Michael Baumann MLB debut

[Jagwar]

29 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Would liked to have seen more swings/misses/strikeouts but he didn't **** the bed.  If you're an Orioles prospect in 2021 and you make your debut, it's a very low bar to clear. 

I can't wait to see what Big Mike can do when the first-ML-start adrenaline and nervousness are gone.   

[Frobby]

17 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

I would like to Wells get the rest of the season to see if he can settle in.  Same for Baumann.  I watched Baumann's last inning.  He missed location on virtually every pitch.  It's only one outing but he looks like a thrower more than a pitcher.  The stuff sounds like what he was doing at Norfolk, 93-95.  I believe he was a couple of ticks higher prior to the elbow issue.

He was deteriorating in that final inning, for sure.   Hyde did the right thing to pull him when he did.   I’d say his location was considerably better in the prior innings.   

I agree 100% we should get these two guys (and Lowther too) as much experience as possible the rest of the season.    I want these guys going into the winter with a real good idea of what it’s like to pitch in the majors and what they need to work on to succeed, so that they can come into spring training as prepared as possible.   
 

[Ruzious]

39 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

I can't wait to see what Big Mike can do when the first-ML-start adrenaline and nervousness are gone.   

He looked like he was ready to pop, lol.  Congrats to him for a nice debut - even with all the long fly ball outs and Jahmai Jones of all people - making a couple of nice defensive plays behind him.  O's should use this piggy-back starters strategy more often.     

[Tony-OH]

Actually I thought his fastball command was pretty good with his fastball.. Watch this video. He basically had the ball near the mitt in every pitch. The hard hits were on fastballs up though and at around 2300 spin rate on a 94 MPH fastball, he's going to need to keep it up and in on major league hitters. 

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/baumann-s-fastball-in-debut

His slider did not have the movement that he's had in the minor leagues at time. Looks like he was over throwing it and it was more of a cutter vs that good breaking slider that I've seen in the past.

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/baumann-s-slider-in-debut

Here's his three curveballs and one change. I think he under throws his curveball honestly and believe it could be a good pitch. He really doesn't have good feel for the change but as you can see, it gets some decent movement.

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/baumann-s-curveball-and-change

Overall, the stuff was below average movement wise but he commanded his fastball well which allowed him to get some louder outs. It was only one game and his first game in the MLB, so can't make any assessments off that one outing, but he his expected results were not very good which made him a bit lucky last night. 

The good news is I've seen his stuff better in the minors this year, though I have to admit, he's not the guy we saw in Bowie in 2019 when he was sitting mid 90s and hitting upper 90s at times including 99 MPH in the 9th hitter of his no-hitter. 

His stuff is similar to the Giants' Anthony DeSclafani though DeScianfani is able to throw a sinker and it appears the Orioles have gone with a full 4-seam approach to Baumann's offerings now. 

[sportsfan8703]

33 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Actually I thought his fastball command was pretty good with his fastball.. Watch this video. He basically had the ball near the mitt in every pitch. The hard hits were on fastballs up though and at around 2300 spin rate on a 94 MPH fastball, he's going to need to keep it up and in on major league hitters. 

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/baumann-s-fastball-in-debut

His slider did not have the movement that he;s had in the minor leagues at time. Looks like he was over throwing it and it was more of a cutter vs that good breaking slider that I've seen in the past.

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/baumann-s-slider-in-debut

Here's his three curveballs and one change. I think he under throws his curveball honestly and believe it could be a good pitch. He really doesn't have good feel for the change but as you can see, it gets some decent movement.

https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/baumann-s-curveball-and-change

Great breakdown. I didn’t know vids like this existed. 

[Tony-OH]

34 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Great breakdown. I didn’t know vids like this existed. 

You can put them together yourself. Go to the game recap in baseball savant and at the end of the tabs, there is one called "film room" where you can basically see every pitch or at bat and then put ten of the clips together in a "film" and share. It's actually pretty damn great. My only wish was there was a way to "play all" after making a selection.

[Frobby]

14 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You can put them together yourself. Go to the game recap in baseball savant and at the end of the tabs, there is one called "film room" where you can basically see every pitch or at bat and then put ten of the clips together in a "film" and share. It's actually pretty damn great. My only wish was there was a way to "play all" after making a selection.

I haven’t really studied what Baseball Savant has to offer on an individual game.   I used to look at BrooksBaseball.net quite often for pitching breakdowns in a game.   That site is defunct now.   Is Savant’s stuff as good or better?  (Putting aside the video).    Do they have any data on defensive plays?  (E.g., catch probability data for a specific catch/non-catch?)

[Tony-OH]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I haven’t really studied what Baseball Savant has to offer on an individual game.   I used to look at BrooksBaseball.net quite often for pitching breakdowns in a game.   That site is defunct now.   Is Savant’s stuff as good or better?  (Putting aside the video).    Do they have any data on defensive plays?  (E.g., catch probability data for a specific catch/non-catch?)

Baseball Savant has a lot of good overall information but it lacks individual games or plays for defensive data from what I can tell. They lost the creator Daren Willman to the Rangers and the site has not taken any steps forward of late. it's still pretty great though thanks to Willman.

[SilverRocket]

Second time out: 3 IP, 4 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, HBP

Velocity wasn't great, averaged 93 and was as low as 91 on the fastball.

 

[Frobby]

I was at the game.   It seemed to me like he wasn’t landing his foot in the same place on the mound consistently.   He stumbled once on a pitch and did nothing to smooth out the mound afterwards.   

He threw an awful lot of pitches that were not at all tempting, just non-competitive pitches.   Overall, his command just wasn’t good at all.   

Hoping for better next time out.  
 

 

[sportsfan8703]

On 9/12/2021 at 3:30 PM, SilverRocket said:

Second time out: 3 IP, 4 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, HBP

Velocity wasn't great, averaged 93 and was as low as 91 on the fastball.

 

That FB velocity seems much lower than when he threw the no hitter in 2019. It’s just so hard to develop pitching. They get on the cusp and then blammo one injury and they’re done. 

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

That FB velocity seems much lower than when he threw the no hitter in 2019. It’s just so hard to develop pitching. They get on the cusp and then blammo one injury and they’re done. 

The velocity was down from his 2019 velocity and he has very low spin rate on his stuff. He's throwing his slider way too hard (89 mph average) and there's not enough difference between it and his fastball which averaged only 93 MPH on Sunday. 

His slider has been very disappointing and he's certainly lost the depth with the pitch. it's getting very little active spin which means it's gyroing too much which is why it's coming in so hard with below averge break

His fastball has been his best pitch despite the lack of overwhelming velocity or spin, but he gets pretty good true spin which enables him to keep the ball on plane longer. 

Right now, this is not starter's stuff for sure. Maybe he's just worn out or tired right now, but I haven't liked the stuff in the two outings I've seen at the major league level.