Burnes certainly hasn't pitched like an ACE

[Roy Firestone]

4 hours ago, gtman55 said:

With a team as injured as we are, your ace has to come through. Right now we literally don't have a single starting pitcher you can feel confident in. Hard to believe that Suarez may currently be our most reliable starter. Let's hope Eflin's back ASAP!

Eflin's back next week.

[Gunnar]

i think Burnes will be solid in the postseason. he's going through a bit of a dip recently, maybe he's feeling the free agency pressure to perform. i'd prefer that happen now rather than in a playoff series.

but i do agree with others that now i'd rather spend FA money elsewhere, Burnes will be too expensive.

[emmett16]

5ip 5h 0 BB 4k 1 ER 

That’s a fantastic start and I’d sign up for that form every game the remainder of the season. 
 

Sure, not a lot of strikeouts and he didn’t “dominate like an Ave” but the emotional hyperbole is a bit much.   
 

Folks saying they’d rather have Suarez or Povich pitch a just win game need to get a grip. 

[dzorange]

1 hour ago, theobird said:

This one is not on Burnes. This one is on the defense. And I know it’s not popular on here, but your ss cannot be a butcher. Henderson needs to right the ship, or he needs a new position

Urias made an error with nobody on and one out. Burnes proceeds to give up four runs.

[dzorange]

13 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

5ip 5h 0 BB 4k 1 ER 

That’s a fantastic start and I’d sign up for that form every game the remainder of the season. 
 

Sure, not a lot of strikeouts and he didn’t “dominate like an Ave” but the emotional hyperbole is a bit much.   
 

Folks saying they’d rather have Suarez or Povich pitch a just win game need to get a grip. 

Burnes will be fine in the playoffs. But that 1ER from yesterday is super misleading, and overall Burnes has not pitched well in a month.

I'm not worried about him though. But yeah, no way do I want the O's to give him a big contract. If the market doesn't develop for him and he needs to "settle" on something.... maybe.

Edited August 29 by dzorange

[RZNJ]

7 hours ago, Roy Firestone said:

This was a game a true ace has to win. He was paired against a struggling pitcher, and our "ace" hasn't been dominant in the last 3-4 starts. As I expected Burnes came up small even though the  line said he was only charged with one earned run(Ohtani's leadoff  first inning HR was another thing an "ace" doesnt give up).When Urias made a horrible error , an "ace" bears down and doesn't groove a pitch for a 3-run HR which was basically the game right there.Then tack on a terrible wild pitch in which the runner took TWO bases, another Henderson error on a routine play, and there you have it. Our Ace has given up 6 runs in all and there was little evidence he will be the dominating pitcher we saw in the first half of the season. I know the errors were the key to the game, but usually the great pitchers find a way to overcome the extra outs...and Burnes didnt do that.I know Eflin will return to the rotation in the Colorado series, and then two weeks later, Grayson. But if Burnes keeps pitching like this, it will be a very, very short post season. All and all a very disappointing performance from our so called "Ace",,and the defense was pitiful too. A winnable game...and a lost opportunity.

Based on the things you say an ace doesn’t do, there’s never been an ace in the history of ML baseball.    You’ve proven time and again that you are much better at predicting things after the fact.    

[dzorange]

10 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Based on the things you say an ace doesn’t do, there’s never been an ace in the history of ML baseball.    You’ve proven time and again that you are much better at predicting things after the fact.    

How dare Burnes give up a solo HR to the best player of his generation.

Edited August 29 by dzorange

[UMDTerrapins]

It’s a long season

[Tony-OH]

Aces pick up their defense when they let him down. They don't fold like a house of cards. Aces don't give up more runs right away when their teams claw back into games. Aces don't falter when injuries occur to the pitching staff that makes their starts really matter.

Burnes has come up small when this team has needed him the most. They needed a real ace to depend on, and they've gotten a guy who is 1-3 with a 7.36 ERA since the trading deadline.

He was very good before that, but it just appears he's not been the guy they thought they got when they traded away Ortiz and DL Hall.

He still has time to right his ship, but he no longer has my trust as a guy who is going to give you a good game. And while he's still a good pitcher, he's not a guy I'd consider a TOR any longer. A solid #2 yeah, but TORs are special and Burnes has showed this August is not able to dig down and find that extra gear when his team needs him most.

[Frobby]

Burnes undeniably had a bad month of August, after four stellar months, but I’m far from writing off the rest of his season.  I can’t say he’s pitched great, but I think a lot of breaks haven’t gone his way and it’s entirely possible that things will turn around for him.   

Yesterday certainly wasn’t his best, but I really didn’t think he pitched all that poorly.   The Ohtani homer came on a decent pitch that had Ohtani lunging and swinging practically one handed.  For 99% of hitters, that’s a lazy fly ball to medium RF, but Ohtani is in the other 1% so it’s a lazy fly ball that goes 390 feet even though Ohtani didn’t really hit it well.   The four-run inning would have been over except for Utias’ error that extended it, though I won’t sugar coat the fact that the pitch to Teoscar Hernandez that was hit for a 3-run homer was an absolutely terrible hanging breaking pitch.  Then the final run scored because of Gunnar’s error.  Honestly, it wasn’t that far away from being a good outing.  I’d argue, one really bad pitch away.

Now, I will say this: Burnes’ inability to hold runners is a real Achilles heel.  He’s been vulnerable all year, but I think over the last two months, opposing teams have figured out that being very aggressive with him is good strategy.  It puts them in good position to score runs and it’s distracting him.  It’s honestly embarrassing just how bad he is at holding runners, and that’s going to continue to plague him.

So, I am not 100% confident that Burnes will return to being the dominant pitcher we saw in March-July, but I feel there’s a decent chance that he will.   The baserunning issue is a big concern for me, however.

[Since1984]

Over the course of a long season, every “ace” goes through a rut. Burnes is not a having a CY young type season, but he’s certainly had good success.

saw his game against the Astros last week and he was hitting 97 throughout the game, had zero hits through the first 3 innings, before the implosion. This happens in 162 game seasons!

Ben made an interesting point early in the game last night, Corbin is throwing harder the last few starts, which is causing his cutter to straighten out for the hitters. Trying to hard is not an ace move either.

[Orioles0615]

At least Joey Ortiz has come back down to earth

[RZNJ]

32 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Aces pick up their defense when they let him down. They don't fold like a house of cards. Aces don't give up more runs right away when their teams claw back into games. Aces don't falter when injuries occur to the pitching staff that makes their starts really matter.

Burnes has come up small when this team has needed him the most. They needed a real ace to depend on, and they've gotten a guy who is 1-3 with a 7.36 ERA since the trading deadline.

He was very good before that, but it just appears he's not been the guy they thought they got when they traded away Ortiz and DL Hall.

He still has time to right his ship, but he no longer has my trust as a guy who is going to give you a good game. And while he's still a good pitcher, he's not a guy I'd consider a TOR any longer. A solid #2 yeah, but TORs are special and Burnes has showed this August is not able to dig down and find that extra gear when his team needs him most.

Were you saying he wasn’t an ace before August or did he go from being an ace to a #2 in one month?

Let me be clear.   Burnes’ greatness this season has been in his consistency.   Besides his first start of the year, he’s never looked dominant to me.   Even before this bad stretch I never had a high degree of confidence that he was an “automatic” win in game one of a playoff series.

I just find it funny when I see “an ace doesn’t do this” comments.   So, if Burnes has a great September and playoff run you’ll just go back to calling him an ace again.  Cool.

Edited August 29 by RZNJ

[Say O!]

29 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Burnes undeniably had a bad month of August, after four stellar months, but I’m far from writing off the rest of his season.  I can’t say he’s pitched great, but I think a lot of breaks haven’t gone his way and it’s entirely possible that things will turn around for him.   

Yesterday certainly wasn’t his best, but I really didn’t think he pitched all that poorly.   The Ohtani homer came on a decent pitch that had Ohtani lunging and swinging practically one handed.  For 99% of hitters, that’s a lazy fly ball to medium RF, but Ohtani is in the other 1% so it’s a lazy fly ball that goes 390 feet even though Ohtani didn’t really hit it well.   The four-run inning would have been over except for Utias’ error that extended it, though I won’t sugar coat the fact that the pitch to Teoscar Hernandez that was hit for a 3-run homer was an absolutely terrible hanging breaking pitch.  Then the final run scored because of Gunnar’s error.  Honestly, it wasn’t that far away from being a good outing.  I’d argue, one really bad pitch away.

Now, I will say this: Burnes’ inability to hold runners is a real Achilles heel.  He’s been vulnerable all year, but I think over the last two months, opposing teams have figured out that being very aggressive with him is good strategy.  It puts them in good position to score runs and it’s distracting him.  It’s honestly embarrassing just how bad he is at holding runners, and that’s going to continue to plague him.

So, I am not 100% confident that Burnes will return to being the dominant pitcher we saw in March-July, but I feel there’s a decent chance that he will.   The baserunning issue is a big concern for me, however.

This. 

While certainly extremely disappointed in his August performance, Burnes was dominant before that point. He actually is still 3rd in all of baseball in Quality Starts with 19, tied with Skubal and one behind Wheeler (20) and two behind Gilbert (21).

[Can_of_corn]

8 minutes ago, Orioles0615 said:

At least Joey Ortiz has come back down to earth

Why would anyone wish ill on Joey Ortiz?