Way too early but concerns

[Frobby]

31 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Not really.   O’s relievers have allowed 8 of 22 inherited runners to score (36%).    League average is 36%.   So the relievers have been about average in that situation.  

What is true is that O’s relievers have faced the most inherited runners of any team in the league.   The league average is 12, the O’s are at 22.    I’m not sure if that’s because our starters are leaving a lot of messes, or because Hyde is yanking his starters in those situations while other managers are letting pitchers try to clean up their own messes.    
 

To elaborate, the relievers have allowed 8 of 22 inherited runners to score, but its 7 of 12 when relieving the starting pitchers.    Part of that has been the starters leaving the reliever with a very bad situation.    Of the five games where a starter has left inherited runners, twice they left with the bases loaded and nobody out, while another time they left with two runners on and nobody out.   Those are very tough situations for the reliever and you’d have expected most of those runners to score.    But the O’s did a little worse than you’d hope, allowing 7 of those 8 to score.   The other two times, the reliever entered with two on and two outs; both times the reliever got the job done.   

So yes the relievers didn’t do the best job in some of those games, but the starters also left a big mess to try to clean up.   
 

[sportsfan8703]

Stewart is definitely a sleeper. He has some of the best ABs on a daily basis. Better glove than Mountcastle. 
 

Armstrong and Fry have been serious let downs. They’re just going to have to pitch their ways out of it. 
 

Plutko looks to be a solid middle inning guy. In the past we had to trade Strop and Arrieta to get a pitcher like him. 

[Aristotelian]

Yeah, I'd say it's too early to be concerned about 2023 when we should be more competitive. I'm not concerned about any of the placeholder guys we're putting on the field until then. Just not worth getting stressed about. 

As much as I like Cesar, I'd like to see him setting up for Scott. Scott has been lights out. 

[Aglets]

"Concerns" is an interesting word.

I guess i may lower my win projections from high 60s to the low 60s?

[wildcard]

I really only have one concern.  Why does Hyde/Elias think Ruiz will hit at 2B?   He didn't at 3B for two seasons.  Why all the faith in Ruiz as a 2B?   They sent Valaika down after he had a 791 OPS last season.   I think this will work itself out.  Hyde will get tired of Ruiz not hitting and turn to Valaika at some point.  I just hope it does not take too long. Both players are placeholder. Valaika is just a better placeholder.

Galvis looks solid to me at SS.  No, he does not have a gun for an arm but he makes the plays.   He is probably going to hit for a 660 OPS and run into a some homers.  Don't expect perfection out of a 31 year old stopgap SS.   But he is not going to keep this team from winning.  Appreciate him for what he is.  The glue that holds the infield together.

Franco is another stop gap with flaws and some good features.   He looks like he can drive in some runs. He is not great at third but his bat is good enough to keep him there.  He is going to disappoint some people with not running out balls but just don't expect him to.  He is carrying some weight and is not a hustle guy.  

Mancini at 1B,  Santander in RF and Mullins in CF are keepers.  Mullins offense and defense is well worth over looking  his poor arm.   Hays will be a great LF when healthy.  Stewart can fill in at the corners and DH.   Mountcastle is not a left fielder.  He is a DH/1B and more importantly a middle of the order hitter.   Stop trying to put a round peg is a square hole.   I do have some concern that Hyde/Elias will not leave this Mountcastle at LF thing go.  But so far they have mostly done it with Hays and Stewart on the IL.  I  can't disagree with that.  

Severino and Sisco are what they are at catcher.  Which is below average.  We all know the answer to the catching .  We just have to be patient and wait for it to happen.

The starting pitching has potential to be good.  And if one falters I think Lowther is ready to fill in and be good.

The relievers need to be sorting out.  The O's need three pitchers at the end of the game like Britton, Brach and O'Day.   So far they have Scott who could be Britton.   There is potential for Tate, Armstrong, Sulser,  Valdez and Greene as setup men but Hyde/Holt  need some time to figure out what they can do consistently.  

Plutko looks like a good long man.  Tyler Wells and Sceroler have potential who just need time to find their roles.  Amazing Rule 5 picks really.  

The O's could use a better  lefty short reliever.  Fry has done some good things but he also had a 1.40 WHIP last season.  He needs to do better or be replaced.  Maybe  with Akin.  I don't  know about that one yet.

I think there is a lot potential with the players the O's already have with more on the way.

 

[foxfield]

This year is about evaluating players.  Part of that involves players who simply are holding spots.  IE most of the infield.

The Orioles will be developing arms, and outfielders.  There simply is not a timeframe that changes that a whole lot for this year.  

I am pleased at the early starting pitching of Means.  I hope Mountcastle and Mancini can get into better grooves regarding hitting, and I hope Santander and Hays can find some stability health wise.  Mullins still may be a piece to keep.

In the interim, we wait for prospects to add.  We are going to win about 60 games give or take a handful.  

Yes losing games like last night are not fun.  But the Orioles are trying to win...I mean the players are.  The organization is building and developing talent.  The focus on that seems to be working.  

If I have a concern, it is that continued covid impact on minors will majorly screw with our timeline and the unknown changes that will come from next labor deal....and that MASN is useless, and if it makes sense for Chris Davis to become the Stadium PA announcer.  

[MurphDogg]

It is a pretty watchable team which is the most I was hoping for this season. Replace Lopez with one of the young starters and I will look forward to seeing every starting pitcher.

LeBlanc is the only pitcher I don't particularly care to watch, I am curious to see what Lopez could do in the bullpen.

Neither of the catchers do much for me, Sisco looks lost at the plate, though I would prefer to see him get all of the starts against righties as he isn't worse defensively than Severino and should be better batting. Long term, I doubt either has the glove to be a backup to Adley.

Ruiz, Franco and Galvis are all struggling with the bat, but it is early and I remain engaged in their plate appearances (maybe not Galvis).

Hopefully Stewart plays most days, he is a better left fielder than Mountcastle at this point and his batting eye is in the top 3 on the team.

Mullins has obviously been a revelation, Mancini is of course an awesome story to follow and Mountcastle and Santander are engaging enough young players that we can still dream on.

Bottom line, I like our guys.

[waroriole]

Means and Zimmerman are still the only long term SP I see. Kremer should be a one time through the order guy. Same with Lopez. If those guys move to the pen, it will help shore up some of the holes there. Can never have enough pitching. 
 

Mullins is really starting to turn into a legit CF. Great defensively and on the base paths, obviously. But, he’s using the whole field from the left side, with enough pop to keep pitchers honest. I’m sure Mountcastle and Mancini will start hitting, but this offense is tough to watch. 

[eddie83]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Is the concern here a team that's projected to win 60-some games is going to win 60-some games?

No. What this team should be better at so far they aren’t. As I said small sample size. Two weeks from now it can all change 

[Pushmonkey]

I have concerns about the manager.  

[eddie83]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

To elaborate, the relievers have allowed 8 of 22 inherited runners to score, but its 7 of 12 when relieving the starting pitchers.    Part of that has been the starters leaving the reliever with a very bad situation.    Of the five games where a starter has left inherited runners, twice they left with the bases loaded and nobody out, while another time they left with two runners on and nobody out.   Those are very tough situations for the reliever and you’d have expected most of those runners to score.    But the O’s did a little worse than you’d hope, allowing 7 of those 8 to score.   The other two times, the reliever entered with two on and two outs; both times the reliever got the job done.   

So yes the relievers didn’t do the best job in some of those games, but the starters also left a big mess to try to clean up.   
 

Another scenario today. 2 runners on nobody out. Both scored. 

[LA2]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

To elaborate, the relievers have allowed 8 of 22 inherited runners to score, but its 7 of 12 when relieving the starting pitchers.    Part of that has been the starters leaving the reliever with a very bad situation.    Of the five games where a starter has left inherited runners, twice they left with the bases loaded and nobody out, while another time they left with two runners on and nobody out.   Those are very tough situations for the reliever and you’d have expected most of those runners to score.    But the O’s did a little worse than you’d hope, allowing 7 of those 8 to score.   The other two times, the reliever entered with two on and two outs; both times the reliever got the job done.   

So yes the relievers didn’t do the best job in some of those games, but the starters also left a big mess to try to clean up.   
 

This is on Hyde, I'm afraid. It's not like we still have Darren O'Day.

[LA2]

3 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

It is a pretty watchable team which is the most I was hoping for this season. Replace Lopez with one of the young starters and I will look forward to seeing every starting pitcher.

LeBlanc is the only pitcher I don't particularly care to watch, I am curious to see what Lopez could do in the bullpen.

Neither of the catchers do much for me, Sisco looks lost at the plate, though I would prefer to see him get all of the starts against righties as he isn't worse defensively than Severino and should be better batting. Long term, I doubt either has the glove to be a backup to Adley.

Ruiz, Franco and Galvis are all struggling with the bat, but it is early and I remain engaged in their plate appearances (maybe not Galvis).

Hopefully Stewart plays most days, he is a better left fielder than Mountcastle at this point and his batting eye is in the top 3 on the team.

Mullins has obviously been a revelation, Mancini is of course an awesome story to follow and Mountcastle and Santander are engaging enough young players that we can still dream on.

Bottom line, I like our guys.

I was impressed by Galvis' bat control on his deliberately restrained oppo RBI-single last night (but not by his other ABs, for sure). He's got a track record and so I haven't given up hope. Would you prefer Valaika there everyday?

[LA2]

On 4/11/2021 at 2:56 PM, eddie83 said:

Another scenario today. 2 runners on nobody out. Both scored. 

This is true--Sceroler had his first bad game. Really bad.

But the next inning, Wells came in with two men on and none out and stranded the runners via a 2-strike pop-up and 1-2-count ground-ball DP. Very effective! I like what I've seen of Wells so far.

[Camden_yardbird]

16 hours ago, bpilktree said:

Some positives as well.  Means looks like he can be a solid two starter on any team.  It will be interesting to see what they decided to do with him.  He is young enough that he could be apart of the team when they plan on winning.  So do they look to extend him at some point or use him in a trade if they feel they can get a haul for him next off season.  We still have long term questions at Ss and 2nd.  Maybe someone like the Padres and would be willing to trade a blocked player like CJ Abraham’s.   Zimmerman has looked solid as back end of rotation piece and stuff seems to be continuing to improve from 2 years ago.  Mullins has been great so far getting on base and being a lead off hitter.  He may not be that 4th outfielder but instead starting center fielder.  Mountcastle been a bit disappointing at plate and struggle in the field but he seems to be good enough athlete to play there long term if not I’d like to get him some time at 1st splitting with Mancini.  
 

 

They don't have the okay from this ownership group to sign anyone to an appreciable extension so he will be gone.  Its too bad but they are cleaning the pantry still and not interested in competing despite this being year three.  No pitching.  No defense.  A very thin lineup.