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FanFest Notes and Anecdotes

Obando

By Obando
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wildcard Hangout Grand Counsel

wildcard

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Some of what I heard at Fanfest:

(Paraphrased)

O's fan:  Why don't the O's bring back Adam Jones?

Elias: Can't talk about that.. blah. blah..blah.........................We have to have room for our young players.   Players that are young we may decide that they need more time in the minors to work on their skills.    But players once they are 24, 25, 26, 27 years old, we need to play them at the major league level to see what they can grow into.

O's fan: Why don't players hit the ball the other way to beat the shift?

Hyde:  Some players have a certain skill set that got them to the majors.   Its hard for them to change.

O's fans:  They don't want to change.

Hyde:  They can't change. They don't have the ability to change.

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Moose Milligan Hangout Grand Counsel

Moose Milligan

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14 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Some of what I heard at Fanfest:

(Paraphased)

O's fan:  Why don't the O's bring back Adam Jones?

Elias: Can't talk about that.. blah. blah..blah.........................We have to have room for our young players.   Players that are young we may decide that they need more time in the minors to work on their skills.    But players once they are 24, 25, 26, 27 years old, we need to play them at the major league level to see what they can grow into.

O's fan: Why don't players hit the ball the other way to beat the shift?

Hyde:  Some players have a certain skill set that got them to the majors.   Its hard for them to change.

O's fans:  They don't want to change.

Hyde:  They can't change. They don't have the ability to change.

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beantownrefugee Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

beantownrefugee

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For me, the key takeaways from the forums:

-  Elias stated that the O's may not spend all of the international money that we have.  Too many guys spoken for come July 2.  Will watch for players who might be available, but otherwise can put those dollars to use elsewhere.

-  I came away really impressed with Hyde.  Well spoken, leadership intangibles.  We'll see how that translates to development, and in-game tactics, but I liked what I saw.

- Sig & Koby Perez session was fantastic.  Sig stated that upon arrival to the O's last month, there were ZERO analysts in the analytics department.  Stated that it will take time to build up the analytics team.  The overall impression I received from both Elias and Sig is that there is some material to work with here in terms of players, but not a ton.  Implied that this will require some patience.  Koby stated that Melvin Mora has been in touch about helping the O's with prospects from his academy.  

-  Session with Palmer, Boog, Eddie and Brooks was fun.  Kinda brought a tear to my eye seeing these guys up there together.  Brooks is the Jimmy Stewart of baseball.  What an endearing man.  So many people spoke just to say how much a chance meetings decades ago with him meant to them.  One young lady let him know that Brooke was her middle name after him.  My favorite Brooks story was, someone asked him who was the toughest pitcher he ever faced.  I forget who Brooks named, but he told stories of multiple games when the guy got him out.  Boog then said "Brooks, don't you remember when you, me and Frank went back-to-back-to-back on him that night in Detroit?"  Brooks with perfect comedic timing ".... but one night in Detroit, I GOT him with a home run"

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TonySoprano Hangout Grand Counsel

TonySoprano

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29 minutes ago, beantownrefugee said:

My favorite Brooks story was, someone asked him who was the toughest pitcher he ever faced.  I forget who Brooks named, but he told stories of multiple games when the guy got him out.  Boog then said "Brooks, don't you remember when you, me and Frank went back-to-back-to-back on him that night in Detroit?"  Brooks with perfect comedic timing ".... but one night in Detroit, I GOT him with a home run"

Earl Wilson was the pitcher.  September 4, 1969
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET196909040.shtml

In 11,782 PAs, Brooks faced Earl Wilson 122x, 6th highest of all opposing pitchers in his career.  His numbers were .191/.256/.300/.556 with 3 HRs, 6 RBI.

One pitcher that Brooks had a lot of success against was Jim Kaat.  155 PAs, .333/.368/.472/.840  3 HRs, 16 RBI

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/batter_vs_pitcher.cgi?batter=robinbr01

 

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Can_of_corn Hangout Grand Counsel

Can_of_corn

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11 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

Earl Wilson was the pitcher.  September 4, 1969
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET196909040.shtml

In 11,782 PAs, Brooks faced Earl Wilson 122x, 6th highest of all opposing pitchers in his career.  His numbers were .191/.256/.300/.556 with 3 HRs, 6 RBI.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/batter_vs_pitcher.cgi?batter=robinbr01

 

And we give Palmer all the credit for having a great memory.

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Just Regular Hangout Grand Counsel

Just Regular

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16 hours ago, eddie83 said:

The news about Ortiz isn’t very good. 

I'm open to ignoring if he can pitch decently - others have.  I remember an anecdote about a hefty pitcher, I think Sid Fernandez, who really trimmed down one offseason and started getting questions about his fastball.

That said - I agree on balance it isn't good news.  Kind of in the category of - you win 20 in the show, you can grow fungus on your shower shoes.

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Enjoy Terror Hangout Grand Counsel

Enjoy Terror

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2 minutes ago, OrioleDog said:

I'm open to ignoring if he can pitch decently - others have.  I remember an anecdote about a hefty pitcher, I think Sid Fernandez, who really trimmed down one offseason and started getting questions about his fastball.

That said - I agree on balance it isn't good news.  Kind of in the category of - you win 20 in the show, you can grow fungus on your shower shoes.

You don’t have to go that far back; CC Sabathia was horrific the year he dropped weight.

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Carllamy Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

Carllamy

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First, just want to say, for those who couldn't attend I've posted a photo album on my Facebook page, Carl Lamy (I'm the Carl Lamy with the avatar of a guy at Camden Yards wearing an O's jersey) open for public viewing. Sorry in advance for some blurry photos. For the second year in a row, they announced at the stadium that because of Major League Baseball rules there is no photography allowed in the Offices and Locker Room, and I sneaked a few blurry photos.

My experience at Camden Yards:

They let the 11:00 A.M. people in at 10:45 A.M. Nice. Usually they don't let people in early unless it is really cold, and it wasn't that cold. The line to get in was really pretty long. Since the overall attendance was down but the initial line was still long, I'm betting this says that the average fan was put off by last season, but the die hards are still in.

Social Media room, a new addition this year, had a long line all day, so I never went in. Does anyone know what it was, other than getting your picture take with Sara Perlman?

All of last year's shorter vinyl street banners were sold, bought by the 10 A.M. people. Perk of getting in early. Only the really long ones were left.

People were clustered around the Brooks Robinson autograph table, waiting in hopes that after he signed for the people with vouchers that he would sign as he walked out. He is a popular man in this town.

DJ Stewart is wide, man. Wide with muscle. I was surprised. I saw him at Aberdeen a couple of years back. He looks much bigger than he did then.

He and Dave Johnson gave a talk to Little Leaguers about hitting, and man, it was VERY informative. All about balance and such. DJ Stewart says he likes having his weight back on his back leg, but not specifically for springing forward on the swing. He says springing forward causes you to become imbalanced as a hitter. He also said he keeps a fairly wide stance in order to keep his stride short and compact. Dave Johnson added that that keeps the head still and in one position, and keeps it from moving towards the pitcher, which since ball time to the plate is measures in 10ths of a second, keeps the head as far away from the pitcher as possible, instead of moving it towards the pitcher and making the 95 mile an hour fastball seem even faster. Dj said he stands right on top of the plate because he likes the ball pitched inside, and if he stands on top of the plate pitchers feel that they can tie him up inside and end up throwing it where he likes it. They then discussed the relative merits of a slightly open stance (which DJ uses, but not as open as he used to have in College), which allows both eyes to better focus on the pitcher but means younger kid hitters, who have a tendency to step in the bucket on their swing anyway, are more likely to stride down the line and expose their body and head to a poorly thrown pitch that can hit them, and a more closed stance, which protects by exposing mostly just the back to a badly thrown ball.

Cedric Mullins is short. I mean, shorter than you think. He was shorter than the women who were taking pictures with him.

Hunter Harvey is tall, and lanky. As is Trey Mancini. Both are pretty darn tall. I'm 5' 10" and they both towered over me.

People asked a bunch of questions to Brandon Hyde about Chris Davis and hitting, even if they didn't mention the name Chris Davis (stuff like "how hard is it for a left handed hitter to..."). I thought the most interesting thing he said, after the third or fourth question in a row about Davis, was that they were going to play "our best 25 players." I know all coaches say that, but I thought, given the context, that he was making it plain that if Chris continues to bat .170 and not be one of their best players, that he won't play.

Line for the free Utz potato chips was really long. It always is. And no, no Esskay this year. I've been grabbing their $1.00 off bacon coupon for years - no more...

Bingo was as popular as ever. Listening to Anthony Santander, with his thick Latin-American accent, call Binger was a hoot.

Adam Jones took the Champagne bottle out of his locker, but still has shoes in there. Maybe he is keeping a presence... (not really, he left behind some bright orange shoes, ones he's not likely to need anywhere else)

The ping pong table has been moved to a bathroom, and the really nice shuffle board table is missing from the locker room. Maybe they are planning to do some work in there. Brad Brach still has some kind of enormous trophy in his locker.

There are boxes labelled Von Paris Movers piled in a hallway, ready to ship things to Florida, like the box marked "Coaches pants" in black marker.

The guy on the field told me the black box behind home plate that used to hold the speed gun is empty now. Now during games a guy sits right behind home plate (right next to the old speed gun box, actually) with a hand held speed gun and takes readings. He also said Umps don't watch video replay on challenges any more (they used to - there used to be a video room set up for Umps marked Reply at Camden Yards - that sign is gone), they just listen to what New York tells them.

When guys take batting practice or pitching practice in the batting cage room under the seats they use game used balls. So that's what they do with all those balls they won't use during the game after they hit the dirt.

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