Still think this team didn't choke under pressure?

[Jim'sKid26]

On 10/2/2024 at 8:08 PM, Tony-OH said:

Where are you now?

Where are the posters who laughed when we said how boring this team was?
Where are the posters who scoffed at the idea that this team is full of players who can't perfrom under pressure?
Where are the posters that bring up that the Orioles offense scored the second most runs?
Where are the posters that go into the game thread and tell people they are overreacting when it's clear this team is choking time and time again?
Where were the posters who just think it's baseball that this core group choked once again?

Every single coach should be fired. Hyde should be fired. Elias gets one more offseason with an owner that may actually spend.

Santander, Mountcastle and O'Hearn should have played their last games as Orioles.

Rutschman needs to go to fat boy camp and lose about 15 pounds while putting on muscle. Maybe go to a hitting school that teach 2-0 is a great pitch to swing on. 

At the end of the day, this is EXACTLY what this team deserved. They have played like scared little school children since late June. Don't give me injuries, because this team's offense was in tact and they scored one freakin' run in two games. One. 

They were swept by a 85-win team that has struggled down the stretch. They collected two hits off a bullpen in 8 innings of work. They are an absolute and utter embarrassment. This team is more of an embarrassment than the team that lost 110+ games. 

Everyone involved in this season have stained their reputation. EVERYONE. Gunnar hits 37 home runs and craps his pants. Cowser thinks he's rookie of the year and dude swings at ball that hit him with the bases loaded. What kind of ridiculous unprofessional at bat was that? 

Adley? Are you kidding me. If they traded him this offseason I wouldn't shed a tear. 

The only thing good in any of this is now my calendar has been freed up. Never again will I ever trust a Hyde-led, Elias developed team led by his core. He needs to go out and find guys that don't poop their pants the second pressure is involved.

Thank you Burnes for being a professional and doing your job. You deserved better than being in a clubhouse full of choke artists. 

If Elias brings back this coaching staff he gets one more year to win a World Series than he's on the chopping block too. If he wants to ride with these losers, then go down with these losers.

I love to watch a Staff NCO completely lose it on his crew when they underperform in a crucial scenario. It's a thing of beauty when you see a GySgt, a SFC or a chief petty officer just go off on his group. The language is colorful, the volume is peaked and the intimidation factor is at an alltime high. If you've never seen it before in person you just don't appreciate the impact. 

I recall entering a squad bay as a young LT and seeing my HMC holding a young sailor about 4 inches off the ground by his neck.  The remaining members of the squad bay were standing at attention next to their racks. The Chief was "providing focused and explicit instruction," for the young seamen. The sailors all appeared to be paying absolute attention to the instruction while not uttering a single word. I apologized to them both for the interuption as I moved to the next squad bay. 

As I left I made a mental note to myself to check the chief's footlocker for bodies.....

Edited 3 hours ago by Jim'sKid26

[Three Run Homer]

They choked in the playoffs and they choked with RISP all season.  It sucks, no doubt about it.  Everyone is pissed off and rightly so.  

That doesn't mean that they are fated to choke until the end of time.  Clutch performance is not a skill.  Hitting and pitching are skills.  There is no reason to think that Gunnar Henderson will always suck in the postseason, or that Colton Cowser will always suck with the bases loaded.

I do think that Hyde should be fired, because he doesn't know how to manage the players he has.  He changes pitchers too often.  He kept batting Cowser fourth even though he is obviously not a good clutch hitter at this point in his career.  He kept batting Adley 5th even though he was a below-replacement level hitter for months.   Mullins and Urias were two of his best hitters in the second half and they were at the bottom of the order.  

[JR Oriole]

28 minutes ago, Three Run Homer said:

They choked in the playoffs and they choked with RISP all season.  It sucks, no doubt about it.  Everyone is pissed off and rightly so.  

That doesn't mean that they are fated to choke until the end of time.  Clutch performance is not a skill.  Hitting and pitching are skills.  There is no reason to think that Gunnar Henderson will always suck in the postseason, or that Colton Cowser will always suck with the bases loaded.

I do think that Hyde should be fired, because he doesn't know how to manage the players he has.  He changes pitchers too often.  He kept batting Cowser fourth even though he is obviously not a good clutch hitter at this point in his career.  He kept batting Adley 5th even though he was a below-replacement level hitter for months.   Mullins and Urias were two of his best hitters in the second half and they were at the bottom of the order.  

This is true.  Even Brad Lidge eventually got past his horrendous postseason demons and came through for Philly in 2008.  But some guys like Clayton Kershaw never seem to get past it.  Regular season Kershaw an all-time great. Postseason Kershaw way worse.  

I do think the more you fail in the postseason, the more baggage and pressure you carry with you to do well and reverse your narrative.  

[Ceciltrav]

On 10/3/2024 at 4:59 PM, JR Oriole said:

Brandon Lowe to me is a good example of how I think playoff nerves and previous performances can have a big impact a player. Regular season 16.0 WAR, OPS of .812.....pretty solid and consistent player across the board over his 7 seasons.

But in the postseason over 120 plate appearances, he is a .115 hitter with an OPS of .423.  120 plate appearances is not that small of a postseason sample size all things considered, and what I wonder about with a guy like him is how much pressure he puts on himself to come through after failing in the past. And I can see it just building on itself.  

Adam Jones was a very poor postseason player relative to his regular season accomplishments, but his 63 plate appearances were a lot less than Lowe.  

David Ortiz was a beast in the regular season and a beast in the playoffs, so really he was a guy who was able to perform just as well under big pressure as he did in the regular season.

 

David Ortiz also commanded the strike zone.  He didn't swing at a lot of junk.  He got his pitch or the pitcher made a mistake, he hit it.  Pitchers will let you get yourself out all day if you swing at pitches repeatedly out of the zone.  We need to do a better job of this.  

[e16bball]

On 10/3/2024 at 4:59 PM, JR Oriole said:

Brandon Lowe to me is a good example of how I think playoff nerves and previous performances can have a big impact a player. Regular season 16.0 WAR, OPS of .812.....pretty solid and consistent player across the board over his 7 seasons.

But in the postseason over 120 plate appearances, he is a .115 hitter with an OPS of .423.  120 plate appearances is not that small of a postseason sample size all things considered, and what I wonder about with a guy like him is how much pressure he puts on himself to come through after failing in the past. And I can see it just building on itself.  

It’s very funny that you mentioned Brandon Lowe, because I was looking around for guys who appeared to be “clutch” hitters, in the context of hitting with men on base or in scoring position. And he was one who stood out on that basis as potentially being Actually Clutch

He has a career 144 wRC+ in (regular season) high leverage situations (234 PAs), 141 wRC+ with men on base (1071 PAs), and 146 wRC+ with men in scoring position (626 PAs). All of which far outstrip his overall career number of 126 wRC+.

Sort of shocking to see a guy who has been one of the best at coming through in the biggest (regular season) moments also have such a terrible postseason track record. He did hit 3 dingers in the World Series, but yeah…the stats are absolutely grim from pretty much every other postseason series. I guess it sort of does speak to the point that clutch is more of a mindset than it is an innate trait. The “playoff slump” is clearly in his head at this point, which has continued a pretty vicious cycle — but it’s not like he’s a guy who just buckles any time there’s any pressure at all. 

[JR Oriole]

6 hours ago, WestCoastBmore said:

Anyone see the Mets 9th inning last night down 2-0?  Just unbelievable.  That is the opposite of what we saw from the Orioles with their season on the line.  Incredible at-bats by Lindor and Nimmo and then a opposite field 3-run HR by another veteran Pete Alonso.  They then scored another run on a HPB, stolen base and Marte single. 

The Orioles need to add a couple solid, dependable RH hitters.  They've needed this for the past two years.  If they just roll out this same position player squad next year with a couple dumpster diver additions that's just not going to cut it.  They also need a veteran leader of some sort, seems like that was lacking. 

Also wondering if the LF wall is hurting this team not just on the field (clearly did in WC series) but psychologically and in terms of front-office strategy.  Maybe time to move that thing in 10 feet, especially if the offensive strategy is gonna continue to be "try and hit a HR on every pitch up and down the line-up". 

Yeah, that game was amazing. The precursor to that was on Monday in Atlanta in Game 1 of the DH. The Mets had a 6-3 lead going to the bottom of the 8th and the Braves scored 4, topped off by an Albies bases loaded double.  So they went to the 9th down 7-6 after a really disheartening inning. Then Lindor hit a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th and the Mets ended up winning 8-7, which sent them to the playoffs.  When you do something like that, it can really build confidence and I think it helped them a lot last night. There is no way the Os would have been capable of either of the comebacks the Mets just pulled off, but it was really outstanding to watch.  Having guys like Lindor and Alonso really helps!  Philly is going to have their hands full with these Mets.

[JR Oriole]

3 minutes ago, e16bball said:

It’s very funny that you mentioned Brandon Lowe, because I was looking around for guys who appeared to be “clutch” hitters, in the context of hitting with men on base or in scoring position. And he was one who stood out on that basis as potentially being Actually Clutch

He has a career 144 wRC+ in (regular season) high leverage situations (234 PAs), 141 wRC+ with men on base (1071 PAs), and 146 wRC+ with men in scoring position (626 PAs). All of which far outstrip his overall career number of 126 wRC+.

Sort of shocking to see a guy who has been one of the best at coming through in the biggest (regular season) moments also have such a terrible postseason track record. He did hit 3 dingers in the World Series, but yeah…the stats are absolutely grim from pretty much every other postseason series. I guess it sort of does speak to the point that clutch is more of a mindset than it is an innate trait. The “playoff slump” is clearly in his head at this point, which has continued a pretty vicious cycle — but it’s not like he’s a guy who just buckles any time there’s any pressure at all. 

Yeah, it really is interesting because when I watch Lowe in regular season games, he (like many of the Tampa hitters) has quality at-bats and is very tough to get out. I have always thought of him as a really solid player and I actually feel bad for him because that kind of narrative comes to define you as a player for a lot of fans.....especially your own fanbase and especially when they have never won the whole thing. The good news is the narrative can change quickly, but you really do have to come through at some point to help your team win the title.

Even though it was just one game and one series, I think Game 5 of the 1983 World Series was extremely important to Eddie Murray's legacy given it was on the heels of an 0-21 streak ending the 1979 series and 2-16 heading into that final game in Philly.