Poll: If Tyler Wells will be stretched out, who will be closer?

[Frobby]

21 hours ago, wildcard said:

Lopez had a 6.48 ERA and a 855 OPS in the first inning last year.  Will it be any different if his first  inning is the ninth?

I think there are two big differences.   One, he’s not going five days between outings.   Two, he’s not pacing himself because he’s hoping to go 4-5 innings after the first one.   So, we’ll see how he performs in that environment.  I don’t think his first inning stats as a starter are too relevant.   But as I said, I expect Sulser to begin the year as the closer.   We’ll see where Lopez fits in.   

[Sports Guy]

It’s foolish to discount Lopez or basically anyone right now.

No one in the pen has any history of actually being good over a real sample size.  Any of them could step up or go in the toilet. 
 

[maybenxtyr]

9 hours ago, waroriole said:

I looked him up the other day. Hasn’t posted in about a month. Hope he’s ok. 

Same...I recall him saying he was older, I hope all is well with him.

[Il BuonO]

On 3/14/2022 at 9:22 AM, Tony-OH said:If he [Lopez] can stay healthy, I think he has better overall stuff than Sulser.  Add in the fact that Sulser has blown 32% of his save chances....I think Sulser is a better setup guy than closer as well.

Yeah, same. Sulser is good in the role which he pitched best, or, not as a closer. 

Lopez’ stuff is nasty. If he can handle the pressure there he’ll be fine.

Of course, my preference is to change it up, rotate guys based on the strength of the order they’re facing, etc.

[Frobby]

15 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Nope, his save percentage last year was not good.

Sulser had 8 saves and 3 blown saves last year.  None of his blown saves came in a typical closer situation.   One was in the 6th inning, the other two in the 8th inning.  He was 6 for 6 when entering in the 9th or extra innings with the lead.  He also had two saves where he entered in the 8th and got 5-6 outs.   I’d say he acquitted himself well when given closer responsibilities last year.   

[Tony-OH]

10 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Sulser had 8 saves and 3 blown saves last year.  None of his blown saves came in a typical closer situation.   One was in the 6th inning, the other two in the 8th inning.  He was 6 for 6 when entering in the 9th or extra innings with the lead.  He also had two saves where he entered in the 8th and got 5-6 outs.   I’d say he acquitted himself well when given closer responsibilities last year.   

Look at his ERA, OPS, and just about everything else in save and non save situations and tell me you are comfortable with him. 

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Look at his ERA, OPS, and just about everything else in save and non save situations and tell me you are comfortable with him. 

Looks like he had a 4.00 ERA and a .692 OPSA in save situations.   The latter certainly isn’t bad.   But more to the point, “save situations” is a misleading term.   You enter the game in the 6th inning with a lead, and that’s a “save situation.”   So that split doesn’t tell me much.

Do I think Sulser is the closer for a contending team?  No.   But I don’t think this team has any obviously better options, so I’d go with Sulser to start the year and move on from him if he doesn’t do an adequate job.  

[Tony-OH]

37 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Looks like he had a 4.00 ERA and a .692 OPSA in save situations.   The latter certainly isn’t bad.   But more to the point, “save situations” is a misleading term.   You enter the game in the 6th inning with a lead, and that’s a “save situation.”   So that split doesn’t tell me much.

Do I think Sulser is the closer for a contending team?  No.   But I don’t think this team has any obviously better options, so I’d go with Sulser to start the year and move on from him if he doesn’t do an adequate job.  

Sulser very well start the year as the closer, but I was never confident with him in save situations and my guess if even if he does start the year there, he won't end the year there.

[Ripken]

 

[Tony-OH]

Stretching out Jorge Lopez is just a complete head scratcher and waste of time. He has proven he not going to be a good starter and he pitched well in short stints last year. These are the kinds of decision that make me question the decision making of this organization when it comes to best utilizing it's talent. 

It was dumb last year, but it was a little understandable since the team was going to have pitchers on limited work load due to the COVID shortened 2020, but to do this again borders on insanity. 

Lopez needs to be in a relief only mode of one to two innings at most. Stretching him out to be a starter or piggy back starter or long reliever is just a waste of resources and tells me the organization really is struggling to understand how to appropriately evaluate the numbers and get the most value out of a player. Apparently carrying a 6.36 ERA in 273 starter innings does not seem to be enough information that he's not fit for that role. 

Maybe the posters that say the Orioles still don't want to win are right? Who knows at this point because if that little computer is telling them they should use Lopez in anything but an inning or two role, they need a new program or analysts.

They should have just not offered him a contract and they intended to stick him back in his same unproductive role. 

[Sports Guy]

Yea, that makes no sense.

[interloper]

45 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Stretching out Jorge Lopez is just a complete head scratcher and waste of time. He has proven he not going to be a good starter and he pitched well in short stints last year. These are the kinds of decision that make me question the decision making of this organization when it comes to best utilizing it's talent. 

It was dumb last year, but it was a little understandable since the team was going to have pitchers on limited work load due to the COVID shortened 2020, but to do this again borders on insanity. 

Lopez needs to be in a relief only mode of one to two innings at most. Stretching him out to be a starter or piggy back starter or long reliever is just a waste of resources and tells me the organization really is struggling to understand how to appropriately evaluate the numbers and get the most value out of a player. Apparently carrying a 6.36 ERA in 273 starter innings does not seem to be enough information that he's not fit for that role. 

Maybe the posters that say the Orioles still don't want to win are right? Who knows at this point because if that little computer is telling them they should use Lopez in anything but an inning or two role, they need a new program or analysts.

They should have just not offered him a contract and they intended to stick him back in his same unproductive role. 

I hesitate to read too much into it at this point. Once again the O's are faced with another season of having to micro-manage innings and pitcher health because baseball refuses to have a normal season. So I'm sure they want as many guys able to pitch multiple innings as possible seeing as the starters will barely be at 4 or 5 innings by opening day. In a perfect world, Lopez is a 1 inning flamethrower. But the situation likely demands he (and most of the relievers) be able to pitch at least 2-3. Will he be used like that? Who knows, but they're going to cover their bases just in case.

[SilverRocket]

While the results weren't entirely there in 2021, Dillon Tate's stuff looked way better than when he first came up in 2019. His sinker is a unique-looking pitch that I don't think is really being used optimally yet. I can see him being a closer candidate with a few tweaks.

Driveline on Dillon Tate's velocity improvement: https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2022/03/dillon-tate-using-biomechanics-for-player-development/

Late 2021 interview about his sinker: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dillon-tate-talks-fastballs/ 

[btdart20]

On 3/15/2022 at 5:02 PM, Tony-OH said:

Sulser very well start the year as the closer, but I was never confident with him in save situations and my guess if even if he does start the year there, he won't end the year there.

Agreed.  Sulser is underwhelming as a CL.  But I think the CL role is overstated as well...

[Aristotelian]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, that makes no sense.

This might be one of the few topics other than Yankees suck where there is consensus among the board.