Opening Day Impressions

[DrungoHazewood]

23 minutes ago, deward said:

Interesting to note that on Opening Day 1973, a year removed from three straight WS appearances, including one championship, the O's drew 26k fans (their 4th largest crowd of the season, as it turned out). 

I realize it adds up to one less total base, but I'd give the nod to Sam Horn going 4-5 with 2 HR on opening day 1990, driving in 6 of the O's 7 runs in a 7-6 victory.

Yea, the Sam Horn game was really good.

But if it came down to it and someone forced me to pick the best opening day performance, I might go with Sutcliffe's shutout in the first game at OPACY.

[oriole]

1 hour ago, sportsfan8703 said:

No need to worry about Mullins. That was a flukey play. McKenna is a staple of our one hit lineups. The bullpen is the biggest concern. Will Voth get a shot in MR/SU?

I agree it was flukey, same with the Mateo throw later in the game. I’m just thinking out loud about hoping it’s not indicative of the level of defense we should come to expect from these two players. Their reputation makes them seem defensively infallible, which is not true of course. Just surprising to see the best two defensive players on the team make bad plays right out of the gate.

Regarding McKenna, I’d love to see him play more vs lefties. He hits LHP better than Mullins. Seems like a natural platoon partner to me.

I agree about the bullpen. They made me nervous before yesterday’s game and even more so today. If Bautista can’t get the job done, who else could take his spot? That’s a worry for another day, but not an encouraging first outing. I was talking the man up to my wife before the bottom of the ninth and he comes out throwing the ball everywhere except the strike zone. She looked puzzled lol glad he got it under control as the inning progressed 

[eddie83]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Yea, the Sam Horn game was really good.

But if it came down to it and someone forced me to pick the best opening day performance, I might go with Sutcliffe's shutout in the first game at OPACY.

Quite the day. Fast game. 
 

Sut throwing pitches 8 inches off the corner for strikes. 

[eddie83]

2 minutes ago, oriole said:

I agree it was flukey, same with the Mateo throw later in the game. I’m just thinking out loud about hoping it’s not indicative of the level of defense we should come to expect from these two players. Their reputation makes them seem defensively infallible, which is not true of course. Just surprising to see the best two defensive players on the team make bad plays right out of the gate.

Regarding McKenna, I’d love to see him play more vs lefties. He hits LHP better than Mullins. Seems like a natural platoon partner to me.

I agree about the bullpen. They made me nervous before yesterday’s game and even more so today. If Bautista can’t get the job done, who else could take his spot? That’s a worry for another day, but not an encouraging first outing. I was talking the man up to my wife before the bottom of the ninth and he comes out throwing the ball everywhere except the strike zone. She looked puzzled lol glad he got it under control as the inning progressed 

Santander is really my only concern defensively, not because of yesterday. I was not impressed with Stowers and his glove either. Hays is still adequate.  
 

Infield and catcher I feel very good. 
 

Bullpen especially early on will be something to watch.  

[Orioles Jim]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Different issues.  Couldn’t hold runners, a couple of wild pitches, an error when the SS tried to throw out the lead runner at 3B and Devers was late getting to the base so the throw went to the backstop.  Plus with 8 walks and a HBP, they did look like a Little League team out there.  No outfield miscues that I remember, but not really any difficult plays out there that I recall.  

Plus Rutschman’s fifth and final “hit.”

[DrungoHazewood]

2 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Quite the day. Fast game. 
 

Sut throwing pitches 8 inches off the corner for strikes. 

Ah, yes, the golden era when an ump could make up whatever strike zone he wanted and nobody could or would do a thing about it.

Who was it... Eric Gregg? Who had that playoff game where his strike zone was 3' wide and 5' tall? I'd love to see a retroactive Ump Scorecard for that. One team probably got -4 expected runs from that.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Ah, yes, the golden era when an ump could make up whatever strike zone he wanted and nobody could or would do a thing about it.

Who was it... Eric Gregg? Who had that playoff game where his strike zone was 3' wide and 5' tall? I'd love to see a retroactive Ump Scorecard for that. One team probably got -4 expected runs from that.

 

 

[eddie83]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Ah, yes, the golden era when an ump could make up whatever strike zone he wanted and nobody could or would do a thing about it.

Who was it... Eric Gregg? Who had that playoff game where his strike zone was 3' wide and 5' tall? I'd love to see a retroactive Ump Scorecard for that. One team probably got -4 expected runs from that.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL199204060.shtml
 

 

Larry Barnett. 
 

Yep. NLCS in 1997. Awful. 

[deward]

15 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Ah, yes, the golden era when an ump could make up whatever strike zone he wanted and nobody could or would do a thing about it.

Who was it... Eric Gregg? Who had that playoff game where his strike zone was 3' wide and 5' tall? I'd love to see a retroactive Ump Scorecard for that. One team probably got -4 expected runs from that.

The arrogance of the umpires union prior to 1999 was truly mind-blowing.

[Frobby]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

 

 

Fangraphs has Adley at 0.4 fWAR today. Bb-ref hasn’t posted anything yet.  

 

6 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Told you we would know today.

We know fWAR.   BB-ref hasn’t posted anyone’s rWAR today.  As I mentioned, I believe they wait a couple of weeks before they start posting it.  

[Billy F-Face3]

12 hours ago, Frobby said:

I’m going to assume you didn’t watch the game.  By my count, the O’s had five outfield plays that were arguably misplays.  But looking back at Baseball Savant:

- The Mullins play in the 1st inning had an .890 xBA.

- The Hays play in the 4th inning had a .580 xBA.

- The Santander play in the 6th inning had a .620 xBA

- The Santander play in the 8th inning had a .360 xBA.

(The fifth miscue was on a clean single that was misplayed on the hop due to poor communication between McKenna and Mullins.

Now, xBA doesn’t tell you everything about the specifics of a batted ball, it’s just based on exit velocity and launch angle but doesn’t tell you which direction the ball was hit on the 90 degree playing field or what the dimensions of a particular stadium are.   But, nobody’s saying these were routine plays, though I’d say the 6th inning Santander play was, despite the listed .620 xBA.

For whatever reason, the balls to the Sox outfielders just weren’t as challenging.  They either were very clear hits, or routine outs.   That’s how it can go in a one-game sample.

 

 

I honestly think it was just unfamiliarity with Fenway Park's angles because it looked like they were caught out of position on some of those fly balls. On Cedric's, it looked to me like he was surpised at how fast the ball was traveling and he felt the warning track and didn't want to slam into the wall or get injured on the first game of a 162 season. It looked like he pulled up and just threw his glove up to try and take a stab at it.

Edited April 1, 2023 by Billy F-Face3