Melanie Newman: Bautista possibly back for September/October?

[baltfan]

I would be surprised if Bautista had the command he will need when he first comes back given his size

[baltfan]

1 hour ago, Ridgway22 said:

This.

Yesterday I had to watch the game on an, errr, 'alternative' method of viewing because Fox had the SF/LA game on locally. I sync'd it up with the O's radio broadcast via MLB.tv.

Her radio PBP was Horrible, Horrible, Horrible. Made me want to pour bleach into my ears. I think she does fine pre / post, but PBP is not her gig.

She described a diving catch as a leaping catch. She just isn’t that good and shouldn’t be learning in the majors. 

[LookitsPuck]

8 minutes ago, baltfan said:

She described a diving catch as a leaping catch. She just isn’t that good and shouldn’t be learning in the majors. 

My gut is if you're going to let Scott Garceau anywhere close to a mic, then Newman deserves time to season because she's much better. 

[SilentJames]

This probably won’t happen but. 
 

but. 
 

imagine hearing the whistle out of nowhere to secure series win in the post season. 

[Orioles4Life21]

5 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

And suddenly everyone’s opinion changes on Melanie. I gotta say, she’s gotten better on the radio  overall. I’m fine with her doing games. 

The other day she said “Cowser puts a charge into one..” and I thought he smoked an extra base hit or even a homer but her sentence finished 

“..but it will be caught behind first base.”

A pop up!

[NashLumber]

6 hours ago, SilentJames said:

This probably won’t happen but. 
 

but. 
 

imagine hearing the whistle out of nowhere to secure series win in the post season. 

I always felt that if they are going to recall The Wire and Omar's whistle, why don't they hire some folks to drop black plastic trash bags out of the warehouse windows like the people Omar was about to rob did? They just surrendered their stash without a fight because they knew "Omar don't play."  

[SteveA]

54 minutes ago, NashLumber said:

I always felt that if they are going to recall The Wire and Omar's whistle, why don't they hire some folks to drop black plastic trash bags out of the warehouse windows like the people Omar was about to rob did? They just surrendered their stash without a fight because they knew "Omar don't play."  

I think the whole Bautista / Omar thing is more about inspiring a feeling, the ominous feeling you get when Omar is about to do his thing juxtaposed to Felix coming out of the pen to dominate the opposition.

I think the metaphor breaks down when you take it too literally and start interpreting it the way you do and stretch it that much.   Felix when he is on is a dominant closer.   But he is not actually going to kill anybody.

They played Hell's Bells when Trevor Hoffman came out of the pen, but [as far as I know] they didn't actually perform any ritual Satanic sacrifices or draw pentagrams in blood.

[sportsfan8703]

4 hours ago, SteveA said:

I think the whole Bautista / Omar thing is more about inspiring a feeling, the ominous feeling you get when Omar is about to do his thing juxtaposed to Felix coming out of the pen to dominate the opposition.

I think the metaphor breaks down when you take it too literally and start interpreting it the way you do and stretch it that much.   Felix when he is on is a dominant closer.   But he is not actually going to kill anybody.

They played Hell's Bells when Trevor Hoffman came out of the pen, but [as far as I know] they didn't actually perform any ritual Satanic sacrifices or draw pentagrams in blood.

I had thought Hell’s Bells was about trying to avoid your wife and family to watch O’s games. 

[Tony-OH]

20 hours ago, emmett16 said:

If that’s the case and they are even remotely close, what in the world were they doing last year waiting on the surgery?  

That was an absolute hail mary. I think they were hoping for some kind of Bradish recovery from PRP where it just buys him time and that they could use him in the playoffs.

At the end of the day, they should have just had the surgery right away. I guess they assumed he would be out no matter what this season, but guys have recovered within 12 months before and had they done pretty much right away, he probably would have had a chance to pitch in the playoffs.

Either way, I don't doubt Newman has heard something though. Just because she's not a good radio PBP person does not mean she's not a good reporter or knows her baseball. 

I didn't hear what was said, but I doubt very much she was just making stuff up.

 

[IPlayGM]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

That was an absolute hail mary. I think they were hoping for some kind of Bradish recovery from PRP where it just buys him time and that they could use him in the playoffs.

At the end of the day, they should have just had the surgery right away. I guess they assumed he would be out no matter what this season, but guys have recovered within 12 months before and had they done pretty much right away, he probably would have had a chance to pitch in the playoffs.

Either way, I don't doubt Newman has heard something though. Just because she's not a good radio PBP person does not mean she's not a good reporter or knows her baseball. 

I didn't hear what was said, but I doubt very much she was just making stuff up.

 

I take it more as this is the talk behind the scenes and she just didn’t read the room well enough to know she wasn’t supposed to say anything.

[Matt Bennett]

21 hours ago, emmett16 said:

If that’s the case and they are even remotely close, what in the world were they doing last year waiting on the surgery?  

I feel as though they bungled Bautista and Bradish’s injuries by delaying the inevitable. Because of those delays, it could be no Bautista until 2025 and no Bradish until 2026. 

[Tony-OH]

20 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

And suddenly everyone’s opinion changes on Melanie. I gotta say, she’s gotten better on the radio  overall. I’m fine with her doing games. 

Not to turn this into a Melanie Newman thread again, but she's actually not too bad when she's doing the color part of the broadcast. She'll drop some meaningful statistical information occasionally and the other day she said something (can't remember exactly what it was) and I was like, "Hmm, not bad Melanie" in my head.

The issue is she just too slow in describing the action and does not paint a good enough picture of where the balls are hit or the likely outcome. 

An example would be something like this. 

"He hits a skyball into the deep blue sky....(second of pause) the outfielder is going out for it but he won't get it. And Henderson is on second for a double.

We don't know where, how far, or what the action was other than the ball was a skyball and the outfielder misses it. She'll then go back and explain in more detail what happened.

I better call would be "Henderson lines a ball into deep right center, the center fielder is going over quickly but it's going to fall in, Henderson is rounding first, heading for second as the CF throws the ball in to the cut off as Henderson walks into second with a standup double."

Now we have a much better picture of what happened in our minds. 

Arnold gets too wordy at times too and sometimes gets behind but he's still better overall and has the best radio voice. Brett Hollander is the best at PBP in my opinion despite my "dislike" for him calling the Orioles "Baltimore" like an away/national announcer.  

 

 

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, Matt Bennett said:

I feel as though they bungled Bautista and Bradish’s injuries by delaying the inevitable. Because of those delays, it could be no Bautista until 2025 and no Bradish until 2026. 

Well, they got some good starts from Bradish so we'll see if that helps them win the AL East. If they win it by a game or two you can say he had an impact on this season.

Bradish could still be back by the end of 2025 if everything goes smoothly.

[interloper]

12 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

That was an absolute hail mary. I think they were hoping for some kind of Bradish recovery from PRP where it just buys him time and that they could use him in the playoffs.

At the end of the day, they should have just had the surgery right away. I guess they assumed he would be out no matter what this season, but guys have recovered within 12 months before and had they done pretty much right away, he probably would have had a chance to pitch in the playoffs.

Either way, I don't doubt Newman has heard something though. Just because she's not a good radio PBP person does not mean she's not a good reporter or knows her baseball. 

I didn't hear what was said, but I doubt very much she was just making stuff up.

 

It's a little surprising she would go "off-script", so to speak, on MASN when Elias has denied any chance of Bautista pitching this year. But perhaps MASN folks have a little more freedom under Rubenstein. 

[Tony-OH]

6 minutes ago, IPlayGM said:

I take it more as this is the talk behind the scenes and she just didn’t read the room well enough to know she wasn’t supposed to say anything.

Perhaps, I don't really know. Since my press credentials were not renewed after COVID, I don't really know the new announcers besides Brett Hollander, due his WBAL days. I knew Arnold a little bit from his Frederick time. 

Either way, I don't get the impression that Melanie talks out of turn or doesn't know what she can or can't say. Perhaps she was talking to Hyde and he said something offhand like, "Maybe even Bautistsa will be ready by the playoffs." Who knows? 

I've been in a lot of situations talking with players and coaches and I knew what I could or could not say and when it was appropriate to report something, even if it was from an "unnamed source." I'm fairly certain Melanie would not still have a job with the Orioles if she did not know this by now too.