Is the 2024 team better than 2023’s?

[Bemorewins]

P.S. - I'm just glad that I lived long enough to see this! I really feel that this is the beginning of truly the best of times for the Baltimore Orioles and its fans.

[Bemorewins]

1 hour ago, One eyed Bird said:

Back end of the pen I will keep us from being a better team this year vs last, if we still had the Mountain closing games than yes without a doubt

We have the best ammunition of any contending team to make any trade that we want/need to fix the closer position (when the time comes).

Right now, we can still succeed despite Kimbrel mainly because of the now quality starting pitching. Any of our 5/6 guys is capable of giving us 7 innings.

[Malike]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

I’m not saying you’re wrong, and given age and salary, I hope you’re right, but Hays has only 24 ABs in LF, to Cowser’s 44. That’s way too few attempts to conclusively say. Cowser is marginally faster and has a stronger arm, but I couldn’t find a stat on jumps, route quality,accuracy, so Hays may make up for being a fraction slower if he’s better in those.

 

Cowser certainly hits better at the moment.

 

The way Cowser has hit for 3 weeks is about as bad as Hays. He certainly hit better for the first 3 weeks. He's not hitting anything now and hasn't in a long time.

[allquixotic]

The pen's general flakiness is really exaggerated by their failings in just a few games. We can't ignore those games and pretend they never happened, but there have been plenty of examples of the bullpen's success.

We have a decent core in the pen, but I think Kimbrel's chances are running out, and if he doesn't have it, he needs to go somewhere or lose his closer spot and get relegated to a cleanup man. Better to have Cano just close the 9th than to watch Kimbrel almost blow it, then have Cano come in to bail him out.

[NCRaven]

Kimbrel will get $13 million chances.

[btdart20]

8 hours ago, Frobby said:

Thought about it, but it’s really hard to judge defense based on 33 games.  Overall I think it’s close to a wash.   What do you think?

C, 1B, SS, and RF = bump

2B Mateo/Westburg > Frazier

3B Westburg > Urias

CF healthy Mullins > dinged up Mullins

LF Cowser seems like more range than Hays.  

Another category is the bench.  That's a tougher read because of RIP strategy and how 2023 maximized the matchups. Gunnar took a while but showed things.  Hicks and O'Hearn were gems.  2024 bench has Westburg graduated and Cowser flashing his upside plus a good defense.  O'Hearn has built on his success and is now a trusted strong side platoon.  Mateo was a bench guy coming in and is now performing (fingers crossed).  Last year we were tossing vets against the wall to see what sticks.  This year we're tossing the young talent against the wall.

Bullpen feels more balanced vs Bautista/Cano dominated.  TBD...

Rotation is more trustworthy.  Each have some questions but the floor feels much more stable because of the depth.

We knew the offense was going to score.  And we still haven't really gotten many hard hits from our #4.  But to balance it out we've had a couple going nuts with not much history before it.  Only real surprise is less BBs to do it.

[dzorange]

+31 run differential on 5-5-23. +55 run differential on 5-5-24.

Of course I’m posting this strategically coming off of back-to-back series wins and a 11-1 win.

[ORIOLE33]

Absolutely. 

[dzorange]

5 hours ago, dzorange said:

+31 run differential on 5-5-23. +55 run differential on 5-5-24.

Of course I’m posting this strategically coming off of back-to-back series wins and a 11-1 win.

Another stat - there are six teams in the MLB that have a winning record against teams above .500:

Orioles: 14-5

Dodgers: 10-5

Yankees: 8-5

Guardians: 11-7

Rangers: 11-8

Cubs: 8-7

 

[OriolesMagic83]

3 minutes ago, dzorange said:

Another stat - there are six teams in the MLB that have a winning record against teams above .500:

Orioles: 14-5

Dodgers: 10-5

Yankees: 8-5

Guardians: 11-7

Rangers: 11-8

Cubs: 8-7

 

Surprised the Braves and Phillies aren't on there I guess they've been beating up on weak teams.

[Malike]

6 minutes ago, dzorange said:

Another stat - there are six teams in the MLB that have a winning record against teams above .500:

Orioles: 14-5

Dodgers: 10-5

Yankees: 8-5

Guardians: 11-7

Rangers: 11-8

Cubs: 8-7

 

So then they are 9-6 against teams under .500. That needs to improve.

[dzorange]

23 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Surprised the Braves and Phillies aren't on there I guess they've been beating up on weak teams.

The Phillies have played a whopping 6 games against teams above .500, and have a 3-3 record against them.

Edited May 6 by dzorange

[OriolesMagic83]

33 minutes ago, dzorange said:

The Phillies have played a whopping 6 games against teams above .500, and have a 3-3 record against them.

I just looked thru their record a while ago.  Series against the Nats (2), White Sox, Marlins, Cardinals, Rockies and Angels makes their record of 1 win better than the O's way less impressive.  Their schedule coming up must be hell.

[now]

2 hours ago, Malike said:

So then they are 9-6 against teams under .500. That needs to improve.

Somehow feels typical of Orioles to play up to the competition, and get burned by the pretenders... same with individual starting pitchers.