Orioles Fall on Opening Day

[SteveA]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

Any manager that uses an opener or is having a "bullpen game" would.  Which is how some of us think Hyde should have been handling things given the size of his bullpen.

I agree with that.   But it's obvious we aren't doing that.   Milone and all the other starters were stretched out to 5 innings, 75 pitches, during the summer camp.   So the decision to go with a traditional style rotation/bullpen has been made, for better or for worse.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Ohfan67 said:

I agree. The Orioles and fans will be incredibly lucky if Mountcastle or similar players earn significant free agent contracts in the future. 

Of course Elias is hurting their chances of doing just that by delaying their free agency.  If he holds AR back he'll likely cost him millions, maybe tends of millions.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

I agree with that.   But it's obvious we aren't doing that.   Milone and all the other starters were stretched out to 5 innings, 75 pitches, during the summer camp.   So the decision to go with a traditional style rotation/bullpen has been made, for better or for worse.

But aren't we supposed to be the smart guys, on the cutting edge?  Shouldn't we be the ones leveraging an expanded roster in unorthodox ways? 

[OFFNY]

o

 

NESN ANNOUNCERS: ) Yesterday was the biggest margin of victory on Opening Day in the Red Sox' franchise history (1901 - Present.)

 

o

[Philip]

2 hours ago, SteveA said:

I still say no manager in baseball gets someone up to start the 3rd when their starter hasn't allowed a hit and has 3 strikeouts through winnings, even if he "knows the limitations of his pitchers".   Does Milone have a history of being awful in the 3rd inning?

Let's look at how that inning unfolded.   

Double -- I still say you don't get someone up just because your guy gives up his first hit, based on how he had looked in the first two innings.   You can hindsight it to death and say somehow Hyde should have known that there would be 3 more doubles or something, but I say that is ridiculous.

Strikeout

Double -- OK, maybe you get someone up in the pen here.   Now lets say it takes at least 2 batters for the guy to get ready.

Walk

Strikeout.   Your reliever is ready.   But you aren't going to run out an take Milone out after he got his second strikeout of the inning and is one batter away from getting out of the inning with 2 outs.   You can argue otherwise, but I say you aren't.

2-run double makes it 4-0.   OK, you could relieve Hess here.   Your reliever is ready, he's given up 3 doubles in the inning and 4 runs.   But Hyde left him in.

Fly out to end the inning.

I just can't look at that sequence of events and gripe about sticking with him too long.   To do so you would have had to get a guy up to start the inning or after he gave up ONE hit.   It's utter hindsight to say Hyde should have done that.   NO manager does that.

And if we are going to use hindsight of course we now know that Carroll was terrible so an earlier hook with Milone wouldn't have done a damn thing.

The bottom line is you put guys in roles and you give them a chance to do that job.   For a starter that means getting out of his first bad inning after two good innings.   For Carroll that means getting outs.  Same for Lakins.    It's so easy after a guy gives up a bunch of stuff to say "he should have gotten him out of there sooner", but I believe it's simply not the case.   I believe Hyde got his reliever up after the 2nd hit of the inning, which is very reasonable.   And I believe he was ready to come in after a couple batters but by that point Milone had just struck out Bogaerts for the 2nd out and it was very reasonable to leave him in to face Pillar.

So I don't think Hyde did anything incorrect that inning, other than perhaps the move that DID work out:  leaving him in after Pillar's double, and Milone got Vazquez to fly out.   I think kneejerk reactions about how a guy should have been removed earlier are almost always based on hindsight (and they always carry the implicit assumption that the reliever would have done better, which can't be disproven but is often wrong).

I tried multiple times to reply on my iPhone, but the website kept reloading and erasing my comment. So I think the Lord wants me to agree with you. So OK, Hyde gets a pass on yesterday.

[Aristotelian]

8 hours ago, wildcard said:

Hard to beat Eovaldi when he is on his game like that.   O's best chance disappeared when Means could not make the start.

Davis's line drive double play in the 3rd was also killer. Milone was cruising to that point and looked like O's would get some runs and extend the inning. Who knows what happens if the O's put a couple runs on the board in that spot. 

[drjohnnyfeva]

6 hours ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

You can build for the future but at some point you have to put a competitive team out there or risk losing the mlb fanbase

This is the POV I tend to gravitate toward.  I'm not saying to go full on MiL with attractions and stuff - - -  altho some of that would be nice - - - but in fielding a rebuilding team, do something interesting occasionally.  CD's position could be filled by a feel good story without doing anything to the competitive balance of the team.  The Yaz thread is evidence of this to me.  He should have at least gotten a showing on our terrible team... one would think.