This is a young team. It's time for the coaching staff to step up.

[Jim'sKid26]

Lots has been written on this board about the individual players and their individual failings. But taken in the context of a team, these guys are making fundamental errors, both figuratively and literally.

I think you have to ask where is the coaching staff? This team just came out of spring training for goodness sake. Dropping fly balls? Bouncing throws to 1B on easy DP balls, (to end the game)? Calling for a fastball in a fastball count to a fastball hitter with the game on the line? Was this team adequately prepared to start the season? Who is responsible for holding these young guys accountable for their play and the mental approach to the game? I don't see anyone on the current roster who has the experience, leadership skills or gravitas to fill the "Frank Robinson" role in the clubhouse. 

So the coaches and the manager have to step forward and get these young guys' attention. Losing that second game is just unacceptable. If this team wants to play meaningful games in September and October they have to get their stuff (I wanted to use a different word but...) together. It needs to happen now. They just gave a game away to an opponent they should dominate this year. Time for some consequences. 

[RZNJ]

Seriously?  LOL

[maybenxtyr]

1 minute ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

Lots has been written on this board about the individual players and their individual failings. But taken in the context of a team, these guys are making fundamental errors, both figuratively and literally.

I think you have to ask where is the coaching staff? This team just came out of spring training for goodness sake. Dropping fly balls? Bouncing throws to 1B on easy DP balls, (to end the game)? Calling for a fastball in a fastball count to a fastball hitter with the game on the line? Was this team adequately prepared to start the season? Who is responsible for holding these young guys accountable for their play and the mental approach to the game? I don't see anyone on the current roster who has the experience, leadership skills or gravitas to fill the "Frank Robinson" role in the clubhouse. 

So the coaches and the manager have to step forward and get these young guys' attention. Losing that second game is just unacceptable. If this team wants to play meaningful games in September and October they have to get their stuff (I wanted to use a different word but...) together. It needs to happen now. They just gave a game away to an opponent they should dominate this year. Time for some consequences. 

Have you looked at the stats from Boston the first 2 games? I don't know that Baltimore should expect to dominate them this season. 

 

The biggest problem with the O's is that they may have overachieved last season and the pitching could take a huge step back. It's only been 2 games so I'm not going to draw too much of a conclusion, but I don't like how the team has looked in the first 2 games.

[Frobby]

Do you think that the botched plays by players who were good to excellent last year over 162 games are due to coaching?   I don’t.  It’s just one of those things that happen, especially in a weird ballpark in atypical weather conditions in the first week of the season.  

[RZNJ]

19 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Do you think that the botched plays by players who were good to excellent last year over 162 games are due to coaching?   I don’t.  It’s just one of those things that happen, especially in a weird ballpark in atypical weather conditions in the first week of the season.  

Good coaches would have had outfielders in Boston in parkas shagging flies to get used to the conditions and the ballpark dimensions instead of enjoying warm, sunny Florida.   At the very least, the coaches forgot to remind Mullins and Hays that they’ve been competent ML outfielders for over 2 years now.   Must be time for new coaches who can get their message across.

[Jim'sKid26]

22 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Do you think that the botched plays by players who were good to excellent last year over 162 games are due to coaching?   I don’t.  It’s just one of those things that happen, especially in a weird ballpark in atypical weather conditions in the first week of the season.  

Do you think you might be rationalizing poor play and mental errors? These are professional athletes and I get that they will make mistakes. But the play McKenna made was not caused by the weather conditions or the quirky aspects of Fenway Park. Nor was the poor pitch calling on the game winning homerun. Young teams lose focus and lose games they should win because of it. Maybe I'm making more of this than I should. But you have to admit they do not look either sharp or focused on the defensive side of the ball.

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

Do you think you might be rationalizing poor play and mental errors? These are professional athletes and I get that they will make mistakes. But the play McKenna made was not caused by the weather conditions or the quirky aspects of Fenway Park. Nor was the poor pitch calling on the game winning homerun. Young teams lose focus and lose games they should win because of it. Maybe I'm making more of this than I should. But you have to admit they do not look either sharp or focused on the defensive side of the ball.

I’m just not putting in on the coaches.  

[Jim'sKid26]

36 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Seriously?  LOL

I live in Asheville, NC so I watch a lot of Braves games and the local media covers them much more so than the Orioles. 

The Braves are an interesting team. They are young but very talented.

Recently there was an article in the Athletic talking about how the coaching staff for the Braves was, on average, the oldest in baseball.  The author made the observation that the Braves players really connected with the coaches and that the inexperience of players was offset, somewhat, by the experience and cohesiveness of the coaches.  

So, yeah, seriously, I think it's an issue worth talking about. If you don't agree, don't reply to the thread. 

Ref:

Schultz: Braves’ staff of ‘old goats’ succeeding even as baseball skews younger - The Athletic

 

[Moose Milligan]

This thread doesn’t get made if McKenna catches that fly ball yesterday. 
 

It’s my understanding that by the time these guys reach the majors, they’re adept at such simple things and the coaches exist for “fine tuning” and advanced concepts.  I don’t know what coaching could have prevented that error yesterday. 
 

IMO, it sits squarely on McKenna’s shoulders for looking away at the last second and not watching the ball all the way in. FWIW, I always thought “two hands” was overrated. Ball hits the heel of your glove and pops out, it’s probably not gonna matter if you had your free hand up there or not. 

[maybenxtyr]

2 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

This thread doesn’t get made if McKenna catches that fly ball yesterday. 
 

It’s my understanding that by the time these guys reach the majors, they’re adept at such simple things and the coaches exist for “fine tuning” and advanced concepts.  I don’t know what coaching could have prevented that error yesterday. 
 

IMO, it sits squarely on McKenna’s shoulders for looking away at the last second and not watching the ball all the way in. FWIW, I always thought “two hands” was overrated. Ball hits the heel of your glove and pops out, it’s probably not gonna matter if you had your free hand up there or not. 

The missed catch is the obvious problem, but had they been able to pitch even a little bit, and the game would have been different.

 

I'm far more concerned about the pitching than I am the outfield defense.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

I live in Asheville, NC so I watch a lot of Braves games and the local media covers them much more so than the Orioles. 

The Braves are an interesting team. They are young but very talented.

Recently there was an article in the Athletic talking about how the coaching staff for the Braves was, on average, the oldest in baseball.  The author made the observation that the Braves players really connected with the coaches and that the inexperience of players was offset, somewhat, by the experience and cohesiveness of the coaches.  

So, yeah, seriously, I think it's an issue worth talking about. If you don't agree, don't reply to the thread. 

Ref:

Schultz: Braves’ staff of ‘old goats’ succeeding even as baseball skews younger - The Athletic

 

The worst thing about yesterday’s loss is all of the silly reactionary stuff I have to read on here after it.   So, the coaches are good when our guys make the plays but now maybe they’re bad after 2 days in Boston?   It’s dumb and I’m commenting.  Don’t like it?   Too bad.

[Jim'sKid26]

43 minutes ago, maybenxtyr said:

Have you looked at the stats from Boston the first 2 games? I don't know that Baltimore should expect to dominate them this season. 

 

The biggest problem with the O's is that they may have overachieved last season and the pitching could take a huge step back. It's only been 2 games so I'm not going to draw too much of a conclusion, but I don't like how the team has looked in the first 2 games.

So I think the O's are a more talented team than the Red Sox. Maybe dominate is a poor choice of words but I do think they should win the season series handily. 

I think the pitching might take a step back but I think the defense should be as good or better than last year. We are not seeing that in the first two games. To be honest, I'm not sure you can hang much of the game 2 loss on the pitchers. Poor defense tends to make things snowball.  But its the mental errors that concern me. 

I agree with you that 2 games is a small sample size. 

[RZNJ]

1 minute ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

So I think the O's are a more talented team than the Red Sox. Maybe dominate is a poor choice of words but I do think they should win the season series handily. 

I think the pitching might take a step back but I think the defense should be as good or better than last year. We are not seeing that in the first two games. To be honest, I'm not sure you can hang much of the game 2 loss on the pitchers. Poor defense tends to make things snowball.  But its the mental errors that concern me. 

I agree with you that 2 games is a small sample size. 

What were the mental errors?

[Moose Milligan]

6 minutes ago, maybenxtyr said:

The missed catch is the obvious problem, but had they been able to pitch even a little bit, and the game would have been different.

 

I'm far more concerned about the pitching than I am the outfield defense.

It’s ok to be concerned about both. Quite frankly, I don’t know how anyone couldn’t be after the first two games. 
 

That said, I think the outfield defense is likely to be corrected rather than the pitching coming around. 

[Can_of_corn]

32 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Good coaches would have had outfielders in Boston in parkas shagging flies to get used to the conditions and the ballpark dimensions instead of enjoying warm, sunny Florida.   At the very least, the coaches forgot to remind Mullins and Hays that they’ve been competent ML outfielders for over 2 years now.   Must be time for new coaches who can get their message across.

Like Boston did?  Oh wait they didn't either and they can still catch fly balls.