Fri July 16: Kansas City here we come

[Yossarian]

1 minute ago, Moose Milligan said:

He will.  Between Stewart, Santander, Hays, someone is gonna go down with an injury.

Diaz will beat all those guys to an injury.  It won't be him that comes up. 

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, jdwilde1 said:

Are you saying that Mike Elias and company do not consider a pitcher’s control when evaluating his likelihood of success in the majors?  

No, I just think they are too focused on spin rates sometimes. They've been in love with Akin because analytically he looks like he should have success. But, I've watched this guy throughout his whole career and the problem is he's always struggled to have his command from inning to inning. It's always taken him a lot pitches to get through innings. He was usually around 90 pitch after five pitches and that's not good in AAA.

[eddie83]

2 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Are there still fountains there and they just aren't on, or do they no longer exist?

Pretty sure they are still there. I know it was remodeled years ago but I recall seeing them in recent years. 

[spiritof66]

4 minutes ago, jdwilde1 said:

Are you saying that Mike Elias and company do not consider a pitcher’s control when evaluating his likelihood of success in the majors?  

They seem primarily interested in drafting the oldest player available (OPA).

[Yossarian]

Oh, Good.  Valdez, warming up to come out out this fire.   He's unhittable.

[jdwilde1]

4 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I really haven't been convinced Akin is going to be a starter for some time now, but now I'm wondering if he's a major league pitcher at all.

Agreed!  I really think Akin has benefited from the left-hander bias that I have never quite understood.  That is, there seems to be a belief that lefties can get by with less “stuff” than righties despite the fact that there are more right-handed batters in MLB.  I guess that makes sense for the old fashioned lefty specialist whose job was to face one or two batters, but not for a starter.

[O's84]

Even the outs are hit well.

[vab]

One thing about this pitching being so horrendous, it's probably effecting these position players they're trying to evaluate as well. I mean,  it's only human nature for your focus to drift a bit when you're hopelessly out of the game night after night. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 minute ago, O's84 said:

Even the outs are hit well.

Another hard hit out to RF. 

[Moose Milligan]

Nice grab Santander.

[Moose Milligan]

Wow, a relatively quick inning for Akin's standards.

[SteveA]

If we had one if the bad outfield defenses we put out there a few years ago, we would be down about 10 right now.

Way to use the big ballpark, Keegan 

[O's84]

3 Innings on only 74 pitches!

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

Wow, a relatively quick inning for Akin's standards.

A tidy 3.667 WHIP so far tonight for Akin. 

[Moose Milligan]

2 minutes ago, O's84 said:

3 Innings on only 74 pitches!

I like that Hyde isn't going to start wasting his bullpen tonight.  He's gonna make Akin go 90+.  That still won't get him past the 4th inning most likely but thats 2 innings the bullpen won't have to work.