My 3 main concerns so far

[Camden_yardbird]

95 pitches.  That's all Mullins has seen this year.  Can we at least wait until say 200 before we are ready to send him down.

I agree there are some serious questions about his long term viability.  Right now it looks like his upside may be Jake Marisnick, and that's concerning.  But this is a massive rebuild that will take years, and I will point out that even Jake Marisnick has a ring.

[interloper]

17 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

95 pitches.  That's all Mullins has seen this year.  Can we at least wait until say 200 before we are ready to send him down.

I agree there are some serious questions about his long term viability.  Right now it looks like his upside may be Jake Marisnick, and that's concerning.  But this is a massive rebuild that will take years, and I will point out that even Jake Marisnick has a ring.

Hey I'm with you. I just said it was a concern is all. But I hope they keep running him out there because he's certainly not this bad. I don't see a reason to send him down at this point. 

[HowAboutThat]

I’m curious as to what the breakdown of runs given up. We’ve given up a ton of homeruns, and those are 95% pitcher responsibility(The catcher may have called for the wrong pitch). 

However, it seems that the defense on the ground has been very good at preventing runs: fewer extra base hits, stolen bases, extra bases taken on the OF.

I agree that our offense is imbalance right now and needs to improve before Villar and Mancini cool off, but The main problem is our apocalyptic pitching. It’s gonna take more than one off-season and undo the damage done by the previous guys.

Still, keeping Wright is inexcusable. I don’t ever want to hear, ‘if not him, who?’again.

[Ohfan67]

20 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

95 pitches.  That's all Mullins has seen this year.  Can we at least wait until say 200 before we are ready to send him down.

I agree there are some serious questions about his long term viability.  Right now it looks like his upside may be Jake Marisnick, and that's concerning.  But this is a massive rebuild that will take years, and I will point out that even Jake Marisnick has a ring.

I think the vast majority of us think that Mullins will get more time to try to hit. I guess a few posters may want him sent down now, but I think he will be on the major league team for a while even if he continues to hit like this. Elias doesn't seem inclined to promote a prospect anytime soon and Hayes is still out anyway, so there's no one pushing from below. Just another reason not to send him down now. 

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, Going Underground said:

I  saw today in something I read that Hyde is now comfortable using Karns in back to back games. Wont be a starter this year due to whatever happened in Spring Training and issues with not being able to start this year . I wonder if they would have signed him if they knew he was not going to start?

Yeah, it will be interesting to watch the stuff from outing to outing to see any concerns. I didn't see Karns' appearance yesterday but heard his velocity was down. Obviously he struggled but I'll have to go back and watch his appearance.

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, TonySoprano said:

Mullins had a good August, 2018.  Since September 1, in 35 games, 129 ABs, Mullins' line is .171/.262/.217/.438  31K

Yeah, add in his spring training and he hasn't been good since his debut month. Either teams have figured something out (I haven't done the research to see if they are pitching him differently) or after the initial dopamine blast wore off (excitement of being in the show) after being in the bigs a bit, he struggling to to hit. 

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

Yeah, add in his spring training and he hasn't been good since his debut month. Either teams have figured something out (I haven't done the research to see if they are pitching him differently) or after the initial dopamine blast wore off (excitement of being in the show) after being in the bigs a bit, he struggling to to hit. 

He’s a streaky guy.    Take a look at his poor August in 2017, but then he bounced right back in 2018.    

I haven’t watched enough of him to guess why he’s not making hard contact.    He certainly hit well enough in the upper minors where you’d expect better from him.   

[foxfield]

42 minutes ago, Philip said:

I’m curious as to what the breakdown of runs given up. We’ve given up a ton of homeruns, and those are 95% pitcher responsibility(The catcher may have called for the wrong pitch). 

However, it seems that the defense on the ground has been very good at preventing runs: fewer extra base hits, stolen bases, extra bases taken on the OF.

I agree that our offense is imbalance right now and needs to improve before Villar and Mancini cool off, but The main problem is our apocalyptic pitching. It’s gonna take more than one off-season and undo the damage done by the previous guys.

Still, keeping Wright is inexcusable. I don’t ever want to hear, ‘if not him, who?’again.

But...ok, if not him...what is the alternative?  How will the Orioles successfully develop an alternative?  We are mostly pissed that after the teasing of some decent spring outings, we are seeing the same poor results as always.  For the same reasons as always.  @TonyOH told us each time, as politely as possible, that what he saw was the exact same pitcher.

There will be a replacement but this isn't Walmart or Amazon and there isn't anything in the Warehouse that fixes what this team lacks.  Talent. That is simply going to take time.  And declaring things like pitching Wright as inexcusable demands the response you don't want to hear.  We don't have pitching.  We can develop it, over time or we can acquire it.

In fairness, I think it becomes inexcusable in time....2021? 2020?  And by that I mean not having talent.  I'm not worried about Wright.  I'm looking beyond him and he won't be here long enough to worry about.

Someone said this am, that maybe the best path forward in the short run is to squint really hard.  Don't get caught up in "who".  Because "who" is going to change, probably a couple of times.  Another brilliant post this am said that perhaps we should do away with childish thoughts of Why not?  And understand that this season is going to be BECAUSE!!!!

Because we simply don't have anyone else, because we simply do not have the horses.  We can probably not worry about trades, though they will come.  Because what we get is going to be minor.  Because what we have is not very valuable.  Because our goals are more about development and the future of the ML team.  Because...that's who.

[Tony-OH]

I took some time to look at his zones and although they don't break down by month (helpful between August and September last year), it does show that Mullins struggles on pitches on the outside part of the strike zone and pitchers are throwing 52% of their pitches to him either off the plate or on the outer third of the strike zone.

He has a negative launch angle (read groundballs) on balls low away which is why despite his best EV of 98 MPH is in the low outside corner of the zone, he only has an xBA of .198 in that zone.

With pitchers going outside, instead of going with the pitch, Mullins has become a dead pull hitter in 2019. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/cedric-mullins-656775?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

I see a classic example of pitchers making adjustments, but a hitter not making them back. Mullins has to show an ability to go the other way on those outside pitches who they will continue to pitch there and he'll need to make them pay on the mistakes in the middle or lower inside where he's better at from the left side.

[TheOtherRipken]

I think your #1 point is undisputable. If Chris Davis wasnt here I feel like everyone would be asking about Bundy. What’s his deal?

[mdbdotcom]

Mullins has become equally adept at not hitting from either side of the plate. Instead of being a switch hitter, he is just a hitless switcher. 

[interloper]

8 minutes ago, TheOtherRipken said:

I think your #1 point is undisputable. If Chris Davis wasnt here I feel like everyone would be asking about Bundy. What’s his deal?

I wish someone could answer that question. I think, bottom line, his myriad arm injuries have sapped his stuff and ability to locate consistently. 

[Aristotelian]

I would add Martin's bat. They have him plugged in as an everyday player, but he has been worse than Mullins. We lost Jackson to give him a chance but he better start producing.

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Aristotelian said:

I would add Martin's bat. They have him plugged in as an everyday player, but he has been worse than Mullins. We lost Jackson to give him a chance but he better start producing.

Yeah I considered it. I just think it's so clear he's a AA player that it's almost pointless to talk about it, like Davis in a way. Also the expectation was set by Hyde early on when he told him just focus on defense, which he has. Mullin, OTOH, has done everything he can in the minors. Sink or swim.

 

[Rene88]

1. Davis (obviously) Complete train wreck. Are they trying to embarrass him so much he will negotiate a buyout?

2. Why is Brady still here? Serious question. He shouldn’t be.

3. Wright : enough is enough

 

The other stuff doesn’t matter to me a whole lot. We are going to be bad and that is the goal, full speed ahead.