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vs. D-RAYS, 7/01


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1 minute ago, Tx Oriole said:

I won’t condemn him without knowing the reason. 

I would say injury is the only reason I would accept and he looked fine in the dugout high fiving and smiles. Considering the state of our bullpen overall, pulling a starter who is rolling at 75 pitches is not a great decision especially against a good team like the Rays. We see now how good Eshelman was as the Rays are clobbering our bullpen now.

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2 minutes ago, Sessh said:

Kline doesn't really have a quality second pitch. You'd think he'd at least have one decent off speed pitch. Hitters can just sit on the fastball all day long with him.

The slider can be but he couldn't command the pitch. Kline's fastball plays down because it doesn't have a ton of movement and hitters seem to pick it up well. He only has a 17.5 WHIFF% on the pitch and batters were hitting .329 xBA and .594 xSLG against the fastball

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1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

The slider can be but he couldn't command the pitch. Kline's fastball plays down because it doesn't have a ton of movement and hitters seem to pick it up well. He only has a 17.5 WHIFF% on the pitch and batters were hitting .329 xBA and .594 xSLG against the fastball

Yeah, I've seen him throw it well on occasion, but he can't be counted on to do that. With a fastball like he has, why not a change up or splitter? He's got to come up with something and maybe get that fastball moving at least a little bit.

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2 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Kids first game and you want to push him through the order again?

Yep. He had settled in and I like his chances better than Kline. The job is managing, not anticipating failure. Generally, the numbers say third time through is not as good. Generally. But in this instance the Rays are unfamiliar with Eschelman, no reason to take him out when he’s cruising. Just be ready to move if he runs into trouble.

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1 minute ago, TINSTAAPP said:

Kline put up a 6.75 ERA and 2.00 WHIP at AAA this year. He's not a good pitcher.

Maybe I'm thinking of a different Kline.  My medicine effects my memory a lot so I do make mistakes.  Either way at his age, realistically it's sink or swim time.

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5 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Kids first game and you want to push him through the order again?

Eshelman was only at 75 pitches, had retired nine of the previous ten hitters, was pitching on six days rest and oh yeah, the Orioles bullpen is a flaming bag of doo doo. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to try to get one more inning out of him.

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4 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The slider can be but he couldn't command the pitch. Kline's fastball plays down because it doesn't have a ton of movement and hitters seem to pick it up well. He only has a 17.5 WHIFF% on the pitch and batters were hitting .329 xBA and .594 xSLG against the fastball

Agree with all this and he doesn’t command it. He can throw strikes with it, but that’s not good enough.

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3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I don't have an issue with Hyde not pushing Eshelman in his first major league start. 

I don't think it's "pushing" when he's at 75 pitches and cruising. Kline is ready, so let Eshelman try to get through the sixth at least. If he gets into trouble, then go to the bullpen. Guy throws 6-7+ innings pretty consistently in the minors, so it's not pushing to me at all.

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