Not a Bad Idea? Lopez as closer

[Ohfan67]

29 minutes ago, baltfan said:

One thing that needs to not be underestimated is how many multi-inning saves he has.  There is tremendous value in that.

Good point. In 2016 Britton pitched in slightly less than an inning per appearance. 

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Ohfan67 said:

Good point. In 2016 Britton pitched in slightly less than an inning per appearance. 

2016 Britton pitched 67 innings.  Lopez is on pace for 81.

It will be interesting to see how Lopez holds up with this amount of usage.

[Aristotelian]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

2016 Britton pitched 67 innings.  Lopez is on pace for 81.

It will be interesting to see how Lopez holds up with this amount of usage.

Of course, Britton should have had 68 or 69 if we could count the wild card game. 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, baltfan said:

One thing that needs to not be underestimated is how many multi-inning saves he has.  There is tremendous value in that.

To your point, Britton had 7 outings in 2016 where he pitched more than an inning.   In those outings he picked up 4 saves and a win.   On the year, Britton inherited 18 baserunners, only two of whom scored.

Less than halfway through the season, Lopez already has pitched more than one inning 11 times.  In those outings he’s had 3 wins, 2 losses, 6 saves, and one blown save (which also was one of his 2 losses).   He’s inherited 14 runners, two of whom have scored.  

So, they are being used very differently.  And, Lopez is very rarely presented with save opportunities on consecutive days, as Britton often was.  The fact that Lopez is frequently asked to get more than 3 outs is partly because he has fewer back to back outings, so it’s more realistic to ask him to do that.  But it’s been impressive to see him do it. 
 

[LA2]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

To your point, Britton had 7 outings in 2016 where he pitched more than an inning.   In those outings he picked up 4 saves and a win.   On the year, Britton inherited 18 baserunners, only two of whom scored.

Less than halfway through the season, Lopez already has pitched more than one inning 11 times.  In those outings he’s had 3 wins, 2 losses, 6 saves, and one blown save (which also was one of his 2 losses).   He’s inherited 14 runners, two of whom have scored.  

So, they are being used very differently.  And, Lopez is very rarely presented with save opportunities on consecutive days, as Britton often was.  The fact that Lopez is frequently asked to get more than 3 outs is partly because he has fewer back to back outings, so it’s more realistic to ask him to do that.  But it’s been impressive to see him do it. 
 

That's an interesting point. It implies that once the Orioles start winning more, Lopez's ability to go more than one inning will be tested since there will be many more times that he's brought in for saves two, maybe even three games in a row. This may put extra weight on the set-up guys.

[OriolesMagic83]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

To your point, Britton had 7 outings in 2016 where he pitched more than an inning.   In those outings he picked up 4 saves and a win.   On the year, Britton inherited 18 baserunners, only two of whom scored.

Less than halfway through the season, Lopez already has pitched more than one inning 11 times.  In those outings he’s had 3 wins, 2 losses, 6 saves, and one blown save (which also was one of his 2 losses).   He’s inherited 14 runners, two of whom have scored.  

So, they are being used very differently.  And, Lopez is very rarely presented with save opportunities on consecutive days, as Britton often was.  The fact that Lopez is frequently asked to get more than 3 outs is partly because he has fewer back to back outings, so it’s more realistic to ask him to do that.  But it’s been impressive to see him do it. 
 

If I had a guess, Britton was in a lot more games with a 2 and 3 run lead.  Lopez is most frequently brought in with a 1 run lead or just a tie. 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

If I had a guess, Britton was in a lot more games with a 2 and 3 run lead.  Lopez is most frequently brought in with a 1 run lead or just a tie. 

We don’t have to guess.  Of Lopez’s 11 saves, he only had a 3+ run lead once.  He’s had 6 1-run saves and 4 2-run saves.   The two saves he blew were 1-run leads.   He’s pitched in 8 tie games.

In Britton’s big year, he saved a 3+ run lead 13 times.  He had 15 1-run saves and 19 2-run saves.   He pitched in 7 tie games.   

So you are right, Lopez has had relatively tougher situations than Britton. 

 

[Aristotelian]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

We don’t have to guess.  Of Lopez’s 11 saves, he only had a 3+ run lead once.  He’s had 6 1-run saves and 4 2-run saves.   The two saves he blew were 1-run leads.   He’s pitched in 8 tie games.

In Britton’s big year, he saved a 3+ run lead 13 times.  He had 15 1-run saves and 19 2-run saves.   He pitched in 7 tie games.   

So you are right, Lopez has had relatively tougher situations than Britton. 

 

Hard to get a three run lead when your offense is challenges to score three.

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Hard to get a three run lead when your offense is challenges to score three.

Well, the offense has gotten better each month and is now at 4.09 runs/game compared to AL league average 4.14.   They’re below the 4.22 median by a bit more, but not drastically bad.  There are 5 teams worse.   

[yark14]

11 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

What position are we getting back in this trade that would be worth it?  A reliever?  We already have those. The lineup is set for the future with a pipeline behind it. We need SP. 
 

I think Lopez is for real, and Bautista is more of your volatile type of reliever, but 100 mph is a good volatile to have. 

Who says we need to trade him?  Lopez is example 1A of the reason why we've gutted our payroll to the lowest in the league: so that we can resign pieces to build around.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, yark14 said:

Who says we need to trade him?  Lopez is example 1A of the reason why we've gutted our payroll to the lowest in the league: so that we can resign pieces to build around.

Exhibit 1-AA

Quote

In 2021, the operating income of the Baltimore Orioles franchise amounted to 83 million U.S. dollars. This was the highest reported operating income of the Major League Baseball side based on data available since 2002.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/829611/baltimore-orioles-operating-income/

 

[yark14]

8 hours ago, baltfan said:

One thing that needs to not be underestimated is how many multi-inning saves he has.  There is tremendous value in that.

Britton had 4 multi-inning saves in 2016.  Lopez has 6 already this season.  Sure, Britton was a bit more unhittable, but Lopez's length adds a ton of value.

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

What does Lopez bring back in a trade? Will they trade him (my guess is yes). 

[Sports Guy]

I’m not sure I would comp Lopez to Britton in 2016..go back to 2014 when he threw 76 innings.

 

[Frobby]

39 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I’m not sure I would comp Lopez to Britton in 2016..go back to 2014 when he threw 76 innings.

 

OK, so we can look for Lopez to peak in 2024?