AL playoff picture

[gtman55]

2 hours ago, terpoh said:

I agree that our philosophy needs to change, but what hitting coach is making Slater, Rivera, Jimenez, Soto, Maton, O'Hearn a good hitter? There is a serious lack of talent right now on the offensive side of the ball, with the lack of chemistry to also noted. This doenst feel like "our team" or "our guys"

I hear you and yes seeing Rivera, Slater Jimenez etc feels like we're batting a bunch of scrubs. But the real problem is that Adley, Cowser, Holliday, Mayo, O'Hearn are also looking like scrubs at the plate. I don't know how to explain this. Is it our hitting coaches or are these guys simply not as good as we thought?

[terpoh]

1 minute ago, gtman55 said:

I hear you and yes seeing Rivera, Slater Jimenez etc feels like we're batting a bunch of scrubs. But the real problem is that Adley, Cowser, Holliday, Mayo, O'Hearn are also looking like scrubs at the plate. I don't know how to explain this. Is it our hitting coaches or are these guys simply not as good as we thought?

Cowser has a .760 OPS as a rookie. Holliday and Mayo should be expected to be taking lumps and Mayo has hardly been given a real chance of sustained playing time. O'Hearn is just showing what he is, not an every day guy. He is closer to the grouping of Rivera/Jimenez/Slater than should be to the others. A cash considerations dump that we are very fortunate contributed for as long as he did. Not someone I think we should be counting on to carry the offense however. Adley has been very disappointing yes- so that one I agree on. But its the injuries to several of our main guys and filling those spots with the aforementioned names above that has really taken a fragile offense and sunk it to these levels. 

[gtman55]

I'm referring to recent Cowser. Overall he's had a pretty good year.

[MCO'sFan]

4 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

The hitting coaches need to be replaced, and we need to get Holt and Holmes back to running the pitching department too.

We also need to put more of an emphasis on player/team chemistry. Alot of these problems started when they began breaking up combinations of players who had always enjoyed playing together and replaced them with strangers that weren't as good.

The hitting coaches may be replaced but make no mistake. This approach they are implementing is 100% the approach that ME and SM want. Coaches rarely implement their own style anymore.
 

So even if the coaches change, I wouldn’t expect the hitting approach to change much unless these coaches have failed miserably to implement the approach ME and SM want. 

Edited Saturday at 16:49 by MCO'sFan

[SteveA]

6 hours ago, terpoh said:

Cowser has a .760 OPS as a rookie. Holliday and Mayo should be expected to be taking lumps and Mayo has hardly been given a real chance of sustained playing time. O'Hearn is just showing what he is, not an every day guy. He is closer to the grouping of Rivera/Jimenez/Slater than should be to the others. A cash considerations dump that we are very fortunate contributed for as long as he did. Not someone I think we should be counting on to carry the offense however. Adley has been very disappointing yes- so that one I agree on. But its the injuries to several of our main guys and filling those spots with the aforementioned names above that has really taken a fragile offense and sunk it to these levels. 

I'm not necessarily going to buy that Holliday and Mayo should be expected to struggle this much.

Jackson Merrill hasn't.   Jackson Chourio hasn't.  

It's not automatic that guys have to go through a period where they are hitting around .100 and striking out more than half the time.   Lots of good players come up, have some ups and downs, but are not THAT bad.

[O-The-Memories]

I'm honestly starting to get worried about guys like Adley and our prospects. If these guys don't pan out we aren't going to be a successful franchise for a while. 

There's no reason why the offense should be this bad right now. 

[LGOrioles]

36 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I'm not necessarily going to buy that Holliday and Mayo should be expected to struggle this much.

Jackson Merrill hasn't.   Jackson Chourio hasn't.  

It's not automatic that guys have to go through a period where they are hitting around .100 and striking out more than half the time.   Lots of good players come up, have some ups and downs, but are not THAT bad.

This. Mayo’s wRC+ is 546th out of 554 batters with more than 30 PA’s, while his K% is 4th highest out of those 554 batters.

Holliday’s wRC+ is 361st out of 368 batters with more than 180 PA’s, while his K% is 8th out of those 368 batters.

They are small sample sizes, but Cowser and Rutschman struggled to similar extents when they came up. Norby was awful here too and then immediately started hitting well after the trade. It’s normal to struggle, but not to this extent.

[O-The-Memories]

Wasn't expecting that to be overturned. 

[eddie83]

Magic number is 6. 

[EddeeEddee]

2 hours ago, LGOrioles said:

This. Mayo’s wRC+ is 546th out of 554 batters with more than 30 PA’s, while his K% is 4th highest out of those 554 batters.

Holliday’s wRC+ is 361st out of 368 batters with more than 180 PA’s, while his K% is 8th out of those 368 batters.

They are small sample sizes, but Cowser and Rutschman struggled to similar extents when they came up. Norby was awful here too and then immediately started hitting well after the trade. It’s normal to struggle, but not to this extent.

Norby was hot for awhile but he's back to struggling the past couple weeks. 

I think Cowser is who he is to an extent -- a very talented hitter who has always had high strikeout totals.  The league adjusted to his weaknesses and he's trying to adjust back, but it will probably take some time.

Holliday just seems like he's not all there yet.  I think the expectations and hype machine messed with his head a bit, and now he's got to work his way back to finding his rhythm and his confidence.  He's only 20.

Mayo hasn't had enough at bats.

O'Hearn is simply not an every day player.  He's good when used as a role player.

Adley is really the only one I'm concerned about at this point.  Some say they think he's playing hurt, but I'm not really buying it.  If he's playing hurt then why is he DHing at all when his bat is lifeless?  If he's hurt then send him down before he has to get sent down for forgetting how to hit.

[terpoh]

4 hours ago, LGOrioles said:

This. Mayo’s wRC+ is 546th out of 554 batters with more than 30 PA’s, while his K% is 4th highest out of those 554 batters.

Holliday’s wRC+ is 361st out of 368 batters with more than 180 PA’s, while his K% is 8th out of those 368 batters.

They are small sample sizes, but Cowser and Rutschman struggled to similar extents when they came up. Norby was awful here too and then immediately started hitting well after the trade. It’s normal to struggle, but not to this extent.

Norby 1 for his last 21 with 10 k’s,

FYI

[OriolesMagic83]

38 minutes ago, terpoh said:

Norby 1 for his last 21 with 10 k’s,

FYI

Ok, you don't understand how things work here.  You're only supposed to report how former O's are doing when they're on a hot streak, just pitched 7 strong innings, struck out the side in the 9th, etc.  

[Frobby]

6 hours ago, LGOrioles said:

This. Mayo’s wRC+ is 546th out of 554 batters with more than 30 PA’s, while his K% is 4th highest out of those 554 batters.

Holliday’s wRC+ is 361st out of 368 batters with more than 180 PA’s, while his K% is 8th out of those 368 batters.

They are small sample sizes, but Cowser and Rutschman struggled to similar extents when they came up. Norby was awful here too and then immediately started hitting well after the trade. It’s normal to struggle, but not to this extent.

By the time Rutschman had 180 PA, his   OPS was well over .700.   Ditto Cowser.   Holliday at .524 is struggling way more than those two did.  He’s also several years younger, so maybe a longer adjustment period is to be expected.   But it’s still pretty disappointing that he’s not making much progress right now, after looking a little better when his second call-up started.  

I don’t consider Mayo comparable.  He hasn’t even had 40 PA yet, and his playing time has been way more sporadic than Holliday’s.  He’s had a bad start but not enough PT to wonder why he hasn’t shown improvement yet.   
 

[Brooks The Great]

7 hours ago, SteveA said:

I'm not necessarily going to buy that Holliday and Mayo should be expected to struggle this much.

Jackson Merrill hasn't.   Jackson Chourio hasn't.  

It's not automatic that guys have to go through a period where they are hitting around .100 and striking out more than half the time.   Lots of good players come up, have some ups and downs, but are not THAT bad.

That's not true in the case of Chourio whatsoever, and using him as an example actually supports the point that those of us are making that are advocating for Mayo to get more playing time - that elite prospects need to play every day to get comfortable, and their teams need to let them struggle if need be.

Chourio had a .558 OPS in April in 85 at bats, and he had .542 OPS in May in 65 at bats. He struggled mightily, but the Brewers gave him regular playing time and let him play through it. The precise thing the Orioles have failed to do with Mayo, Kjerstad, Norby, Cowser, Westburg, Ortiz, and Stowers. 

[Just Regular]

If the Pirates stay on rotation, Paul Skenes is scheduled to be the Friday night pitcher at Yankee Stadium at the beginning of the final weekend.

Tomorrow and Saturday would be the run in for Skenes to a game I imagine he and the Pirates ticket sales people want.    Maybe not Bob Nutting, optimizing for profitability.

Some chance that evening is the Grayson Rodriguez test drive as well.