Adley Rutschman 2023

[Ohfan67]

The Gunnar disease is spreading. Symptoms include an astonishingly high OBP relative to batting average and slugging percentage and nice hair. 

[Just Regular]

It is probably just a cold spell, but I admit I am kind of watching the day to day now with some have we already done official Brad Brach burnout on the guy.

I wish Gunnar would get the same kind of not having to wonder day to day for a little while, no matter how many times he gets called out on strikes in the short term.

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Just Regular

[Aristotelian]

His second strikeout last night was the first time I recall this year Adley being overly aggressive in a big spot. It looked like they were trying to pitch around him with the open base and the 2-1 pitch he chased out of the zone changed the AB. Hopefully he learns from that and moves on. 

As a layperson, it makes sense to me that as long as he is a good enough hitter to DH regularly he can avoid full days off. He is a unicorn who needs to be in the lineup almost every day. I guess the question is whether you would rather have McCann catch more days with Adley DH versus Adley catch more with full days off. I think McCann is good enough that I prefer the latter, at least for now. That said, it is unnerving that even on Adley's DH days he is being brought back in to catch the late innings, and zero days off seems extreme. 

[Going Underground]

 

[Hallas]

So, I haven't been watching the games as dilligently as I had in the past when the O's were good, but I caught the tail end of this game, and it really felt like after Adley got clocked by a foul tip, he seemed a little off behind the plate.  He wasn't blocking quite as cleanly afterwards.  I kind of wonder if concussions (or even sub-concussive head trauma) might become an issue with him at some point.

[Just Regular]

This has been up for about a month, but the great algorithm only put it in front of me recently.

Adley shares a good deal here in a Charlie Rose type interview with a friend and Oregon State teammate who is launching this Perspective podcast.

 

[Alasdaire]

I'm as big of an Adley fan as anyone, but did we see a rare mistake from him tonight on the Felix blown save?

If it's as unforgivable of a sin as we all seem to think it is to throw Aaron Judge a non-fastball in the zone on 0-2 given the batter and the risk of hanging it, then you wonder if Adley should have put his foot down. Adley knew the risk, right? I'm really not privy to the battery dynamics between a pitcher/catcher though, so someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

Felix is obviously primarily responsible, but if we're going to effusively praise Adley for managing the staff and so changing this organization's fortunes, it's only fair to cite any noticeable examples to the contrary.

[Frobby]

I hated thst pitch call.  To that point, Felix had thrown two splitters and neither one was anywhere near the target.  He got away with it with Torres.  The one to Judge was worse.  Just terrible to let Judge get a pitch like that. 

[Pickles]

49 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I hated thst pitch call.  To that point, Felix had thrown two splitters and neither one was anywhere near the target.  He got away with it with Torres.  The one to Judge was worse.  Just terrible to let Judge get a pitch like that. 

Execution.  

Felix has to bury that pitch.  It's 0-2.  The bases are empty.

This isn't on Adley and this isn't on Hyde.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Pickles

[InsideCoroner]

4 minutes ago, Pickles said:

This isn't on Adley and this isn't on Rutschman.

So is it on Felix, or is it on Bautista? I’m torn.

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Execution.  

Felix has to bury that pitch.  It's 0-2.  The bases are empty.

This isn't on Adley and this isn't on Rutschman.

When you can see he’s been unable to execute it, then you don’t call it. 

[Moshagge3]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

When you can see he’s been unable to execute it, then you don’t call it. 

Maybe he threw some good ones in the warmup.

[Alasdaire]

17 minutes ago, Moshagge3 said:

Maybe he threw some good ones in the warmup.

Even if true, the risk is too high relative to the reward.

You’re facing the best power hitter of this generation in his home park. He’s protecting the plate because it’s 0-2. And he’s completely locked in and looking to tie the game with one swing.

I would much sooner walk him even in spite of the 0-2 count rather than throw him a pitch that has the potential to backfire that badly. Aaron Judge is not any old batter.

Again, it’s mostly on Felix. Maybe Adley was calling for it in a totally different spot. But he still knew it was a splitter, which always has the chance to hang. This isn’t Mariano Rivera, it’s a second-year guy who rose out of obscurity and can wildly fluctuate even batter-by-batter. If we’re going to give Adley credit for elevating the staff, then we should also consider times when he could have done something differently.

[Pickles]

26 minutes ago, Frobby said:

When you can see he’s been unable to execute it, then you don’t call it. 

If he can't throw changeups without hanging them, then he is not Felix Bautista.

Even if he can't execute it, he needs to be able to bury it at least.

And I want to be clear: I'm not questioning Bautista as closer or anything.  I'm just saying he made a bad pitch and it is on him, and not Adley or Hyde.

[SilverRocket]

13 minutes ago, Pickles said:

If he can't throw changeups without hanging them, then he is not Felix Bautista.

Even if he can't execute it, he needs to be able to bury it at least.

Did you see Bautista's second inning vs the Jays on Saturday where he threw 100% fastballs? Did you see his last two batters today? He can get away with all fastballs when it's on, and it was. His splitters were not hitting their location today.

Now I don't have a problem with calling for those splitters vs Torres there because he just pulled a 99mph pitch foul. He was cheating on the fastball, and that's a reasonable spot to use the splitter to disrupt timing. Bautista could get away with missing spots there. That was not the situation with Judge who didn't look like he was catching up to the heater.