Grayson Rodriguez 2024

[Frobby]

I wasn’t really thrilled with Grayson’s outing tonight.  It felt like every time he got to two strikes on a batter, he started overthrowing.  Twice he walked hitters after being ahead 1-2, and he hit a batter up 0-2.   He really just needs to approach two-strike counts the same way he approaches the earlier pitches in an at bat, from an effort standpoint.   

[Spy Fox]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

I wasn’t really thrilled with Grayson’s outing tonight.  It felt like every time he got to two strikes on a batter, he started overthrowing.  Twice he walked hitters after being ahead 1-2, and he hit a batter up 0-2.   He really just needs to approach two-strike counts the same way he approaches the earlier pitches in an at bat, from an effort standpoint.   

It felt reminiscent of some of his better early-season outings last year, before his demotion. An ok final innings & runs line, but the feel of a guy who's not totally in command of his skills. Getting there on stuff alone and not really good pitching. 

[Frobby]

Just now, Spy Fox said:

It felt reminiscent of some of his better early-season outings last year, before his demotion. An ok final innings & runs line, but the feel of a guy who's not totally in command of his skills. Getting there on stuff alone and not really good pitching. 

I had exactly this thought.  

[Just Regular]

I did too.   Nicky Lopez and Andrew Benintendi to my eye got frustration cookies from a guy otherwise who was walking the worst lineup in the league.   He was fortunate to have noodle bats opposing him in those spots.

But he survived on a bad night.     I do think it was a "bad 10" night on the scale John Smoltz liked to tell about a starter's season - there's 10 games it all works, 10 you have something and 10 you have nothing.

[Sports Guy]

His mechanics were off.  Ben kept talking about it.

We have to remember that he missed about 3 weeks and didn’t have a rehab start. Might still be working through some things.

The good news is that he got his Ks, missed bats and despite the 5 walks, his str% was still almost 62%.  That’s still below average but it could have been far worse.

He definitely has a tendency to miss everything way high. 

[Just Regular]

Zack Wheeler is an interesting career comparison.    Very narrowly in both cases, they were born in the 1990's.

Wheeler didn't really get it together until his late 20's, and today for me he's the world's best pitcher, to the extent any individual can command that soft distinction.

280 innings into his MLB career, his TJ cost him 2 full seasons in 2015-2016.   In 2014 he threw 100 or more pitches on 24 of his 32 turns.    In 2024 Grayson has been disabled after 50% of his career turns of 100 pitches.      We'll see if the Orioles get optimum efficiency out of his talent in the competitions to come.

Anecdotally he also does stuff like strike Corey Seager out third time through the order every now and again.

[rm5678]

In the post-game interview, Rodriguez referred to his fastball command last night as "atrocious."

[Spy Fox]

I'm surprised Grayson had never had 10 K's before. A lot of hard contact in the first two innings but he looked very good after that. 

[Frobby]

I was really unhappy with the first two innings but I was pleased to see how he responded to the adversity.  In past games he might have let that snowball.  Instead, he dominated those last four innings.  In fact, I was a little disappointed that Hyde didn’t send him out for the 7th inning, sitting on 90 pitches. 

[Say O!]

20 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I was really unhappy with the first two innings but I was pleased to see how he responded to the adversity.  In past games he might have let that snowball.  Instead, he dominated those last four innings.  In fact, I was a little disappointed that Hyde didn’t send him out for the 7th inning, sitting on 90 pitches. 

Agree that Grayson had more left in the tank and wish Hyder have let him take on the 7th as well.

in the early innings, I wish Grayson just kept with the fastball rather than mixing pitches and looking to establish offspeed.  His fastball was generating swing & miss.  

[Spy Fox]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I was really unhappy with the first two innings but I was pleased to see how he responded to the adversity.  In past games he might have let that snowball.  Instead, he dominated those last four innings.  In fact, I was a little disappointed that Hyde didn’t send him out for the 7th inning, sitting on 90 pitches. 

Just checked some box scores-- I believe the O's have let a SP start an inning at 90+ pitches only once all year. Grayson was sent out for the 7th inning on April 5th vs Pittsburgh, at 92 pitches. The only other close one I found, Kremer was sent out for the 6th on April 24th at LAA, at 89 pitches. 

For what it's worth, on both occasions the pitcher gave up a HR and didn't finish the inning. 

Edited May 29 by Spy Fox

[Chavez Ravine]

I fear we are perennially going to want  just a little bit more from Grayson—and then it will all click for a few years in his 30’s for some other team.

[Hallas]

42 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

Just checked some box scores-- I believe the O's have let a SP start an inning at 90+ pitches only once all year. Grayson was sent out for the 7th inning on April 5th vs Pittsburgh, at 92 pitches. The only other close one I found, Kremer was sent out for the 6th on April 24th at LAA, at 89 pitches. 

For what it's worth, on both occasions the pitcher gave up a HR and didn't finish the inning. 

Hyde needs to adjust his bullpen usage IMO.  We don't have the shutdown options we had last year and he's managing like we do.  We have good starters, push them a little bit and try to squeeze extra innings out of them while getting someone warm if they run into trouble.

 

Grayson could have gone an extra inning and maybe we wouldn't have given up 4 in the last few innings to put the game out of reach.  I understand that there will be occasions where you invite criticism that you're leaving your starters out to dry, but most of our bullpen options have been really unreliable and I think if you stick to the guns that got you there knowing what our bullpen is like you just live with it if it doesn't work out.  It's not like we're pushing our starters to 120 pitches.

Edited May 29 by Hallas

[Spy Fox]

14 minutes ago, Hallas said:

Hyde needs to adjust his bullpen usage IMO.  We don't have the shutdown options we had last year and he's managing like we do.  We have good starters, push them a little bit and try to squeeze extra innings out of them while getting someone warm if they run into trouble.

Grayson could have gone an extra inning and maybe we wouldn't have given up 4 in the last few innings to put the game out of reach.  I understand that there will be occasions where you invite criticism that you're leaving your starters out to dry, but most of our bullpen options have been really unreliable and I think if you stick to the guns that got you there knowing what our bullpen is like you just live with it if it doesn't work out.  It's not like we're pushing our starters to 120 pitches.

Yeah, I'd like to see Hyde push the starters a bit more too. But if we see it, I think it'll be a pretty gradual ramp as the season goes on. 

Seems like 90 pitches is the new 100, and unless the standings situation gets dire they're going to keep managing like the most important bullets are the ones saved for October. 

[Hallas]

Just now, Spy Fox said:

Yeah, I'd like to see Hyde push the starters a bit more too. But if we see it, I think it'll be a pretty gradual ramp as the season goes on. 

Seems like 90 pitches is the new 100, and unless the standings situation gets dire they're going to keep managing like the most important bullets are the ones saved for October. 

From my understanding of the data the impetus for pulling pitchers early is not (usually) due to pitcher fatigue or pitcher injury risk, but rather because they're not as good the 3rd/4th time thru the lineup.  But I think I'd rather have our starters go from good to mediocre the 3rd time thru the lineup, versus trusting the crappy members of our bullpen with the ball.  Granted Akin had a bad game today and he had been pretty good, but we also tried to have Cionel get thru 2 innings and he gives up a leadoff triple.