The BRob Effect

[Frobby]

If you add up all the production at second base this year..you have about a .250 hitter with around 50-60 RBI's 11-12 HR's so far.Not horrible .

It's not great, but you also have to consider how we did at 2B last year.

2012: .213/.273/.323

2013: .241/.300/.366

A .666 OPS isn't spectacular, but it sure beats .596.

[webbrick2010]

The O's are now 25-24 in game played by Brian Roberts

23-23 since his return on June 30th

That sure was winning ball, getting caught stealing at 3B, with the 2-3-4 hitters due up.

I have zero doubt that Brian Roberts will finish with a losing record for the 13th season out of 13 seasons

Death, taxes, and Brian Roberts on a losing team are life's certainties

[MDK02]

The O's are now 25-24 in game played by Brian Roberts

23-23 since his return on June 30th

That sure was winning ball, getting caught stealing at 3B, with the 2-3-4 hitters due up.

I have zero doubt that Brian Roberts will finish with a losing record for the 13th season out of 13 seasons

Death, taxes, and Brian Roberts on a losing team are life's certainties

I'm going to guess, you don't really like Brian Roberts.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Bad choice by Roberts today but he's hardly been the reason for our demise.

[Guest]

I like Brob and all but i think it's time to call Schoop we gotta find out if he can play at this level.

[TonySoprano]

The O's are now 25-24 in game played by Brian Roberts

23-23 since his return on June 30th

That sure was winning ball, getting caught stealing at 3B, with the 2-3-4 hitters due up.

I have zero doubt that Brian Roberts will finish with a losing record for the 13th season out of 13 seasons

Death, taxes, and Brian Roberts on a losing team are life's certainties

That sure was winning ball when he hit the GS on Sunday.

[Frobby]

The O's are now 25-24 in game played by Brian Roberts

23-23 since his return on June 30th

That sure was winning ball, getting caught stealing at 3B, with the 2-3-4 hitters due up.

I have zero doubt that Brian Roberts will finish with a losing record for the 13th season out of 13 seasons

Death, taxes, and Brian Roberts on a losing team are life's certainties

Death, taxes, and negative posts from you are life's certainties. Are you this negative about everything in life? It seems all you do around here is complain and put a negative spin on everything that goes wrong (and half the things that go right).

Stealing 3B with one out is a pretty good play. The saying goes, never make the first or third out at 3B. Making the second out there is defensible, because if the steal had been successful, Roberts could have scored on a sac fly, a ground ball to the middle infielders, a wild pitch, etc. It just didn't work out. As to the Orioles' 23-23 record since BRob returned, to lay that on him is laughable. I'm not saying he's been great, but the team's mediocre record in that time has a lot more to do with things like the bullpen's performance and other things unrelated to BRob.

[Barnaby Graves]

I've been pretty happy with Brian Roberts this season... part of that is due to luck because he has been unreal in the clutch and at the same time I don't really believe in clutch hitting. He actually isn't hitting that great but he's hitting better than I thought he would and what hits he does get usually count. Too bad about today.

[Il BuonO]

Death, taxes, and negative posts from you are life's certainties. Are you this negative about everything in life? It seems all you do around here is complain and put a negative spin on everything that goes wrong (and half the things that go right).

Stealing 3B with one out is a pretty good play. The saying goes, never make the first or third out at 3B. Making the second out there is defensible, because if the steal had been successful, Roberts could have scored on a sac fly, a ground ball to the middle infielders, a wild pitch, etc. It just didn't work out. As to the Orioles' 23-23 record since BRob returned, to lay that on him is laughable. I'm not saying he's been great, but the team's mediocre record in that time has a lot more to do with things like the bullpen's performance and other things unrelated to BRob.

It is in no way Roberts fault for the way the team is playing, but it was a dumb play. I lost count how many times Lackey threw to 2B trying to keep him close. Making the out at 3B is not the point, he ran at the wrong time. At least give your body a chance to recover after the pick offs. Wait a couple of pitches and get a walking lead one time when Pedroia doesn't draw a throw. And Saltalamacchia was also alerted that he was thinking about it. It's almost as if Roberts was convinced it was 2009 and he could steal on anyone at anytime. It cost us a run.

Stealing 3B is only a good play if you can make it. Yes, the saying says don't make the first and third outs at 3B, but I know a certain manager who said don't give away any outs. I think everyone would agree that Roberts still has enough speed to score on most hits, forget about MM's HR. He was already in scoring position, no need to risk that then. Wait for a better opportunity. And one pitch would have made a world of difference.

[Il BuonO]

I've been pretty happy with Brian Roberts this season... part of that is due to luck because he has been unreal in the clutch and at the same time I don't really believe in clutch hitting. He actually isn't hitting that great but he's hitting better than I thought he would and what hits he does get usually count. Too bad about today.

I am, too. I want to qualify that with my previous post. He's surprised me for the most part.

[Can_of_corn]

It is in no way Roberts fault for the way the team is playing, but it was a dumb play. I lost count how many times Lackey threw to 2B trying to keep him close. Making the out at 3B is not the point, he ran at the wrong time. At least give your body a chance to recover after the pick offs. Wait a couple of pitches and get a walking lead one time when Pedroia doesn't draw a throw. And Saltalamacchia was also alerted that he was thinking about it. It's almost as if Roberts was convinced it was 2009 and he could steal on anyone at anytime. It cost us a run.

Stealing 3B is only a good play if you can make it. Yes, the saying says don't make the first and third outs at 3B, but I know a certain manager who said don't give away any outs. I think everyone would agree that Roberts still has enough speed to score on most hits, forget about MM's HR. He was already in scoring position, no need to risk that then. Wait for a better opportunity. And one pitch would have made a world of difference.

I don't like saying it cost them a run. It did cost them a baserunner and an out which is bad enough.

[bpilktree]

I don't like saying it cost them a run. It did cost them a baserunner and an out which is bad enough.

Yeah pitchers pitch a lot differently with runners on and in particular a situation like that when you have a guy on second and have to be near perfect and bear down. Then all the sudden your pitching with none on and two outs. He easily took a deep breath and lost concentration on that pitch because after the caught stealing thought wel i can get out of this inning easy. I know I thought that as soon as he got caught stealing that we wouldn't score that inning.

Maybe we should call this the Markakis effect since he never played on a winning team and last season we were playing around .500 and then he gets hurt and what happens we get hotter then a firecracker and make the playoffs. This year when Nick was playing pretty well early in the year we were 10 games over .500. Since then we have been playing average about.500 and Nick has been very average as well. If Nick is having his usual season this team is in a lot different shape. I look at this season and the one run loss clearly is why we struggled the last 100 games or so but Nick's struggles, Hammell not pitching anywhere near last season, and Johnson struggles are the main reasons we are were we are.

[CA-ORIOLE]

I didn't see it and I think it's fair to discuss the play. I just think it's funny that a guy who has a very good success rate in his career should take advice from you about knowing on which pitch he should attempt his steal.

Roberts was lucky he didn't get thrown out at second with a great jump against a subpar catcher. Pretty sure Palmer pointed out he really doesn't have the speed to do that stuff anymore .... and he's right.

[Il BuonO]

I didn't see it and I think it's fair to discuss the play. I just think it's funny that a guy who has a very good success rate in his career should take advice from you about knowing on which pitch he should attempt his steal.

Well, I think many people who have watched that thought it was dumb. Here's what Drungo said in another thread. Maybe you'll think it's a little more palatable coming from someone with 30,000+ posts.

Yea, I was screaming about that. Just mindlessly stupid. One of my (fact based) pet peeves is that basestealing is usually counter-productive, only isn't when you have almost no chance of getting caught, but people will yap on about how aggressiveness is always good.

His career numbers have little to do with his eroding speed and lack of judgement. As others have noted he was almost thrown out at 2B running on a guy who has the worst rate by pitchers for SB success. And 3B is an easier throw for the catcher.

I'll say it again. He was already in scoring position why risk it? If the pitcher falls asleep and you can take third and get there to be in position for a sac fly sure, but Lackey and Pedroia were clearly aware of him and keeping him close to the bag. The play wasn't close. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

[Frobby]

His career numbers have little to do with his eroding speed and lack of judgement. As others have noted he was almost thrown out at 2B running on a guy who has the worst rate by pitchers for SB success. And 3B is an easier throw for the catcher.

I'll say it again. He was already in scoring position why risk it? If the pitcher falls asleep and you can take third and get there to be in position for a sac fly sure, but Lackey and Pedroia were clearly aware of him and keeping him close to the bag. The play wasn't close. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I did not see the play or the steal of 2B that preceeded it. However, I will observe that for BRob, stealing 3B has been a very successful proposition in his career. BRob has a 77% success rate stealing 2B, but an 89% success rate stealing 3B. Therefore, the fact that the play was very close at 2B, or that 3B is an easier throw for a catcher, doesn't tell me that BRob should have thought that stealing 3B was a bad risk. And as I already posted, stealing 3B with one out puts a runner in position to score multiple ways without the need for a base hit, so I don't think the fact that he was already in scoring position makes it a bad play, either.

The part that bothers me more (again, I didn't see the play or what preceded it) are the reports that Lackey had already thrown to 2B and taken steps to prevent BRob from getting a good jump. BRob certainly should have factored that in.

In any event, even if he made a bad decision to run (based on the jump he was getting), I take issue with the poster who described the attempt as "selfish." I don't think BRob is running to stroke his ego or pad his SB stats. He's trying to help the team. And obviously he didn't know Manny would hit a HR in that at bat.