agree with. Hyde is awful at writing out lineups.
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24 minutes ago, ChuckS said:
Yes, he said those things as well.
He also said he thought he was pressing and that he’d like to see him get his first hit out of the way so he can “take a deep breath” and relax.
Once the first hit comes, it really will take so much pressure off of him.
I'm not worried about Jackson whatsoever, and it's not surprising whatsoever that he's started off scuffling. The adjustment from AAA to MLB for the first time is massive. Very few hitters come out of the gates hot. And the ones that do, many of them get humbled not long afterwards. Just last year, Casey Schmitt of the Giants comes to mind. He hit a home run in his first game (maybe even first at bat, can't quite remember), and was on fire his first couple weeks. Then he went ice cold, was demoted back to the minors, and still hasn't made it back to the majors.
It's just frustrating that Hyde would put more pressure on Holliday by hitting the most ice cold player on the team in front of him. Hyde consistently writes bad lineups. I've always called him out for it for years, and he still does it. But hopefully as the rest of the stud prospects like Kjerstad and Mayo come up, Hyde will have less decisions with the lineup to make outside of occasionally resting guys since most/all of the lineup won't need to be platooned. Hyde will also make less mistakes since inferior players like Frazier, McKenna, Mateo, Urias, Hays and O'Hearn will be benched or completely off the roster (obviously Frazier and McKenna are already gone, but they are examples of players that Hyde favored too much).
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Gunnar's a #3 hitter. Mullins should lead off against righties for now. Cowser is also a better leadoff option, but he's so scorching hot right now, #2-#5 is better for him.
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3 minutes ago, RZNJ said:
Hays can show that he is worthy against LHP. That’s not burying him. We shouldn’t hurt the team in order to get one guy going who shows no positive signs.
Agreed. This team has already had 3 days off, there's absolutely no need to be "resting" Mountcastle. Mountcastle is working counts way better than Hays, including against RHP. This is Hyde showing favoritism to vets yet again. He should show favoritism to winning games.
The bottom of the lineup is doing no favors for Holliday, who is going to need to get acclimated to MLB pitching like every other good rookie. He probably gets benched tomorrow against Hall, so putting two black holes like Hays and McCann around him isn't ideal.
The way baseball works, I'm sure Hays goes 3-3 today. But the process behind putting together this lineup isn't good.
You know Hyde is going to be forcing Mateo and most likely Urias in there tomorrow, with Hays a 100% certainty to start again. With Cowser and Holliday most likely getting benched. I think it's bad lineup optimization when we should be in a position to start our most talented players every game outside of rest for Adley. Hyde refuses to do it.
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6 minutes ago, ThisIsBirdland said:
Agreed on Westburg over Mayo. Could Westburg lock down 3B this year much like Gunnar locked down SS last year? Mayo will have a place on the team later this year and moving forward, but Westburg may make the 3B defense discussion moot if his arm and range play well enough over there. They certainly look like they're going to give him the opportunity to do so.
I don't think they're moving off of O'Hearn this year. Kjerstad looks great and is a big part of the future, but I don't think Hyde will want to take out the veteran bat, especially given the quality at-bats O'Hearn has been putting up thus far this year.
If it plays out like this I could see Kjerstad and Mayo ultimately replacing Santander and O'Hearn's roles in 2025, or earlier if there's an injury. Mayo comes up sometime this summer to get his bat in the lineup, and Kjerstad comes up when rosters expand.
I'll agree to disagree on O'Hearn. There's nothing that will convince me that he's worth keeping Kjerstad blocked. You shouldn't block a bat like Kjerstad's with a platoon hitter.
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10 minutes ago, Bemorewins said:
Right now the way things are set up and project going forward into the foreseeable future, Westburg's defensive value is in his ability to play 3B since there will be very few opportunities to play 2B or SS. Gunnar and Holliday will be every day players 150+ per season so they won't require much filling in for barring injury.
Agreed, ultimately his 3B defense and good bat will make Westburg the everyday 3B the rest of this season and into the future. But the fact he can play an excellent 2B and passable SS are still important, because injuries happen. His defensive versatility makes him quite valuable to any team.
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19 hours ago, Just Regular said:
Last Friday afternoon Jake Rill filed a report Hays was battling an illness. Obviously he's posted some since then, but I can't say I didn't wonder if some of that was a seed being planted. If Cowser continues to thrive in the coming weeks, Hays will be the most sensitive #RisingTide scenario the organization has to manage with a very fine player.
Mayo over Westburg (less career tenure), and/or Kjerstad over O'Hearn (not a long-term Oriole) will be lighter lifts in the clubhouse if/when they occur.
Mayo's not going to replace Westburg this season. Westburg is too valuable as a defender at multiple IF positions, and he's going to show everyone that he's a quality hitter as well.
Mayo may have to be broken in gradually at the DH spot against LHP whenever he's called up. Other than that, injuries will unfortunately be his quickest path to playing time.
I do agree that O'Hearn gets replaced by Kjerstad. O'Hearn is a solid hitter, but Kjerstad is a future potential All Star/Silver Slugger. Need to make that change there at some point this season. I'm not a fan whatsoever of platooning your #4/#5 hitter - that's just not good baseball if you have better options, which this team does. I think Holliday, Cowser, and Westburg will eventually move O'Hearn down the lineup, but either way, Kjerstad is going to be the better bat, and it doesn't make sense to commit to a 30-year old platoon hitter with no defensive value over Kjerstad.
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1 hour ago, Winter said:
Hays is going to make a decent 4th OFer
Hays in the McKenna role from last year is a reflection of the serious talent this team already has, with more premium talent on the way.
Hays is a good dude and I appreciate his career as an Oriole, but he, Urias, and Mateo need to be Wally Pipped. Cowser is an everyday player, even against lefties.
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2 hours ago, RZNJ said:
Westburg beginning to become a nugget.
He's always been one. He just never got a fair shot at playing time until this season. Love Westburg, and he's going to help us a win a hell of a lot of games.
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Just now, Remember The Alomar said:
I realize I'm falling into the dumb small-sample size fallacy, but could it be as simple as them wanting him to see if he could hit LHP then he then (in only five games) put up a 1.375 OPS?
Not waiting another 5 days to accrue extra service time is a very un-Elias move. Makes me think there's an injury which led to the move.
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6 minutes ago, forphase1 said:
Glad to have been proven wrong. But honestly this makes me question the decision to not have him on the roster for opening day. Did he REALLY get that much better at 2nd base or against LHP in the past 2 weeks to justify this now? Again, VERY glad he is coming up, but it's also a bit head scratching when looking at it overall.
Agreed. Hopefully Westburg isn't hurt, it was odd that Mateo pinch hit (technically replaced him in the field) for him today instead of Westburg. At the time, I just chalked it up as yet another bad Hyde lineup/bench decision.
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They went from from the best and most unique celebration - the home run chain - to the most lame celebration in the handlebars. It's embarrassing. Hope the team gets rid of it soon.
Is Hyde/Sigbot burying another prospect?
in Orioles Talk
Posted · Edited by Brooks The Great
Outside of the original "Big 3" - Gunnar, Adley, and Grayson - Elias has consistently done a poor job integrating prospects to the major league roster, to the team's detriment. I honestly believe the team would have been more competitive against the Rangers in the playoffs last season if Westburg, Cowser, Ortiz, and Kjerstad has been prioritized and given much more playing time than they ultimately got.
Jackson Holliday's promotion was bungled. He was called up too early (should have waited to gain the extra year of service time and Super 2 to pass) and demoted too soon (once the mistake was made of calling him up too soon, Elias should have commited to Holliday so that Jackson can help the major league team later in the season).
All the other prospects were called up too late and then not given anywhere near the playing time they deserved, and almost all were inappropriately platooned with inferior veterans. Westburg, Stowers, Ortiz, Westburg, and Kjerstad were all called up either too late or given way too little playing time, or a combination of both. Norby should have made the major league roster on Opening Day, would have been a better callup to help the major league team than Holliday, and could still be helping the team right now instead of rolling with Mateo and Urias in the infield, or McKenna in the outfield.
Elias is a hypocrite when it comes to valuing defense with his own prospects, because he clearly did not value defense whatsoever signing Adam Frazier and letting him play the entire 2023 season against RHP and doing the same with Rougned Odor in 2022. And he doesn't value defense whenever Ryan O'Hearn is allowed to play RF, or by keeping Jorge Mateo on the roster after Mateo's defense cratered last season.
Elias is putting this team in a worse position to win in the playoffs by consistently screwing over every prospect that's been called up after Grayson.
I don't even blame Hyde, because he's a bad manager who can't write out a lineup and clearly favors less talented veterans to superior prospects. It's on Elias to either tell Hyde to prioritize playing the prospects, or take the decision out of Hyde's hands by releasing or trading the veterans that Hyde favors so much.