Brooks The Great

Hyde as manager has to end. But unfortunately it will take him making moronic decisions like the McCann bunt to lose us a playoff series to get him fired.

I'm probably the biggest Hyde critic on the entire board, so I'll give him credit on the following good moves for today's lineup: 1. Moving Gunnar out of the leadoff spot 2. Moving Westburg up in the lineup (even though he was hitting 7th in yesterday's lineup, which was bad) to leadoff against a LHP 3. Keeping Cowser in the lineup despite most people's inclination to bench Cowser due to his slump. One of the reasons Gunnar is so improved against LHP this season is because he played every day last season and took his lumps against lefties. However, starting Mullins against a lefty is terrible. Mullins is unplayable right now in general, but against LHP this season, he's slashing .128/.171/.350. It's inexcusable to start Mullins against any lefty, end of story. Even if Mullins goes 4/4 with a HR today, it's bad baseball and a poor decision. Cowser should have slid over to CF with Hays getting the start in LF for today's game. Man is the bottom of the lineup ugly today. Hopefully I can put a Roy Firestone reverse-jinx on it.

The solution is to phase out Mullins and Mateo. But as I added in my post, Cowser is someone who needs to stay in the lineup because the metrics show someone who will come out of his slump. There's very little to suggest, however, that Mullins will return to his 2021 form or that Mateo is anything else but the terrible hitter he's always been.

From NBC Sports on Cowser (screenshot attached, not sure if it will display). Cowser needs to continue to get playing time and be afforded the same opportunity to struggle consistently over a long stretch of games (now half a season pretty much) that Cedric Mullins has been given. The attached screenshot is a snippet from an article on Baseball Savant metrics for fastest bat swings combined with quickest bat paths. Cowser is one of the MLB leaders in the category, right behind guys like Juan Soto, Gunnar, Bobby Witt, Elly De La Cruz, Fernando Tatis Jr., Pete Alonso, and others. Cowser has the swing of a stud. Mullins and Hays do not.

You say "right now" as if his production at the plate will continue. It won't, it's only going to get worse. And it's not good to begin with. There's no reason to believe in Mateo aside from small sample size luck. He's just being given preferential treatment because he's a vet, and, similarly to Ryan McKenna, Elias refuses to cut ties with a bad player. That's not good baseball.

Again, as I mentioned in my post that you're replying to, the OPS is a mirage propped up by 2 home runs. Mateo won't keep that up, even against lefties. If Mateo settles at .700-.750 OPS against LHP for the season, which is a reasonable projection, he'll be OPSing below that range the rest of the season. That's NOT worth his glove at 2B.

Urias has a proven track record of good defense at 3B and as a much better hitter than Mateo. That's why it's better for the team to play Urias instead of buying into the mirage of another "hot" start by Mateo. Mateo is still the same bad player he's always been. Ultimately, I prefer calling up Mayo after Super 2 passes. Until then, I'd rather see Urias in the lineup. Everyone is getting fooled into thinking Mateo has played well. He hasn't, he's just been lucky running into a couple home runs. That's not sustainable, and it's foolish to believe that Mateo is anything else other than the player he's shown himself to be since 2022.

I don't understand how you can say that Mateo has been playing well. He has a .288 OBP, which is putrid, and one of the contributing reasons this team is mostly producing its offense with solo home runs. Mateo's SLG and OPS are inflated due to 2 solo home runs - power is not part of his game, given his first home run was his first non-inside-the-park home run in over a year. So he remains what he's always been with the Orioles - one of the worst hitters in MLB. His defense has been fine at 2B. But playing him, as always, requires gold glove defense to make up for the terrible bat. I'd much rather call up Mayo to play 3B and have Westburg at 2B every day. Or just roll with Urias at 3B instead of Mateo at 2B.

But we do. Cowser in center, Kjerstad in left. Commit to the future of this team.

Guy I was responding to was being purely reactionary and doesn't care about talent or career production. He was overreacting to both McKenna's 2 fluke home runs, and Urias's slow start this season. Urias is an actual gold glove winner, while McKenna is only a good defender in the minds of Hyde and Elias - McKenna has actually killed the Orioles with his glove/arm/routes in his limited appearances. Urias has a long track record of slightly above average offensive production, which makes him a valuable player considering he's a good defender. McKenna is a terrible overall hitter and the stats reflect that. His glove isn't worth platooning him on the bench, or even a roster spot.

Urias is a way, way better player than McKenna. There's no convincing argument you can possibly make using facts and statistics that would prove otherwise.

I hope he gets claimed, but most front offices recognize a bad player when they see one.

Hard to do that when he's only allowed to start once every 4 or 5 games, or less. The way Elias and Hyde have handled Kjerstad's playing time has been terrible. He never should have been called up to rot on the bench. Westburg and Cowser were mishandled the same way, they both would have been much bigger contributors last season if they had been given everyday playing time instead of getting platooned/benched for significantly less talented veterans.

McKenna was terrible tonight. Way too frequently when he gets put into the game as a defensive replacement going back to last season, he looks like he's never played the outfield before. Santander would have thrown out the runner at plate easily, and Santander doesn't take bad routes in the outfield (McKenna consistently does so). Hyde can't make the mistake of bringing in McKenna to replace Santander in RF for "defense" again, but Hyde definitely will while McKenna is still on the roster. It's frustrating that both Elias and Hyde refuse to recognize that benching Mullins against lefties, sliding Cowser over to CF, and playing Kjerstad in LF not only makes the team better, but also gives Heston the best opportunity to get playing time. Elias and Hyde have handled Kjerstad's playing time extremely poorly. Elias's infatuation with McKenna is ridiculous. He's a bad baseball player that no other team's decision-makers value. Except for Elias and Hyde.

2 more home runs for Jud tonight.

Agree with the premise of the OP. Holliday should be converted to CF because Westburg is a good defender at both 2B and 3B. Holliday is average at 2B at best. As it stands right now, Holliday doesn't have a place on the major league team this season because Mayo is more major league ready, and the team needs another righty bat to balance the lineup. It's simply not sustainable to keep trotting out Mateo and McKenna, no matter how hot or lucky they are right now against LHP. It's in Holliday's best interests to learn and start playing CF as well because CF is a much more premium defensive position, and a glamor position when it comes to his first free agent contract/extension. If future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts can move around the diamond to accomodate his team and win games, so can Holliday. I'm not saying Holliday is a future Hall of Famer, but there's no excuse for not converting him to a new position that will help the team.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FREE NORBY