My biggest question entering the season

[Sports Guy]

In terms of on the field and strictly talking about players, my biggest concern/question was the bullpen and it still is.

However, the biggest question that I felt was looming over this team and the organization as a whole was how many young players is too many and when do you bring these guys up?

In a year of contention, how many guys do you want “learning on the job” while still focusing on winning?  
 

These are not easy decisions to make, especially when you have competent vet players that should produce at a level that helps the team, even if you feel the young players are more talented.

Fast forward to right now.  Holliday came up and struggled and he controls his path to get back.  Mayo may have been close to a call up but he got hurt.  Now, he may be looking at late July/early August before he’s a factor here.

Cowser has cemented himself as an everyday player despite his poor and unlucky numbers this month. But he takes arguably the best at bats on the team, is hitting the ball hard and is playing very good defense.

Stowers is potentially getting himself in at least a role as the strong side platoon player in the OF.

Kjerstad came up and was up and down but he he only had a few sporadic at bats and wasn’t given the proper chance.

The other side to this are the vets and many of them have had a lot of issues.  Hays has been awful outside of that glimmer of hope for a few days when he came back off the IL.   He has an OPS+ of 28, a wRC+ of 24, to go along with mediocre at best statcast numbers.

Mullins isn’t much better.  His statcast numbers are poor, his OPS+ is 68 and his wRC+ is 65. He is still playing good defense, so that’s good but he hasn’t been good with the bat at all.

Santander is hitting 203 and has a sub 300 OBP. He has two 3 hit games this year and if you take those away, he’s hitting 158 And his OPS is closer to 600 than 700.

Urias has been surpassed by Mateo and is barely playing and when he is playing, he’s not hitting at all.

Mateo has exceeded expectations and looks like he should keep the UTI role this year but we all know the offensive downturn is very likely coming and going off the idea that he is 5 for his last 31, that downturn may have already started.  Still, he has a role here.

Mountcastle and OHearn have been up and down but have remained relatively steady to the point where they playing them the amount they are, isn’t really hurting the team. Luckily the team is realizing they aren’t everyday guys, so that helps.

I believe Santander will get things going but I’m becoming more and more skeptical about Hays and Mullins.  Mullins is showing some signs lately and has been much better than Hays and the team is playing him less, so I guess that’s good.

But Hays is a problem. They need his RH bat but he’s not hitting anything and he’s swinging at awful pitches and he has largely been awful for the last 5 months of baseball.

The question of, how much youth is too much is being answered and the answer is, there isn’t “too much” if some of the vets are going to continue to be non factors.

If I were the Os, I would send down Hays for Kjerstad or Norby. Norby needs to be able to play OF defense up here but if he can, his RH bat may be valuable. Holliday will be up once he gets hot, so that will take care of itself and like I said, Mayo has to get healthy and playing again.

The starting pitching has been better than we thought, so they have been able to keep the team winning through some of these offensive droughts but when you have the talent the Os do in the minors, you can’t keep holding guys back as you hope for these vets to start hitting.

The Os have rightfully recognized that none of these vets are everyday guys, so they have at least taken that away but it may be time to do more than that.

[DirtyBird]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 

Urias has been surpassed by Mateo and is barely playing and when he is playing, he’s not hitting at all.

 

But Hays is a problem. They need his RH bat but he’s not hitting anything and he’s swinging at awful pitches and he has largely been awful for the last 5 months of baseball.

 

It is an issue when you run into a situation like last night and these are your two RH options on the bench. Poor roster construction to not have a bat to ball guy in either of those bench spots. Neither has speed either. Just two slightly above avg defenders, who are liabilities with the bat.

[Sports Guy]

 

[Aristotelian]

Norby for Urias makes a ton of sense. Not a great defensive 2B but you don't really need that from your bench guy. If he comes in to PH for Mateo or Stowers, you have a viable defense of Norby 2B, Gunnar SS, Westburg 3B. Eventually Holliday takes that spot. 

I think we keep auditioning Stowers and Cowser while keeping Kjerstad as an option in AAA if either fail.  

I think we should keep Hays for now and keep giving him chances. He is a year removed from one of his best seasons and can be a defensive asset even if we stop using him as a hitting option.

[Too Tall]

Great summary. Hope some moves are coming. For one, I'd like to see what Norby's right handed bat would do while Mayo heals and Holliday gets it together. Is Norby worse in the field than Kjerstad? Hays looks completely beat. Last night - bases loaded - no outs - strike out/weak tap to the mound/strike out. That was the game and that just ties into your summary. Yes we need relief pitching but we need a more rounded offense too. Westburg is rapidly becoming my favorite player. I love his game.

[connja]

I think Mullins becomes our late inning defensive replacement and pinch runner, with Cowser taking over as starter in CF.

I still think we need Hays and his RH bat in LF.  He can platoon with Stowers or Krjstad.  I believe one or the other will be traded for bullpen help.

The way Mateo is playing on both offense and defense I don't think he gets replaced any time soon.  Holliday will need to wait.

I also think Urias is pretty safe for a while - O's love their veteran role players.  That said if his average isn't considerably higher by second half could see them giving Norby a shot.  Norway could also be involved in a trade for bullpen.

[ChosenOne21]

21 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 

Long-term I imagine Mateo and Urias go for Mayo and Holliday. Some combination of Santander, Mullins, and Hays go for Kjerstad and Norby

[Guest]

I’m still wondering why we have one of the leagues lowest payrolls.

 

Doesn’t make sense.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, Phil Beckett said:

I’m still wondering why we have one of the leagues lowest payrolls.

 

Doesn’t make sense.

You still don’t want to talk about baseball.   Hmmmm.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, RZNJ said:

You still don’t want to talk about baseball.   Hmmmm.

I’m confused. Are the Orioles a soccer team?

[DirtyBird]

10 minutes ago, Phil Beckett said:

I’m still wondering why we have one of the leagues lowest payrolls.

 

Doesn’t make sense.

Because the most valuable players on the team haven't even reached arbitration yet. It makes perfect sense.

[RZNJ]

2 minutes ago, Phil Beckett said:

I’m confused. Are the Orioles a soccer team?

This thread has nothing to do with the payroll.  Do you have any ability to talk about the actual players?

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

This thread has nothing to do with the payroll.  Do you have any ability to talk about the actual players?

I like Boog 

[RZNJ]

Just now, Phil Beckett said:

I like Boog 

Here’s the thread for you.  Bye.

 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

Because the most valuable players on the team haven't even reached arbitration yet. It makes perfect sense.

Wow. I’ve never rooted for a perfect team before. Even the 60/70’s Orioles, which is still their best era. 
 

Do you call this rebuilding complete? Now you 100% trust the owners of this team?

 

pretty cool