FIX THE DANG HITTING!

[Baseball fandom]

Where are all those homers who were getting on me when I said this offense is way overrated and they would point out those fluffy stats that made them look better then they are.. This hitting stinks. I said this for some time now 

[terpoh]

17 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Man, imagine thinking that Connor Norby was the key to this season. 

Connor Norby 0 for his last 17 with 7 k’s

[O's84]

Just now, terpoh said:

Connor Norby 0 for his last 17 with 7 k’s

So he'd fit right in. 

[Old#5fan]

25 minutes ago, O's84 said:

So he'd fit right in. 

25 minutes ago, O's84 said:

So he'd fit right in. 

49 minutes ago, Old#5fan said:

You got me there i agree but man Mayo looks totally lost he reminds me of the late Ryan Minor when he came up - great minor leaguer but totally over matched vrs big league pitchers 

 

[bpilktree67]

I expect Kjerstadt to be recalled tomorrow which will help with the depth even if it just to pinch hit.  Tonight we sent Slater up to pinch hit for O’Hearn then they countered with a pitching change but we didn’t have another left handed pinch hitter to counter them.  Hyde did a great job using his depth and pinch hitting early in the year but he had actual hitters on the bench.  He could pinch hit Urias, Kjerstadt, Hayes, O’Hearn, Stowers, Norby in certain situations.  Now his choices are Soto, Maton, McCann, Mayo, Jimenez  or Slater.  Injuries and trades have not only hurt the starting lineup but the depth of the bench.  
I am pretty sure if you told Elias that he would lose Westburg, Mountcastle, Mateo, Kjerstadt, and Urias along with Holliday and Mayo completely falling flat he holds on to Hayes, Norby and Stowers.  How bad is our injury luck been this year?  If Westburg gets hit and breaks his hand two days earlier I believe Norby is still on the team but he broke it two days after the deadline.  

[Roy Firestone]

1 hour ago, Old#5fan said:

 

Mayo actually had a decent at bat in a game where there were so many poor at bats. He fouled off a lot of good pitches , worked a count to 3-2 and was called out on a borderline strike. Yeah, you can say he's lost,, but I think he's finding his confidence up there. He had three pretty good at bats the last time he started and made a very tough play at third base that was almost an out, missed the runner by a whisker. I think the kid deserves to play and even if he fails, he cant be much worse that what we are putting out there. Eloy Jimenez and Emmanuel Rivera are NOT in our future plans and not doing much either...you may as well let the kid play and maybe he'll run into a pitch and drill it somewhere.I think the more at bats you give him, the likelier good things will happen. It sure isnt helping us to see him on the bench with Nick Maton.

[oldfan]

This team does not hit the fastball well, that's not good.

[LGOrioles]

1 hour ago, bpilktree67 said:

I expect Kjerstadt to be recalled tomorrow which will help with the depth even if it just to pinch hit.  Tonight we sent Slater up to pinch hit for O’Hearn then they countered with a pitching change but we didn’t have another left handed pinch hitter to counter them.  Hyde did a great job using his depth and pinch hitting early in the year but he had actual hitters on the bench.  He could pinch hit Urias, Kjerstadt, Hayes, O’Hearn, Stowers, Norby in certain situations.  Now his choices are Soto, Maton, McCann, Mayo, Jimenez  or Slater.  Injuries and trades have not only hurt the starting lineup but the depth of the bench.  
I am pretty sure if you told Elias that he would lose Westburg, Mountcastle, Mateo, Kjerstadt, and Urias along with Holliday and Mayo completely falling flat he holds on to Hayes, Norby and Stowers.  How bad is our injury luck been this year?  If Westburg gets hit and breaks his hand two days earlier I believe Norby is still on the team but he broke it two days after the deadline.  

Kjerstad had a 1.367 OPS from 6/27-7/7. He had a .507 OPS before and a .533 OPS after.

Urias was worth 0 WAR and had a 93 wRC+ as of 7/29. He had 90 good AB’s since then where he had a 167 wRC+. 

Slater has been a better hitter, fielder, and base runner than Hays in a third of the playing time. Stowers had a .797 OPS with a .435 BABIP and 35% K rate. Norby had a .594 OPS with 37% K rate. 

Westburg was a big loss and Mountcastle is missed (especially against LHP’s) but none of the other guys were major contributors for any extended period of time. They stink right now mostly because literally every regular has been worse the last month than they had been the first 4.5 months, besides Mullins. They legitimately have 1 regular starter that has had a good last 30 days compared to their baseline performance. They are lucky their record in that timeframe hasn’t been worse. 

[gtman55]

8 hours ago, Roy Firestone said:

Mayo actually had a decent at bat in a game where there were so many poor at bats. He fouled off a lot of good pitches , worked a count to 3-2 and was called out on a borderline strike. Yeah, you can say he's lost,, but I think he's finding his confidence up there. He had three pretty good at bats the last time he started and made a very tough play at third base that was almost an out, missed the runner by a whisker. I think the kid deserves to play and even if he fails, he cant be much worse that what we are putting out there. Eloy Jimenez and Emmanuel Rivera are NOT in our future plans and not doing much either...you may as well let the kid play and maybe he'll run into a pitch and drill it somewhere.I think the more at bats you give him, the likelier good things will happen. It sure isnt helping us to see him on the bench with Nick Maton.

Agreed Roy. I saw the same thing. I really think he's getting close to a breakout. But to do that, this team needs to show they believe in him and let him play regularly. But they won't.

He needs steady ABs against MLB pitchers to improve. If they give him those I think he'll be a solid contributor.

[bpilktree67]

10 hours ago, LGOrioles said:

Kjerstad had a 1.367 OPS from 6/27-7/7. He had a .507 OPS before and a .533 OPS after.

Urias was worth 0 WAR and had a 93 wRC+ as of 7/29. He had 90 good AB’s since then where he had a 167 wRC+. 

Slater has been a better hitter, fielder, and base runner than Hays in a third of the playing time. Stowers had a .797 OPS with a .435 BABIP and 35% K rate. Norby had a .594 OPS with 37% K rate. 

Westburg was a big loss and Mountcastle is missed (especially against LHP’s) but none of the other guys were major contributors for any extended period of time. They stink right now mostly because literally every regular has been worse the last month than they had been the first 4.5 months, besides Mullins. They legitimately have 1 regular starter that has had a good last 30 days compared to their baseline performance. They are lucky their record in that timeframe hasn’t been worse. 

Kjerstadt was very good before the concussion.  Hays is a much better hitter and player Slater the last few years but was wasn’t healthy at start of the year but over the last 3 years Hays WAR is 8.1 compared to 3.3 for Slater.  Hays issue is and always has been health.   Urias is still a a solid player coompared to Soto, Maton guys we have now.  
If you think this bench is anywhere close to what he had in May/June I don’t know what to tell you.  Kjerstadt, Hays, Urias McCann and Norby is 10 times better then Slater, Soto, Maton, Jiminez, Mayo and McCann 

[Warehouse]

27 minutes ago, bpilktree67 said:

Hays is a much better hitter and player Slater the last few years but was wasn’t healthy at start of the year but over the last 3 years Hays WAR is 8.1 compared to 3.3 for Slater.  Hays issue is and always has been health.   

This is misleading. Since the start of 2022, Slater has averaged 1.95 fWAR per 550 PAs and Hays has averaged 1.74 fWAR per 550 PAs.

[LGOrioles]

36 minutes ago, bpilktree67 said:

Kjerstadt was very good before the concussion.  Hays is a much better hitter and player Slater the last few years but was wasn’t healthy at start of the year but over the last 3 years Hays WAR is 8.1 compared to 3.3 for Slater.  Hays issue is and always has been health.   Urias is still a a solid player coompared to Soto, Maton guys we have now.  
If you think this bench is anywhere close to what he had in May/June I don’t know what to tell you.  Kjerstadt, Hays, Urias McCann and Norby is 10 times better then Slater, Soto, Maton, Jiminez, Mayo and McCann 

Kjerstad was good for about 2 weeks. He wasn’t good during his initial call up and then after the HBP either. Slater has been more valuable than Hays in a fraction of the AB’s. Urias was a replacement level guy the first 4 months of the season. 

That first bench is clearly better, my point was that I think their struggles are more tied to their healthy regulars all underperforming (besides Mullins) than the bench guys. Because yeah Kjerstad and Urias would be nice right now, but it really doesn’t matter when Henderson, Cowser, and Santander are struggling while you also have O’Hearn and Rutschman with OPS’s in the .400’s the last 30 days. The best players need to carry the load and they have been collectively awful recently. 

[LGOrioles]

16 minutes ago, Warehouse said:

This is misleading. Since the start of 2022, Slater has averaged 1.95 fWAR per 550 PAs and Hays has averaged 1.74 fWAR per 550 PAs.

This. Slater has been an upgrade on Hays and even Rivera has the 2nd best wRC+ among healthy position players on the team since he arrived. They miss Westburg and Mountcastle (especially against LHP’s), but they stink right now because their regulars that are healthy just aren’t playing well.

[Baseball fandom]

15 hours ago, Old#5fan said:

 

This is very important to remember because as much as O's fan drool over a homegrown team the chances weren't  great that all of them were going to make it. Whether Mayo or Holiday etc does or not isn't what I'm saying just that it probably isn't realistic to think every single one is  going too. 

Edited Saturday at 18:19 by Baseball fandom

[e16bball]

13 hours ago, oldfan said:

This team does not hit the fastball well, that's not good.

This is an interesting observation, because overall for the season, they hit the fastball well: 7th in MLB in run value against the fastball per Statcast (+18.1 runs).

But that number is powered entirely by their early-season performance. They were 3rd in MLB (+23.6 runs) against the fastball through the end of July. 

They were still decent through mid-August, but since then it’s been disastrous against fastballs. They are 24th in MLB since 8/17 with a -8.3 run value against fastballs. 

The biggest offenders are guys you would never imagine: Holliday, Cowser, O’Hearn, and Rutschman. Adley in particular has always been one of the best fastball hitters in baseball, and both O’Hearn and Cowser typically know their way around a fastball.

And then in thinking about Holliday being on the list, it finally clicked for me what the team as a whole looks like: they look like early 2023 Gunnar Henderson. Guessing, lunging, swinging at terrible pitches, taking meatballs, and (to your point) late on the fastball because they’re stuck in between. Just thinking too much and totally out of sync.