Little Things

[Carllamy]

I went to the game today, and it was a really good example of what has been going on with the O's this season.

Chen pitched okay, not good with all the hits given up. But he probably would have fared better except that he had no margin for error as the O's only scored 2 for him in the first 5. He wasn't all that good, nor was he all that bad, but he had given up 3 and that was too much.

I watched Cabrera get in the way of Hardy potentially trying to get a guy out at first. Granted, it was extremely unlikely that Hardy gets the guy because he had had to really range to his left to get the ball, but he didn't even attempt the throw because Cabrera was in the way.

I watched Delmon Young let a ball bounce off the right field wall and skip right past him. Yes, it probably didn't effect the game, but watching it in real time I thought that if Delmon had fielded the ball cleanly the timing was right for the runner to have worried about being thrown out at second and might have stopped at first, which wasn't an issue after the ball skipped past Delmon on the rebound.

The O's are a decent enough team, not great, but good enough to make a run at a good record, but not if O's pitchers feel like that can't make any mistakes because there won't be a lot of runs, and not if opponents get to take extra bases.

The oddest thing I saw today was caused by the shift. Cabrera was playing well into the hole and on the outfield grass and a fly ball was hit to right field. Cabrera ran all the way to about 10 feet from the warning track before Delmon called him off in order to catch the ball. I have never seen a second baseman range that far into right field.

[Aristotelian]

The announcers also picked up on the fly ball that Cabrera went after. Delmon appeared to have lost it in the sun momentarily, so it could have turned out to be an awesome hustle play.

Watching on TV, I thought Chen did just fine. I missed the pitch that Springer hit out, but for the most part it was all ground balls that found holes and liners to the opposite field. The double that put them ahead was a bloop that was hit to the opposite field with Delmon playing the hitter to pull, reminiscent of the ball that Tillman gave up in the ALCS. Not a bad pitch, just one of those things. Chen's 1-5-3 double play off the bunt attempt was a thing of beauty,\.

[El Gordo]

As for Chen's meager run support, Houstons pitcher, Keuchel, was 6-0 coming into today with 0.97 WHIP and 1.99 ERA. Chen was lucky to get two.

[CA-ORIOLE]

The announcers also picked up on the fly ball that Cabrera went after. Delmon appeared to have lost it in the sun momentarily, so it could have turned out to be an awesome hustle play.

That play had me thinking about Palmer's yarn about Louis Aparicio catching a flyball on the LF warning track away from Curt Belfary

[InsideCoroner]

Also, Delmon made a bad throw up the line when the Astros sent that second runner home on a single. He had time to plant his feet and fire a strike from RF, but missed by a good 20 feet.

I thought Chen made good pitches under pressure and also fielded well today, which combined with the bullpen might have made the difference.

[OriolesMagic83]

Also, Delmon made a bad throw up the line when the Astros sent that second runner home on a single. He had time to plant his feet and fire a strike from RF, but missed by a good 20 feet.

I thought Chen made good pitches under pressure and also fielded well today, which combined with the bullpen might have made the difference.

Delmon is a DH not an OF. The more he plays the field, the more bad plays we will see. His bat isn't really making up for his poor defense this year,

[El Gordo]

Delmon is a DH not an OF. The more he plays the field, the more bad plays we will see. His bat isn't really making up for his poor defense this year,

If you bother to check UZR, Delmon's numbers are better than De Aza's

[InsideCoroner]

If you bother to check UZR, Delmon's numbers are better than De Aza's

Unfortunately De Aza, our Nearly Six Million Dollar Man, doesn't seem to have any bionics at his disposal.

[Carllamy]

If you bother to check UZR, Delmon's numbers are better than De Aza's

And this is really one of the problems this team is facing. Neither DeAza nor Delmon are particularly good as outfielders right now.

If the team wants to get better DeAza needs to go, even though it means eating a high salary he should never have been given. Delmon, who appears to be a singles hitter, needs to go back to being a very productive pinch hitter (a position where hitting a single is usually something the team is really grateful for at the time) and emergency outfielder, and one of our outfielders from Norfolk needs to come up.

I understand this isn't a great solution as none of the three down in Norfolk seem to want to hit at all right now, but all 3 are hitting better than DeAza, and all three are showing minimally more power than Delmon, and for all of the complaining I remember reading about Reimold taking bad routes to balls I don't remember anyone talking about balls skipping past him, or him throwing with inaccuracy or to the wrong base.

Bringing one of those guys up isn't a big improvement, but we can see people taking multiple bases off of Delmon in one game and that will stop, and what is that worth? Also, neither Urrutia nor Reimold are making big money. Bringing them up doesn't add significantly to our payroll on top of DeAza's salary.

[Aristotelian]

Also, Delmon made a bad throw up the line when the Astros sent that second runner home on a single. He had time to plant his feet and fire a strike from RF, but missed by a good 20 feet.

I thought Chen made good pitches under pressure and also fielded well today, which combined with the bullpen might have made the difference.

Horrible throw on that play, but Delmon has by FAR the stronger arm of any of our corner OFs. Possibly stronger than AJ. Now, I get nervous any time a fly ball is hit his way, but his arm is not the issue. On a close play, I would rather have Delmon make the throw than any of our other guys. He looks like Hanley Ramirez trying to play balls off the Green monster, but there are fewer of those balls hit at Camden Yards (the big wall is to the opposite field for righty hitters). He has run down a few balls in the gap and his misplays have done minimal damage so far. Both the double and the play at the plate would have had the same outcome even if played cleanly at least 80% of the time. (In fact, the ball that Yelich tried to stretch into a double turned into an out because of Delmon's arm).

[Dipper9]

Little things:

Houston's pitcher was basically unhittable coming into yesterday's game. The fact that we won, scored 4, and hit 2 homers, (he had given up 1 coming into the game) we should be doing somersaults.

I know the stats show Nick Markakis to not have great range yadda yadda yadda, but we have been spoiled by the way he played the right field wall at OPACY. If he was there that was a single.

What's the story on Hardy? If he is injured again and we have to revert back to Cabrera at short, we're in deep trouble. The injuries are really hurting the Birds this year. We just can't seem to get the healthy version of the lineup all on the field together.

[hendu]

Kirby has DY positioned in RC not RF. The past week has been a highlight reel of watching DY run to the RF line. Great, so he takes away the gap. Well, Gattis hit one to the gap yesterday in which he should have easily cutoff the ball given his positioning, but he didn't. What's the point of playing him there if he isn't going to get the one ball that he should have? That throw was an embarrassment. Whatever, nobody will ever confuse him for an OF with tremendous range.