Things we didn’t know going in to 2022

[Moose Milligan]

6 hours ago, wildcard said:

 

Moose nicknamed Chris Holt as a pitching coach wizard as a joke.  It doesn't look like a joke any more.

I don't believe I was the first to describe Chris Holt as a Wizard, good sir.

[Moose Milligan]

3 minutes ago, AlbNYfan said:

I lasted one week of the '21 season watching Maikel Franco, a guy that appeared to be just looking for another payday. His defense was atrocious....almost laughably. Replays showed a guy that frequently didn't move a step before it was by him. 

It brings me joy that he's employed by the Nats at the moment.

[Just Regular]

4 hours ago, TommyPickles said:

Before this season started, I thought Akin and Kremer were toast.

Akin and Kremer (and Lopez) results in 2020-2021 were to me somewhat a byproduct of not caring what some of the 1425 innings at the MLB level looked like.    I hope never again this decade will that be the case.

[LA2]

1 hour ago, AlbNYfan said:

I lasted one week of the '21 season watching Maikel Franco, a guy that appeared to be just looking for another payday. His defense was atrocious....almost laughably. Replays showed a guy that frequently didn't move a step before it was by him. 

I generally agree. The weird exception was that relatively late in the season he suddenly became very good at coming in and barehanding bunts and short rollers and getting a throw off that beat the runner to first.

[wildcard]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I don't believe I was the first to describe Chris Holt as a Wizard, good sir.

I didn't mean to miss speak.  I thought you were.

[Moose Milligan]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I didn't mean to miss speak.  I thought you were.

I never misspeak.  

 

 

[OriolesMagic83]

12 hours ago, Frobby said:

77 last year, 103 this year.  

I would have thought it would have taken 2 years to make this kind of improvement.  And as mentioned, it was done largely w/o Means and totally w/o GrayRod.

[DrungoHazewood]

On 7/21/2022 at 7:26 AM, Frobby said:

77 last year, 103 this year.  

Is that based on one- or three-year park factors?  Okay, I'll go look it up... and it appears to be single-season.

[DrungoHazewood]

16 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I would have thought it would have taken 2 years to make this kind of improvement.  And as mentioned, it was done largely w/o Means and totally w/o GrayRod.

Teams rarely change in nice, smooth incremental ways.  They don't go 65 wins, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95.  They're at least as likely to go 65, 82, 77, 95.

The 2011 Orioles were last in the AL in ERA, runs allowed, hits allowed, homers allowed.  They made some seemingly minor changes (including getting rid of Koji, by far 11's best reliever) and finished 6th or 8th in all those things in '12, and allowed 155 fewer runs.

The 1997 Orioles had a 3.91 ERA and allowed the fewest runs in the AL.  With many of the same pitchers the 1998 Orioles allowed 104 more runs, dropping to 7th of 14.

The '88 Orioles allowed 789 runs, last in the AL.  In 1989 they started Dave Schmidt opening day and still allowed 103 fewer runs, and moved from 14th to 7th in the league.

[Frobby]

On 7/21/2022 at 11:18 AM, Moose Milligan said:

I don't believe I was the first to describe Chris Holt as a Wizard, good sir.

 

20 hours ago, wildcard said:

I didn't mean to miss speak.  I thought you were.

You knew I would look this up, right?  Here’s the first reference I could find:

Can_of_corn wins the prize for being first.  But Moose certainly gets the prize for frequency.  
https://forum.orioleshangout.com/search/?&q=Holt wizard&search_and_or=and

[Yossarian]

One thing I didn't know:

Urias, Odor, and Mateo would collectively have just two fewer homeruns than Mancini, Mullins, and Hays at the All Star break.

 

This offense must improve.

[Frobby]

16 hours ago, Yossarian said:

One thing I didn't know:

Urias, Odor, and Mateo would collectively have just two fewer homeruns than Mancini, Mullins, and Hays at the All Star break.

 

This offense must improve.

I’ll say this again.  The offense has been above league average for three months in a row, by a little more each month.  The offense still has room to improve, but your post makes it sound like the offense has been a problem.  It was a problem in April (2.95 runs/game) but hasn’t been a problem since.  

Also, I don’t really care how many homers Urias, Odor and Mateo have.  Their OBPs are .300, .263 and .257.   You want to improve the offense?   Improve that.

[LA2]

9 hours ago, Frobby said:

I’ll say this again.  The offense has been above league average for three months in a row, by a little more each month.  The offense still has room to improve, but your post makes it sound like the offense has been a problem.  It was a problem in April (2.95 runs/game) but hasn’t been a problem since.  

Also, I don’t really care how many homers Urias, Odor and Mateo have.  Their OBPs are .300, .263 and .257.   You want to improve the offense?   Improve that.

I expect Urias' OBP to improve (.361 last season and never low throughout his pro career), but Odor's not significantly (his OBPs have been .283, .209, .286 the past three years and the last one was while playing half his games at Yankee Stadium).

Mateo's very well could: he's only struck-out twice in the last 30 plate appearances, with admittedly only one walk too, but 9 hits incl. 3 doubles, 2 triples, and 1 HR. One can actually see him holding back the ignition and wildness of his swing a bit more.

[Frobby]

Second half pleasant surprises:

1.  Gunnar making it all the way to the majors and excelling right off the bat.  

2.  Bradish coming back from his IL stint looking like a TOR starter at times.   

3.  I’m going to call Kremer’s continued excellence a pleasant surprise even though he was doing well at the AS break.  

4.  Joey Ortiz’s emergence as a major IF prospect.

All things that improve the future outlook of this team.


 

[Frobby]

I probably should add the Austin Voth reclamation project to my list, though I’m not sure if it’s real or an illusion just yet.  Stay tuned tonight on that one…