Is the pitching good?

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, sportsfan8703 said:

It’s pretty simple, right now we’re piece meaning games. It’s early in the season so we have had fresh arms. To sustain this success we need to add GR and Hall to the mix. 

GR should be up and in the rotation ASAP. Hall should spot start and be sent down right after his start. If Hall is only pitching 3-4 IP, then let him pitch some of those in the MLB. 
 

I don’t know how long our current group can sustain this without supplementing them with GR and Hall. It’s tough to do this with dealing away Sulser and Scott. Plus losing Means. 
 

It’s pretty remarkable what has happened so far. It would be nice to see small moves made to supplement the pitching and just not set it up to fail. 

I agree with this, but GR is going to be on a strict innings limit, and I'm assuming Hall would be, too.  

So they can help this year, but probably only so much.  I'm assuming G-Rod would be shut down after he reaches a certain innings limit, minors or majors.  Hall, too.  

[jabba72]

When you have starters going into the 6th inning or more thats a sign of a good pitcher IMO. And right now we've had Wells, Lyles, Bradish and Zimmerman all doing this. I think thats a strength. So far they are passing the eye test.

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

33 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

All the trades that have previously been floated have been more trading away proven talent to get prospective talent.  (Mullins, Mancini, Santander, Means...)

Sounds like you're suggesting trading away prospective talent to get proven talent?  Is that correct?  What top ranked ammo are you trading away?  Who are you trying to get to supplement the team?

Yes Sir. You don’t need to give up the Hall’s and Rodriquez’s to get good talent, sometime salary dumps. I would be looking for a stopgap 3b, starter and 2b if Urias is going to miss extended time. 

[sportsfan8703]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

I agree with this, but GR is going to be on a strict innings limit, and I'm assuming Hall would be, too.  

So they can help this year, but probably only so much.  I'm assuming G-Rod would be shut down after he reaches a certain innings limit, minors or majors.  Hall, too.  

I’m fine with whatever innings limit they’re on as determined by the FO. I just want those innings to come at the MLB level. No reason wasting those bullets in the minors. An arm only has so many innings in it. 
 

Elias can really start to do some chess move type stuff to pitch GR and Hall to give everyone extra rest. 

[crowmst3k!]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

A look at some of the current MLB rankings for the Os:

• K rate: 25th
• BB rate: 14th
• ERA: 17th
• FIP: 21st
• xFIP: 22nd
• WAR: 8th
• WPA: 12th
• HR rate: 11th
• Hard hit%: 13th
• Barrel%: 16th
• Exit velocity: 22nd
• xwOBA: 29th
• whiff%: 7th
• weak contact%: 12th

Definitely a mixed bag here.  On one hand, the K rate sucks.  OTOH, the whiff% would indicate that the K rate should get better.  The BB rate has been very good and what we are getting from Tyler Wells is a big help there.  The HR rate will go up but can they keep other stats the same or get better?

 

K Rate is important, but some pitchers can get away with a lower K-rate.  It depends on their pitching style.  Jeremy Guthrie got away with a low K-rate for years, and was very effective because he was able to induce weak contact.  

This Orioles pitching staff seems to be fairly good at doing that, as well.  

I understand the importance of K-rate. It's one thing a pitcher can control, and one stat that is a plainly objective measure of a pitchers skill. However, not all pitchers are strikeout pitchers, and if they can be crafty, they can be effective.  

These stats say to me: Orioles pitchers generally don't have overpowering stuff, but they will throw strikes and pitch to contact. They've been able to control homerun damage thus far, which is encouraging.  

As the weather warms and things get more humid, it will be interesting to see how these metrics change. 

 

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Also moving the wall back has certainly been a factor in the HR rate improving.

It has only affected two balls hit by the opponents so far.  

[sportsfan8703]

1 minute ago, NelsonCruuuuuz said:

Yes Sir. You don’t need to give up the Hall’s and Rodriquez’s to get good talent, sometime salary dumps. I would be looking for a stopgap 3b, starter and 2b if Urias is going to miss extended time. 

It’s not going to take much to go pluck a blocked player in AAA from a team. David Villar from SF is a good example. We could probably give up one of our 3rd tier OF bats for him. 

[crowmst3k!]

4 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I agree with this, but GR is going to be on a strict innings limit, and I'm assuming Hall would be, too.  

So they can help this year, but probably only so much.  I'm assuming G-Rod would be shut down after he reaches a certain innings limit, minors or majors.  Hall, too.  

I wonder if they limit things on the front-end or back-end?  

I think it would be wise to use guys like G Rod and hall on a 3-4 innings limit in the early going, and as the season goes on: stretch them further.  On the weird off-chance that the Orioles are hanging in contention, it would be nice to have them available later in the season.  And if the O's are fully out of it before too long, they can continue on that schedule. 

[Hallas]

3 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

A look at some of the current MLB rankings for the Os:

• K rate: 25th
• BB rate: 14th
• ERA: 17th
• FIP: 21st
• xFIP: 22nd
• WAR: 8th
• WPA: 12th
• HR rate: 11th
• Hard hit%: 13th
• Barrel%: 16th
• Exit velocity: 22nd
• xwOBA: 29th
• whiff%: 7th
• weak contact%: 12th

Definitely a mixed bag here.  On one hand, the K rate sucks.  OTOH, the whiff% would indicate that the K rate should get better.  The BB rate has been very good and what we are getting from Tyler Wells is a big help there.  The HR rate will go up but can they keep other stats the same or get better?

 

Where did you get the whiff rate stats?  I have them at 24th in whiff rate.  Did you reverse the chart?  SwStr% ranking is also not great - 21st - but more indicative that we could improve our K rate slightly through better luck.

[sportsfan8703]

26 minutes ago, crowmst3k! said:

I wonder if they limit things on the front-end or back-end?  

I think it would be wise to use guys like G Rod and hall on a 3-4 innings limit in the early going, and as the season goes on: stretch them further.  On the weird off-chance that the Orioles are hanging in contention, it would be nice to have them available later in the season.  And if the O's are fully out of it before too long, they can continue on that schedule. 

I’d say shoot your best bullets and see where the team is. We already got the extra year of control on all the prospects not up. Shoot your bullets then at the deadline you can re-evaluate at the deadline. 
 

We could have fun this season without mortgaging the future. 

[Just Regular]

If you believe pop-ups or infield flyballs are strikeout-adjacent enough to count as a skill supplement (I mostly do), Fangraphs has BAL a nice 8th MLB-wide year to date, perhaps bridging K% deficit to some other middle-pack teams a bit.

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=2&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31&sort=7,d

LAD-HOU-MIL-TBR four of the seven in-front of us for Appeal to Authority type purposes.

[scarey1999]

Curious what makes you think the HR rate will go up? Is it just a hunch based on our historically bad pitching?

The weak contact rate and hard hit rate seem to be aligned with the HR rate. 

[Orioles0615]

2 hours ago, btdart20 said:

All the trades that have previously been floated have been more trading away proven talent to get prospective talent.  (Mullins, Mancini, Santander, Means...)

Sounds like you're suggesting trading away prospective talent to get proven talent?  Is that correct?  What top ranked ammo are you trading away?  Who are you trying to get to supplement the team?

Pitching and infield help eventually 

[spiritof66]

5 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

To be a buyer during the year, most of the time, you have to be a contender.  The Os aren’t a contender.

To be a buyer during the year, you have to be willing to spend millions of additional dollars in an effort to improve this year's team. The Orioles aren't willing to spend additional money to improve this year's team.

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

To be a buyer during the year, you have to be willing to spend millions of additional dollars in an effort to improve this year's team. The Orioles aren't willing to spend additional money to improve this year's team.

I suppose that could change if we unexpectedly were in the wild card race in late July.   I’m certainly not expecting that to happen, but that’s why I said “unexpectedly.”