Orioles: 3 Up, 3 Down September 21st

Every week that we have baseball this season, and enjoy every single one because it could disappear at any given moment, I will be taking note of the three hottest Orioles and the three coldest.

(You can discuss this on the BSL board here.)

3 Up

Austin Hays – .333/.379/.481 (.861), 5 R, 1 double, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 27 AB

It was nice to see Hays back in the lineup for the first time since going on the injured list in the middle of August because of a fractured rib. Before he even got hurt he was struggling at the plate, barely cracking a .500 OPS. It didn’t take long to realize that he came back with a better feel at the plate. This week he was hitting the ball with authority, even on foul balls that he was a little out in front of. It was very reminiscent of his scorching September to end the 2019 season. With Cedric Mullins looking like a gold glove winner out in center field Hays has been spending his time in the field almost exclusively in left field pushing Ryan Mountcastle to first base/designated hitter. He already looked good tracking balls down in center field but he looks fantastic out in left showing off his arm and making use of his speed to provide good range. It would be great to see him have a solid final week of the season and really set up a competition next spring between a potentially stacked outfield of Hays, Mullins, Mountcastle, a returning Anthony Santander and Trey Mancini, and even DJ Stewart and Yusniel Diaz.

John Means – 1-0, 1.59 ERA, 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 12 K, 0.53 WHIP

Last week was great for Means as he seemed to regain his form that made him an all-star in 2019. It was encouraging just from a standpoint of thinking the first few starts of this crazy 2020 season were more of a fluke than the spectacular season that came out of nowhere last year. Well this week he followed it up with a mouth watering performance that had fans wondering if last season was just the tip of the iceberg. After coming out in his first few starts of the season firing 96 mph with his fastball he has seemed to settle into the 94 mph range and he was throwing it with pinpoint accuracy on Sunday. His previous career high for strikeouts was seven and he blew that out of the water with 12 in less than six innings pitched. His new curve ball has become a real weapon and the current mix of pitches he is throwing is doing a great job at keeping hitters guessing. Even better is that he didn’t walk a single batter and has only walked six on the season. Since September started Means has dropped his ERA by about three runs a game and has an excellent 1.09 WHIP despite such a rough start. The only issue at the moment is his homerun to flyball ratio is currently more than double what it was in 2019 which seems a little fluky considering he has a groundball ratio around 50% higher than last year. He’ll get one more start to try and end the season on a high note.

Jose Iglesias – .600/.667/.933 (1.600), 5 R, 2 doubles, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HBP,  16 AB

Iglesias showed up on the ‘3 down’ list for the first time last week and that must’ve pissed him off because he came back this week scorching hot. The only thing that slowed him down (besides his lingering lower leg injuries) was a pitch that hit him on the wrist that put him out for the weekend. Luckily x-rays came back negative because in the moment it looked like it could’ve been a broken wrist or hand. Before that pitchers could barely get him out. He even hit his first homerun as an Oriole in a blowout victory against the Atlanta Braves on Monday night. He also walked for only the third time all season (over 130 at bats). Hopefully he’ll be able to get back in the lineup before the season ends on Sunday but even if not at least the Orioles don’t have to worry about an injury that could linger into 2021. Iglesias has had a rough year physically, I’m sure he is looking forward to the off-season where he can get back to full strength and really help out a sneaky playoff contender next year.

3 Down

Bruce Zimmermann – 0-0, 15.00 ERA, 3 IP, 4 H, 2 HR, 1 BB, 2 K, 1.67 WHIP

It was exciting on Thursday when we found out that Zimmermann would be making his major league debut to start one of the games in a doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays. We already witnessed Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer both have success in their first taste of the major leagues so I guess I just assumed that trend would continue but Zimmermann wasn’t as effective. He got hit hard and gave up a couple homeruns pitching into the fourth inning but it wasn’t all bad. He only walked one batter and gave up four hits, two of them just happened to go over the fence. He mostly used a three pitch mix of fastball (92-93 mph), changeup, and slider. The quality of pitches wasn’t eye opening so he will have to rely on how he commands them. He is a local guy so I’m sure making his major league debut at Camden Yards, even without fans in the stands, didn’t help in that regard. He will get one more start this week to try and rebound but regardless its good to get another young arm some big league experience heading into 2021.

Pedro Severino – .095/.136/.095 (.232), 1 R, 1 BB, 21 AB

Severino was killing the ball for the first month or so of the season (1.074 OPS in July, .844 in August) but has been ice cold for most of September. He has had a rough season behind the plate which was easy to ignore while he was hitting over .300 and an on base percentage in the .370’s. Now that the offensive production has collapsed he is more in line with guy we saw in 2019. To be fair this shortened season is hard to evaluate anyone considering there is no time to see how things play out over 162 games. Maybe this would’ve just been a bad month in an otherwise great season but we’ll never know. A couple weeks ago I was thinking maybe the Orioles will look to sell high on Severino and trade him in the offseason. That seems less likely now. He has increased his walk rate but his launch angle is down significantly. He doesn’t hit the ball hard (20^th percentile hard hit %, 30^th percentile exit velocity) so getting some loft is key in tapping into his power. The guy is still only 27 years old and has made improvements each of the last few years so there is no reason to give up on the guy but the catcher position is going to be hard to crack for anyone not named Adley Rutschman relatively soon.

DJ Stewart – .120/.267/.280 (.547), 2 R, 1 double, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 5 BB, 25 AB

What a roller coaster ride of a season for Stewart. Starts out going hitless in his first stint with the O’s, comes back after Anthony Santander’s injury performing like Barry Bonds, and has since cooled off considerably again. Hopefully he spent Monday’s off day at the alternate site in Bowie to regain that magic. The good thing is he has continued to walk through it all giving him a very respectable .368 on base percentage despite a .203 batting average for the season. And his power display the past couple of weeks gives him a .904 OPS over 87 plate appearances. I’m not really sure what to make of this season in regards to his future as an Oriole mainstay in the outfield. Like I wrote above the outfield looks to be a crowded competition once spring training rolls back around. Unless there is an unexpected trade or two I would suspect Stewart will either be playing everyday at AAA Norfolk or one of the last bodies on the bench on the major league club. Maybe he has shown another team in MLB enough for them to want to trade for him but I would be surprised if the return would be anything too interesting.