Tracking Ex Oriole Thread

[Moose Milligan]

Posnanski is keeping track of this streak.  33 consecutive days of MLB having at least one player hit two home runs in a game.  The old streak was like 28 straight days, they've blown past it and there's no slowing down.  And every day, if you subscribe to Posnanski's service, you get an email recapping what happened.  It's kinda cool, but also somewhat annoying because it appears he's set aside other projects he's been working on to focus on this.  I love Posnanski but he gets distracted from things he promises to do.

So apparently the streak was in jeopardy last night until Yaz came through to hit his 2nd homer.

Here's some excerpts of Posnanski's email this morning.

Quote

Mike Yastrzemski was up at the plate with a runner on first base. Arizona’s left T.J. McFarland was pitching. Yaz took the first pitch for a ball. It was an 88 mph sinker. One thing I have learned during this interminable streak is that 88-mph sinkers are not my friend.

And then, I saw those most haunting words.

“Ball in play. Run(s) scored.”

It didn’t have to be a home run, you know. A double could have scored the runner from first. But it was not a double. McFarland had thrown another 88 mph sinker, and the ball sunk to here:

I call that second pitch location the “Shoeless Joe Spot.” I call it that because that’s exactly where Shoeless Joe demanded Kevin Costner throw him that pitch — “Put one right here, huh?’ — before he sent the ball sailing into the corn.

“Right, you’re a low ball hitter,” Costner said, forgetting that EVERYONE is a lowball hitter if you leave the ball in the middle of the plate.

Anyway, Young Yaz didn’t miss.

That was a 105 mph exit velocity, 419-foot no-doubter the other way.

So that was that. My life, for another day, is not my own.

In the end, Yaz was not the only two-homer guy, but we’ll get to that. First, the update. The streak is now 33 straight days with at least one player hitting two home runs in a game. There have been 97 two-homer games in the streak, though still none by Mike Trout. The old record, you will remember, was 29 games.

 

Quote

— You undoubtedly know that Mike Yastrzemski is Carl’s grandson. They’re almost exactly the same size — 5-11, 175 or so — and both left-handed hitting outfielders (though Mike also throws left-handed). You might also know that Mike’s parents divorced when he was six and his father died when he was just 14. Carl began teaching Mike how to hit the next year.

Mike was a good hitter and a full-blooded ballplayer like all Yastrzemskis, but scouts never really saw all that much in him. The Red Sox drafted him in the 36th round out of high school — it felt like a token move to honor his legendary grandfather. Mike went to Vanderbilt instead. He was drafted in the 30th round after his junior year by Seattle. Mike went back to Vanderbilt as a senior. Then, the Orioles drafted him in the 14th round.

He did hit well enough in 2014 to move up to Baseball America’s No. 9 in the Orioles system, but the praise was pretty faint. “With no offensive tools that rate plus,” BA wrote, “Yaz just keeps hitting.” Then he stopped hitting — he managed to hit just .246 with no power in Class AA Bowie, he hit .208 with no power in the Arizona Fall League, he hit .221 in his first shot at Class AAA. The Orioles liked him, liked his approach, liked his work ethic, liked the resemblances to the icon. But at some point, they realized it just wasn’t going to work. The Orioles traded him in March to San Francisco for a similarly stuck 27-year-old minor-leaguer named Tyler Herb.

Then Yaz kicked some butt for the Giants — hitting .316 with electric power in 40 games for Class AAA Sacramento. They called him up to the big leagues for the first time on May 25. In his second day, he cracked three hits including a double. On May 31, he hit his first big league homer in Baltimore, of all places (though to be fair, this year EVERYONE is hitting their first big league homer in Baltimore).

Mike kicked around for a while and was hitting just .227/.279/.378 on July 15.

After that: Magic. Since July 15, Young Yaz has been hitting .324 and slugging a ridiculous .721. And he didn’t stop at two homers on Friday. He added a 438-foot, game-winning smash in the 11th inning because, yeah, this Giants-Diamondbacks game went 11 innings. It was the ninth time during the streak that someone has hit three homers in a game.

More importantly, it was the second time a Yaz has hit three homers in a game. Carl hit three homers against Detroit on May 19, 1976.

 

[Moose Milligan]

If this were any other year, Yaz could get serious ROY consideration.  Pete Alonso will probably run away with it now that Tatis Jr is on the shelf.  But Yaz might get some votes, too.  

[LA2]

38 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Homers are up about 30% in the majors this year.    Little Yaz is hitting homers at about double his all time best rate.   Against better competition than he’s previously faced.   

Imagine what Davis' HR total and other stats wd be without it. He might have even been DFA'd by now.

Wilkerson, Severino, Smith, Jr.? But it's probably also helping a swing at everything singles hitter like Hanser too.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

This has gotten ridiculous.   The most homers little Yaz ever had in a full minor league season was 15.     Now he’s got 16 in 70 games for the Giants?    That’s crazy.    

This is also the first time in several years that Yaz is actually healthy. Combine that with the new baseballs and you have this.

[TonySoprano]

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

[bobmc]

59 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

 

Position player-wise says Joe:

 

[Going Underground]

4 minutes ago, bobmc said:

Position player-wise says Joe:

 

I thought Villar and Alberto both have a 2.0 or better WAR? 

[eddie83]

20 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

I thought Villar and Alberto both have a 2.0 or better WAR? 

He must be using Fangraphs and not baseball-reference.  

[AceKing]

Do the Orioles get a pass on Yaz?  If so, why?

[bobmc]

38 minutes ago, AceKing said:

Do the Orioles get a pass on Yaz?  If so, why?

They had Santander and Stewart (with an eye on DSJ w Jays) and a logjam of DH, 1B, OF types.  Yaz was man out.  Plus, @Can_of_corn was down on him.  

[Finisher]

1 hour ago, AceKing said:

Do the Orioles get a pass on Yaz?  If so, why?

The more he hits, the more it's bothering me. We had a "logjam" of DH/1B/OF types? Sure, but almost all of them are dregs.

[tntoriole]

1 hour ago, AceKing said:

Do the Orioles get a pass on Yaz?  If so, why?

I would just like to hear from somebody as to exactly what he has figured out...this is no Ryan Flaherty briefly being better.  He may be one of those we look back on and say curse words.  

[Legend_Of_Joey]

4 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

I would just like to hear from somebody as to exactly what he has figured out...this is no Ryan Flaherty briefly being better.  He may be one of those we look back on and say curse words.  

In my opinion (which probably means less than nothing), he found out how to be healthy. He was tearing up Frederick and Bowie back when he was still on "prospect status," before injuries hit him, including a "core muscle" injury that cost him part of a season and he didn't get to catch up at that time.

Now he gets regular playing time (after being in part time roles after injuries) and can finally get on a roll, like 90% of all players do (just not THAT hot of a roll.)

[jabba72]

32 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

I would just like to hear from somebody as to exactly what he has figured out...this is no Ryan Flaherty briefly being better.  He may be one of those we look back on and say curse words.  

We had Joey Rickard as our 4th OF when Yaz was traded, who also has better stats in AAA last year. I like Yaz but he never did anything in Norfolk that suggests this breakout was going to come. Yaz does look the part of a major leaguer, unlike say Stewart, who is also a much higher draft pick. Yaz' 14th round draft status meant he was always going to be behind the higher drafted corner OF's and rule 5 picks.