Grayson Rodriguez officially gets the call, Bazardo Optioned

[Chavez Ravine]

Tough crowd. I thought he pitched great. He got a bit unlucky, then got gassed, but otherwise kept it together. To quote my mom: “that pitcher who came in after him wasn’t very good.”

[Gurgi]

Yes I thought he did pretty well.  His defense let him down over and over and over.  He did fine.   Then the bullpen shit the bed.   I think he is going to stick.  

He was hitting 101 with ease in the first inning.   

[Baltimorecuse]

If Grayson keeps pitching like he did tonight, he's a good starter.  

[Sports Guy]

5 hours ago, Bemorewins said:

The Dodgers the caliber of team that we will see in the Fall. I’m not saying that he was bad but he definitely wasn’t good either. He allowed a ton of baserunners tonight and he still through a bunch of uncompetitive pitches (like before he was sent down).

There isn’t a starter in all of baseball that doesn’t throw non competitive pitches in any outing.

[Bahama O's Fan]

So...does he get another start?

[Baltimorecuse]

40 minutes ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

So...does he get another start?

Is that a rhetorical question?  

[Fan4Life]

3 hours ago, Baltimorecuse said:

If Grayson keeps pitching like he did tonight, he's a good starter.  

I thought he look very good for 4 innings, so so in 1, and not good in 1. His inability to throw a strike in the 6th when he needed to wasn't good at all to me. His pitch count wasn't bad, breaking balls were in the dirt, fastballs out of the zone. I give the effort a B-.  With all that said, I probably would have stuck with him instead of Baker / Bauman which I don't trust at all coming into a non-clean inning. 

[Baltimorecuse]

4 minutes ago, Fan4Life said:

I thought he look very good for 4 innings, so so in 1, and not good in 1. His inability to throw a strike in the 6th when he needed to wasn't good at all to me. His pitch count wasn't bad, breaking balls were in the dirt, fastballs out of the zone. I give the effort a B-.  With all that said, I probably would have stuck with him instead of Baker / Bauman which I don't trust at all coming into a non-clean inning. 

I think the humidity got him in the 6th.  Last night was murder on pitchers.  

[tntoriole]

7 minutes ago, Baltimorecuse said:

I think the humidity got him in the 6th.  Last night was murder on pitchers.  

Except theirs

[Sports Guy]

This is so foolish. He was definitely different last night. He wasn’t “wild in the strike zone”. His breaking pitches looked better. He threw a lot of strikes and got ahead of a lot of hitters.

He had awful defense behind him and Adley (or whoever told Adley what to call) did a poor job of pitch calling on several pitches last night.

Everyone wants to remember the last inning but between the heat and the idea he had pitches 3 innings in about 2 weeks, it’s predictable that he wore down.

Hyde should have removed him as soon any batter reached base, even if they reached base due to an awful play by Hicks. It was still a hard hit, long fly ball.

I would even argue that you remove him even if Hicks catches it.

He also threw basically no cutters, which was the pitch that got him in trouble before. He went to the pitches that work best for him and that was good to see.

He actually didn’t miss a ton of bats or get a lot of Ks but we know that will happen, so I’m not worried about that.

He also didn’t have any of the blow up innings, which plagued him before.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Sports Guy

[Baltimorecuse]

7 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

Except theirs

We didn't hit well last night.  I don't think their pitching was that great.  

[Sports Guy]

 

[Billy F-Face3]

The entire infield including Adley played poorly last night. Even gold glover Urias made a bad throw that was salvaged by O'hearn. And while I acknowledge it was a hard hit ball, Gunnar let one get by him that I think is usually caught. Then there's also Hicks and Cowser who could have made plays better.  Adley let some pitches get by him and called a very suspect game. The entire 0-2 count Baker had before the Grand Slam, I kept wanting them to pitch it low and away vs that aggressive hitter who was swinging all the way, but they kept throwing fast balls & cutters to the top of the strike zone. Any old school ball player can tell you throwing a cutter to the upper third of the strike zone after throwing fast balls is a recipe for home runs.

 

I would really like to know what Grayson's BABIP is from just last night's game, because if it was score right by the game officials, it will tell you that Grayson got very unlucky with the balls that were in play.

I saw alot of ground balls that are usually out get through the infield, and at least 2 fly balls in the outfield that should have been outs.

As far as critiquing Grayson himself, I do think the 100 mph fast balls in the 1st inning kind of limited his stamina to go really deep in the game, especially with this hot and humid weather. I think Roy called it in the game thread when he suggested to take Grayson out. (I think it was at the end of the 5th inning?) He was the 1st one to notice it and he was right. 

It might be a good idea, as others have suggested, to shorten up Grayson's outtings to about 5 innings until he gains more experience. I think that way you'll get better overall results in the long term of his development like you are seeing with Bradish and Kremer and Wells. There will come a point when he's so good with 5 innings that Hyde can keep adding innings to challenge him, and as he meets each new challenge, extend him more until he achieves pitching a complete game next season. It's a progression.

Another idea could be to allow him be a relief pitcher and just dominate out of the bullpen with his 100+ mph fast balls, similar to how the Braves developed Spencer Strider. With the intention of having Grayson be a starter again in 2024. 

[tntoriole]

1 minute ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

The entire infield including Adley played poorly last night. Even gold glover Urias made a bad throw that was salvaged by O'hearn. And while I acknowledge it was a hard hit ball, Gunnar let one get by him that I think is usually caught. Then there's also Hicks and Cowser who could have made plays better.  Adley let some pitches get by him and called a very suspect game. The entire 0-2 count Baker had before the Grand Slam, I kept wanting them to pitch it low and away vs that aggressive hitter who was swinging all the way, but they kept throwing fast balls & cutters to the top of the strike zone. Any old school ball player can tell you throwing a cutter to the upper third of the strike zone after throwing fast balls is a recipe for home runs.

 

I would really like to know what Grayson's BABIP is from just last night's game, because if it was score right by the game officials, it will tell you that Grayson got very unlucky with the balls that were in play.

I saw alot of ground balls that are usually out get through the infield, and at least 2 fly balls in the outfield that should have been outs.

As far as critiquing Grayson himself, I do think the 100 mph fast balls in the 1st inning kind of limited his stamina to go really deep in the game, especially with this hot and humid weather. I think Roy called it in the game thread when he suggested to take Grayson out. (I think it was at the end of the 5th inning?) He was the 1st one to notice it and he was right. 

It might be a good idea, as others have suggested, to shorten up Grayson's outtings to about 5 innings until he gains more experience. I think that way you'll get better overall results in the long term of his development like you are seeing with Bradish and Kremer and Wells. There will come a point when he's so good with 5 innings that Hyde can keep adding innings to challenge him, and as he meets each new challenge, extend him more until he achieves pitching a complete game next season. It's a progression.

Another idea could be to allow him be a relief pitcher and just dominate out of the bullpen with his 100+ mph fast balls, similar to how the Braves developed Spencer Strider. With the intention of having Grayson be a starter again in 2024. 

The problem with having him pitch only five innings is our current bullpen would guarantee a loss every fifth game. 
 

This team needs a bullpen remake on the fly. 

[Billy F-Face3]

4 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

The problem with having him pitch only five innings is our current bullpen would guarantee a loss every fifth game. 
 

This team needs a bullpen remake on the fly. 

Well if they're going to have 2 or 3 starters like Cole Irvin, Austin Voth, and occasionally Bruce Zimmerman in the bullpen, then they should plan in using them and piggy backing. Otherwise those guys sitting in the bullpen are going to waste