Orgfiller

Gausman is going right at them, 23 pitches through 3 IP wow.

Bo's been getting terribly unlucky lately. Two batted balls above 103 mph already and both for outs. xwOBA coming into this game 50 points higher than his actual, he's particularly underperforming his xSLG by almost 100 points.

My prediction/hope that RJ Schreck puts himself onto the radar ala Alan Roden seems to be looking like a reality more and more with each passing game. He's been hitting consistently now since last season, and getting to his power more often. Not playing CF quite as much anymore, but hopefully the defense in the corners is decent.

I didn't realize he was starting games for them (lol) and was confused on if you had typo'd that 41 IP number. This is already the most innings he's pitched at the MLB level in a season since 2019.

Pitching staff all around gave us a chance. Would be nice for the bats to reward that in their last opportunity.

This ump is giving us every chance possible to get back into the game.

Ernie is an absolutely magical defender. Insane hands.

In terms of guys who you can throw out there to die and easily DFA the next day, probably not.

Ending up with only one run from that is brutal.

Anyone else think Fisher looks a lot like James Karinchak? The fastball/sharp breaking ball combo looks excellent, and he tunnels them well.

High BABIPs in the minors for prospects usually indicate hitters that crush the ball at that level. Minor league defenses aren't as good and they're not used to facing MLB calibre exit velos, so top prospects and guys with big power tend to have elevated BABIPs. Look at Jackson Holliday and Roman Anthony as recent examples: https://www.fangraphs.com/players/jackson-holliday/31781/stats?position=2B https://www.fangraphs.com/players/roman-anthony/sa3020211/stats?position=OF

It's all in the plate discipline. Walker, Caminero and Adell all have big tools and big time power, but their selectivity, or lack thereof at the plate is a huge problem. Of course all of them also strike out a lot, so it's a hit tool issue to some extent. Hard to be a good hitter with brutal K/BB ratios, even extreme cases like Javy Baez can only keep it up for so long before becoming a pumpkin. Cruz and Schwarber walk a bunch, you need the third aspect of "Three True Outcomes" to still have a chance at success. In Jordan Walker's case he doesn't even get to his power at all. It's like if Vladdy was the same hitter except he also whiffed a bunch and never took a walk; gross. Right now Caminero looks like the safest bet because his strikeouts aren't egregious, he's only 21 with potential 80 grade power. Walker is quite young also, only 23, so there's definitely a chance to fix him. Adell isn't a total write off, but he probably is who he is at this point. Probably puts up a random 3+ WAR season with 30+ HR once or twice and then reverts to being a pumpkin.

It's not how you draw it up, but that's a sweep in the record books.

Excellent ABs from Barger all game.

And now because of our over usage of the BP the only leverage reliever we have available is Little. Not entirely on John Schneider because you expect his best reliever to close it out, but coming back to bite us now.

Well that's a total back breaker.

I think he was bunting for a hit, which is likely emboldened by our bunting culture that we've fostered.

Roden has been rewarding this thinking, he's crushing it at AAA and showcasing the power we all wanted to see from him. Helps to get regular ABs and work on his swing angle.

Heineman is getting rocked behind the plate today, brutal for him.

You would have thought he was Vladdy out there at third with how hesitant they were to use him at the beginning.

John Schneider putting in a masterclass in how to use every single one of your relievers in a relatively low intensity game. Just keep rolling the dice until one of these guys doesn't have it today and blows up.

Another aspect where the Orioles really fumbled it isn't even in that they didn't want to spend at all on their roster, but how they spent the money was a terrible use of resources. Sugano + Morton alone combine for a $28M commitment. Tyler O'Neill who lives on the IL is at $16.5M AAV. Andrew Kittredge is $10M, that's the same money that Aroldis Chapman got! So not only did they not leverage their prospect capital and acquire SPs with pedigree, they spent it all on a bunch of old, injury prone, and in some cases (Sugano) unproven players without much upside. Just a gross misuse of resources all around.

Him and Leo Jimenez both for me.

I hope he doesn't enjoy Vancouver too much, he won't be there long.

I wouldn't really say nothing, Ragans was essentially gifted in retrospect, but the price was Aroldis Chapman whom they shrewdly signed coming off a down season in his last Yankees year. He was elite for them and they capitalized by sending him to the contending Rangers, who then would go on to win the WS in some part thanks to his contributions. That's just smart business all around by the Royals. For Erceg, they approached a non contending A's team and sent a couple of 40-45 FV guys in return for him. Standard RP business, sometimes the prospects work and sometimes they don't. Good evaluation on their end to ensure they didn't lose anyone they would regret, although it's probably too early to make such claims. Like I said for Garcia, he was a heralded prospect who contributed in other ways while showing promise under the hood. What you might see as mediocre MiLB performance is a guy that was always young for the level staying afloat with solid K/BB, excellent baserunning and defense, and probably some encouraging EV numbers that they were privvy to. He was still a 1-2 win player in his first two MLB seasons at ages 23 and 24 with promise, not a guy you give up on quickly.