DL Hall 2022

[Just Regular]

His eligibility for 2023 prospect lists now virtually certain.

Play baseball, ballplayer.

[interloper]

Disappointed dot gif

[Aristotelian]

5 walks in 3.1 innings is unacceptable. BB/9 number is going in the wrong direction.

[RZNJ]

With the numbers he put up today I wouldn't be surprised if there was something physical going on.  Low strikeouts. 

[justD]

I was at this game.  While it's disappointing, here are a few notes. 

The weather was definitely a factor today.  It's clearly the hottest/most humid day we've had this series.  

The bullpens allow you to basically stand within 6 feet from the pitcher on the other side of a mesh screen.  He threw several warm-up pitches, perhaps about 15, before bending over and taking a few deep breaths.  Coach asks, "You okay?" and he nods.  "Is it the heat?" Nods again and then waves him off and says he'll be fine, he'll be fine. 

First three innings were the usual.  Weather again played a role because it was blowing out hard to center field, I mean almost the way you'd see it in Sarasota in the spring.  The stadium sits on a hill.  While you don't get much wind on the field, once the ball got up toward left or center it was carrying incredibly well.  (I think this aided Gunnar's first inning HR as well.)

In fact, his fastball was sitting at 97, with an occasional 98.  Most of his offspeed to righties were fouled off to the left, over and over again.  I mean, that one pitch got him a lot of strikes.  

But here's where it gets so weird.  For whatever reason, and maybe it was because today he wanted to work on fastball command specifically, he was throwing 5, 6 fastballs in a row.  The guy who hit the two-run single had missed two completely, then fouled one off, and I begged the gods that he wouldn't throw another because the guy really seemed to be timing it up, and bam, another fastball and two runs scored. 

In the fourth, his command fell way off (I mean, he works on command all the time, but this was more pronounced) and his velocity was 94.  And then 94.  And then a 95, then back to 94.  

Once again, there was a guy named Peterson who had been having a great series for the IronPigs so far, and they were throwing him fastballs, one after another.  Ten pitches.  It was impressive that the guy couldn't square one up, kept fouling them straight back, but then there was the eventual walk on the tenth pitch. 

The next batter?  Five offspeed pitches in a row. 

The broadcaster remarked that all during the game, both sides' pitchers were annoyed with a rather tight strike zone as well.  During this fourth inning, there were several pitches where the body language betrayed a great deal of frustration with not getting pitches called.  I couldn't 100% tell from where I was, but it seemed like it was mostly fastballs low and on the corners. 

What I didn't think was great was that his frustration with himself and with the umpiring and being so uncomfortable with the heat seemed to cause him to lose concentration, to where he looked kinda lost when there was a runner on second and he needed to check the card to ensure he and the catcher were using the same code (or whatever you call it) for signs.  In the first inning he looked so calm and cool and enjoying himself.  Throughout the 4th he looked tired and frustrated and whatever the opposite of composed is. 

Looked like a young man with growing pains.  Don't know how he'll finally establish command but it just seems way too early to panic and way too soon to think of "letting him learn in the majors." There've been guys I thought could do that; he just doesn't look ready yet. 

But damn, sometimes his pitches just give me goosebumps.  I've still got a good feeling about this one.

p.s. I'll post some pics and video tomorrow after uploading and such, fwiw.  I mean, you can see him on mlb.tv but I got some from warmups. 

p.p.s. weams would always see things differently than I; the guys he loved were guys I'd write off in a heartbeat, and often vice versa.  So take this all with a grain of salt   

[RZNJ]

Good to hear about the velocity being strong.  This is one where I'm going to stick to my guns.  Get him up here and use him 3 innings per appearance whether it's as an opener, piggy backer, mop upper, or whatever.  

[Sports Guy]

What’s odd is that he walked 5 but he had a 67% str% and only threw 28 balls.  It’s not like he was wild and couldn’t find the plate.

But that is back to back poor starts and certainly doesn’t put him on the road to Baltimore any time soon.

[Ohfan67]

13 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Good to hear about the velocity being strong.  This is one where I'm going to stick to my guns.  Get him up here and use him 3 innings per appearance whether it's as an opener, piggy backer, mop upper, or whatever.  

He’s not going to make it three innings. And I don’t think he’s the kind of guy that can develop as he’s getting crushed. His comments over the last few years suggests that he pays too much attention to online chatter and such. He may care a little too much about what baseball writers and bloggers think of him. 

[RZNJ]

33 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

He’s not going to make it three innings. And I don’t think he’s the kind of guy that can develop as he’s getting crushed. His comments over the last few years suggests that he pays too much attention to online chatter and such. He may care a little too much about what baseball writers and bloggers think of him. 

Why isn't he going to make it three innings?  He can go all out for 2 innings. I just want him getting acclimated in some kind of role up here and perhaps gain the confidence that he belongs and worry about stretching him out and development of all four pitches once that happens. 

[Sports Guy]

I really like Hall and his upside is huge…but I wouldn’t be upset if they included him in a deal for a cost controlled starter.   He’s the one top prospect that I would be secretly trying to move.  
 

[RZNJ]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

I really like Hall and his upside is huge…but I wouldn’t be upset if they included him in a deal for a cost controlled starter.   He’s the one top prospect that I would be secretly trying to move.  
 

That's only interesting because in the draft you say that we need to draft upside and not play it safe and this seems to be the opposite.  Trade huge upside for something safer.   Please Splain.

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

That's only interesting because in the draft you say that we need to draft upside and not play it safe and this seems to be the opposite.  Trade huge upside for something safer.   Please Splain.

These 2 things don’t correlate.

First of all, where did I say I want a low upside starter?  I just want someone that is more likely to be/stay a starter.

Secondly, the team needs to get starting pitching(cause we don’t have any) and there are many ways to do it but at the end of the day, trades are going to be made and players are going to have to be moved.

As I would assume you understand, when deciding on what players you trade, you have to weigh the risk/reward.  There is a major risk on dealing Hall.  But he is more likely to flame out or “just be a reliever” than he is to be a TOR starter.  That is part of the evaluation process that is needed to be made to decide who to move, when you move them, if you move them, etc…
 

When you draft a guy, you are betting on them staying healthy, performing, etc…we have had Hall in our system for several years and we still don’t know what we have, so yea, it’s an apples to oranges thing.

[Ohfan67]

19 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Why isn't he going to make it three innings?  He can go all out for 2 innings. I just want him getting acclimated in some kind of role up here and perhaps gain the confidence that he belongs and worry about stretching him out and development of all four pitches once that happens. 

I don't think he can command his stuff for three innings in the majors. He's going to give up so many walks. That said, I was just quibbling over the details. IF he's not injured/hurting, which is a bit of an if as you alluded to in an earlier post, then I think the Orioles should promote Hall. I would only use him for an inning at a time and I expect some of those innings will be ugly. 

 

I am also wondering if he's hiding an injury. It seems pretty odd that he would struggle with the heat even in warm ups. Just D's report of the conversation she heard in the bullpen during warmups could easily be Hall saying "yeah" when asked if it is the heat when it could be something else. Just speculation on my part, but he's got an injury history and easy to imagine that he would want to cover up a nagging injury if he thought it would delay promotion. 

 

[RZNJ]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

These 2 things don’t correlate.

First of all, where did I say I want a low upside starter?  I just want someone that is more likely to be/stay a starter.

Secondly, the team needs to get starting pitching(cause we don’t have any) and there are many ways to do it but at the end of the day, trades are going to be made and players are going to have to be moved.

As I would assume you understand, when deciding on what players you trade, you have to weigh the risk/reward.  There is a major risk on dealing Hall.  But he is more likely to flame out or “just be a reliever” than he is to be a TOR starter.  That is part of the evaluation process that is needed to be made to decide who to move, when you move them, if you move them, etc…
 

When you draft a guy, you are betting on them staying healthy, performing, etc…we have had Hall on our system for several years and we still don’t know what we have, so yea, it’s an apples to oranges thing.

It's not an apples to organes thing really.   You want to trade a high risk/high reward player for someone with a lower ceiling (even you can't believe that you can deal Hall and something else for a #1 or #2 starter).     In the draft you prefer a high risk/high reward HS player to someone like Brooks Lee who is more likely to actually provide value.   I'm not arguing one way or the other.   You just seem to be going both ways.

If you just say that at this point you don't believe Hall will ever reach his ceiling, then I guess that's what you are probably saying.   Otherwise, you speak with forked tongue.

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, RZNJ said:

It's not an apples to organes thing really.   You want to trade a high risk/high reward player for someone with a lower ceiling (even you can't believe that you can deal Hall and something else for a #1 or #2 starter).     In the draft you prefer a high risk/high reward HS player to someone like Brooks Lee who is more likely to actually provide value.   I'm not arguing one way or the other.   You just seem to be going both ways.

If you just say that at this point you don't believe Hall will ever reach his ceiling, then I guess that's what you are probably saying.   Otherwise, you speak with forked tongue.

 

I obviously am not talking about a 1-1 deal if we are trading for a very good starter.  I guess I could have been more clear on that considering my audience but I figured that would be obvious.