25 Nuggets

Mt Fuji was throwing gas, Coulombe was filthy and Cano (with a new pitch?) looked dominant again. Bullpen struck out eight of the last nine Yankee batters.

Message board history? No of course not. It could however be the the most over the top hyperbolic post on the OH this season, to date. Well, either that or the Adam Frazier thread

This. They all take turns jockeying for best hitter. Meanwhile the team has very few holes in the lineup, especially now that Mateo is getting fewer at bats.

Franchise? No of course not. It could however be the most important 48 hours of the season, to date. Well, either that or getting Adam Frazier

My goodness, a magic number thread. Sure feels like it's been a while.

well... there have been surprisingly few teams that, post steroid-era, had a full time DH giving them 30 HR a season.

I agree in that any significant moves are to be made in the off season. Moves will be made prior to, or even after the deadline, but they will be like the Fuji acquisition.

Doesn't look that bad to me.

Cursory look Orioles - 10 wins by 5 runs or more, 21 losses by 3 runs or less Cubs - 23 wins by 5 runs or more, 31 losses by 3 runs or less

One stat, speaking of "clutchiness", that I like is Win Probability Added (WPA). That's a stat that naturally reflects how a player does when it matters most. But like most, this stat tells you what a player has done, and is not all that predictive. If you want to know how a player will do, the "pillar" stats are the really raw ones, like line drive rate, exit velocity, etc. The ones that teams actually use to determine who to draft or sign.

The Orioles are not dependent to Holliday to succeed. They have a lot of top positional prospects and young major leaguers. Aye vote, no thought necessary.

Below average compared across the league; above average compared with other 2B

Agree with the OP - I expect the team to improve at the margins in the rotation and bullpen and give up a lot less than they are capable of. I would not be surprised if there are as many as three pitching additions with one starter and two more in the pen. But all smaller deals.

You could theoretically get a DH bat like Ohtani's and an arm like Ohtani's and still not give up as much as you would to get Ohtani. All it would cost is an extra roster spot, which isn't as important in the playoffs with shortened pitching staffs. Orrrrr maybe I'm wrong Idunno.

Scott Alexander is a lefty and an above average one; not a strikeout pitcher, but he can make use of the new left field. Free agent at the end of the year. He may not be enough for Mateo. They can get the Rogers twins, that would be amusing... Taylor is lefty, Tyler is righty. Both are 32, have career FIPs around 3.2 and WHIPs around 1.15. Taylor has more service time and is owed $12 mil in '24 and '25. Tyler enters arbitration for the first time next season. Really not sure if breaking them up would screw with their psyche but Tyler makes more sense financially. Doubt they give up Camilo Doval, but he would be the biggest fish. Young closer, plenty of control, lots of strikeouts, career 6.6 H/9, career 0.6 HR/9, etc etc. That would be an impressive get and would cost more than Mateo I would think. Ryan Walker is another possibility but he's a rookie whose peripherals don't look as good as his raw numbers.

I have a ChipTunes arrangement of March of the Pigs and it's weirdly remarkable

Oh that was Santander's 100th career HR? Congrats Tony!

Gotta extend that run differential

Any doubts Bradish starts game 1 of whatever postseason series the Orioles end up with?

Our pitchers thank him for his sacrifice.

From Baseball Reference: WAA, which stands for Wins Above Average, is a statistical measure that defines a player's worth in terms of his contribution as compared to the average major league player. WAA is strongly correlated to team performance, that is the sum of WAA by all of a team's players will almost always represent its final record. Three teams in the majors are running away from the field in the WAA race - they are unsurprisingly the Braves, Rays and Rangers. We should know by now that the Orioles are outperforming their runs scored/runs given number in the W-L column. They are seventh in the majors in team WAA, in a cluster with Minnesota, Toronto, Houston, Arizona, Boston, LA and San Diego. Here is where they rate by position as of the All Star Break, which is what I want to show in the thread. PITCHING - 13th (+0.7) / POSITIONAL - 8th (+4.0) SP - 17th (-0.4): Gibson, Kremer, Wells, Bradish, Rodriguez, Irvin, Akin RP - 5th (+1.1): Baumann, Bautista, Baker, Coulombe, Cano, Perez, Voth, Akin, Gillaspie, Zimmermann, Givens, Vespi, Irvin, Garrett, Bazardo, Wells, Vallimont, McKenna, Lester, Hall C - 9th (+0.3): Rutschman, McCann, Bemboom 1B - 17th (-0.5): Mountcastle, O'Hearn, Urias, Santander, Lester 2B - 10th (+0.4): Frazier, Urias, Westburg, Ortiz, Vavra 3B - 6th (+1.1): Henderson, Urias, Westburg, Ortiz, Lester, Vavra SS - 13th (+0.5): Mateo, Henderson, Ortiz LF - 6th (+0.8): Hays, McKenna, Vavra, Stowers, Hicks, Cowser, Santander, Frazier, O'Hearn CF - 9th (+1.1): Mullins, Hicks, McKenna, Hays, Cowser RF - 17th (-0.1): Santander, McKenna, Vavra, O'Hearn, Stowers, Hays, Frazier, Hicks, Cowser DH - 5th (+0.4): Santander, Rutschman, O'Hearn, Henderson, Mountcastle, McCann, Hicks, Mullins, Lester, Urias, Hays, Vavra, Frazier, McKenna PH - 10th (0.0): McKenna, Frazier, O'Hearn, Vavra, Urias, Henderson, Rutschman, Mullins, Ortiz, McCann, Lester, Stowers, Mountcastle, Hicks, Westburg, Santander, Mateo, Hays

He's been above average with the bat for a major league 2B, so no. Below average in the field, it appears so. Baltimore is 10th in the majors in value out of their 2B. This includes the majority from Frazier, as well as minority %s from Westburg, Urias, Ortiz and Vavra.

With the benefit of hindsight, Frazier was a good signing. Westburg is here and producing, and Henderson/Urias/Mateo are all still here, and Frazier still has a positive role on the team. That 8 million might have been spent better, but it wasn't spent badly.

Don't be surprised if it is relief pitching they get instead of starting pitching. There will be some good targets available.