Probable rain out today in Detroit (Update: Game is postponed)

[Just Regular]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

For anyone hoping to distract themselves with minor league baseball tonight, the Bowie, Aberdeen and Delmarva games are already canceled.   However, the Norfolk Tides have a doubleheader at Charlotte beginning at 5:35, with Rom and Hall scheduled as the starters, with no rain in the forecast in Charlotte.  Go Tides!

Elsewhere, MLB Network is unfortunately falling down with the 700 regional game, not showing the Luis Castillo-Alek Manoah showdown.      I think Rogers Centre is like a 4-hour drive from Tiger Stadium, but I guess none of the Orioles are rich enough yet to lease a jet on the spur of the moment.      Maybe a good watch party at the team hotel.

Adley's room - he's gonna drop knowledge on everyone how to handle those guys.

[Just Regular]

Mateo optimism - it is tantalizing it is the start of the season.     I believe year over year new stuff you see has a little better chance to be signal and not noise.

Just a rounding error now - 2023's a month old, not weeks.    25/27ths of 1/6th of the games are done.    Other side of coin - in aggregate I think pitching opponents well below league average.

[AnythingO's]

8 minutes ago, deward said:

I can only point you to Frobby's response to owknows, as he said everything I would say, except better. All that work didn't stop Mateo from falling back into his bad habits and being an automatic out over the last month of 2022. Is this start encouraging? Yes, of course. It'd be fantastic for the team if it turns out to be real, sustainable improvement. His struggles to end last year give me reason to rein in my excitement until he proves he can keep this up.

As usual Frobby says things better than almost all of us and you have good reason to rein in your excitement. This start feels different than last summer and all his advanced stats this year point to definite changes, hence my optimism. I wish Mountcastle would commit to some changes in his approach but that's another story. lol

[Fiver6565]

1 hour ago, Just Regular said:

Mateo optimism - it is tantalizing it is the start of the season.     I believe year over year new stuff you see has a little better chance to be signal and not noise.

Just a rounding error now - 2023's a month old, not weeks.    25/27ths of 1/6th of the games are done.    Other side of coin - in aggregate I think pitching opponents well below league average.

Can someone break out their Just Regular-to-English dictionary?  I think this is an endorsement of Mateo being possibly the real deal but I can’t tell for sure. 

[Remember The Alomar]

10 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

Can someone break out their Just Regular-to-English dictionary?  I think this is an endorsement of Mateo being possibly the real deal but I can’t tell for sure. 

I will try: It's incredibly easy to be excited about Mateo despite it being early in the season. In fact, his performance thus far may show that his hot streak last season wasn't an anomaly. There's a lot to be optimistic about, however, the Orioles have also faced poor pitching, so perhaps this has inflated his numbers to a degree. 

[Just Regular]

14 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

Can someone break out their Just Regular-to-English dictionary?  I think this is an endorsement of Mateo being possibly the real deal but I can’t tell for sure. 

Its good.

[interloper]

I think for me to believe he's Mateo 2.0 he's going to have to walk more. He's hitting a lot which is great but what happens when he stops getting stuff to hit? We'll find out.

[owknows]

2 hours ago, deward said:

I can only point you to Frobby's response to owknows, as he said everything I would say, except better. All that work didn't stop Mateo from falling back into his bad habits and being an automatic out over the last month of 2022. Is this start encouraging? Yes, of course. It'd be fantastic for the team if it turns out to be real, sustainable improvement. His struggles to end last year give me reason to rein in my excitement until he proves he can keep this up.

My entry into this discussion was discussing the difference in our opinions between those players who benefit from high expectations, and those who don't.

Since working with the staff to make some adjustments, and adding some beef... Mateo has put together about 300 ABs worth of impressive performance between mid last season and now. He had a bad few weeks at the very end of the season, where, as others have pointed out... staff asked him to make some stance adjustments that weren't working out. But generally Mateo has had a pretty steady peformance improvement over the last 300 AB's culminating in his current performance. But expectations for Mateo have been low... given his earliest performance. So his string of impressive performance over the last 300ABs is considered a "heater".

The comparison was being made to Adley... who of course has about the same number of good major league AB's after a rough first month last year. (~300). But based on only those 300 AB's Adley is considered a superstar. His performance isn't characterized as a "heater". Because expectations for Adley were high from the outset.

[LA2]

4 hours ago, owknows said:

I see no reason at this time to believe that Mateo's performance will not be superior to Adley's at the end of the year.

I see that there is an expectation on many people's part that Adley's performance will be superior..  but that is kind of my point.

 

Rutschman's age-23 season at Bowie and Norfolk (542 PAs): .285 / .397 / .502 (.899 OPS)

Mateo's age-24 season at Oakland's AAA Las Vegas team (566 PAs): .289 / .330 / .504 (.834)

Granted LV is in the offense-rich PCL and he was repeating AAA after a mediocre 2018. But throw in 24/35 stealing, lots of power (29 2B, 14 3B, 19 HR, 78 RBI), and what I assume was good defense, and credit the lost COVID year and the Padres' bewildering infield management,

then one begins to see that Jorge wasn't just a shot in the dark waiver pick-up. It's possible that by August that he'll be one of the two or three most important non-pitchers on the team and supplying about a sixth of its on-the-field energy and fan frenzy.

[Billy F-Face3]

Any word on if Hays and Henderson will be able to play tomorrow? The Orioles will need all hands on deck for the double header.

[Going Underground]

Not sure why they are doing a split doubleheader. Could have some rain in the second game late. But I guess two gates with all the fans that will come. One is a Miggy giveaway