FIX THE DANG HITTING!

[DocJJ]

If he's a good hitter, why doesn't he hit good?

[drjohnnyfever1]

I think there's more to it than just meets the eye.  The expanded strike zone a lot of umps are calling for most or all the games in the past several weeks, is hurting us.  We all know the look the batters are giving the umps with the strikes being called about a ball to ball and a half outside the projected strike box is maddening.  Those pitches are so frequently called strikes in 1-1 counts that batters are at a disadvantage.  The thing that makes it more sad in those 1-1 counts, OUR pitchers are legit missing wide of that expanded strike zone and being forced to groove balls in the box in unfavorable counts when they might not have had to be so precise had they been closer on the 1-1.

I hate blaming the umps.  But getting hitters out of counts and then our BP, especially, unable to hit the broad side of a barn for consecutive pitches, makes for a mess.

[OriolesMagic83]

How should the O's fix the hitting?  Sign some better hitters as free agents?  Revamp the development process so hitters are making more process and drawing more walks when they get to the majors?  I thought the drawing walks was going to be part of the O's development but I guess I was wrong.  There is no quick fix and the O's aren't going to spend $500 million on hitting when their main needs are pitching.

[sportsfan8703]

The hitting has no excuse. They haven’t been decimated by injuries like the pitching. We’ve spent so much draft capital on hitting. There’s no next prospect to call up. 

It’s time for all the highly drafted hitting prospects to produce. We aren’t dead, and the could thing about a young group is that they can grow up really fast. We’re just running out of time this year. 

[Orioles0615]

Fire the dang hitting coaches all 3 of them 

[terpoh]

Just now, sportsfan8703 said:

The hitting has no excuse. They haven’t been decimated by injuries like the pitching. We’ve spent so much draft capital on hitting. There’s no next prospect to call up. 

It’s time for all the highly drafted hitting prospects to produce. We aren’t dead, and the could thing about a young group is that they can grow up really fast. We’re just running out of time this year. 

Agreed- the only way for the offense to soar its time for these guys to start producing like they did in the minors/like they have been drafted and hyped to do. I know thats easier said than done, but over the past 5 years no team in baseball has had more prospect position player talent than the O's come up through the pipeline than the O's and its not really close. You cant expect every prospect to stick, but- Gunnar, Adley, Westburg, Cowser, Holliday, Mayo, Kjerstad, Ortiz, Hernaiz, Norby, Stowers. Thats an absurd about of talent to all make their debuts from 2022-2024. 

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

The hitting has no excuse. They haven’t been decimated by injuries like the pitching. We’ve spent so much draft capital on hitting. There’s no next prospect to call up. 

It’s time for all the highly drafted hitting prospects to produce. We aren’t dead, and the could thing about a young group is that they can grow up really fast. We’re just running out of time this year. 

Mounty, Urias, Westburg and Kjerstad.

That’s a lot more than you are saying especially since you are playing guys more often than you should (see OHearn), you are playing too many bad players because you don’t have anything else and you are also trying to play rookies at a time where they are learning but are being thrusted into more everyday roles.

And that’s also assuming Adley is healthy.

So basically, you have multiple “easy outs” in the lineup every game. Your lineup doesn’t have length. You have guys who are tired because they are playing so often.

[Sports Guy]

The Os haven’t had guys hitting on all cylinders at the same time in a while.

We know about Adley’s struggles but Santander, while he has hit some homers, is hitting 212 with a 289 OBP since Aug 1. O’Hearn has a 631 OPS since Aug 1.

Adley, OHearn and Santander are basically out machines right now. You also take away the injured guys and factor in the struggles of Holliday (playing everyday) and playing the guys we have to play and it’s no wonder the team is struggling.

Right now, I think you the top 2 hitters in the lineup should be Gunnar and Mullins. Slater can be the second hitter vs lefties.

After that, you don’t have anyone that stands out. Cowser is inconsistent and could lose ROY to Wells if he doesn’t pick it back up. And we have no idea what we are going to get from anyone else right now. 
 

But I would at least have the table setters at the top of the lineup and just see how things go.

[Sports Guy]

46 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

The Os haven’t had guys hitting on all cylinders at the same time in a while.

We know about Adley’s struggles but Santander, while he has hit some homers, is hitting 212 with a 289 OBP since Aug 1. O’Hearn has a 631 OPS since Aug 1.

Adley, OHearn and Santander are basically out machines right now. You also take away the injured guys and factor in the struggles of Holliday (playing everyday) and playing the guys we have to play and it’s no wonder the team is struggling.

Right now, I think you the top 2 hitters in the lineup should be Gunnar and Mullins. Slater can be the second hitter vs lefties.

After that, you don’t have anyone that stands out. Cowser is inconsistent and could lose ROY to Wells if he doesn’t pick it back up. And we have no idea what we are going to get from anyone else right now. 
 

But I would at least have the table setters at the top of the lineup and just see how things go.

 

[Fiver6565]

Yeah I had the thought of moving Mullins back up recently as well. Mainly just to get Adley out of that spot though. 

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Mounty, Urias, Westburg and Kjerstad.

That’s a lot more than you are saying especially since you are playing guys more often than you should (see OHearn), you are playing too many bad players because you don’t have anything else and you are also trying to play rookies at a time where they are learning but are being thrusted into more everyday roles.

And that’s also assuming Adley is healthy.

So basically, you have multiple “easy outs” in the lineup every game. Your lineup doesn’t have length. You have guys who are tired because they are playing so often.

These are some good points.

The loss of Mountcastle and Urias has really hurt us of late, especially since Holliday is not producing and the Orioles choose to trade Norby and Stowers for Rogers. Both of them would look better in the lineup than Maton, Rivera or Slater, or Jimenez.

We already knew losing Westburg was going to hurt as well, but we thought Mayo would produce if called up, and he's struggled as bad as Holliday. 

The fact that Holliday and Mayo together have been pretty much zeroes makes me question the Orioles hitting development too. I mean, we expect young players to struggle a bit in the beginning, but together they have gone 5-for-64 (.078) with 34 strike outs in there first 11 games of their careers. How is that even possible?

 I mean, the Orioles could have batted pitchers and probably gotten better results. 

Since going on that tear when he hit 5 home runs in 10 games when he came back up, Holliday has slashed a pitiful .180/.229/.247/.476 with 31Ks in 96 PAs. That's an absolute zero at the plate. 

Over that same span, Adley Rutschman has slashed .180/.258/.231/.489 in 89 PAs. That's a blackhole too.

How about that big bopper Elias got at the All-Star break. Jimenez is  slashing .177/.239/.274/.513 in 67 PAs over that span. There's your 3rd blackhole.

How about Ryan O'Hearn? Well he's in his annual disappearance act in the second half slashing .212/.268/.303/.571 in 71 PAs. 4th blackhole.

 So since August 11th, the Orioles have a lineup full of blackholes and have some how managed to go 12-13, which I guess is a good thing considering the way they've hit.

Gunnar and Santander to a lesser extent have been carrying this team and one or two of these blackholes need to start producing again.

 

 

 

[ScGO's]

JD Davis is at Norfolk; Garrett Cooper is on the 7 Day DL down there.  Davis has been terrible, Cooper was good until he got hurt; any chance he comes back?  Terrin Vavra is back in the fold. Niko Goodrum and Daniel Johnson are having good AAA seasons.

Big shrug of the shoulders with that group but its not all that differentiated from the back of the lineup & bench right now; why not start cycling some AAAA guys through over the next couple weeks to see if you can catch lightening in a bottle?  Make some statements sending a few guys to the bench and potentially DFAing Jiminez, Slater, Soto, or Maton. Keep peeling them off until you get Mounty, Westburg, Kjerstad, and Urias back. If one of these AAAA guys performs, ride the wave until its over, then move on to the next guy or cut him when you get an IL guy back.

[Sports Guy]

16 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

These are some good points.

The loss of Mountcastle and Urias has really hurt us of late, especially since Holliday is not producing and the Orioles choose to trade Norby and Stowers for Rogers. Both of them would look better in the lineup than Maton, Rivera or Slater, or Jimenez.

We already knew losing Westburg was going to hurt as well, but we thought Mayo would produce if called up, and he's struggled as bad as Holliday. 

The fact that Holliday and Mayo together have been pretty much zeroes makes me question the Orioles hitting development too. I mean, we expect young players to struggle a bit in the beginning, but together they have gone 5-for-64 (.078) with 34 strike outs in there first 11 games of their careers. How is that even possible?

 I mean, the Orioles could have batted pitchers and probably gotten better results. 

Since going on that tear when he hit 5 home runs in 10 games when he came back up, Holliday has slashed a pitiful .180/.229/.247/.476 with 31Ks in 96 PAs. That's an absolute zero at the plate. 

Over that same span, Adley Rutschman has slashed .180/.258/.231/.489 in 89 PAs. That's a blackhole too.

How about that big bopper Elias got at the All-Star break. Jimenez is  slashing .177/.239/.274/.513 in 67 PAs over that span. There's your 3rd blackhole.

How about Ryan O'Hearn? Well he's in his annual disappearance act in the second half slashing .212/.268/.303/.571 in 71 PAs. 4th blackhole.

 So since August 11th, the Orioles have a lineup full of blackholes and have some how managed to go 12-13, which I guess is a good thing considering the way they've hit.

Gunnar and Santander to a lesser extent have been carrying this team and one or two of these blackholes need to start producing again.

 

 

 

 No question.

I don’t put anything on Mayo because the playing time is so inconsistent and he has had such few at bats that it’s not really effecting the team.

I definitely thought Holliday would be producing better as of now but he’s also 20 and learning. 
 

Before the season started, I consistently talked about how a big part of 2024 was Elias figuring out when to go with the inexperienced guys.

It is a delicate balance. You need these guys to develop but you are also trying to win. 
 

I think they have completely screwed up Mayo’s ML development this year. They didn’t play him at first enough, they called him up too late, they went away from him when maybe he was getting comfortable and now they aren’t playing him enough.

Holliday is moving to a new position, trying to adjust and he’s just 20. 
 

It’s a really tough situation for all involved but it’s also why I wanted to just go with these guys early and just take your lumps. Look at Milwaukee with Chuorio. His first 200 PA saw him have an OPS just over 600.  Since then, he has just about 300 PA and his OPS in that time frame is over 900. 
 

Now I’m not saying this is what would have happened with Holliday but Chuorio hit that 200 PA mark in mid June. Holliday is still 28 PA from that…so maybe another week or so away from that. Milwaukee is going to the playoffs and they were patient with their 20 y/o star prospect. (Chuorio did start off better from day 1, which helped..struggled after)

I really don’t think they have handled these situations as well as they should have and I think it’s hurting the team now.

 

[Moose Milligan]

At this point it's hoping that Mounty, Westburg, Urias and Kjerstad can come back and provide a jolt.  Maybe Adley can figure out a way to stop looking terrible...but as SG noted and I agree, I don't think he's 100% healthy.

Move Mullins up to the 2 spot, drop Adley to 5th or 6th.  Hope Gunnar can stay hot.  That's about it.

[casadeozo]

36 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

These are some good points.

The loss of Mountcastle and Urias has really hurt us of late, especially since Holliday is not producing and the Orioles choose to trade Norby and Stowers for Rogers. Both of them would look better in the lineup than Maton, Rivera or Slater, or Jimenez.

We already knew losing Westburg was going to hurt as well, but we thought Mayo would produce if called up, and he's struggled as bad as Holliday. 

The fact that Holliday and Mayo together have been pretty much zeroes makes me question the Orioles hitting development too. I mean, we expect young players to struggle a bit in the beginning, but together they have gone 5-for-64 (.078) with 34 strike outs in there first 11 games of their careers. How is that even possible?

 I mean, the Orioles could have batted pitchers and probably gotten better results. 

Since going on that tear when he hit 5 home runs in 10 games when he came back up, Holliday has slashed a pitiful .180/.229/.247/.476 with 31Ks in 96 PAs. That's an absolute zero at the plate. 

Over that same span, Adley Rutschman has slashed .180/.258/.231/.489 in 89 PAs. That's a blackhole too.

How about that big bopper Elias got at the All-Star break. Jimenez is  slashing .177/.239/.274/.513 in 67 PAs over that span. There's your 3rd blackhole.

How about Ryan O'Hearn? Well he's in his annual disappearance act in the second half slashing .212/.268/.303/.571 in 71 PAs. 4th blackhole.

 So since August 11th, the Orioles have a lineup full of blackholes and have some how managed to go 12-13, which I guess is a good thing considering the way they've hit.

Gunnar and Santander to a lesser extent have been carrying this team and one or two of these blackholes need to start producing again.

 

 

 

Also Not to be overlooked. Cowser is currently 5th in MLB in K%.