How do the O's push a starter with a 2.74 ERA over his last four starts out of the rotation?

[wildcard]

The answer is they don't.

Zach Britton's last four starts have been great for 5 innings and now he extended to 7 innings in his last start. He is earning his spot in the rotation.

With Chen returning on Tuesday, someone has to go (probably to the pen) from the rotation. Tillman, Gonzalez, Chen, Britton, Hammel and Feldman makes one too many starters for a 5 man rotation. Right now Hammel's 5.19 ERA sticks out as the one who does not belong. But he has a start on Sunday against the Yankees to make his case to continue his streak of not missing a start.

Having 6 starters for 5 slots is a good thing for the O's. They already made room in the pen when they traded Strop. Now who becomes another long reliever along side McFarland? The answer is coming over the next few days.

[ShoelesJoe]

Why not go with a six man rotation? It seemed to work well for the last month of 2012. Of course you'd have to lose a body out of the pen or off the bench, but another starter is probably a better use of resources.

[Roll Tide]

Why not go with a six man rotation? It seemed to work well for the last month of 2012. Of course you'd have to lose a body out of the pen or off the bench, but another starter is probably a better use of resources.

The Orioles need the extra bullpen arm. The pen pitches 3 innings nearly every night. I suspect Britton goes to the pen or the minors as Buck will likely stick with Hammel. Otherwise I'd imagine its possible that Feldman might find his way to the pen.

[weams]

Why not go with a six man rotation? It seemed to work well for the last month of 2012. Of course you'd have to lose a body out of the pen or off the bench, but another starter is probably a better use of resources.

They answer would be that September is when roster expansion makes that feasible.

[Ripken]

So put Hammel in the pen. He's not been good all season.

R - Tillman

L - Chen

R - Gonzo

L - Britton

R - Feldman

[wildcard]

Last July Buck and DD moved three non performing starters out of the rotation in Matusz, Hunter and Arrieta. They promoted Tillman, Gonzalez and Britton. Buck and DD are not afraid to make moves to improve the team. So far this July they have acquired Feldman to boost the rotation. If moving veteran Hammel to the pen is the right move, I see them making that move.

Buck keep saying "It's about the team"

[wildcard]

I guess we'll know in about a week, won't we? You comparing Hammel to Arrieta, Matusz, and Hunter of last year? Not even close. Take a look at Hammel's last 6 starts. He's hardly on the verge of losing his job.

OK, Last 6 starts by Hammel. 35.2 IP, 22 ER, 5.55 ERA. That is not going to keep him in the rotation. Not when the O's have five other starters that will be under a 4.04 ERA.

[PaulCascio]

I understand your point, but Hamel has had a history of not pitching very well. Last year's success went against that, but now he seems to be back where he was. In fact, it was a trip to the bullpen with his previous team that helped right him.

IMO, Hamel has been given enough of a chance, he just not getting it done.

[wildcard]

My mistake. His 6th start was a clunker with 5 runs given up in 3 innings. The two starts before that, 6 IP, 2 ER and 8 IP, 2 ER. The 5 starts since.

6.2, 2 ER

6.0, 4 ER

6.0, 4 ER

7.0, 2 ER

7.0, 5 ER

That's something like a 3.80 ERA over his last 5 starts.

I shutter to think what Britton's ERA would be if he had been asked to finish the 6th inning in his previous starts. It's not as much as me making a case for Hammel, which I can, it's you not knowing Buck by now. Hammel got it done last year. He's got credit. He's also, despite being mediocre this year, given Buck innings. Britton has struggled to get through 6 in every start, except yesterday. You say he's stretched out. Ha. He was stretched out at Norfolk. There was nothing stopping him from going 7 before yesterday, except him.

You need to check your math.

5 starts, 32.7 IP, 17 ER, 4.68 ERA is almost a run per game more then 3.80 that you stated.

I think Hammel has a ton riding on his start on Sunday.

[cb3fsu]

<PRE>

Split G IP ER ERA PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/BB BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+

1st inning 17 17.0 10 5.29 76 70 10 22 4 0 2 1 0 5 16 3.20 .314 .355 .457 .812 32 2 0 0 1 0 0 .377 102 118

2nd inning 17 17.0 6 3.18 76 70 9 18 4 0 1 1 0 5 19 3.80 .257 .303 .357 .660 25 1 0 0 1 0 3 .333 66 85

3rd inning 17 17.0 9 4.76 73 63 9 17 6 0 2 1 0 7 6 0.86 .270 .342 .460 .803 29 2 1 0 2 0 0 .263 99 125

4th inning 17 16.0 10 5.62 65 60 9 13 2 0 6 0 0 3 10 3.33 .217 .277 .550 .827 33 1 2 0 0 0 0 .159 99 115

5th inning 16 14.2 6 3.68 60 51 4 13 2 0 1 1 0 8 8 1.00 .255 .367 .353 .720 18 4 1 0 0 1 0 .286 84 98

6th inning 14 13.0 8 5.54 56 51 7 14 1 1 4 0 0 2 8 4.00 .275 .309 .569 .878 29 0 1 1 1 0 0 .250 113 130

7th inning 7 5.0 9 16.20 30 23 7 10 1 0 2 1 0 3 5 1.67 .435 .517 .739 1.256 17 0 2 1 1 0 0 .471 210 253

8th inning 1 1.0 0 0.00 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .250 .250 .250 .500 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 27 48

Innings 1-3 17 51.0 25 4.41 225 203 28 57 14 0 5 3 0 17 41 2.41 .281 .333 .424 .757 86 5 1 0 4 0 3 .323 89 109

Innings 4-6 17 43.2 24 4.95 181 162 20 40 5 1 11 1 0 13 26 2.00 .247 .317 .494 .810 80 5 4 1 1 1 0 .230 99 115

Innings 7-9 7 6.0 9 13.50 34 27 7 11 1 0 2 1 0 3 6 2.00 .407 .485 .667 1.152 18 0 2 1 1 0 0 .450 186 235

</PRE>

Provided by <a href="http://www.sports-reference.com/sharing.shtml?utm_source=direct&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=ShareTool">Baseball-Reference.com</a>: <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=hammeja01&year=2013&t=p&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=ShareTool#innng">View Original Table</a><br>Generated 7/5/2013.

maybe Hammel should just be taken out after the 6th

[TradeAngelos]

The answer is they don't.

Zach Britton's last four starts have been great for 5 innings and now he extended to 7 innings in his last start. He is earning his spot in the rotation.

With Chen returning on Tuesday, someone has to go (probably to the pen) from the rotation. Tillman, Gonzalez, Chen, Britton, Hammel and Feldman makes one too many starters for a 5 man rotation. Right now Hammel's 5.19 ERA sticks out as the one who does not belong. But he has a start on Sunday against the Yankees to make his case to continue his streak of not missing a start.

Having 6 starters for 5 slots is a good thing for the O's. They already made room in the pen when they traded Strop. Now who becomes another long reliever along side McFarland? The answer is coming over the next few days.

Hammel is a vet, he stays no matter how the young guy is pitching according to Buck.

I mean what would that say to the clubhouse if you benched a prized veteran mid season?

[DrungoHazewood]

How do the O's push a starter with a 2.74 ERA over his last four starts out of the rotation?

They look at the totality of his record and those of the competition and decide that he's wildly unlikley to continue to be a 2.74 ERA pitcher, and the guys he's up against are probably better. In those four starts Britton has allowed 23 hits, 10 walks, and has only struck out 10. When you're allowing almost 1.5 baserunners per inning you're not going to maintain a 2.75 ERA.

Both Hammel and Britton have component ERAs in the 4.50-5.00 range. Hammel probably gets the benefit of the doubt because he has better stuff and pitched far better last year. And doesn't have 43 walks in 90 AAA innings in the last year+.

[DrungoHazewood]

Hammel is a vet, he stays no matter how the young guy is pitching according to Buck.

I mean what would that say to the clubhouse if you benched a prized veteran mid season?

Especially when most of the kid's success is due to the defense keeping his many baserunners from scoring.

[DrungoHazewood]

That is not going to keep him in the rotation. Not when the O's have five other starters that will be under a 4.04 ERA.

Buck doesn't manage on a rolling total that ignores peripherals and everything that happened before three weeks ago. You're the one who assigns outsized importance to each and every start.

[LookinUp]

I can't be the only one who finds it laughable that people think we have too many good SPs for our rotation, right?

I'm pretty happy with our rotation right now, don't get me wrong. I think we have 5-6 guys who give us a good chance to win most nights out. If it were up to me, in the next week I'd promote Chen to SP and Garcia to bullpen, and demote Britton and Gausman to continue to get innings.

The only sort of creative thing I would consider if I were the O's would be to DL a couple of guys around the All-Star break to give them a little bit of a longer layoff then the break allows. Johnson seems like an obvious candidate. I'm not sure if a starter sticks out as looking overly tired these days. If anyone, it would be Hammel, but he might need just the opposite.

[Edit: perhaps Wieters is the most obvious candidate for a DL stint, but we're talking about pitching in this thread.]