Tommy Hunter AGAIN!

[Frobby]

Again, its his first year. Some of you guys are expecting him to be Mo Rivera just because he was named the closer.

No, we're not. We're expecting him to be the Tommy Hunter from last year (2.81 ERA, 0.98 WHIP), or something close to it. A 4.40 ERA and 1.67 WHIP is not going to cut it. Those are almost the exact numbers that Kevin Gregg posted during his season as our closer, and they're not acceptable.

By the way, I completely reject the idea that we need to cut Hunter some slack because it's his first year as the closer. We've had many pitchers come in and do a good job in their first year of closing.

Jorge Julio: 1.99 ERA, 1.21 WHIP

BJ Ryan: 2.27 ERA, 1.14 WHIP

Chris Ray: 2.73 ERA, 1.09 WHIP

Jim Johnson: 2.49 ERA, 1.02 WHIP

[MurphDogg]

No, we're not. We're expecting him to be the Tommy Hunter from last year (2.81 ERA, 0.98 WHIP), or something close to it. A 4.40 ERA and 1.67 WHIP is not going to cut it. Those are almost the exact numbers that Kevin Gregg posted during his season as our closer, and they're not acceptable.

Gregg's strikeout rate was 7.99 and his walk rate was 6.03. Hunter's strikeout rate is 8.79 and his walk rate is 2.51. Gregg's BABIP was .295 and Hunter's is .422. There will be a regression to the mean.

[Frobby]

Gregg's strikeout rate was 7.99 and his walk rate was 6.03. Hunter's strikeout rate is 8.79 and his walk rate is 2.51. Gregg's BABIP was .295 and Hunter's is .422. There will be a regression to the mean.

Look, I expect Hunter to do better than this, and I take your point about Gregg's walk rate. At the same time, I don't think Hunter's .422 BABIP right now is an accident. He is leaving the ball in poor locations and therefore is getting poor results. One reason Gregg walked a lot of guys is that he nibbled a lot and got himself in trouble. That led to a lot of walks, but at least his strikes were in decent locations. Hunter throws an awful lot of pitches in the middle of the plate, so he doesn't walk guys, but he's getting hit hard because of it.

[MurphDogg]

Look, I expect Hunter to do better than this, and I take your point about Gregg's walk rate. At the same time, I don't think Hunter's .422 BABIP right now is an accident. He is leaving the ball in poor locations and therefore is getting poor results. One reason Gregg walked a lot of guys is that he nibbled a lot and got himself in trouble. That led to a lot of walks, but at least his strikes were in decent locations. Hunter throws an awful lot of pitches in the middle of the plate, so he doesn't walk guys, but he's getting hit hard because of it.

It is sort of a chicken vs the egg argument. Is Hunter's BABIP high because he has an unusually high 31.1 line drive rate or is the 31.1 line drive rate also due to regress to his historical 20 percent line drive rate? Perhaps someone that is better than me at charting PITCHf/X can find a chart of the balls put in play this year compared to last year. Maybe that would show more pitches up or in the middle of the plate.

[weams]

Gregg's strikeout rate was 7.99 and his walk rate was 6.03. Hunter's strikeout rate is 8.79 and his walk rate is 2.51. Gregg's BABIP was .295 and Hunter's is .422. There will be a regression to the mean.

Look, I expect Hunter to do better than this, and I take your point about Gregg's walk rate. At the same time, I don't think Hunter's .422 BABIP right now is an accident. He is leaving the ball in poor locations and therefore is getting poor results. One reason Gregg walked a lot of guys is that he nibbled a lot and got himself in trouble. That led to a lot of walks, but at least his strikes were in decent locations. Hunter throws an awful lot of pitches in the middle of the plate, so he doesn't walk guys, but he's getting hit hard because of it.

It is sort of a chicken vs the egg argument. Is Hunter's BABIP high because he has an unusually high 31.1 line drive rate or is the 31.1 line drive rate also due to regress to his historical 20 percent line drive rate? Perhaps someone that is better than me at charting PITCHf/X can find a chart of the balls put in play this year compared to last year. Maybe that would show more pitches up or in the middle of the plate.

Good stuff here. I'd love to see how it ends up.

[Frobby]

It is sort of a chicken vs the egg argument. Is Hunter's BABIP high because he has an unusually high 31.1 line drive rate or is the 31.1 line drive rate also due to regress to his historical 20 percent line drive rate? Perhaps someone that is better than me at charting PITCHf/X can find a chart of the balls put in play this year compared to last year. Maybe that would show more pitches up or in the middle of the plate.

There is a site that tracks pitch location and results for individual pitchers, baseballsavant.com. I don't have time to look there today, but feel free to check it out, it's a great site.

[Il BuonO]

Look, I expect Hunter to do better than this....

At the same time, I don't think Hunter's .422 BABIP right now is an accident.

He is leaving the ball in poor locations and therefore is getting poor results.

Hunter throws an awful lot of pitches in the middle of the plate, so he doesn't walk guys, but he's getting hit hard because of it.

I wanted Tommy to do well in this role, such as it is, but right now I get the feeling I had when I watched him as a starter. And that isn't good.

Not only is his lack of command with his FB (as you said, in the middle of the plate) he now seems to have gone back to using his cutter a lot and pitching backwards with his CB.

Some of it may have been Clevenger instead of Wieters calling pitches, but Hunter has long been one of the few guys who shakes Matt off. So, the likelihood is he's throwing what he wants up there and out just isn't very good.

I think you are right to expect what he produced last year or somewhere thereabouts. Maybe it was an outlier. Maybe he is one of those guys who just doesn't handle the pressure of the 9th very well.

[Norfolk orioles]

Tommy hunter is not a 2 inning pitcher. Period. Just about every time he goes back out for a second inning, he gets shelled.

And putting him back in after a rain delay? It had disaster written all over it from the get go.

When will buck learn to manage his roster properly? That was beyond predictable.

I know it's not the reason we lost, obviously scoring zero runs makes the point almost moot, but it still needs to be addressed. Buck should know better by now.

[mark_beckens]

Tommy hunter is not a 2 inning pitcher. Period. Just about every time he goes back out for a second inning, he gets shelled.

And putting him back in after a rain delay? It had disaster written all over it from the get go.

When will buck learn to manage his roster properly? That was beyond predictable.

I know it's not the reason we lost, obviously scoring zero runs makes the point almost moot, but it still needs to be addressed. Buck should know better by now.

Let's see. A walk, an error, a wild pitch and a bloop single. Yeap, he got hammered and was left in way to long. Someone should ask Buck if he does this just so we have things to discuss here.

[El Gordo]

Let's see. A walk, an error, a wild pitch and a bloop single. Yeap, he got hammered and was left in way to long. Someone should ask Buck if he does this just so we have things to discuss here.

Really. When will the maroon squad understand that there is more in Buck's baseball understanding that is dreamt of in their rantings. He may be wrong once in a while, but not in any ay that they can comprehend.

[notyourbuddy]

Tommy hunter is not a 2 inning pitcher. Period. Just about every time he goes back out for a second inning, he gets shelled.

I just checked the Game Logs for Tommy Hunter dating all the way back to 2012 when he first became a reliever for the Os. I'm seeing a lot of multi-inning appearances accompanied by a zero under the run column.

Someone must be manipulating and altering the boxscores after the fact to cover-up all those shellings.

[Norfolk orioles]

A. He's only had a single 1-2-3 inning all season long.

B. He's just coming back from an injury.

C. It was still a very winnable game at that point.

Why the need to stretch tommy out an extra inning? By all means, I'd love an explanation since no one in the media would ever dare ask Buck a question like that.

[mark_beckens]

A. He's only had a single 1-2-3 inning all season long.

B. He's just coming back from an injury.

C. It was still a very winnable game at that point.

Why the need to stretch tommy out an extra inning? By all means, I'd love an explanation since no one in the media would ever dare ask Buck a question like that.

The only person who knows the answer is Buck. So if you really want to know I would suggest finding a way to ask him. Last I knew, he doesn't post here so you may want to try another venue!

[Rene88]

A. He's only had a single 1-2-3 inning all season long.

B. He's just coming back from an injury.

C. It was still a very winnable game at that point.

Why the need to stretch tommy out an extra inning? By all means, I'd love an explanation since no one in the media would ever dare ask Buck a question like that.

Your question is a good one. After a rain delay, that does seem a but odd, particularly since he just got off the DL.

We all love Buck but some feel you aren't a fan if you ever question the guy, silliness.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[neveradoubt]

That Buck is such a showoff. Did you catch him in the OF walking on water after the rain storm?