The First Rough Patch

[LA2]

I wouldn't call it a true rough patch unless there's a significant losing streak during which we get repeatedly blown out--and, 37% of the way through the season now, we haven't yet come anywhere close to something like that (fingers crossed).

As Frobby has often pointed out in the past, all of the successful Oriole teams have had much rougher weeks.

[yark14]

The 3 factors leading to the rough patch have been talked to death in countless threads:

• Need better bullpen management.  Our top relievers are overused.
• Starters need to make it deeper into games.
• Need more production offensively from our infielders.

Simple as that.

[owknows]

To be honest... players like Urias, Mateo, Frazier... were expected to be placeholders. Anything they gave you over and above that was gravy.

There were periods of time where they flashed brightly...  and may have caused some consideration to be given to hanging on to any of them.

But in the end... the team has built the best farm in baseball. And the time has come to supplant these placeholder players with far better players now bubbling up through the system. And for those concerned that one or two of the AAA star players coming along may not have the MLB chops.. there's another crop that looks just as good coming behind that one.

Let's get on with it already.

The only pity is that we didn't unload these placeholder players at their peak. (I say this knowing that this isn't always possible)

[LA2]

4 hours ago, owknows said:

To be honest... players like Urias, Mateo, Frazier... were expected to be placeholders. Anything they gave you over and above that was gravy.

There were periods of time where they flashed brightly...  and may have caused some consideration to be given to hanging on to any of them.

But in the end... the team has built the best farm in baseball. And the time has come to supplant these placeholder players with far better players now bubbling up through the system. And for those concerned that one or two of the AAA star players coming along may not have the MLB chops.. there's another crop that looks just as good coming behind that one.

Let's get on with it already.

The only pity is that we didn't unload these placeholder players at their peak. (I say this knowing that this isn't always possible)

There's always the possibility of a rookie phenom, but it's rare--and I'd rather have a replacement-level veteran with pennant-race and post-season experience than a prospect flailing away to reach the Mendoza Line, e.g. Stowers and Henderson this year, Vavra last year, and Rutschman his first month.

[owknows]

50 minutes ago, LA2 said:

There's always the possibility of a rookie phenom, but it's rare--and I'd rather have a replacement-level veteran with pennant-race and post-season experience than a prospect flailing away to reach the Mendoza Line, e.g. Stowers and Henderson this year, Vavra last year, and Rutschman his first month.

I think the team could afford one of those replacement level vets.

But not four.

[LA2]

19 minutes ago, owknows said:

I think the team could afford one of those replacement level vets.

But not four.

Stowers vs. Hicks

Henderson / Vavra / Ortiz vs. Urias / Frazier / Mateo

??  vs. McCann

Your choice.

 

 

[owknows]

7 minutes ago, LA2 said:

Stowers vs. Hicks

Henderson / Vavra / Ortiz vs. Urias / Frazier / Mateo

??  vs. McCann

Your choice.

 

 

You're stuck with McCann... he can be the one replacement level vet.

Hicks is here until Mullins... shouldn't be long

Henderson, Westburg, Ortiz instead of Urias, Mateo, Frazier sounds fine to me.

And Platoon Mountcastle while you're at it.

[now]

6 hours ago, owknows said:

Hicks is here until Mullins... shouldn't be long

Guy had a 1.233 OPS as an Oriole before getting another hit tonight; I wouldn't purchase his ticket off the island just yet.

[Going Underground]

10 hours ago, owknows said:

You're stuck with McCann... he can be the one replacement level vet.

Hicks is here until Mullins... shouldn't be long

Henderson, Westburg, Ortiz instead of Urias, Mateo, Frazier sounds fine to me.

And Platoon Mountcastle while you're at it.

Ortiz hasn't played in about two weeks due to an illness and now bad air quality..He will need some time to get his groove back in the minors.

[Moose Milligan]

There will be no Urias slander, @SilentJames

[SilentJames]

16 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

There will be no Urias slander, @SilentJames

No slander, I just think he is a guy that nets us a very good return where we have, at least, equal production ready to take his place. 

[Frobby]

So, a 3-3 road trip against two teams who are over .500.   If that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll take it!  That trip would have felt a lot worse if we hadn’t come back to win yesterday.   But we did.  That calms the nerves quite a bit.  

The offense has been spotty for sure of late, but I was glad to see Ramon waking up and more signs of Gunnar getting his act together.  
 

[wildcard]

48 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So, a 3-3 road trip against two teams who are over .500.   If that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll take it!  That trip would have felt a lot worse if we hadn’t come back to win yesterday.   But we did.  That calms the nerves quite a bit.  

The offense has been spotty for sure of late, but I was glad to see Ramon waking up and more signs of Gunnar getting his act together.  
 

With the Jays coming up next week the addition of Irvin and Cowser could be interesting.  The O's have to consistently win series again.

[HakunaSakata]

Does anyone have a sense of why we haven't gottent a clear explanation of Cedric Mullins' possibly return from injury? It's bizarre and pretty common practice for managers and GMs to at least give an estimate, even if it's a broad one. Why are they being so secretive? 

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, HakunaSakata said:

Does anyone have a sense of why we haven't gottent a clear explanation of Cedric Mullins' possibly return from injury? It's bizarre and pretty common practice for managers and GMs to at least give an estimate, even if it's a broad one. Why are they being so secretive? 

Elias tends to give out as little information as possible.