Tim Cooke

No problem. I would still call it a fix - Spring Training 2023 was when he showed massive improvement. At the very least a transformation. Never had that level of sustained success at the major league level. I think it's working well at the margins. I remember when Steve Pearce killed us in 2014. I had no idea who this journeyman guy was who all of the sudden has a .930 OPS. O's won division in 2014 and he was a big reason. He was even DFA'ed early in the season that year! Getting value out of every person on the 26 man roster / 40 man matters. Mixture of luck and development but also need that dose of luck. But not everything works. O's picked up Thyago Viera from the Brewers with the hopes of working with him but the numbers game caught him and he was DFA'ed after 1 horrible performance. Bautista and Cano were also reclamantion projects.

"I wonder if in the 2018 draft, if the O's had the #1 overall pick instead of the 11th overall pick, if they still would have taken Grayson Rodriquez - or if they'd be stuck with Casey Mize like Detroit is. The O's landed one of the only useful players in that draft - is that because of their superior scouting and development? or is there a lot of luck involved in that?" O's got very lucky in 2018 with Rodriquez. That was the old regime, which sucked at amauter scouting and player development. Elias took over in Nov. 2018.

Here is the article from a week ago: https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/orioles-ryan-ohearn-swing-change-breaking-balls-analysis-LJTFSCJKJVCB5GEC2K7CDIOIBE/ Ryan O’Hearn was, understandably, skeptical. After years of floundering on the Royals, he was finally hitting with the Orioles. Then, one day he arrived at the ballpark and the hitting coaches told him it was time for a change. “Why?” he asked. “I’m hitting .260. I haven’t hit .260 in the big leagues in a long time. This is the best it’s gone. Why would we do anything to change it?” It’s been about a year since that conversation, and in that time, O’Hearn has been one of the most productive hitters in baseball. For him, the change has ensured his early season breakout with the Orioles last year wasn’t a temporary one. For the Orioles’ hitting brain trust, it was an opportunity to use data and video breakdown to show a player what holes opposing pitchers may start attacking before they arise. “I trusted them, and obviously it’s paying off, big-time,” O’Hearn said. The change comes down to O’Hearn’s hand placement and how he held his bat. Early in 2023, O’Hearn’s bat was much more horizontal as he awaited a pitch. His bat being flat in his stance allowed him to hit fastballs well, especially at the top of the strike zone. That’s a valuable skill in a league where so many pitchers elevate their four-seam fastballs, but left little adjustability for pitches lower in the strike zone. “Breaking balls gave him a really tough time,” co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller said. “We said, ‘If we start with your bat a little bit more vertical, it’s going to be a little easier to scoop those balls when they’re in the zone at the bottom.’” O’Hearn said: “What they wanted to change was my bat, and my torso and my bat were almost like all connected. There was no adjustability in my hands, to be able to adjust to a high pitch or a low pitch. It was just all together.” Such a change has been a common one in the minor leagues for Orioles hitting prospects, unlocking better zone coverage for countless young hitters in the system over the last few years. The Orioles’ hitting coaches also came armed with major league success stories as they explained to O’Hearn why the change could work. He had little reason to push back. “Nothing else was working,” he said. “Obviously, I didn’t know what I was doing. I hadn’t had success in years. When I did have success, I didn’t know why.” A coach O’Hearn had hit with in the offseason, Dan Hennigan, vouched for Fuller. “I was like, ‘If Dan says this guy is good and the O’s say this guy is good, look how good the Orioles’ offense is, and he’s been working with all these hitters,’” O’Hearn said. “Why wouldn’t I trust him?” That trust was also built quickly upon O’Hearn’s arrival in the organization. In spring training, he did significant work on his lower body and posture to help him cover more of the plate, which helped spur some of his early success. It’s a delicate balance as a coach to suggest something when a player is already performing, but when the alternative is to wait until they’re struggling or the results turn south, the relationships that exists between coaches and a player can make those conversations easier. “It’s about not being afraid of saying, ‘This is what we believe, we want you to be your best, we care about you, here’s our thoughts right away.’” Fuller said. “We want the game to teach them lessons, but we want to be there to help make those lessons really manageable and have them be able to excel at them.” The approach worked well with O’Hearn. It was a gradual process, one he feels started to take hold when he hit a game-tying home run off a slider from Blue Jays reliever Jordan Romano a little over a year ago. He believes something clicked pre-game that day on hitting sliders, and the moment he broke through into Orioles’ fans’ consciousness doubled as a breakthrough moment in his work. “I had that confidence that this really was working,” he said. The first time you could noticeably tell his bat was being held at a different angle in-game was May 31. Before that change, O’Hearn was a career .180 hitter on non-fastballs with a .342 slugging percentage, .330 expected slugging percentage, a .245 weighed on-base average (wOBA) and .251 xwOBA. In the year since, entering Tuesday’s game, he was hitting .246 on non-fastballs with a .454 slugging percentage, .448 expected slugging, and .316 wOBA and .307 xwOBA. Given O’Hearn still crushes fastballs, covering those pitches helped him sustain an .813 OPS since last May 31 and an .809 OPS with 21 home runs in an Orioles uniform. He’s cut down on his swing-and-miss and strikeout rates while enjoying some of the best expected stats of anyone in the game, thanks to his consistent hard elevated contact. In 2024, he entered Tuesday’s game with seven home runs and an expected slugging percentage of .593 against an actual slugging percentage of .485. “Now, when you look at his performance against pitch types, he’s hitting breaking balls really well and fastballs,” Fuller said. “That’s what we want our guys to be able to do.”

I read a Baltimore Banner article on him over the winter since I'm interested in what the O's do in terms of what Toronto could do in the future. O'Hearn changed his swing in Spring Training 2023, killed it, didn't make the team because of log jams, got called up, was okay, sent back down because of options, and then when he was needed again in late May, he was able to translate the swing and stance changes to the majors. His success with the O's versus the Royals is night and day. Apparently when the O's traded for him for cash, they had identified that the tweak in stance could make a big difference and was worth the gamble.

O"Hearn didn't get consistent playing time until the O's fixed him and made him better. I don't think he's Turner or Vogelbach.

Tehran would need to be added to the 40-man. And his AAA numbers were not good. I think he is just emergency depth. It's Cade Povich's turn to pitch Thursday. Much more likely to see him if Bradish is pushed back another day.

Looks like Connor Norby is joining the Orioles up here today

Is this true though? Angels: losing record KC: winning record Pittsburgh: winning record Boston: winning record Brewers: winning record Twins: losing record KC: winning record Angels: losing record It's not a hard schedule but playing mostly .500 or above teams isn't a cake walk.

This is objectivly false. 2017: went for it. Playoff hunt until things went south last three weeks of Sept 2018: went for it again (ill advised but they did). Lost more games this season than in 2019 or 2021 2019: bad team 2020: 25-35 (probably a lot worse without COVID but not dealing in hypotheticals here) 2021: bad team And then they drafted well AND developed these guys. Lots of great GM's who can draft but a whole league full of failures from "sure fire" picks.

This would never happen for a number of reasons but how would this look as a theoretical trade? - Orioles get Tiedermann - Blue Jays get Connor Norby (MLB ready 2B with pop) and Anthony Santander (final year of Arb - free agent after 2024) Offense is helped a lot with the void at 2B being filled in. Santander brings pop that is sorely needed. Orioles get valuable lefty starter who benefits from the wall.

This is ill-informed. We can agree on luck being a factor in the on field play this year (though every good thing in life has luck) but luck in the draft? They took Henderson 42nd in 2019. Colton Cowser hit a 455 foot grand slam to win the AAA National Championship on Saturday. Joey Ortiz (4th round 2019) would have been a starting shortstop on 15 teams this season. Jackson Holliday is 19 and in AAA. Samuel Basallo is 19 and in AA as an international catcher who could still be moved from behind the plate but has the offensive profile to be a powerful 1B. Kyle Bradish, acquired in a trade, was a 5th round pick in 2019. They are hitting on high picks and post-100 level guys. I dislike them because they are our rivals but a LOT can be learned from what they are doing on the player development level.

All 5 teams back to .500 or above again on September 6. Crazy.

Yep. I didn't know about it until earlier this year but it's been in effect since beginning of 2022 season.

That was the old CBA. New CBA is strictly record based and not league based.

Series against the O's this week will be interesting. Full strength Toronto team (minus Vlad if his finger is still an issue) versus a slightly more beat up Orioles team.