Albert Suarez 2024

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 hours ago, Safelykept said:

100 percent agree, first time thru was almost all 4 seam fastballs that looked like 2 seamers because they had so much run to them. Agree with the narrative that he will play better in the pen, only need 2 pitches vs 3 or 4 as a starter

I could see Suarez sticking in a bullpen role long term with the movement on his fastball. Also he might be able to throw a 2 to 3 more MPH harder not having to worry about trying to pitch six innings.

The Orioles have done a good job finding pitchers who weren't expected to do much in recent years and it would be cool if Suarez is another find.

[Explosivo]

Let’s tap the brakes on his move to the bullpen. His stuff plays and he can get outs. Best of all, he doesn’t walk anyone. He challenges hitters and gets weak contact. With our defense, I’d rather him give up the occasional double or flared hit to the outfield than to see walks. Keep him in the starting rotation until he proves he doesn’t belong. Wells and Irvin both have experience in the pen and frankly for Irvin, though I love him, has a real tough time throwing strikes at times. 
 

anyway, let’s see what the old dog can do.

[sportsfan8703]

9 hours ago, RZNJ said:

He might get more starts but I am thinking about him in the bullpen eventually.   

Longterm he’s probably that missing RH SU/MR that we’ve been looking for since the Fuji trade. 

It’s probably Suarez vs Ramírez vs Tate for 1-2 bullpen spots. Wells and one of Irvin/Means could be in the bullpen mix as well. 

Depth is good to have. I wouldn’t sleep on Ramirez either. Elias has shown a knack from adding relievers through trade or waivers. 

[RZNJ]

5 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Longterm he’s probably that missing RH SU/MR that we’ve been looking for since the Fuji trade. 

It’s probably Suarez vs Ramírez vs Tate for 1-2 bullpen spots. Wells and one of Irvin/Means could be in the bullpen mix as well. 

Depth is good to have. I wouldn’t sleep on Ramirez either. Elias has shown a knack from adding relievers through trade or waivers. 

Unless Baumann gets it in gear, I would dump him before anyone.   Can’t trust guys who can’t throw strikes.

[Warehouse]

The one watchpoint with Suarez is how he will do when hitters have more data and more time to prepare. Teams can punch in spin rates, velo, horizontal/vertical movement parameters into Spinball iPitch machines to simulate an opponent’s pitcher. With only being announced a few hours before game time and not having pitched in MLB in 7 years, hitters were mostly flying blind. 
 

The stuff looked great though.

 

[Rbiggs2525]

I can’t remember a more surprising start in the past 10 years. He definitely earned the right to start 2 more times. Then if Bradish is ready we can reevaluate him vs Irvin. 

[CaptainRedbeard]

7 hours ago, Explosivo said:

Let’s tap the brakes on his move to the bullpen. His stuff plays and he can get outs. Best of all, he doesn’t walk anyone. He challenges hitters and gets weak contact. With our defense, I’d rather him give up the occasional double or flared hit to the outfield than to see walks. Keep him in the starting rotation until he proves he doesn’t belong. Wells and Irvin both have experience in the pen and frankly for Irvin, though I love him, has a real tough time throwing strikes at times. 
 

anyway, let’s see what the old dog can do.

I definitely agree that we keep him in the rotation for as long as he is effective. It’s just with Bradish and Means coming back there’s that inevitable roster crunch incoming with all the out of options RP. 

If he can maintain 96 as a SP and stay healthy then he should be a SP. He has 4 pitches even if relies heavily on the four seamer and cutter, but you could see him working in other pitchers more as he turned the lineup over.

However, I’m skeptical he can actually maintain that velo with a SP workload over the course of a season and not get hurt. Big spikes in velo are often correlated with injuries, and you could see him running out of gas towards the end of his start yesterday and he threw less than 80 pitches. A bunch of 93s on the radar gun in that last inning.

[CaptainRedbeard]

10 hours ago, InsideCoroner said:

You have to think that having no real MLB scouting report must have benefited Suarez greatly, especially coming out firing bullets as he did. I doubt he can keep / repeat this success, but what an amazing start for him. Great to hear the ovation he got as he left in the 6th. Well earned.

I’m skeptical how much the lack of scouting report matters nowadays. They have all the same data on pitchers in AAA as they do in the MLB, you can figure out a lot about a pitcher without ever having someone there watching them. Not to discount that additional value, just to say it’s not like the old days when a guy could come up and be pretty much unknown. 

Plus Suárez just pitched a lot in Spring Training and was pretty much exactly what we saw yesterday. 

[Tony-OH]

13 hours ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

After this performance, any chance that he will pass through waivers?

Not a chance. Someone will take a look at him in their pen if the Orioles try to move him now. Somebody will ultimately need to be sent down, go on the Jimenez pothole IL, or get DFA'd. 

 

[CaptainRedbeard]

11 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Not a chance. Someone will take a look at him in their pen if the Orioles try to move him now. Somebody will ultimately need to be sent down, go on the Jimenez pothole IL, or get DFA'd. 

 

Yeah, and if there are ever minimal injuries at the same time, much more than one person. Only 13 spots for 17 guys:

Locks (Some have options, but obviously won’t be)

1. Burnes

2. Rodriguez

3. Bradish

4. Kimbrel

5. Cano

6. Coulombe

Options

7. Means (*but could reject the option and elect FA)

8. Kremer

9. Wells

10. Akin

11. Tate

Out of options

12. Perez

13. Irvin

14. Suárez 

15. Webb

16. Baumann

17. Ramirez

 

I’d DFA those last 3 names before Suárez if it came down to it, but likely there would be some combination of ILs & options, even if Tate is the only clear option candidate now. Perhaps Wells gets optioned to work back into a RP but that would be short term. 

I think all of our out of options guys would get claimed, except perhaps Ramirez - but the Orioles traded cash considerations for him to jump the waiver priority so clearly they think he would have gotten claimed before them. 

[Ripken]

16 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Not a chance. Someone will take a look at him in their pen if the Orioles try to move him now. Somebody will ultimately need to be sent down, go on the Jimenez pothole IL, or get DFA'd. 

Webb looked bad yesterday, Means looked really bad, Wells and Perez are injured, Baumann can't throw strikes, Heasley is awful, Norfolk starters need more time, and we're all holding our breath on Bradish.  There are plenty of innings available in Baltimore.  If Suarez shows he can be effective, he'll be here for a while.  Heck, I'm happy ME grabbed Ramirez when he did.

[Tony-OH]

3 minutes ago, Ripken said:

Webb looked bad yesterday, Means looked really bad, Wells and Perez are injured, Baumann can't throw strikes, Heasley is awful, Norfolk starters need more time, and we're all holding our breath on Bradish.  There are plenty of innings available in Baltimore.  If Suarez shows he can be effective, he'll be here for a while.  Heck, I'm happy ME grabbed Ramirez when he did.

Elias and his staff are outstanding at finding useful arms like Perez, Webb, Coulombe, and Ramirez were all basically taken off the DFA/unwanted list. So I'm not too concerned if he has to DFA someone to keep Suarez. 

Even if he loses that 7th reliever, he can find more and there are still a couple of interesting arms in Norfolk that could fill that role.

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

 

Even if he loses that 7th reliever, he can find more and there are still a couple of interesting arms in Norfolk that could fill that role.

Who do you think that could come up from Norfolk and contribute?

Please don't say Vespi. 

[Tony-OH]

10 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Who do you think that could come up from Norfolk and contribute?

Please don't say Vespi. 

Well Vespi has been decent in AAA where almost everyone else has been getting lit up. Matt Krook who is similar to Vespi and Luis Gonzalez have been decent from the left side.

Wandisson Charles may be worth a look for a little bit. I'm not convinced his fastball works despite the velocity since it's a low spin pitch and doesn't seem to have good vertical movement, but he's interesting since he can sit 98 MPH.

Garrett Stallings is a guy that could be a multi-inning guy if he can find a way to get lefties out. 

None of these guys are thrilling, but as the 7th reliever to each a few innings for he bullpen when the team is up or down a lot, sure.

 

[Tony-OH]

8 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Longterm he’s probably that missing RH SU/MR that we’ve been looking for since the Fuji trade. 

It’s probably Suarez vs Ramírez vs Tate for 1-2 bullpen spots. Wells and one of Irvin/Means could be in the bullpen mix as well. 

Depth is good to have. I wouldn’t sleep on Ramirez either. Elias has shown a knack from adding relievers through trade or waivers. 

Speaking of Fuji quickly, did anyone noticed he was so bad this spring that he was optioned to AAA despite being on a $3.35 million deal and is now pitching to a 9.00 ERA in AAA. Looks like the Orioles evaluated correctly. 

Elias and company have only missed on evaluation with Evan Phillips when it comes to bullpen arms.