Rockies Series, 8/30-9/1

[Just Regular]

I'll guess Eflin for Sunday for the pitching matchups, going off of the direction I think the decision tree goes with respect to "Should you pitch Cole Irvin at Coors Field".    All 3 of the Rockies scheduled opponents have pitched their full slate of games this season - probably not many Clubs around the league with 127 innings from their SP3 before Labor Day.

K-BB SP rank at 100 IP minimum, a number 111 MLB Arms have cleared Labor Day weekend.

(93) Suarez v. (92) Gomber

(86) Kremer v. (82) Feltner

(35) Eflin v. (106) Quantrill

Quantrill's K and BB marks nearly the same this year as Trevor Rogers.

Relatively easy games for Matt Holliday to get to in person if he feels the inclination.

Ezequiel Tovar is probably their best player, but wow is 169/18 an eyepopping K/BB even by 2024 standards.

Sam Hilliard has gotten a couple extra games this week with Brenton Doyle having been dinged a couple days, but Doyle back now.    Doyle has hit a lot better in Year 2 after one of the more extreme "we don't care how bad your bat is if you play great CF defense" seasons in 2023.

Charlie Blackmon is still up top inching up towards 1800 career hits.    He gave back his career .300 batting average a while ago.

Is Kris Bryant's career over?    I think his next Club will have some of those Eloy Jimenez kind of hopes getting a talented player out of a very tough situation.

[Roy Firestone]

I keep hearing that the Orioles are "grinding", which usually means they are not playing well, but trying.

It seems EVERY team says they are "grinding".

Now I see them saying  they are "gearing up" for the stretch run.

Why hasn't this team stopped "grinding", or "gearing up" and  started winning?

I don't think they have won even three games in a row in a long time.

Stop grinding...and start winning.

Lets go.

[Frobby]

31 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

 

Why hasn't this team stopped "grinding", or "gearing up" and  started winning?

Because you can’t start winning just because you want to.  

For most of the last 2.5 months, the pitching was struggling.  Now, for the last 3-4 weeks, the hitting has been struggling.  There just hasn’t been a time when they’ve been hitting on all cylinders.   You just have to hope something clicks at some point.  
 

[dtk9119]

The offense has been struggling or more specifically been inconsistent since the Astros series in mid-June. The high point of the season was the 17-5 defeat of NYY. Its been all down hill since then.

I said they'd win one in LA which is what happened, but it was really disappointing the offense has STILL not started to get going.

They need to at minimum go 5-1 in these next 6 games. I could swallow 4-2, but the time to get going is now.

[RavensNOsGuy]

The FAN is on fire this afternoon. Not a JLC fan but don’t disagree with some of his takes today. Team has no fire and it starts with the manager. Normally not a fan of calling guys out but there needs to be a few chairs being thrown or whatnot.

[Aristotelian]

Nolan Jones was a huge breakout player for my fantasy team last year. He has some skillset similarities to Cowser. He has struggled with injuries and got demoted but he's back now. Keep an eye on him, that .625 OPS may be deceiving.

[.500_OR_BETTER]

1 hour ago, Roy Firestone said:

 

Stop grinding...and start winning.

Lets go.

This. All of this.

Good teams find ways to win games.

[ChuckS]

3 minutes ago, .500_OR_BETTER said:

This. All of this.

Good teams find ways to win games.

It's unfortunate that baseball, more than any other major team sport, is a culmination of individual performances.  

The culmination of performances needs to improve. 

[eddie83]

28 minutes ago, RavensNOsGuy said:

The FAN is on fire this afternoon. Not a JLC fan but don’t disagree with some of his takes today. Team has no fire and it starts with the manager. Normally not a fan of calling guys out but there needs to be a few chairs being thrown or whatnot.

Thanks for telling me this. Glad I never listen to that show. He is mister hot take. He interviewed Elias after the deadline. He apologized to him for I guess badmouthing him. Mike said nothing. I saw something on Twitter saying they had him on so I listened to a link. 
 

Blaming Hyde for a lack of fire is something else. I guess he was great at it for 3 months and then said the hell with it. 
 

Throwing guys under the bus accomplishes nothing. 

[Frobby]

Suarez (6-4, 3.18 ERA, 120 ERA+) v. Gomber (4-9, 4.70, 97). Gomber has pitched slightly better at Coors (4.42 ERA) than on the road.  He has never faced the Orioles.  Suarez threw 12 innings at Coors in 2016-17 to a 4.50 ERA.

Kremer (6-9, 4.31 ERA, 88 ERA+) v. Feltner (1-10, 4.95, 93)  Feltner has struggled at Coors, posting a 5.96 ERA there.  He’s never faced the Orioles.  He’s on something of a roll, posting a 3.09 ERA in his last 9 starts, though he’s 0-4 in that span.  Kremer has never pitched in Coors or faced the Rockies.

Eflin (9-7, 3.72 ERA, 107 ERA+) v. Quantrill (8-9, 4.63, 99).  Eflin has been great since joining the O’s, but is making his first start since due to shoulder inflammation.  Quantrill actually has pitched better at Coors (4.26 ERA) than on the road.  He has struggled against the O’s, with a career ERA of 7.52 in 6 appearances (5 starts), and 9.72 in two starts last year.  Eflin has pitched 4 previous games at Coors to a 4.87 ERA, and has 6 lifetime starts against the Rockies (most recently in 2022) at 5.57 ERA.

If it comes to the bullpen, the O’s rank 16th in MLB at 4.01 ERA, while the Rockies are major league worst at 5.63.  It’s been more of an even matchup since the all star break, with the O’s at 4.47 and the Rockies at 5.15, not that big a gap when you factor in the Coors effect.   However, the Rockies are back to their league-worst ways in August (5.90), while the O’s are at 4.63 and improving lately, so I’ll say advantage O’s.

Offensively, despite their recent struggles, the O’s remain 3rd in MLB at 4.95 runs/game and tops in OPS+ at 117.   Despite playing half their games at Coors, the Rockies average 4.30 runs/game (17th) and have an OPS+ of 91 (26th).   The Rockies average 5.01 /game at home, 3.61 on the road, giving you a good idea of just how hitter-friendly Coors is.  However, their pitchers actually do a little better at home (5.38 ERA) than on the road (5.70), though they are league-worst in both categories.

Bottom line, the Orioles appear to have the starting pitching matchup edge in 2 of the 3 games, they have the better offense, and they have the better bullpen.  However, the O’s offense is really struggling, the Rockies typically hit very well at Coors, and their players are used to playing in that high altitude environment.   I think this is a series where the O’s bats really will need to wake up if we want to go home with a series win or better.

 

 

[Frobby]

40 minutes ago, RavensNOsGuy said:

The FAN is on fire this afternoon. Not a JLC fan but don’t disagree with some of his takes today. Team has no fire and it starts with the manager. Normally not a fan of calling guys out but there needs to be a few chairs being thrown or whatnot.

What a bunch of crap.  

[milbest77]

Call up your accountant, go to the bank, take out a loan. Bet it all on a Rockies sweep!!

[RavensNOsGuy]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

What a bunch of crap.  

Is it though? Put the JLC bias aside - and to be clear I am not a fan of his either and him calling Elias a jackass on radio was ridiculous and unprofessional.

But to keep batting Adley 2nd and just putting up with his swinging on a knee, saying Povich pitched “ok”, etc. Seems to be little emotion or urge. Maybe I will look stupid when they win 7 straight but it’s past time for the monotone answers and little changes being made. This has been 2.5 months of this now.

[jabba72]

Will the O's trainers have oxygen available in the clubhouse?

[jabba72]

53 minutes ago, RavensNOsGuy said:

The FAN is on fire this afternoon. Not a JLC fan but don’t disagree with some of his takes today. Team has no fire and it starts with the manager. Normally not a fan of calling guys out but there needs to be a few chairs being thrown or whatnot.