Which of these pitchers do you feel have a positive future in Baltimore?

[Luke-OH]

7 minutes ago, birdwatcher55 said:

Im not sold on Ynoa. I really hope we come up with two starters this offseason and take a long look at Hess. He seems ready. Maybe have to deal off a prospect or two. Maybe Scott is being showcased???

Just curious, what gives you more confidence in Hess than Ynoa?

[Frobby]

I always enjoy watching a pitch-efficient outing like we got from Ynoa last night.   But you have to take it with a grain of salt, given the opponent.   

[sportsfan8703]

Two questions about Ynoa in AAA this season,

1.  How much did the bad OF defense/big ballpark hurt him down there?  Pedro Alvarez was a staple in RF for them for a large part of the season. 

2.  Was he simply just working on things there?  

[Luke-OH]

10 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Two questions about Ynoa in AAA this season,

1.  How much did the bad OF defense/big ballpark hurt him down there?  Pedro Alvarez was a staple in RF for them for a large part of the season. 

2.  Was he simply just working on things there?  

I've said it before, but the defense was a huge part IMO.  There was a lot of bad defense on that team, and every one of Ynoa's starts I watched all the way through (4-5 I think) were marred by poor defense, bloop hits, and seeing eye GBs.  I'll have to look through my post history, but there was one game he gave up something like 7 runs, and he pitched about as well as he did last night.  Somewhere between his FIP and xFIP (3.78 and 4.44 respectively) is probably a truer assessment of his ability going forward.

It didn't look to me like he was working on stuff, at least not to the extent that it'd really kill his results.

Ynoa has one major weakness, the lack of a true out pitch.  I think he's an OK back end guy right now.  If he wants to be more than that he'll need to figure out how to miss more bats.  

[Frobby]

24 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Two questions about Ynoa in AAA this season,

1.  How much did the bad OF defense/big ballpark hurt him down there?  Pedro Alvarez was a staple in RF for them for a large part of the season. 

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say Alvarez was a staple in RF for a large part of the season.   He started 41 games there.   That experiment ended on June 4.    

[Luke-OH]

31 minutes ago, Frobby said:

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say Alvarez was a staple in RF for a large part of the season.   He started 41 games there.   That experiment ended on June 4.    

16 of Ynoa's 21 starts had at least one of David Washington, Adam Brett Walker, and Pedro Alvarez in the OF.  All but one of the games with a qualified outfield came in the second half of the season.  It's definitely mostly a coincidence he pitched better then, but it can't be helpful to have those guys out there.

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, phillyOs119 said:

16 of Ynoa's 21 starts had at least one of David Washington, Adam Brett Walker, and Pedro Alvarez in the OF.  All but one of the games with a qualified outfield came in the second half of the season.  It's definitely mostly a coincidence he pitched better then, but it can't be helpful to have those guys out there.

Oh, I don't have any reason at all to doubt your conclusion that defense was a big factor in Ynoa's (and other pitchers') unimpressive stats at Norfolk this year.    I just didn't want anyone to be left with the impression that Alvarez had played the majority of the season in RF.

It seems that Norfolk had a much better defensive team in 2016 than 2017.