TT: Ynoa, it's time to say goodbye to Mike Wright

[Tony-OH]

This probably won't come as a big surprise, but I've been of the belief that Mike Wright is not going to be a successful major league pitcher for some time now. I once held out hope if he was converted into a one or two inning reliever that he would throw harder more consistently and when he focused on his change it could be a nice complement piece. 

This year, the new regime had him ditch the change (only thrown 3) and focus more on the cutter (designated as a slider in statcast) but the results have been pretty horrific since his 1st two outings of the year, including the outing when he was brought in to save the game and was all hyped up and throwing 95-97 MPH vs his normal 93-94. 

While the cutter has gotten some whiffs (36.4%), he misses too much with the pitch and batters have hit .462 with a .923 SLG against the pitch so far though the expected BA (.251) and SLG (.456) suggest he has run into a little bit of bad luck. The big issue though is without enough change of speed (89.4 for cutter vs 94.1 for FB) or plane, his fastball has been getting murdered for a .833 avg (.441 xBA) and 1.500 SLG (.906 xSLG). It's worth noting that in the 20 sinkers (92.8 MPH) he's thrown batters were 0-for-3 when batters put it in play making it his only successful pitch so far in 2019.

While I don't necessarily believe any combination of Mike Wright will be successful, I do think he's got a lot better chance of being better as a sinker, change-up guy with an occasional cutter/4 seamer than this FB/cutter guy. BTW, last year batter put up a .204 xBA  against the change and throughout Wright's minor league career his change was his best offspeed pitch.

Saying that, if the Orioles are going to run Wright out there as a cutter/FB guy then it's time to cut bait and bring up Gabriel Ynoa and give him a shot at the Wright role. While I don't necessarily believe Ynoa is a long term answer, I did like what I saw in a couple of his outings where he at least showed a 4-pitch mix.

Ynoa, sometimes you gotta give a guy a chance!

 

[interloper]

You will not find argument from me. 

[Frobby]

I like Ynoa much better than Wright.    I don’t think he’ll be anything great but his pitch mix is better than Wright’s and he has a better idea where the ball is going IMO.

[clapdiddy]

Ynoa should be in the rotation right now.

[Dr. Unk]

The time to say goodbye was a few years ago.

[Aglets]

I hope Brady can look away.  This might be painful.

[Redskins Rick]

Just now, Aglets said:

I hope Brady can look away.  This might be painful.

You honesty thing this is a Brady call, really?

[atomic]

24 minutes ago, interloper said:

You will not find argument from me. 

I don't think you will get an argument from anyone. Well anyone other than Brady Anderson. 

[Aglets]

20 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

You honesty thing this is a Brady call, really?

No, not even a little bit.  I'm referencing how things worked when Brady was in an actual position of power.   

The fact that he is still HERE I think is a relic of the Brady era.   I believe Elias has decision making power now until I see evidence to the contrary.

[Moose Milligan]

Anyone's better than Wright.

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, Moose Milligan said:

Anyone's better than Wright.

That would be a boring take!

[Moose Milligan]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

That would be a boring take!

Very true.  

The most intriguing thing about Wright is how he's managed to stick around for this long.  

[mdbdotcom]

Ynoa is the Wright decision.

[interloper]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Very true.  

The most intriguing thing about Wright is how he's managed to stick around for this long.  

It's..... CRAZY. 

At this point I just have to respect his survivability. There's no rhyme or reason to it. I guarantee his next appearance will be scoreless and he'll strike out the side. Or go 4 scoreless innings in emergency long relief. Whatever it takes to pull him back from the brink of DFA, he will do miraculously. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, clapdiddy said:

Ynoa should be in the rotation right now.

He’s apparently starting for Norfolk tonight, so we won’t see him in the next few days.