Sessh

Martin has been playing well lately. I didn't realize he had such a strong season at AA last season; .300/.368/.439/.807 with a K/BB of 86/44 with 25 steals, 29 doubles, 8 triples and 6 homers in 453 ABs. It would be nice if he could keep up what he's doing now.

He said coconut coir. It's the stringy fibers that make up the husk. Really tough. Commonly used in agriculture/horticulture, mushroom growing and vermicomposting. Highly absorptive.

Martin OPS'ing over .700 in his last eight games or so now. Good to see.

Great reflexes there by Martin. Man he's fast.

..and can someone help me to stop saying "there" after everything I say.

Great throw from Wilkerson there. That's a party foul by Alberto there.

Yes, then he asked if you could eat the soil because it has coconut coir in it.

Nice play by Mancini there.

Marte emulating Ruben Sierra up there.

Great play by Lamb.

Pretty sure they are trying to stretch Brooks into a starter which I doubt will be fruitful.

Martin with another hit and RBI.

I liked the throw better. Wilkerson hit it well, though.

Diaz was excellent in AA ball before being traded, but hasn't been as good since coming to Bowie. I'm in favor of promoting him. He's been in AA since 2017 and has accrued 683 ABs and hit .284 with an .841 OPS and that's with the regression since coming to Bowie. Also, a pretty outstanding K/BB ratio as well with 149K's to 96BB in AA which is better than what he did in A ball of 151/67. Either promote Stewart or trade him. He's 8 for his last 38 (.211) and not doing too well at the moment, but he should get a chance somewhere if not here. I think we've given Smith enough time. If not Stewart, maybe Williams, but he's unlikely to be a future piece. Either way, it's time to end the experiment with Smith. He's a liability in the field and not good enough with the bat to make up for it and his arm is getting exposed every game it seems. Guys are running on him without hesitation. Hays is hot, but I want to see more than 21 games in AAA for him. I'm looking for him next year, Mountcastle too. I imagine we may see both in September in the last year of expanded 40 man rosters.

Me too. I was surprised we let him go really. It's even more frustrating that Tyler Herb hasn't done squat in Norfolk and hasn't done much of anything noteworthy since 2017 while Yastrzemski had an .801 OPS at AAA that year. Just the pedigree alone should have earned him a good look here. He tore it up in AAA immediately after the trade and is doing a hell of a lot better than Smith. We may not have even signed Broxton at all. Oh well, nothing we can do about it now. Just another bad deal, but can't blame the previous administration for this one.

They used PEDs on a lamb to help the lamb win a contest. The prize: slaughter! That seems fair. Shouldn't it win another year of life or something?

I understand the fascination with velocity and all that. R.A. Dickey didn't have a major league arm either and won a Cy Young award. Plenty of soft tossers in the league now and in the past finding success, but as Palmer said several times during the telecast, a command guy without command throwing in the mid to upper 80's is not going to work. Plenty of guys have and are succeeding with similar velocities. It's not impossible, but Eshelman needs to get his command together because it was nowhere to be seen against Boston. I don't think he's been at his best yet. He won the Paul Owens award in Philly which made him the organization's best minor league pitcher just two years ago and it's been rough since. I'd like him to get every opportunity just like anyone else that comes up to prove themselves. That's what this year is about. I am not in favor of quick hooks this year and probably not next year. Give them all the time they need to either hang themselves or succeed. I will say that another clunker against the Angels will definitely not be good at all especially if Brooks pitches well again and Bundy is still here. I think a minimum of three more starts is where he's at right now. Seeing how a guy bounces back from a disaster like that will say a lot about his makeup which is valuable information, so I am looking forward to it.

I know what he did. He gave up a 2-R HR on pitch 100 of his second start, but pitched well that game overall especially with the seven strikeouts and only six baserunners allowed. The only bad start was this last one. He gave the team a chance to win in the other two games and that's really all we're looking for. I would also note that Eshelman had nerves in the first inning of his debut, but put up four scoreless innings after that. I think both were solid starts overall for a bottom-of-the-rotation starter, but yesterday was awful.

Well, he pitched well in his first start, was decent enough in his second (gave the team a chance to win, but unfortunately TB almost no-hit us that game) and was terrible in one start. I'd give Eshelman at least three more starts before making a decision on him. He had one clunker and had dominant stretches in both the other games. I do agree that we'll see Straily again, but it's still unclear what things will look like when that time comes. Brooks may or may not pan out, but has been decent so far. There's a chance Bundy is traded though maybe not a huge chance. Wojo isn't out of the woods despite the outstanding start as he's probably not that good, but maybe he figured something out. Eshelman is on the bottom of the heirarchy right now, but at least give him the same chance someone like Ynoa got first. He was given two months to improve before losing his rotation spot.

It's there. Broxton like catch.

Well, Smith can't play D, can't throw, average speed at best and can't hit well enough to offset all of that. Wilkerson can play D (CF at that), can throw, has above average speed and has been hitting .306 with an .889 OPS over the last two weeks. He can also pitch (sortof) in a blowout. Smith just isn't very good. He'd have to hit like Ortiz to offset his liabilities.

Smith over Wilkerson? No way. I'd take Wilkerson any day. He's better.

I don't really want to trade Mancini. He's such a likeable guy in addition to his performance, but dealing him is the smart thing to do provided we can get decent value for him. Bundy could be gone as well. Mancini, Bundy, Givens and Villar are the big four.

Orioles blow out Red Sox, Red Sox blow out Orioles, Orioles one-hit Red Sox. Nice to see this team stand up to a much better team like this.

Very Broxton-like there from Wilkerson. Nice catch.