Beef Supreme

Like the catcher cross ups across the league, this may be the result of the suspended Spring Training and shortened pre-season practice.

OK. Here's a softball: It's 2020: start Gary Pettis or Dwight Smith Jr. in Left Field?

Probably not much with a real baseball, but likely 70+ based on arm action and coordination. This is the official Wiffle Ball TM.

Roll a fatty... ?Bating? ?Cow Tipping? ?Eating Taco Bell?

The good Tigers started Pettis. Similar. ? Offensively, maybe.

It doesn't mean he is getting play on the side.

I knew I could buzz a wiffle ball at a very high mph, but...

Been impressed by Brown the past two years. We fans are fortunate to have Thorne and Brown and Ben.

Turns out, wiffle balls are being thrown at 97 mph over 30 feet distance,

Oh, well that's a good omen. Orioles going to lose...

How many total sneezes?

But, but, but...hits are just luck. Eovaldi is King!

You are still being too nice.

I'm at my wit's end with Dwight Smith Jr. True, I have dumped on DJ Stewart since the day he was drafted for having no value beyond DH, and then only if he could hit enough for a team to carry a bat-only player. And I might have been prescient. Doesn't matter though -- the Orioles have to give playing time to young, inexperienced players to see what they might bring to the team, if anything. They can't keep throwing away valuable games and at-bats on players who are poor and will not be improving. They need to focus on evaluating the unknowns. Dwight Smith Jr. is the most easily cut-able Orioles since Jeff Stone.

Eye test: Scott doesn't look to be guiding pitches this year. The delivery looks smooth even when he misses his spots.

Santander is good, at the very least. He's a legitimate MLB hitter. And he probably is still improving. Maybe he's not an All Star. Or a HOFer. But he is a player who could find a home on a dozen MLB rosters, if not more. I have been pumping Santander for three years running and I am not going to stop now. Where's Roy when I need him?

I would be thrilled to see DJS instead of DSJ.

My profile of a "5th outfielder" includes being a speedy defensive replacement. Not a slow, low effort defender who appears to be disinterested in the game but might hit a homerun every 40 PAs.

The news of Thorne returning has just increased my expected quality of life over the next six weeks.

Don't extend him.

Are you saying Elias failed to properly manipulate Mullins' service time!? Horrors!!! How will the team afford to pay the arbitration for a 32 year old pinch-runner? They will need him to chase their fourth consecutive World Series title.

Speaking of reactions slowing down: Not to belabor the point and post this old photo yet again, but he looks asleep on his feet. The body is turned on but the brain is turned off. I wonder whether a change to his medication would help. Couldn't hurt, could it? And I am not being mean-spirited by suggesting it.

Yeah, but he would still have to make contact with the ball. Warning track power is one thing but not being able to get the bat on the ball is an insurmountable problem.

I was about to use that very word, yes.

And Smith trots after balls. Doesn't run hard. Then lobs tosses in; doesn't throw hard. There looks to be zero effort from DSJ.