We're going to be okay.

[sportsfan8703]

15 minutes ago, gtman55 said:

It doesn't get mentioned a ton but losing Westburg was a HUGE loss. 

As opposed to the 9 pitchers on the IL. I’m sorrry, but the excuses have to stop for the lineup. 

[terpoh]

40 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

As opposed to the 9 pitchers on the IL. I’m sorrry, but the excuses have to stop for the lineup. 

Agreed. The offense looked bad even before Westburg got hurt. Lack of discipline, free swinging and just an overall inability to hit with RISP like we did in 2023. This has been an issue all year. We dont score much outside of homeruns. I saw a stat a few months ago that we scored something like 53% of our runs by the homerun, and compared that to recent WS champs who were like 47-49%. This stat was presented as a means of saying our offense was fine and we didnt rely too much by the homerun. At the time I thought being 5-7% higher than those other teams was a significant amount, but I didnt say anything because we were still winning. I would bet that since then we are far higher than 53% and those red flags of relying on the homerun have caught up to us as many feared they would. 

I know that offense is down this year across the league, but we have two "every day" hitters over .330 OBP right now (only one if you only include qualified hitters), and its just painful to watch. As a comparison. The Red Sox have 8 hitters over .330 OBP and 6 over .350. And yes, like I said, I understand offense is down, and most teams struggle but if you watch every day like most of us do, you can just see that our offense does not consistantly get the job done, even when the runs per game average finds its way around 5. 

[banks703]

I think the brass is content with limping into the playoffs. If they can hang onto one of the spots.

I’d guess that they are more focused on getting guys healthy and I might even go as far to say that they don’t care about the bye, not just because of how poorly they played after last year’s bye but also the Wild Card would get the current IL guys more run.

They’ve been pretty average for nearly three months now. I think this is who they are this year. Overcoming the amount of pitching injuries is a lot to ask of any club. I think the All-Star stuff got to some of them and I think the trade stuff got to some of the others. They’re not the .500 (or the sub .500) team since June 1 or whatever that date is but maybe they’re also not the .600+ 

Edited August 23 by banks703

[terpoh]

2 minutes ago, banks703 said:

I think the brass is content with limping into the playoffs. If they can hang onto one of the spots.

I’d guess that they are more focused on getting guys healthy and I might even go as far to say that they don’t care about the bye, not just because of how poorly they played after last year’s bye but also the Wild Card would get the current IL guys more run.

They’ve been pretty average for nearly three months now. I think this is who they are this year. Overcoming the amount of pitching injuries is a lot to ask of any club. I think the All-Star stuff got to some of them and I think the trade stuff got to some of the others. They’re not a .500 (or the sub .500) team since June 1 or whatever that date is but maybe they’re also not the .600+ 

Why are they not a .500 team? Theyve been that longer than they were a powerhouse. They were 18 games above .500 on June 1 through essentially 2 months of play. They are 19 games above .500 today over 3 months later (and will probably be worse than 19 games above by next week at this time).

The injury excuse is a valid one, I think we would be running away with the division as the best team in baseball at full strength. But the roster, as currently constructed with all the injuries sure seems to be a .500 or slightly worse team.

[interloper]

3 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Can they hit?  That’s our problem. Hard to be teams 1-0, 2-1, 3-2. 

It's distinctly not our problem, actually. 

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, interloper said:

It's distinctly not our problem, actually. 

Worst team OPS of the year is this month. OPS+ is 98.

So yes, it is a problem right now. It should change though. 

[emmett16]

1 hour ago, terpoh said:

Agreed. The offense looked bad even before Westburg got hurt. Lack of discipline, free swinging and just an overall inability to hit with RISP like we did in 2023. This has been an issue all year. We dont score much outside of homeruns. I saw a stat a few months ago that we scored something like 53% of our runs by the homerun, and compared that to recent WS champs who were like 47-49%. This stat was presented as a means of saying our offense was fine and we didnt rely too much by the homerun. At the time I thought being 5-7% higher than those other teams was a significant amount, but I didnt say anything because we were still winning. I would bet that since then we are far higher than 53% and those red flags of relying on the homerun have caught up to us as many feared they would. 

I know that offense is down this year across the league, but we have two "every day" hitters over .330 OBP right now (only one if you only include qualified hitters), and its just painful to watch. As a comparison. The Red Sox have 8 hitters over .330 OBP and 6 over .350. And yes, like I said, I understand offense is down, and most teams struggle but if you watch every day like most of us do, you can just see that our offense does not consistantly get the job done, even when the runs per game average finds its way around 5. 

I’ll give you the RISP argument.  But this whole narrative that they’ve changed their approach and are just “free swingers” is flat out wrong. 
 

*through 129 games 

2023 637 R 402 BB 1076 K .254 BA .744 OPS

2024 645 R 380 BB 1060 K .253 BA .765 OPS

Their walks are down .15 BB per game from last year.  .319 OBP compared to .317 (2024).

 

[sevastras]

Losing is contagious and so is winning. I’ve been in sales almost all of my working years and when I was having a down time, I couldn’t sell a thing even if I gave it away. When I was hot, it was if sales would seek me out. Probably feels the same way as a hitter. 
We just need a couple of guys(Adley and Gunner mainly) to start getting hot and some of the other guys will follow. It feels like a catch 22 with the team right now. The pitching stinks, so the offensive players kinda feel down on the situation and vice versa. 
Maybe some guys coming off the IL or some bats getting hot will change the entire mental attitude of the clubhouse.  We shall see, but as bummed as I have been about this stretch I am not ready to give up on this team. 

[terpoh]

28 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

I’ll give you the RISP argument.  But this whole narrative that they’ve changed their approach and are just “free swingers” is flat out wrong. 
 

*through 129 games 

2023 637 R 402 BB 1076 K .254 BA .744 OPS

2024 645 R 380 BB 1060 K .253 BA .765 OPS

Their walks are down .15 BB per game from last year.  .319 OBP compared to .317 (2024).

 

This has nothing to do with what I said. Our approach last year wasn’t great either. We started a bunch of guys in the low .300’s or close to the .200’s in OBP last year. I said their approach is not good, Didn’t say they changed their approach.

my reference to 2023 was strictly in regards to hitting with RISP. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

Edited August 23 by terpoh

[OriolesMagic83]

2 hours ago, terpoh said:

Agreed. The offense looked bad even before Westburg got hurt. Lack of discipline, free swinging and just an overall inability to hit with RISP like we did in 2023. This has been an issue all year. We dont score much outside of homeruns. I saw a stat a few months ago that we scored something like 53% of our runs by the homerun, and compared that to recent WS champs who were like 47-49%. This stat was presented as a means of saying our offense was fine and we didnt rely too much by the homerun. At the time I thought being 5-7% higher than those other teams was a significant amount, but I didnt say anything because we were still winning. I would bet that since then we are far higher than 53% and those red flags of relying on the homerun have caught up to us as many feared they would. 

I know that offense is down this year across the league, but we have two "every day" hitters over .330 OBP right now (only one if you only include qualified hitters), and its just painful to watch. As a comparison. The Red Sox have 8 hitters over .330 OBP and 6 over .350. And yes, like I said, I understand offense is down, and most teams struggle but if you watch every day like most of us do, you can just see that our offense does not consistantly get the job done, even when the runs per game average finds its way around 5. 

101 wins, that was the answer to everything last year when I brought up the same concerns.

[emmett16]

14 minutes ago, terpoh said:

This has nothing to do with what I said. Our approach last year wasn’t great either. We started a bunch of guys in the low .300’s or close to the .200’s in OBP last year. I said their approach is not good, Didn’t say they changed their approach.

my reference to 2023 was strictly in regards to hitting with RISP. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

My bad.  I missed that you were specifically talking about RISP. 

[OriolesMagic83]

44 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

I’ll give you the RISP argument.  But this whole narrative that they’ve changed their approach and are just “free swingers” is flat out wrong. 
 

*through 129 games 

2023 637 R 402 BB 1076 K .254 BA .744 OPS

2024 645 R 380 BB 1060 K .253 BA .765 OPS

Their walks are down .15 BB per game from last year.  .319 OBP compared to .317 (2024).

 

They were free swingers last year and continue to be free swinger's.  This lineup full of patient hitters that work a count and draw walks never materialized and probably never will.

[Fuzzball22]

I dont know if we are done or not but i cant believe that we haven't at least lucked into a 4 game win streak. The last time we won 4 in a row was almost 2 months ago. I think the next 6 games are the most important games of the season. If we get swept or only win 1 I think it will be all but over for us. 2 out of 6 and we are on life support. 2 of 6 would have us bobbing in the water. 3 of 6 treading water. A Winning record in the next 6 would go a long way to righting the ship.

[survivedc]

6 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

101 wins, that was the answer to everything last year when I brought up the same concerns.

Boy, were you right! Doesn’t that feel nice?

[Moose Milligan]

The offense is fine!  Tell 'em, @Frobby! How many runs per game are we averaging?