Orioles make Ben Clemens’ five favorite things this week

[Malike]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I would think they would be targeting guys that can.

I would agree, but again, I don't think it's a long-term strategy that is going to pay off for them. We'll see how they hold up over the course of the season.

The Rays were geniuses for using openers 3x a week, that fad ended pretty fast.

Edited April 20 by Malike

[btdart20]

2 minutes ago, Malike said:

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

Yeah, they do.  I'm interested in how the strategy plays out.  I've said it before but I think they have a sneaky good staff.  Probably should put this in the Red Sox thread, but Houck, Crawford, Bello, and even Pivetta (when healthy) are good.  All of them would bump someone from from our rotation.  Whitlock I'm not convinced. 

[Frobby]

3 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?

Well, BB-ref shows splits by pitcher-type:

.753 OPS v. Power

.765 OPS v. Average P/F

.771 OPS v. Finesse

[jabba72]

23 minutes ago, Malike said:

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

The data says 4 seamers under 95 get hit harder than cutters and sliders/sweepers. Its an idea worth exploring I think. 

[Malike]

Just now, jabba72 said:

The data says 4 seamers under 95 get hit harder than cutters and sliders/sweepers. Its an idea worth exploring I think. 

Sure it is. We'll see how sustainable it is with the vast majority of pitches being high spin and how it affects arms, as well as not being able to throw them for strikes consistently and if they are winding up in fastball counts and have to throw one. 

[jabba72]

1 minute ago, Malike said:

Sure it is. We'll see how sustainable it is with the vast majority of pitches being high spin and how it affects arms, as well as not being able to throw them for strikes consistently and if they are winding up in fastball counts and have to throw one. 

I'll agree with you, any pitcher that relies on sweepers is on borrowed time if you look at the recent trends. Still a popular pitch for now though. 

[btdart20]

17 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Well, BB-ref shows splits by pitcher-type:

.753 OPS v. Power

.765 OPS v. Average P/F

.771 OPS v. Finesse

There goes that theory!