The Main Issue With The Orioles Offense and Approach is its Veteran Hitters - It's Time to Make Changes

[OnlyOneOriole]

Just now, ledzepp8 said:

Saying what amounts to, "These guys suck and shouldn't have jobs anymore", isn't constructive criticism. It's going to be tough to find anyone on this board that wouldn't like to see more playing time go to the guys in AAA. But again, where do they play? You'd be hard pressed to find a GM that's going to just drop several proven veterans (who are struggling) for unproven talent on a team that just won 101 games and is on pace to win 100 this year. It would have been one thing to trade Hays, Mullins, Santander, Urias in the offseason, which a lot of us could have got behind. Once that didn't happen, these are the guys that are going to continue to play until the team isn't winning anymore.

But when the proven vets are not going to get you to the promised land?  Why play them? 

 

Again I will as this for the 50th time  and not one person has answered. 

All you are doing is stunting the growth of the youngsters who potentially could win you a WS but who may be hurt by not playing in the majors until age 26 when they could have had 2-3 years of solid MLB experience by then.

[DrungoHazewood]

4 minutes ago, OnlyOneOriole said:

For some reason you guys take what is constructive criticism that we think could help the O's as "we hate the orioles and they SUCK".

There is no middle ground for you guys.

Very strange.  It is either one extreme or the other for you. 

I didn't say that at all. I just said most (perhaps all) fanbases, this one included, are reactionary and far, far, far less patient than the people paid to make decisions. I've been on the Hangout for over 20 years, and every three-game losing streak, like clockwork, brings out the Holy Crap Why Haven't They Made These Five Very Obvious Moves?!

Like I said in that other post, I'd love to have seen the constructive criticism that Joe Altobelli and Hank Peters would have gotten during the two 7-game losing streaks they had in 1983. "Can you believe that these half-wits are still playing 36-year-old Al Bumbry and his .643 OPS on May 23rd!!!! Why are they still playing this guy who clearly isn't a Major Leaguer anymore? Have they forgotten they have Mike Young and Drungo Hazewood at Rochester? Do we need to remind them? Glenn Gulliver has a .464 OBP and they're still running Leo Hernandez out there?"

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I didn't say that at all. I just said most (perhaps all) fanbases, this one included, are reactionary and far, far, far less patient than the people paid to make decisions. I've been on the Hangout for over 20 years, and every three-game losing streak, like clockwork, brings out the Holy Crap Why Haven't They Made These Five Very Obvious Moves?!

Like I said in that other post, I'd love to have seen the constructive criticism that Joe Altobelli and Hank Peters would have gotten during the two 7-game losing streaks they had in 1983. "Can you believe that these half-wits are still playing 36-year-old Al Bumbry and his .643 OPS on May 23rd!!!! Why are they still playing this guy who clearly isn't a Major Leaguer anymore? Have they forgotten they have Mike Young and Drungo Hazewood at Rochester? Do we need to remind them? Glenn Gulliver has a .464 OBP and they're still running Leo Hernandez out there?"

Ownership was too cheap to keep Weaver! 

[DrungoHazewood]

9 minutes ago, OnlyOneOriole said:

But when the proven vets are not going to get you to the promised land?  Why play them? 

 

Again I will as this for the 50th time  and not one person has answered. 

All you are doing is stunting the growth of the youngsters who potentially could win you a WS but who may be hurt by not playing in the majors until age 26 when they could have had 2-3 years of solid MLB experience by then.

You are reading far too much into less than 200 PAs. I guarantee you that virtually no MLB GM is going to assess that Santander, Hays, Mullins and the rest are washed up and need to be jettisoned out the nearest airlock.

Coming into 2024 Anthony Santander's career OPS was .766. Add in this supposedly career-threatening six-week down stretch and it's fallen all the way to .761.

Eddie Murray had 13 different months with 100+ PAs and an OPS lower than Santanders' current .695. Cal had 17. In August of 1995 Cal had a .606 OPS. I'm sure if social media had existed then the calls for him to be tossed overboard would have been deafening.

Edited May 23 by DrungoHazewood

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Ownership was too cheap to keep Weaver! 

You mean the same guys who decided to let Baylor, Grich, Reggie and every other free agent walk? Of course they did, they couldn't care a bit about winning, just filling their pocketbooks!

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Fiver6565 said:

They way people just dismiss the expertise of the people that have been running this franchise for the last two years as the team has accumulated the best record in the American League in that span, never ceases to amaze me.  Good thing we have the OP and many, many other posters to solve all these issues with the team that the incredibly successful management team haven't been able to.

Would I like to see an lineup adjustment or two?  Sure.  Are wholesale changes suddenly needed right now?  Absolutely not.  Is the idea of placing 3-4 more rookies in the lineup on a regular basis at all realistic or even likely to help?  Absolutely not.

All of you should just change your screen names to Chicken Little.

Such a good post.  The O’s already have made adjustments.   They’ll continue to make them gradually if certain worrisome trends continue.  They are not going to wholesale pull the plug on veteran players.  Not happening.  

[OnlyOneOriole]

n

5 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I didn't say that at all. I just said most (perhaps all) fanbases, this one included, are reactionary and far, far, far less patient than the people paid to make decisions. I've been on the Hangout for over 20 years, and every three-game losing streak, like clockwork, brings out the Holy Crap Why Haven't They Made These Five Very Obvious Moves?!

Like I said in that other post, I'd love to have seen the constructive criticism that Joe Altobelli and Hank Peters would have gotten during the two 7-game losing streaks they had in 1983. "Can you believe that these half-wits are still playing 36-year-old Al Bumbry and his .643 OPS on May 23rd!!!! Why are they still playing this guy who clearly isn't a Major Leaguer anymore? Have they forgotten they have Mike Young and Drungo Hazewood at Rochester? Do we need to remind them? Glenn Gulliver has a .464 OBP and they're still running Leo Hernandez out there?"

Really hard to compare the athletic ability back then to now.   Back then it is basically like AA or AAA compared to the athletes of today's day and age.

As far as the 3 game losing streak?  I agree all teams have them and more.  Nothing unusual.  I don't care about that.   My concern is more long term, and I have talked about this since last year..... as far as the Os brass seems to want to draft lots of good players, who do well in the minors, but then never want to play them in the Majors.

It seems as they get off on having the top minor league system without having the balls to go for it on the MLB level. 

[DrungoHazewood]

39 minutes ago, oriolediehard said:

In yours opinion, who do you think is responsible for not making needed changes in a timely matter?

People with good baseball sense and patience.

[Aristotelian]

45 minutes ago, waroriole said:

I mean more when each of them were up and didn’t get opportunities. Kjerstad got called up to sit on the bench. Same with the other after the had initial struggles. Should be able to rotate in more people. It’s not like Mountcastle, Santander and Mullins need to play every day. 

Agreed. I think we are starting to see that and will see more if the vets keep slumping. OP seemed to be advocating replacing the vets more or less immediately.

[OnlyOneOriole]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Ownership was too cheap to keep Weaver! 

Greatest manager ever.  I met him at the Renaissance center in Detroit while having breakfast when  the Os were playing the Tigers as a 7 year old kid and I still remember shaking his hand. 

[DrungoHazewood]

1 minute ago, OnlyOneOriole said:

n

Really hard to compare the athletic ability back then to now.   Back then it is basically like AA or AAA compared to the athletes of today's day and age.

As far as the 3 game losing streak?  I agree all teams have them and more.  Nothing unusual.  I don't care about that.   My concern is more long term, and I have talked about this since last year..... as far as the Os brass seems to want to draft lots of good players, who do well in the minors, but then never want to play them in the Majors.

It seems as they get off on having the top minor league system without having the balls to go for it on the MLB level. 

It's a little odd that a team that is made up overwhelmingly of home grown players never wants to play their homegrown talent in the majors.

[OnlyOneOriole]

5 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

You are reading far too much into less than 200 PAs. I guarantee you that virtually no MLB GM is going to assess that Santander, Hays, Mullins and the rest are washed up and need to be jettisoned out the nearest airlock.

Coming into 2024 Anthony Santander's career OPS was .766. Add in this supposedly career-threatening six-week down stretch and it's fallen all the way to .761.

Eddie Murray had 13 different months with 100+ PAs and an OPS lower than Santanders' current .695. Cal had 17. In August of 1995 Cal had a .606 OPS. I'm sure if social media had existed then the calls for him to be tossed overboard would have been deafening.

Eddie Murray was a TALENT.  We all saw that.  Every player goes through slumps but he was special.

 

Tony?  Good player.  He is ok.  But are we really saying he is not replaceable?  He.....is nothing special and he is VERY replaceable by 50 other outfielders in MLB, as is our entire OF lineup when Mullins and Hayes start. 

 

Which is what I have been saying.  Our OF and DH have been killing us....for almost a year now. 

Our starting pitching has been elite.  Hitting?  Not so much.

[ledzepp8]

15 minutes ago, OnlyOneOriole said:

But when the proven vets are not going to get you to the promised land?  Why play them? 

 

Again I will as this for the 50th time  and not one person has answered. 

All you are doing is stunting the growth of the youngsters who potentially could win you a WS but who may be hurt by not playing in the majors until age 26 when they could have had 2-3 years of solid MLB experience by then.

This is your opinion. You can't qualify this. You could be right, who knows? 

It wouldn't break my heart if Hays, Mullins, and Santander were gone. My point is that there isn't a GM alive that's going to rid himself of 3 proven veterans that helped win 101 games and are on a team on pace to win 100, no matter how much they have struggled the first month and a half of the season. You're asking for something that isn't going to happen and then whining when it doesn't.

[Yossarian]

It's a travesty to have a team ERA in the month of May (so far) of 2.74 and to only have a 10-8 record.   With that type of pitching, you would hope to play well above .500 baseball.   This offense has been so depressing to watch lately.

[OnlyOneOriole]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

It's a little odd that a team that is made up overwhelmingly of home grown players never wants to play their homegrown talent in the majors.

I know you are being sarcastic but I totally agree!