Orioles make Ben Clemens’ five favorite things this week

[Frobby]

2. The Other Baby Birds
We get it, Orioles: You’ve got talent. Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and Jackson Holliday are consensus top prospects from three consecutive years, which is ridiculous when you stop and think about it. They’re slam dunk great hitters, all of them. They even have the same flowing golden locks and questionable facial hair choices. (In Henderson’s defense, his mustache is allegedly only still around because he broke out when shaving it off.) The future of the Orioles is a great baseball club that looks like a prep school lacrosse team.

Plot twist: Those guys have been a mixed bag so far this year. Henderson is mashing, to the tune of a 171 wRC+, but Rutschman hasn’t found his power stroke yet; he checks in at a disappointing 106 wRC+. Holliday got a late start, and he’s still searching for his first extra-base hit. In aggregate, the three have put up a 110 wRC+, not what you’d hope for from a trio of franchise saviors.

Not to worry, though. The other prospects the Orioles have amassed in recent years are more than picking up the slack. Michael Baumann — our Michael Baumann, not Baltimore’s — already covered Colton Cowser’s hot start, with the 250 wRC+ and homers to parts of the stadium that no one was even sure existed. But that might undersell how outrageously fun his start has been.

The nicknames are coming in hot and heavy. Fans are already calling him “The Milkman.” The Camden Yards faithful moo every time he comes to the plate. “They’re not booing, they’re saying (word)” is a pretty common sports trope, but “They’re not booing, they’re mooing” is definitely a new one for me. Cow masks at the stadium are just par for the course now:

Cowser might be turning fans into cow people, but another O’s youngster is breaking out just as much at the same time. Jordan Westburg isn’t a rookie – he played half a season last year and looked like a steady contributor. He’s off to nearly as hot of a start as Cowser, though, and he’s doing it in huge spots. He keeps coming up with runners on base, and he keeps racking up extra bases and RBI.

Is his start sustainable? Probably not. It’s hard to run a .349 BABIP, hard to have as many extra-base hits as singles, hard to barrel 12.5% of your batted balls and make hard contact 62.5% of the time without huge raw power. But his approach looks legit, and it’s not like he’s hitting those doubles and home runs by accident. He has a solid approach and a fly ball swing. The stadium isn’t a plus for him given the bite out of the left field fence, but he looks like a nice everyday contributor at worst, and I’m willing to dream on a little more than that. He can also handle second and third defensively, which suits Baltimore’s roster quite well.

That doesn’t even mention Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad, who are absolutely annihilating Triple-A at the moment. Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers have started hot. Yes, the O’s are headlined by their flaxen-haired top trio, but there are more reinforcements waiting in the wings, and the other birds are helping to drive the offense right now.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/five-things-i-liked-or-didnt-like-this-week-april-19/

[dystopia]

Getting shut down by Marsh again kind of ruined the week honestly. 

[Fiver6565]

2 hours ago, dystopia said:

Getting shut down by Marsh again kind of ruined the week honestly. 

I mean it was literally their only loss of the week, but by all means let 4-1 not be good enough.

[Philip]

I’m kind of with @dystopiaon this one.

Last night was no fun. Poor Kremer deserved better.

[Philip]

13 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

I mean it was literally their only loss of the week, but by all means let 4-1 not be good enough.

PS week ain’t over yet. Got Ragans tonight…

[Fiver6565]

And of course you’re assuming we lose that game even though our ace is also going. And even if we did that’s a 4-2 week. 
 

But you’ll be negative no matter what so who cares I suppose. 

[btdart20]

4 hours ago, dystopia said:

Getting shut down by Marsh again kind of ruined the week honestly. 

And we struggled against the soft tossing BoSox too.  Is there somewhere we can find the team's OPS vs. pitch type?

[SteveA]

31 minutes ago, btdart20 said:

And we struggled against the soft tossing BoSox too.  Is there somewhere we can find the team's OPS vs. pitch type?

Yeah, we're only the highest scoring team in the American League this year.   It must be really hard to find a pitcher type we can hit.

[btdart20]

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

Yeah, we're only the highest scoring team in the American League this year.   It must be really hard to find a pitcher type we can hit.

Yeah. True.  Struggled isn't the right word.  

[Malike]

2 hours ago, btdart20 said:

And we struggled against the soft tossing BoSox too.  Is there somewhere we can find the team's OPS vs. pitch type?

Marsh isn't soft-tossing, he averages 94 on his fastball. If you want to say they struggle against good off-speed pitching, then I'd agree, he had good off-speed stuff last night. The Red Sox decided they aren't going to throw fastballs this year, we'll see how that works out for them going forward.

PS. All teams struggle against good off-speed stuff when a pitcher is on. Marsh was on.

[btdart20]

15 minutes ago, Malike said:

Marsh isn't soft-tossing, he averages 94 on his fastball. If you want to say they struggle against good off-speed pitching, then I'd agree, he had good off-speed stuff last night. The Red Sox decided they aren't going to throw fastballs this year, we'll see how that works out for them going forward.

PS. All teams struggle against good off-speed stuff when a pitcher is on. Marsh was on.

That's my point.  A big chunkof his/their pitches weren't 4S.  

[Malike]

1 minute ago, btdart20 said:

That's my point.  A big chunkof his/their pitches weren't 4S.  

It's a great strategy when they can throw good breaking balls. When they can't it's not. I doubt they pitch like that the whole season.

[btdart20]

Just now, Malike said:

It's a great strategy when they can throw good breaking balls. When they can't it's not. I doubt they pitch like that the whole season.

Are you referring to the BoSox?

[Malike]

Just now, btdart20 said:

Are you referring to the BoSox?

Yeah, they seem committed to not relying on fastballs as a philosophy.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Malike said:

It's a great strategy when they can throw good breaking balls. When they can't it's not. I doubt they pitch like that the whole season.

I would think they would be targeting guys that can.