Things to try for the starting rotation

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, eddie83 said:

Off May 30, June 3,10, 24 and 27. 

OOOOOO, June 3rd....big day for us!

[eddie83]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

OOOOOO, June 3rd....big day for us!

No doubt. Can’t wait. 

After that maybe some of the position player “prospects” will start filtering in.  

[atomic]

3 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

We’re just seeing the lack of depth that Elias added in the offseason. Given that the MLB team was going to be a constant tryout for roster sports all season, Elias should have signed more MILB FAs that we’re looking for a shot in the big leagues. 

We’re just a mess. The best solution is to probably go with openers a lot then rotate through a bunch of optionable arms to try and piece together 8-9 innings. 

That is what I have been saying.  DD always signed a ton of guys with opt-outs.  Elias sat out the off-season working on his tan or something.  

[atomic]

Some of those female softball players throw the ball pretty hard.  Anyone ever think of converting them to baseball players?

[wildbillhiccup]

1 hour ago, Going Underground said:

What happens if Strally escapes from the pen?  But Strally came here because of analytics and it is working so well. 

Dan Straily chose the Orioles as his late-spring free agency destination in part because of the opportunity presented here to step right into a starting rotation and the data-informed environment the organization seeks to foster under executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias and his top deputy, assistant general manager for analytics Sig Mejdal.

He has his own Rapsodo unit, which combines radar-readings and a camera to provide instant analysis on the spin and movement of a pitch, and he takes it on the road. He's trained at Driveline, a player-development facility that touts itself as one of the most progressive in the game.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-dan-straily-qa-20190521-story.html

 

So Dan Straily is your poster child for poo pooing analytics? They signed him because he was cheap and available. And who were exactly the other options available at that price? 

[TINSTAAPP]

Use an opener on the days when Cashner, Bundy, Means and Cobb when he comes off the DL aren't pitching. This team's had 13 pitchers on the roster for most of the year. Might as well put it to use. 

[wildbillhiccup]

15 minutes ago, atomic said:

That is what I have been saying.  DD always signed a ton of guys with opt-outs.  Elias sat out the off-season working on his tan or something.  

Yes, I'm sure that's exactly what he was doing. If you just stopped typing when the urge hit you to add comments like this on to the end of your posts your credibility would go up ten fold. 

[wildbillhiccup]

2 minutes ago, TINSTAAPP said:

Use an opener on the days when Cashner, Bundy, Means and Cobb when he comes off the DL aren't pitching. This team's had 13 pitchers on the roster for most of the year. Might as well put it to use. 

Yep. That's the only solution I see. It still won't be pretty, but Hess doesn't deserve another shot in the rotation. 

[atomic]

5 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Yes, I'm sure that's exactly what he was doing. If you just stopped typing when the urge hit you to add comments like this on to the end of your posts your credibility would go up ten fold. 

He didn't do his job.  Which includes acquiring depth players for AAA who can be brought up if you need additional players. Maybe he is just out of his depth.

[interloper]

3 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

We’re just seeing the lack of depth that Elias added in the offseason. Given that the MLB team was going to be a constant tryout for roster sports all season, Elias should have signed more MILB FAs that we’re looking for a shot in the big leagues. 

We’re just a mess. The best solution is to probably go with openers a lot then rotate through a bunch of optionable arms to try and piece together 8-9 innings. 

Eh. I say tank it up!

Ortiz, Tate, Rogers, etc should have been options for the rotation but they are just awful this year in the minors. That's 3 guys you thought maybe you could try out in the rotation this year who just aren't deserving of a callup. Mike Wright similarly was of no help. Yacabonis was a starter last year but they like him in the bullpen.

Ynoa and Yefry are still options to help, IMO despite their recent struggles. 

Karns was a good roll of the dice, but it didn't work out. Straily similar, but he could turn it around. 

I like the Gilmartin idea. But is he worth bumping Hess to the 'pen for? Dunno. Maybe! 

[theocean]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Well, what is depth?  Is it a bunch of Straily types?  Cause that isn't appetizing.  

Or is "depth" a few layers of guys that can contribute in a positive way?  

Depth with the goal of simply providing innings. I don't think many things are going to be appetizing this year, but the free agent market was incredibly advantageous to team's this offseason. I think Elias certainly could have added some arms that could have been used in the event of injury, an over-taxed bullpen, etc - that really wouldn't have added much to payroll.

One of the great things that DD did was sign a bunch of veteran guys to opt-out deals and move players around to bring fresh arms up. A bunch of those guys weren't great - but they'd at least provide some innings for a little bit. This team isn't even worried about winning, but they should be worried about making sure their young guys have every chance to succeed. I don't think that means more quantity of roster spots for tryouts, I think it means providing quality opportunities for a player to do what they do best.

Come July, this team is going to try and trade Cashner, Givens, and Bleier. There isn't much in Norfolk to replace those guys - and that's assuming they are healthy come July. And what if Bundy goes down? Or Means? The O's have been relatively fortunate on the injury side of things.

 

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, glenn__davis said:

Do we know this?  Don't know that we've gotten much of a feel on how the new regime handles service clock time.  I would hope that they just want Akin to continue to develop a bit more.  I wouldn't worry much about service clock for pitchers.  His last few starts have been pretty good. If he puts together a solid run of starts I'd like to see him up here.

I will not underestimate the importance of Akin in the rebuild.  He is 2nd round draft choice who has steady risen through the minor league system.  He is 23-17 with a career 3.41 ERA in 303 IP.  He  has 327 strikeouts and a 1.24 WHIP.    He could be a part the O's for the next 7 seasons starting in  mid April next season.

[Camden_yardbird]

16 minutes ago, atomic said:

He didn't do his job.  Which includes acquiring depth players for AAA who can be brought up if you need additional players. Maybe he is just out of his depth.

I too thought they should be adding more depth during the off season in the hope of finding more tradeable pieces and a lot of people said "why would you block who we have."  That said the lack of having done that is not an indicator of incompetance, it's an indicator that priorities were elsewhere, and I am okay with that as long as we see tangible benefits wherever else those priorities were.

We are seeing improved performance in the minor league hitters and the low level pitchers.  

We are about to see the first draft and what he does with that.

We wont see for awhile what improved analytics does.

You are jumping to conclusions about something (depth) that admittedly doesnt really matter on a last place team.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

26 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Yes, I'm sure that's exactly what he was doing. If you just stopped typing when the urge hit you to add comments like this on to the end of your posts your credibility would go up ten fold. 

Yeah that Elias is a real pretty boy. 

[glenn__davis]

46 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I will not underestimate the importance of Akin in the rebuild.  He is 2nd round draft choice who has steady risen through the minor league system.  He is 23-17 with a career 3.41 ERA in 303 IP.  He  has 327 strikeouts and a 1.24 WHIP.    He could be a part the O's for the next 7 seasons starting in  mid April next season.

I'm not underestimating Akin at all, I think he can be a good piece for us.  But pitchers are fragile and volatile.  I'm not in any hurry to rush Akin up here, I'm also just not concerned about service clock time for him.  There's a better chance that he's hurt/ineffective by 2025 than there is of him being a contributor for us (and again, I like Akin as a prospect, it's just the nature of pitching.)

And really my opinion is meaningless, you kind of just stated as fact that Elias didn't want his service clock started which I'm not sure is the case.  Not saying you're wrong, just that we have no way of knowing if you're right yet.