Are the O's turning a corner?

[owknows]

There comes a time in the valley...  after having carried the weight of perpetual losses... that personnel churns... and players stop pressing...  and they forget that they are supposed to lose.

 

I think we've reached that point.

 

Are they contenders?  Nah.

 

Is it easy to root for 'em. Yeah.

 

(Personally I think Chirinos was the guy that helped them forget.)

[jabba72]

It feels like they are on the rise and will finish with less than 100 losses. Cross your fingers that the team stays healthy and I think that will happen. Not yet willing to go further that that.

[waroriole]

6 minutes ago, TommyPickles said:

I know one person who is turning a corner: CEDRIC MULLINS

Over his past 6 games:

10-26, 2 HR, 4 2Bs, .385 Avg, 1.180 OPS

You love to see it.

It was always there. Just a real compact and powerful swing. He can get to any pitch   Last year was for real. 

[wildcard]

28 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

It's more like we've hit rock bottom. It's likely now that we have seen the worst. Not sure if that means we've turned a corner.

The turn around of the pitching staff is a total surprise to me.  However,  watching the pitchers it looks real.    And there are more on the way with Vespi, Grayson and DL.   Baumann may also prove to be useful after some time to find his control.   

This team was expected to hit and it looks like they will.   The defense in there.  The outfield defense to above average, the infield is turning double play efficiently and here comes Adley at catcher.   

It just looks like it is coming together to me.

[Just Regular]

5 minutes ago, wildcard said:

This team was expected to hit and it looks like they will.   The defense in there.  The outfield defense to above average, the infield is turning double play efficiently and here comes Adley at catcher.  

Obviously enjoying the good play and entering the weekend hoping you are right about Nashville-St. Louis.

I see a lot of soft factors maybe aligning for an exciting week ahead, because of the thought does the team want to sell tickets for the next homestand with a lot of lead time, and the psychobabble of do you want to introduce Adley and Grayson relatively anonymously in the Central time zone, or with the extra weight of Yankees-Rays?

Monday is the off day so even if Adley goes all three in Nashville he has the Monday to re-charge.    Grayson with the normal 5-days rest pitches tomorrow, and after another 5-days rest it'd be Friday at Detroit in a big ballpark against a scuffling offense.   I have a small hope both Adley and Grayson could be at a Monday offday team visit to the Gateway Arch.   Unless you feel really plucky, I don't think you steer Grayson Game1 to the New York Yankees.

Tony, I hope the board is ready for a surge if we get the Mother of All Announcements after Sunday's games.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

The key thing for me is the Orioles have done all this without any of the top prospects getting playing time. I don't know how this team performs the rest of the season, but adding Rutschman, Grayson, Stowers and maybe DL Hall should only lift up the performance on the field. 

And I realize they are on a 100 loss pace currently, but for this team it's an improvement. 

[Aristotelian]

17 minutes ago, wildcard said:

The turn around of the pitching staff is a total surprise to me.  However,  watching the pitchers it looks real.    And there are more on the way with Vespi, Grayson and DL.   Baumann may also prove to be useful after some time to find his control.   

This team was expected to hit and it looks like they will.   The defense in there.  The outfield defense to above average, the infield is turning double play efficiently and here comes Adley at catcher.   

It just looks like it is coming together to me.

Could be right. I didn't mean to be dismissive. Having rock bottom behind us is still a massive improvement. I like the fact that of the current rotation of Lyles-Zimmerman-Wells-Bradish-Watkins, at least 3/5 have legit upside. There is some real talent in the bullpen, too, with Bautista and Perez. And you are right about the pipeline, it is only getting better from here. 

[interloper]

6 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

The key thing for me is the Orioles have done all this without any of the top prospects getting playing time. I don't know how this team performs the rest of the season, but adding Rutschman, Grayson, Stowers and maybe DL Hall should only lift up the performance on the field. 

For sure. The only kind of bummer for me in this regard is with the infield prospects. Gunnar is looking great but he's young and we won't see him this year no matter what he does. Westburg should be the guy to push for a late season call-up, but he's scuffling and seems destined for a full season at AA with maybe a call up to AAA near the end. 

On the one hand, you look at Adley, Stowers, Grod, and Hall and say, "damn that's awesome that these guys are coming", but on the other hand you look at the state of the ML infield and none of those guys really address that. But that's me getting greedy at this point. Adley will be huge for this lineup, in theory. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

For sure. The only kind of bummer for me in this regard is with the infield prospects. Gunnar is looking great but he's young and we won't see him this year no matter what he does. Westburg should be the guy to push for a late season call-up, but he's scuffling and seems destined for a full season at AA with maybe a call up to AAA near the end. 

On the one hand, you look at Adley, Stowers, Grod, and Hall and say, "damn that's awesome that these guys are coming", but on the other hand you look at the state of the ML infield and none of those guys really address that. But that's me getting greedy at this point. Adley will be huge for this lineup, in theory. 

You hit the nail on the head on what is going to limit improvement for this season. It's too bad that there isn't a 3B and SS prospect ready to come up with Rutcshman this season.

The infield is really dragging down what the Orioles can accomplish this year and unless any younger players surprise we're still a year or two away from real help at 2B/3B/SS. 

[OriolesMagic83]

55 minutes ago, owknows said:

There comes a time in the valley...  after having carried the weight of perpetual losses... that personnel churns... and players stop pressing...  and they forget that they are supposed to lose.

 

I think we've reached that point.

 

Are they contenders?  Nah.

 

Is it easy to root for 'em. Yeah.

 

(Personally I think Chirinos was the guy that helped them forget.)

I think a lot of it has to do with a change in attitude.  The hitters just enjoying playing the game and the little extra competitions gestures they do like the chain and the binoculars.  Hitting a 95 mph fastball requires incredible dexterity and fine motor control.  Paradoxically, doing complex movements like hitting a 95 mph fastball is a lot easier if you are relaxed and not overly concentrating and let muscle memory take over.  That relaxed, confident, fun attitude seems to lead to more winning.  It's just exciting to see the O's being more competitive and know reinforcements are on the way.

[Going Underground]

19 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Obviously enjoying the good play and entering the weekend hoping you are right about Nashville-St. Louis.

I see a lot of soft factors maybe aligning for an exciting week ahead, because of the thought does the team want to sell tickets for the next homestand with a lot of lead time, and the psychobabble of do you want to introduce Adley and Grayson relatively anonymously in the Central time zone, or with the extra weight of Yankees-Rays?

Monday is the off day so even if Adley goes all three in Nashville he has the Monday to re-charge.    Grayson with the normal 5-days rest pitches tomorrow, and after another 5-days rest it'd be Friday at Detroit in a big ballpark against a scuffling offense.   I have a small hope both Adley and Grayson could be at a Monday offday team visit to the Gateway Arch.   Unless you feel really plucky, I don't think you steer Grayson Game1 to the New York Yankees.

Tony, I hope the board is ready for a surge if we get the Mother of All Announcements after Sunday's games.

Adley looks like a week in Norfolk or  so ,according to Buck Britton. Could change but his arch to the big leagues dosen't look like a gateway one 

 

 

[Just Regular]

8 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

Adley looks like a week in Norfolk or  so ,according to Buck Britton. Could change but his arch to the big leagues dosen't look like a gateway one 

Good call.    Technically he could catch tonight, DH tomorrow, be off Sunday, or some combination thereof, and meet Buck Britton's developmental goals these 72 hours.     

If I was the marketing department, honestly could see either way if I want the hype (and no 0-for-4's) before whenever the Big Day is, or the hope for a couple highlights on the roadtrip.   3 days or 3 weeks feels academic baseball-wise, more curious to see the theater (is Jeff Passan or Roch breaking, does Hyder get a press conference bombshell, etc) of how the team will choreograph it all whenever it happens.

If Grayson isn't good tomorrow, I think I'll reset my month to June.   At Tigers looks awfully good from certain angles though.

[sportsfan8703]

The optimist view is that we’re 10-16 without Means and AR. Probably 12-14 with them. 
 

Realistically, AR was likely never going to start the year up here. Every team has injuries, but losing Means was a huge blow to the current team, and any trade return we would’ve gotten for him. I think we’ll see AR and GR up soon. If there is an injury I think we might see Diaz before Stowers, just because of option status. 
 

Overall, I’m shocked by the pitching. Losing Sulser and Scott didn’t really hurt that much. The expanded rosters have really been helping and only asking SP to go 4 and 5 IP has really helped. Akin has been big in that bridge role. 
 

If healthy I would love so see Hall up after June 15. Big IF though. I buy into the theory that there’s only so many bullets in an arm. Might as well fire as many of those at the MLB level as possible. 

[BirdinBama]

We're way more fun to watch, and the addition of Adley is very exciting.

I also wish we had some infielders ready in the system. We should have an aggressive off-season to remedy that.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 minutes ago, BirdinBama said:

We're way more fun to watch, and the addition of Adley is very exciting.

I also wish we had some infielders ready in the system. We should have an aggressive off-season to remedy that.

Excuse me, but did you forget about Rougned Odor being signed by Elias this past off-season?