The most baffling disappointment so far for me is...

[interloper]

Shawn Armstrong. 

What happened to this guy? Analytics darling, nice season last year, good stuff with normally good location. Just throwing absolute meatballs right now. His baseball savant ratings are... dire, to say the least. 

This is a guy who should be a solid 6th, 7th inning guy with an outside shot to save a few games over the course of a season. But right now he looks like a 30 yr old waiver claim dud instead of a guy we picked up and tweaked to be successful like he was the last year and a half or so. 

I guess I shouldn't be THAT surprised - he's a 30 yr old reliever who hasn't really established himself to date, but I really felt good about him. I'm surprised he wasn't optioned after the game for Lakins or Mattson, who are both on the taxi squad. It's like he completely forgot how to command the baseball. 

[interloper]

2019, savant says he had one of the best fastball spin rates in the game (96th %), nothing listed for 2020 or 2021 on that note just yet. But I don't care how much spin you have if you're throwing meatballs dead center and can't land any of your breaking balls. 

[Sports Guy]

He’ll be fine.

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

He’ll be fine.

I hope so, but we'll see. He looks like a totally different guy to me. Maybe he's just got the new dad curse.

[Sports Guy]

18 minutes ago, interloper said:

I hope so, but we'll see. He looks like a totally different guy to me. Maybe he's just got the new dad curse.

He is different..he had a kid.  He also has had poorish defense behind him.

He is still missing a lot of bats.

Biggest issue has been lack of strikes thrown.  His str% is only 58%. That number was almost 65% last year and it’s 63.6% for his career.

[Frobby]

To me his command has just seemed off.   Those things come and go with some relievers.   He’s been putrid but I won’t worry unless he’s made 10 appearances and hasn’t reverted to form.  

[Moose Milligan]

Way too early and too small of a sample to get concerned. 

[wildcard]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

Shawn Armstrong. 

What happened to this guy? Analytics darling, nice season last year, good stuff with normally good location. Just throwing absolute meatballs right now. His baseball savant ratings are... dire, to say the least. 

This is a guy who should be a solid 6th, 7th inning guy with an outside shot to save a few games over the course of a season. But right now he looks like a 30 yr old waiver claim dud instead of a guy we picked up and tweaked to be successful like he was the last year and a half or so. 

I guess I shouldn't be THAT surprised - he's a 30 yr old reliever who hasn't really established himself to date, but I really felt good about him. I'm surprised he wasn't optioned after the game for Lakins or Mattson, who are both on the taxi squad. It's like he completely forgot how to command the baseball. 

Armstrong is out of option.  He would have to be DFA'd and clear waivers to be sent  down.   He has been outrighted once, so he would have the right  refuse the assignment and  become a free agent if he didn't want to go to the Norfolk roster.

[Sports Guy]

Armstrong role is a 1, maybe 2 inning guy. Bringing up a guy like Lowther or Akin to replace him in the pen would be dumb.

Do we even have any promising BP arms that make sense to bring up?

Certainly don’t need to see Sulser or Lakins for him.

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Way too early and too small of a sample to get concerned. 

I think its time to be concerned but not to DFA him.  Armstrong has giving up 6 earned runs over 2 IP over 4 appearances.   That does not count the 4 inherited runners that he allowed to score.   That is a pretty bad week.   But its only a week.

I doubt Hyde is going to trust him in a close game until he gets him act straighten out.   Hyde tried to use him in yesterday's blow out. Hyde brought him into the 8th inning with the score 11-7.  He allowed two earned runs.

I expect Hyde will have him start an inning in another lopsided game soon.  I hope he can turn it around soon. But the O's are deep in right-handed relievers including Sulser, Larkins,  Mattson on the roster and Greene  on a minor league deal had a good spring.

[HowAboutThat]

YOU have a kid five days ago and then come into a game with the bases loaded.

Hyde should be excoriated for bringing him into the Yankees game. If I were King, he’d be first go after I fired all the announcers.

No surprise Armstrong hasn’t recovered yet.

[Frobby]

26 minutes ago, Philip said:

YOU have a kid five days ago and then come into a game with the bases loaded.

Hyde should be excoriated for bringing him into the Yankees game. If I were King, he’d be first go after I fired all the announcers.

No surprise Armstrong hasn’t recovered yet.

I would not have put Armstrong in that situation either, but I am not going to blame his subsequent outings on that one.   

If you look at Armstrong’s history, his bad outings tend to come in streaks.  We acquired him two years ago because he’d managed a 14.73 ERA in four outings before Seattle dropped him.   Hopefully he will right the ship.  
 

[interloper]

52 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Armstrong role is a 1, maybe 2 inning guy. Bringing up a guy like Lowther or Akin to replace him in the pen would be dumb.

Do we even have any promising BP arms that make sense to bring up?

Certainly don’t need to see Sulser or Lakins for him.

Might have missed it, but did anyone suggest that? I certainly like Armstrong more than Sulser, but at some point he needs to get results. Fry was able to get back on track a bit at least, now we need to see it from Sean. 

[DrungoHazewood]

Random facts for your Monday:

Armstrong is 30 and has a 4.40 ERA in the majors.

He's pitched two innings this year.

Jim Palmer once had a game in September of 1983 where he was knocked out in the second inning after allowing seven runs.

[DrungoHazewood]

47 minutes ago, interloper said:

Might have missed it, but did anyone suggest that? I certainly like Armstrong more than Sulser, but at some point he needs to get results. Fry was able to get back on track a bit at least, now we need to see it from Sean. 

I'm guessing that's some point after he's pitched three innings this year?