The Defense Thread, 2024

[Just Regular]

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I didn’t see the 2 SB in the 9th inning.  I know the one at third was being reviewed and was close.

But overall, we need Adley to throw better.  He has a real bad throw on the Witt SB earlier in the game.

The Dairon Blanco guy is somewhat a Jarrod Dyson-Terrance Gore type - 70+ steals last year.     Sort of an interesting guy to learn about - he's a 30+ year old guy from Cuba.

[Sports Guy]

4 minutes ago, Pickles said:

This is a game that deserves a detailed defensive write-up.

But got to be said, they're going to run all over Kimbrel.  Everybody is.  Just like Felix.  

That's the trade-off.

 

If the base is stolen on the pitcher, I’m ok with it. But we need to see competitive throws. It was an issue for Adley a lot last year.

[emmett16]

5 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I didn’t see the 2 SB in the 9th inning.  I know the one at third was being reviewed and was close.

But overall, we need Adley to throw better.  He has a real bad throw on the Witt SB earlier in the game.

The jump was insane.  Adley got nothing on the throw, but that's about as quick as I've seen a guy release a ball.  He had no chance. The steals in the 9th were all on Kimbrel.  Super slow to the plate, you could see Adley looking into the dugout after the first one as if to say, I had no chance.  

[SteveA]

8 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I didn’t see the 2 SB in the 9th inning.  I know the one at third was being reviewed and was close.

But overall, we need Adley to throw better.  He had a real bad throw on the Witt SB earlier in the game.

The jump was so enormous on the steal of 2nd that Adley wisely held onto the ball.

Adley made an absolutely fantastic, I would say perfect, throw on the steal of 3rd.  Ball was just about there in time despite the runner's speed and jump.   And it was exactly the right place.  Urias just didn't have time to move the glove an inch back (or catch it an inch further back) to apply the tag as the runner's leg was hitting 3rd base.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, SteveA said:

The jump was so enormous on the steal of 2nd that Adley wisely held onto the ball.

Adley made an absolutely fantastic, I would say perfect, throw on the steal of 3rd.  Ball was just about there in time despite the runner's speed and jump.   And it was exactly the right place.  Urias just didn't have time to move the glove an inch back (or catch it an inch further back) to apply the tag as the runner's leg was hitting 3rd base.

Yea I heard the second one on the radio. Sounded like it was real close.  That’s good.  That what I want to see. You aren’t always going to get them out but a strong competitive throw will get enough guys out.

 

[emmett16]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea I heard the second one on the radio. Sounded like it was real close.  That’s good.  That what I want to see. You aren’t always going to get them out but a strong competitive throw will get enough guys out.

 

On steal of 3b It looked to me like the ball beat him to the bag, but it was a good slide/bad tag by Urias.  Not any easy play by any stretch of the imagination to make, and again, the guy got a crazy jump off of Kimbrel.  It was an impressive throw.  That guy was lightning fast and good lord Witt is fast.  Witt is the real deal.  Witts steal in the 8th was off Cano and he's not the quickest guy to the plate either and throws a ton of low outside change-ups which are incredibly difficult to make a good throw on.  

[OriolesMagic83]

23 minutes ago, Pickles said:

This is a game that deserves a detailed defensive write-up.

But got to be said, they're going to run all over Kimbrel.  Everybody is.  Just like Felix.  

That's the trade-off.

 

Except the tradeoff was with Felix we got a guy who could take over a game and strike out the side and with Kimbrel we get a 92 mph fastball.  I wonder how long this will last. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

15 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Except the tradeoff was with Felix we got a guy who could take over a game and strike out the side and with Kimbrel we get a 92 mph fastball.  I wonder how long this will last. 

It's only his first outing on a cool night, but Kimbrel is going to be much more hittable if his fastball can only top out in the low 90's. Weather not great and Kimbrel hasn't pitched in awhile so maybe we'll see his velocity bounce up a few MPH with more usage.

If not the Orioles may be looking for a new closer during trade deadline season.

Edited April 2 by OsFanSinceThe80s

[sportsfan8703]

Oh and Gunnar, and Urias, made errors in the first. 
 

[interloper]

Mounty gonna mess around and win a gold glove this year.

[ChuckS]

Maybe I missed this being mentioned, but Gunnar made a pretty difficult play look routine with the game on the line in the sixth or seventh inning yesterday.  Came in on a ball and handled a difficult short hop to make a throw on the run. 

Contrast that with the play Bobby Witt didn't make later in the game.  I think Gunnar's play was actually more difficult and he wouldn't have skipped the throw the same way Witt did. 

High leverage fielding spots for both guys and Gunnar came through for us while Bobby W did not for KC. 

[glenn__davis]

11 hours ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

I think that pop-up was Hays. He could have had it, I think. Call Gunnar off

I think they both could have had it.  Gunnar seemed to lose it while trying to make sure he didn't clobber Hays.  Just an early season miscue.

[Frobby]

10 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Except the tradeoff was with Felix we got a guy who could take over a game and strike out the side and with Kimbrel we get a 92 mph fastball.  I wonder how long this will last. 

Kimbrel struck out 12.3 per 9 last year.  That’s not chicken feed.  He struck out 2 of the 4 batters he faced yesterday.  He’ll get his strikeouts.  

[interloper]

48 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Maybe I missed this being mentioned, but Gunnar made a pretty difficult play look routine with the game on the line in the sixth or seventh inning yesterday.  Came in on a ball and handled a difficult short hop to make a throw on the run. 

Contrast that with the play Bobby Witt didn't make later in the game.  I think Gunnar's play was actually more difficult and he wouldn't have skipped the throw the same way Witt did. 

High leverage fielding spots for both guys and Gunnar came through for us while Bobby W did not for KC. 

Yeah that short hop play from Gunnar was do or die and he did the damn thing. Stud. 

[Aristotelian]

2 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Oh and Gunnar, and Urias, made errors in the first. 
 

Santander also had a nice catch in the gap to turn a possible double into an out. 

Also worth noting two critical plays in the 8th where their 1B failed to pick fairly easy balls. The second one could have gotten them out of the inning but allowed us to take the lead (which Kimbrel promptly blew). 

Despite the early errors, you could say our defense outplayed theirs and that was the difference in the game.