Darren O'Day's return uncertain

[LookitsPuck]

Quotes from Buck and musings from Roch over the last day or so:

Buck (28th):

O?Day was supposed to pitch in a couple of simulated games on the road trip following today?s session. However, he may need to throw in the bullpen for a third time before he?s cleared to face hitters.

?Darren?s bullpen session was OK. It wasn?t quite as good as we hoped it would be,? said manager Buck Showalter.

?It?s slow. We said at the time, when you get that high hamstring, especially with his delivery, how he?s got to get down on that leg, it?s slow. No setback or anything. It just didn?t move forward much.?

Plans for a simulated game have been put on hold.

?I don?t know yet,? Showalter said. ?We?ll see how tomorrow comes. He may take another side. He needs to repeat that good side he had the other day before we go into that sim game, from what Wally (Dave Wallace) and Richie (Bancells) are saying.?

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2016/06/updates-on-oday-worley-and-joseph.html

Buck (29th):

No updates on reliever Darren O?Day, who threw his second bullpen session yesterday and will need a third before pitching in simulated games.

?Nothing new,? Showalter said. ?Still got a little soreness there. Trying to get that last bit out of there, so still moving slow.

?It?s frustrating. That?s an injury that?s always real slow, the high hamstring. Even when you?re sitting on the plane, you can?t get anywhere to get comfortable.

?I know Brady (Anderson) was talking to me about it last night. He had it when he first came over to the Orioles. He said it took forever for it to heal completely.?

http://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2016/06/quick-hits-from-petco-park.html

I said about a week or so ago that it wouldn't surprise me to see O'Day end up on the 60 day DL. We're nearly 30 days in now.

He's been on it since June 3rd. No simulated games yet. And Buck has been pretty pessimistic the entire time.

[clapdiddy]

If O'Day is going to the 60-day DL, we may see a move made to shore up the BP. Drake has proven that he can't be in the mix. Givens is atrocious against left-handed hitting and I'm afraid we're going to wear Brach out.

[baltimoreO's22]

With O'Day's delivery, having a hamstring issue is something that I figured would keep him out until at least the All-Star break. If he is still out by the trade deadline, I think we need to acquire another bullpen arm. You can never have enough pitching and as you saw with the Royals last year, if you can make it a 6 inning game you have a shot to win the thing.

If we acquire another arm and have Britton, Brach, O'Day and another quality arm, we won't have to rely on the starters in the playoffs as much.

[Redskins Rick]

If O'Day is going to the 60-day DL, we may see a move made to shore up the BP. Drake has proven that he can't be in the mix. Givens is atrocious against left-handed hitting and I'm afraid we're going to wear Brach out.

What about Tolliver after his paternity leave is over?

That won't be the immediate move, but I suspect he will be back.

[clapdiddy]

What about Tolliver after his paternity leave is over?

That won't be the immediate move, but I suspect he will be back.

I'm not too impressed with Tolliver, either, but I'm not sure I've seen enough of him to make a definitive judgment.

[TINSTAAPP]

If O'Day is going to the 60-day DL, we may see a move made to shore up the BP. Drake has proven that he can't be in the mix. Givens is atrocious against left-handed hitting and I'm afraid we're going to wear Brach out.

That should be a no-brainer at this point. Brach and Britton are the only Orioles relievers with a WHIP under 1.35. Getting a decent middle reliever also won't cost too much in terms of prospects so it's not like the Orioles will be depleting their farm system either. And if Bundy is on a strict innings count, the Orioles should consider using him more in late inning situations. It makes little sense to keep stretching him out if he's not going to be making any starts this year.

[LookinUp]

I think the O's should aim for shortly after the All Star break, and that we can hold down the fort until then. Personally, I'd like to see Wright coming out of the bullpen in the meantime. Drake needs to get his head on straight. He's better than this.

[Sanfran327]

I think we need to consider putting Wright in the bullpen in Givens' old role. Bring him up for a few appearances and see how he does when he only has to throw 35 pitches or so.

[clapdiddy]

I think the O's should aim for shortly after the All Star break, and that we can hold down the fort until then. Personally, I'd like to see Wright coming out of the bullpen in the meantime. Drake needs to get his head on straight. He's better than this.

Even though I bashed Drake a bit, I do agree with this. We just can't afford to have him "figure it out" while we're in a pennant race.

[LookitsPuck]

I think we need to consider putting Wright in the bullpen in Givens' old role. Bring him up for a few appearances and see how he does when he only has to throw 35 pitches or so.

I'd actually love to see that tried. But ease him in. I don't know/think Wright should be in the rotation again this year. But the bullpen might be where he ultimately belongs anyway.

[Tx Oriole]

I think we need to consider putting Wright in the bullpen in Givens' old role. Bring him up for a few appearances and see how he does when he only has to throw 35 pitches or so.

I go along with you on that.

[Frobby]

I said about a week or so ago that it wouldn't surprise me to see O'Day end up on the 60 day DL. We're nearly 30 days in now.

He's been on it since June 3rd. No simulated games yet. And Buck has been pretty pessimistic the entire time.

I still don't think we'll put him on the 60, so long as there's any chance at all that he'll be ready before the 60 days would expire.

[nyjimbo]

Is Chaz Roe a possibility? Easy enough to find room on the 40.

[sportsfan8703]

With him having to complete the side session and then two simulated games that at the earliest puts him back at the end of the LAD series. It might just be better at this point to just let him come back after the ASB on the 15th.

We should be getting Worley back soon unless they want to keep him stretched out. With O'day's injury not healing as fast as we hoped, we don't have the luxury to stretch him out and need to call him up now. It's best to leave Wright starting for now. He's our only "SP" if someone were to get hurt. He's more valuable starting in AAA than he is as a 5th/6th reliever up here. Come September with expanded rosters that will be different.

As for Drake I'm not really worried about him bouncing back but more worried about hitters up here not chasing his split. He's got 5 BB's up here and only had 13 in AAA this year and only 16 in AAA all last year. For his MLB career he has 21.1 IP and 23/14 K/BB ratio. Without Worley and O'day we're going to have to get used to seeing Mac and Drake pitch in some higher leverage situations than we would like.

[LookitsPuck]

I still don't think we'll put him on the 60, so long as there's any chance at all that he'll be ready before the 60 days would expire.

You may be right considering the O's might not see a need to open up a 40 man spot due to the 60 day DL stint vs. keeping them on the 15 day until absolutely necessary.

Really my main point is I was never optimistic about this injury from the get-go taking anything less than 45 days or more. You could really tell by how O'Day, Buck and gang were wording it right from the very beginning that he was going to be miss a large chunk of time.