Hyde on Intentional Walks: “You know putting more runners on base sometimes isn’t always the best..."

[LookitsPuck]

Thought this was a very nice piece by Steve Melewski over at MASN: https://www.masnsports.com/blog/brandon-hyde-s-take-on-why-the-o-s-issue-so-few-intentional-walks

Quote

"Heading into the Tampa Bay series, the O’s pitchers have issued just seven intentional walks this season. Only three American League teams issued less, five by New York, four by Cleveland and two by Houston. Only six major league clubs have issued less than the O’s in 2024."

For me, the Orioles pitchers simply aren't good enough to get cute against the best hitters in the game, especially when they're on a hot streak. My general thought process is I'd rather not waste pitches and just throw up the 4 fingers to IBB the hitter. Now, we need to be selective of it. But we've seen time after time after time Orioles pitchers get torched by the games best, oftentimes in crucial situations: Jose Ramirez, Aaron Judge, and Vladdy. 

Interestingly, Hyde somewhat admits the O's issues, and yet he keeps having them pitching against the elite:

Quote

“You know putting more runners on base sometimes isn’t always the best,” said Hyde. “And one of the things we are not good at and something we can always improve on is being able to navigate around a hitter or being able to get a hitter in chase mode from the start. That takes a little bit of time and development honestly, so you are not just having to intentionally walk somebody."

Here are some of the elite hitters that the O's have opted to pitch to and the damage (as well as the number of walks) done to the O’s:

• Aaron Judge: .292/.514/.708 - 1.223 OPS (9 walks)
• Jose Ramirez: .321/.323/.821 - 1.144 OPS (1 walk)
• Vlad: .467/.564/.956 - 1.519 OPS (9 walks)

Those are the immediate ones to come to mind, but I think Hyde needs to do a better job accepting the fact that this bullpen simply isn't good enough to constantly pitch to these guys. 

The Orioles bullpen ranks 18th in ERA, 18th in strikeouts. They do have the 3rd best WHIP, but maybe we should err on the side of letting the elite do the least amount of damage. 

Edited August 10 by LookitsPuck

[Aristotelian]

Just depends on the situation. My recollection is that Hyde has been pretty aggressive with intentional walks although I don't recall any examples either way this year. I feel very confident that they have done their analytics homework and generally do what gives us the best chance to win. 

[Frobby]

I think the O’s have been very strategic with Judge.   In 10 games he only has 5 RBI against us.   They O’s haven’t let Judge hurt them much.  

Not so with Vlad Jr.  They made some bad decisions about when to pitch to him and also put themselves into a couple of situations where they had little choice.   And, made crappy pitches to him in critical situations.  

I honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention to how they treated Ramirez, but he definitely burned us badly.  11 RBI in 7 games.  

 

[forphase1]

I get not wanting to give up extra base runners.  But that's much better than having a ball clear the wall because we pitch to someone red hot against us.   Especially someone like Vlad, where the rest of the team is pretty bad.   Pitch around him,  don't let him beat us.   Of course it doesn't help when our wonderful pitchers walk the batters right before Vlad, making it harder to pitch around him,  and letting him do more damage when he does inevitably get a huge hit. 

[OriolesUpAndDowns]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think the O’s have been very strategic with Judge.   In 10 games he only has 5 RBI against us.   They O’s haven’t let Judge hurt them much.  

Not so with Vlad Jr.  They made some bad decisions about when to pitch to him and also put themselves into a couple of situations where they had little choice.   And, made crappy pitches to him in critical situations.  

I honestly didn’t pay a lot of attention to how they treated Ramirez, but he definitely burned us badly.  11 RBI in 7 games.  

 

Vlad is hitting like .500 over his last twenty games.  Dude is on an insane run at the moment.  

[Tony-OH]

While putting a hitter on does not always work, I do think Hyde's reluctance to walk these primo hitters in these situations is a bit of a mistake.

He got lucky when Santander caught Vlad's missile at the right field fence when he should have been walked.

[Frobby]

11 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

While putting a hitter on does not always work, I do think Hyde's reluctance to walk these primo hitters in these situations is a bit of a mistake.

He got lucky when Santander caught Vlad's missile at the right field fence when he should have been walked.

Great point.  That was terrifying.  

[dystopia]

2 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Just depends on the situation. My recollection is that Hyde has been pretty aggressive with intentional walks although I don't recall any examples either way this year. I feel very confident that they have done their analytics homework and generally do what gives us the best chance to win. 

Really? It feels like we never walk intentional batters, especially when we should, and the data seems to back that up.

[Aristotelian]

10 minutes ago, dystopia said:

Really? It feels like we never walk intentional batters, especially when we should, and the data seems to back that up.

I had to look it up, it's not something I've noticed in game. You are right, we have been at or below league average under Hyde. The teams at the bottom are all good teams (Astros, Guardians, NYY) so I'm not sure that's a bad thing. IBB makes sense when you are down 1 or 2 and it doesn't matter if you lose by 5 or 6. In a tie game or with the lead it gets dicey.