Cole Irvin 2024

[Just Regular]

That camp was a little scary.

If Hyde or rainouts do not juggle, not only does Cole Irvin get Fenway Park in Game #10 on Tuesday 4/9, but that Tuesday afternoon also happens to be the Red Sox home opener, as looks like they are the last of the 30 Clubs to get that particular festivity.

The quick hooks for Cole Irvin and Tyler Wells when they got mushy was something I think the Orioles were sharp on in 2023, and I somewhat think Irvin will be pitching for his role start to start beginning with that first Royals outing.    Irvin is out of options so they couldn't stream Bryan Baker or anything like that if they wanted an extra reliever for 2 weeks.

With off days both before and after the Pirates series, Corbin Burnes could get the 5 days of rest even if Hyde bypasses Irvin in Burnes' favor for the Tuesday Fenway game.     Bumping Burnes up to that Tuesday would also put him in the Brewers series at OPACY the Sunday of that week.

The Orioles are already in Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon 4/7, and only needing to get to Boston Tuesday 4/9 should have a lot of opportunity to follow the Monday 4/8 eclipse as much as they want.    Path of totality is decently close to the Pittsburgh-Boston line.

I won't be shocked if McDermott or Povich gets Irvin's role in a month even if he's okay - one of those kids might need to be showcased for July, and they can anchor a bigger deal if they have a couple decent MLB months.

 

 

[sevastras]

Or we could wake up tomorrow and find that they have signed Montgomery. Then you would have to ponder a long relief bp spot or a trade of Irvin. 

[sportsfan8703]

4/1 vs KC 

5 IP 4ER 7H 3K 2BB

Irvin got hit around by an aggressive KC team. The 6-9 hitters got to him. Pitching to contact sounds good in our ballpark with the Wall, but Irvin was a little too predictable in the zone. He was 93 mph on his FB. I don’t think he threw his curveball enough. The extra velo in ST might’ve gotten to his head and game plan. 

He needs to drop in more first pitch off speed pitches next outing. He’s not Erik Bedard 2.0. 

[interloper]

Irvin's second start: 5 IP, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1HR.

He showed the good 2-seamer with velo 93-95 like he did in that first ST start, but it didn't seem like he had any idea where any of his pitches were going to end up. He would occasionally get a K on a pitch with a lot of movement, but you got the sense that he was just spraying and praying out there. 

That said, the ump was atrocious and absolutely screwed him at least twice. Irvin seemed really frustrated and depressed in his post-game interview before kind of snapping out of it and pivoting to noting the good team win. 

He's a confusing pitcher to me. You look at his Oakland numbers and he seems like a innings-eater control artist lefty. He gets here and he's all over the place command-wise. Then again, his 2nd half of 2023 was fantastic. 

So... who is he? He's doing the same thing he did last year in the first half, just with some extra zip on his fastball. It's a guy I hope we figure out because he's got a lot of years of control and seems like he should be a valuable piece. 

Edited April 11 by interloper

[dystopia]

Would probably have ended up a QS if not for that joke of an ump 

[interloper]

Just now, dystopia said:

Would probably have ended up a QS if not for that joke of an ump 

I agree. I'm kind of giving him a mulligan for this one, but I'd like to see more command from him and less pouting in the post-game, to be quite honest. 

[Flash- bd]

I think he was quite, quite unlucky yesterday. Between the ump and the homer coming after it, and the other runs coming on pretty soft contact / finding holes...for me he was much better than the stat line suggests. 

[Bahama O's Fan]

I loved the movement. I agree that I'm not sure he knew where it was going at times. He did get screwed by the ump and if Mullins just takes charge in the OF, that pop fly never falls in. It almost seemed like they wanted to give Holliday an opportunity to make a big play in his debut. Irvin is what he is, a good 6th-7th starter/long man in the pen. 

[sportsfan8703]

With Hall in Milwaukee, and Perez hurt, Irvin we be our 3rd lefty/long man. That’s a valuable role on this team. We’ve seen us have to use Heasley in extras. Irvin showed last year that his FB can hit 95ish out the pen. 

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Flash- bd said:

I think he was quite, quite unlucky yesterday. Between the ump and the homer coming after it, and the other runs coming on pretty soft contact / finding holes...for me he was much better than the stat line suggests. 

I'm not sure how reliable FIP is after 2 games, but for what it's worth his FIP is 4.61 and his ERA is 8.10. So yeah, he definitely hasn't had the luckiest start to the year. 

[ThisIsBirdland]

Just now, interloper said:

I agree. I'm kind of giving him a mulligan for this one, but I'd like to see more command from him and less pouting in the post-game, to be quite honest. 

Going off loose memory here, but it seemed like the command improved significantly after the 2nd inning last night?

I was pretty concerned up until that point even though he gave up no runs in those two innings, but I actually thought he was locating better in the 3rd-5th despite giving up the runs. The bloop single was what it was. The two run base hit on the 0-2 count looked like just a good hit on a low and away pitch. And then I think he was a little shook after the ump blew the call before the Casas home run. McDonald even warned about it right before it happened. 

[dystopia]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

I'm not sure how reliable FIP is after 2 games, but for what it's worth his FIP is 4.61 and his ERA is 8.10. So yeah, he definitely hasn't had the luckiest start to the year. 

Not sure how reliable it is after 50 games either

[Frobby]

Like last year, Irvin hasn’t had his usual command to begin the season.  5 walks in 10 innings is very uncharacteristic for him.  Last year he was walked 8 in 12.2 innings before being sent to the minors, then walked only 13 in 64.2 innings the rest of the year.

Though the command struggles are similar to last year, I like what I see with his stuff.  He’s definitely got more zip on the FB, and more movement on his pitches.   In fact, I think his command issues are partially due to the fact that he’s adjusting to having more movement on his pitches.  

So, I’m going to keep an open mind on Irvin.   He could be headed for a very good year if the command clicks into place, which it did last year.   And yeah, he got some tough breaks yesterday for sure.  
 

[MCO'sFan]

6 minutes ago, Flash- bd said:

I think he was quite, quite unlucky yesterday. Between the ump and the homer coming after it, and the other runs coming on pretty soft contact / finding holes...for me he was much better than the stat line suggests. 

I said this in another thread. I think it is both that he is unlucky and not very good. He just doesn't seem good enough to get out of situations when things don't go his way. I think in the pen, he is less likely to have things go wrong simply from a volume standpoint. Less innings, less things go wrong. He is a bit of an enigma. 

[ChuckS]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Like last year, Irvin hasn’t had his usual command to begin the season.  5 walks in 10 innings is very uncharacteristic for him.  Last year he was walked 8 in 12.2 innings before being sent to the minors, then walked only 13 in 64.2 innings the rest of the year.

Though the command struggles are similar to last year, I like what I see with his stuff.  He’s definitely got more zip on the FB, and more movement on his pitches.   In fact, I think his command issues are partially due to the fact that he’s adjusting to having more movement on his pitches.  

So, I’m going to keep an open mind on Irvin.   He could be headed for a very good year if the command clicks into place, which it did last year.   And yeah, he got some tough breaks yesterday for sure.  
 

He had some tough luck yesterday (blooper over Jackson's head to score one, two out single against the shift to score two, and missed call by ump followed by a Fenway HR). All with two outs.  I agree that his stuff looked pretty good and optimistic about him as our no. 5 starter. 

I'll be bold and predict a sub-4 ERA from this season. Not sure he gets a chance to stick as a starter though with Means and potentially Bradish returning soon.