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Texas and Tampa Bay are now tied at the top of the Wild Card standings thanks to the Texas Rangers losing their last 6 games in a row.  With a 2-11 record during the month of September, the Rangers have gone into a tailspin.  What once looked like an assured playoff spot through either a division title or the first Wild Card spot is now very much in question.  Here’s a link to the Wild Card standings as of right now so you can see just how little separation there is between the 6 teams fighting for 2 spots. 

As has been talked about many times, the Orioles schedule down the stretch is no cupcake.  They still have the following schedule:

3 games @ Boston

4 games @ Tampa Bay

3 games vs. Toronto

3 games vs. Boston

This 13 game stretch is the most difficult schedule of all of the American League teams fighting for a Wild Card spot.  The Opponents Win Percentage for the Orioles remaining opponents is .555.  See the chart below.

The Indians have the easiest schedule remaining with just a .419 Opponents Win Percentage.  They are a real threat to steal one of the two Wild Card Spots because of their easy schedule.  Even though they are a half game out of a playoff spot right now, Cool Standings thinks they have a 68.8% chance of winning one of the Wild Cards.  This is in large part due to a schedule that finishes with the Astros, White Sox, and Twins.

The Yankees have the next easiest schedule; the only playoff contender they still have to face is the Rays for 3 games.  Otherwise, they get the Blue Jays, Giants and Astros.  That’s not exactly murderer’s row.  Furthermore, the Yankees have a minus 15 run differential and a 27-15 record in one run games.  The Orioles would be getting called a fluke all over the internet if that were the case for them.  I suspect the Yankees may not be as formidable as they seem.  They got demolished by the Red Sox in a 3 game series over the weekend too.

I don’t expect the Royals to be there at the end.  Even though their opponents have a .474 win percentage for the rest of the season, I don’t think this is their year. 

The Rangers and Rays are in the lead for the two Wild Card spots at the moment, but each of them are definitely doing their best to give us an exciting finish.  The Rays have gone 6-8 in September, while we already talked about how the Rangers are 2-11.  If these two teams had played better baseball this month, we wouldn’t be in for as exciting a finish.  That’s ok.  Besides rooting for the O’s to make the playoffs, I’m also rooting for a crazy finish where multiple teams have a chance to make the playoffs on the last day of the season.

The Orioles still have a decent shot to make the playoffs, even though Cool Standings only gives them a 5.9% chance to win one of the Wild Cards.  I would personally place their odds higher than that, maybe something in the 20-25% range.  I think it’ll definitely be difficult for them to win a Wild Cards spot, especially with some injuries to the rotation popping up at the most inopportune time.  Losing Bud Norris and/or Miguel Gonzalez down the stretch will definitely hurt.

So I think there’s still a chance the Orioles make the playoffs, even though it’s not likely. What do you think?

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Last night in Aberdeen, Orioles first round draft pick Hunter Harvey made his debut with the Iron Birds.  The 18 year old had previously made 5 starts with the GCL Orioles down in the Gulf Coast League.  He had compiled a 1.35 ERA while striking out 18 batters and walking two in 13.1 innings prior to last night.  Drafted with the 22^nd overall pick in the 2013 draft, the young right hander from North Carolina was anxious to make his debut with the Iron Birds.  He was pitching in front of a real crowd for the first time with an announced attendance of 5,485.

Listed at 6’3” and 175 pounds, he appears to be every bit as slight as his listed height and weight make him out to be.  One of the reasons the Orioles are so high on him is that his broad shouldered frame looks to be able to carry a lot more size as he fills out.  Since his fastball on this night topped out at 96, there’s a lot to get excited about should he add velocity as he matures.  As he irons out his mechanics and fills out, I think we will see more velocity from his precocious young right arm.

As for the game, he came out of the gate throwing mostly fastballs sitting in the 93-95 range.  The New York Penn League hitters on the Hudson Valley Renegades had almost no chance to hit Harvey when he hit his spots.  The first hitter of the game grounded out weakly to second base on a fastball in.  The second hitter struck out swinging on Harvey’s first off-speed pitch of the night, an 81 mph curveball with 11 to 5 break.  After starting the third hitter of the game Johnny Field with a curveball for a strike, he struck him out when Harvey elevated a fastball up at his shoulders.  Harvey made the Renegades first three hitters look as if he was still in high school facing 16 and 17 year olds.

Harvey would go on to get two more swinging strikeouts in the second inning, and one in the third.  Actually, all five of his strikeouts were of the swinging variety as he got a ton of swings and misses.  I regretted not counting them from the start as soon as the first inning was over.  If I had to venture a guess, I’d say he got about 12 or 13 whiffs on the night in his 4 1/3 innings.  The Renegades hitters were overwhelmed anytime Harvey threw an elevated fastball or a well located curveball down in the zone.

In the third and fourth innings, he would break out his only two changeups of the night.  He threw these at 82 and 84 mph creating just over 10 mph of separation between his fastball and his changeup, which is ideal.  The pitch has some vertical drop to it, though not a lot of run like many changeups do.  Both times he threw it, he missed off to the arm side and wasn’t able to throw it for a strike.  The changeup is clearly the third pitch in his arsenal at the moment, and he’s not quite comfortable with it yet.  This is the pitch that will need the most work before it can find success at the upper levels of the minors, but the potential is there for it to be a good pitch.

The curveball is short and tight, not slow and loopy like something Barry Zito would throw.  It had good tilt and was thrown hard from a high three quarters arm slot.  There is a lot of potential in the pitch, and you can tell that he’s already comfortable throwing it.  At such a young age, it was impressive that could bury the pitch in the dirt when he was looking for a strikeout and also throw it for a strike early in the count.  He started off a few Renegades hitters with a curve that stayed in the zone for a strike.  Most young pitchers aren’t able to command a breaking ball the way Harvey already can at the age of 18.

While there was a lot to like in an outing that saw Harvey only give up four hits and one walk over 4 1/3 innings, there’s also a lot for him to work on.  But first let’s recap his outing.  The only run he let up scored on an errant pickoff throw from Dylan Rheault after he had left the game so it ended up being unearned.  He struck out five, all in the first three innings.  There were really only two hard hit balls off of him all night, one was a double down the right field line and the other a line drive back up the middle for a single.  The other two hits he gave up were both infield singles.  Of the balls that were hit off of him, nine were groundballs, one was a flyball, and two were line drives.  The batted ball distribution speaks to his ability to command his fastball low in the zone.  When he elevated it, hitters just had no chance.

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, he does have a few things to work on.  His foot strike in his delivery comes towards the third base side, which helps create deception and hide the ball from the hitter.  However, I’d prefer his foot strike come on a straight line to the plate, allowing him to have better balance during his delivery and leading to better command.  This would also allow him to get all of his momentum going on a straight line toward the plate, which could potentially allow him to get more velocity.

The other flaw I noticed in his delivery was that his leg kick was different from the stretch.  From the wind up, he had a nice high leg kick bringing his left leg up near his chest and allowing him to use the power in his legs during his delivery.  But from the stretch, he stopped his leg kick below his waist and it almost looked like he was using a variation of the slide step on every pitch.  I’d prefer he use the same or at least similar leg kicks out of both the wind up and the stretch so that it’d be easier for him to repeat the timing of his delivery to the plate.  If he has a different timing pattern on each pitch, it’s going to be hard for him to repeat his delivery on a consistent basis.

That said, this is a really promising arm and you could definitely see why the Orioles made him their first round pick in the 2013 draft.  I enjoyed my first look at him in person and look forward to seeing him down the road as he progresses through the Orioles minor league system.

– Kevin Ebert

Hunter Harvey is the best talent I have seen in the NYPL so far this season, not just the Ironbirds. In a league that often has some of the rawest players in the minors, Harvey proved that he was ready for his promotion from the GCL.

Harvey stands tall on the mound, with some clear growth left into his frame. I suspect the Orioles could take the same approach with Harvey as they did with Josh Hader. They slowly worked him through the system, clearly making strength and conditioning a priority. Harvey has a similar frame, as he is tall and skinny, although he has broader shoulders as Kevin noted. This conditioning will further increase his stamina and allow him to pitch longer and remain durable throughout the treacherous battles of the season. The important aspect to note is that he is already touching 95-96 mph on his fastball. Often times we hear of pitchers having the “potential” to do this, yet Harvey is already rearing it back at age 18. That’s exciting.

FB: 93-96 mph in first three innings with great explosion and some natural movement. Fell to 91-94 in last two innings as he ran out of stamina.
CV: 79-82 mph with tilt, sharp bite, and good depth. Potential to be a plus pitch, ability to snap into the dirt and still fool batters. Telegraphs the pitch at times, noticeable in his release and the distance he strides on his delivery. Even so, hitters could not make solid contact on it.
CH: 82-84 mph with average fade. Pitch is much further behind the others.
Delivery Times: 1.43, 1.48, 1.43, 1.47, 1.53, 1.41

A scout’s thoughts before Harvey’s professional season started (using the 20/80 scouting scale):
FB: 55 with room to grow.
CV: 55 that could go 60 with strength development in wrists.
CH: 40 when I last saw.
Command: 40
Control: 45

From my first impression, the scout was spot-on with his analysis. Obviously the fastball and curve are terrific pitches at this point in his professional career, with the change clearly lagging behind. This is natural with a young pitcher straight out of high school, as a change is almost unnecessary when you throw mid 90’s with your fastball. Overall, Hunter Harvey is a stud, but he is not on the same tier as Dylan Bundy or Kevin Gausman in terms of readiness. Harvey is still in a highly developmental stage, but his stuff is just better than your typical developmental prospect.

– Tucker Blair

Video by Luke Jackson

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July was easily the Orioles worst month for offense so far this season.  So while the starting pitching seemed to settle down and perform well, the Orioles didn’t win a lot of games because they only scored 3.76 runs per game during the month.  We’ve already seen the Orioles perform better at the plate over the first couple of games during August, and it’s likely that this was just a one month blip on the radar.  However, you can see from the chart below how much the Orioles offense struggled during the month.

While we know the Orioles struggled as a whole during the month, lets take a look at the individual performances to see who struggled the most and who still hit well.

Interestingly enough the first hitter on our list had a solid month at the plate.  Matt Wieters compiled a .346 wOBA for the month, which is impressive for a catcher.  He also walked in 10% of his plate appearances for the month, which was his best rate this season.  Even with the success, only 10.6% of his batted balls were line drives while a full 53% were fly balls.  This approach could lead to more home runs but probably fewer base hits.

As I pointed out last month, Davis’s plate approach that was so pristine early in the season has started to erode.  For the first time over a whole month this season, Davis struggled at the plate.  Even though he still popped seven home runs, he only batted .211 with a .294 on base percentage.  His 40% strikeout rate during the month was the primary cause of the low batting average and on base percentages.  July was also the first month of the 2013 season that Davis has had an OPS of less than 1.000 (it was .794). That’s pretty amazing in and of itself.

While the strikeout rate is concerning, when Davis did make contact with the ball, he hit it hard.  He had a 26% line drive rate and 35% of his fly balls went for home runs.  The reason for the high strikeout rate is three fold.  He swung at a high percentage of pitches outside the strike zone (37.7%), he didn’t make contact with those pitches very often (49.5%) and when he did swing at strikes, he swung and missed at them a ton (18.4%).  The swinging strike rate was about twice the league average.  Because of this approach and his success, he has started to see many less pitches in the strike zone than the average hitter.  It’s time for him to make an adjustment to his approach and I think he will.

In a feat which I’m sure surprised many O’s fans and maybe even Roberts himself, Roberts played a full month for the team without getting hurt.  While that is impressive, his performance at the plate wasn’t.  He had an OPS of just .602 and a wOBA of just .266.  It’s still a small sample but his performance this season has been in line with the dismal short spells we saw from him in 2011 and 2012.  The one bright spot from him has been his performance against righties.  He has a wRC+ of exactly 100 versus righties, which is league average after park and league effects are considered.  On the other hand, he only has a 32 wRC+ versus lefties.  Perhaps, he should start to take a seat against lefties.

J.J. Hardy had an almost identical month to his line from April after a very good May and June.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t so good in April.

April:  .202/.243/.327   .251 wOBA

July:    .202/.260/.326   .257 wOBA

The other thing he had in common with April was an extremely low BABIP.  His BABIP for the month of July was just .200.  However, with a line drive rate of just 9% for the month it’s likely he deserved it and we can’t just blame it on the luck dragons.  Either way, look for him to rebound over the rest of the season and go back to his low average and low OBP, but good slugging self.

Manny Machado had easily his worst month of the season during July.  It was the first month of the season that he didn’t bat over .300 and he didn’t even come close at .196.  Dips in batting average happen but when he’s only walking at a 3.7% clip, he ends up with a .226 OBP for the month.  After maintaining a record setting doubles pace over the first three months of the season, shockingly he only hit one double over the entire month of July.  While he’s still playing stellar defense, his performance at the plate is starting to wane.  It’s possible that he’s starting to wear down a little bit in his first full season in the major leagues.  It’s a grind that is hard to be prepared for.

McLouth had a solid month though you wouldn’t know it if you only looked at the numbers they show you on the tv broadcast.  He didn’t hit any home runs, only drove in two runs and only stole one base.  What those numbers don’t tell you is that he had seven doubles and three triples, which contributed to a .149 ISO.  With a 109 wRC+ for the month, he provided solidly above average offense through the strength of his ten extra base hits.  He also had an outstanding 31.5% line drive rate for the month, and solid plate discipline.

Adam Jones had the best month of any Orioles hitter during July.  Whether or not this had anything to do with him deciding it was ok to take a few walks, I don’t know.  But I’d like to think that had a little something to do with it.  He took seven walks during the month, which led to a 6.7% walk rate.  This was after going about six weeks without drawing a single walk.  That streak ended on the birthday of American independence.  Interestingly enough, he had the same amount of home runs as walks for the month.

Jones doesn’t need to draw a ton of walks to be successful.  He has enough power and enough of a well-rounded game where he can be a good player without a lot of walks.  But he needs to take just enough of them where pitchers feel they have to throw him strikes to get him out.  He now has a 3.2% walk rate for the year, which is the second lowest rate in the league for qualified batters.  If he could get that up to 5-6%, I think he’d get better pitches to hit when he gets deep in counts.

Nick Markakis had a strange month.  You look at his slash line above and his batting average looks normal, his on base percentage looks normal, but then you see a slugging percentage of only .326.  His ISO for the month was a paltry .021.  He had a lot of line drives and ground balls, which lead to base hits but had very few fly balls (25%).  Fly balls lead to extra base hits, of which he only had two.  His lack of extra base hits led to a 93 wRC+, which is below league average offense even though he hit .305 for the month.  That’s a pretty empty batting average.

Shortly after playing in the Futures Game on the Sunday before the All Star break, the Orioles called up 26 year old Henry Urrutia to shore up their DH position.  As a left handed hiter, he’s been starting solely against right handed pitching.  The positive for Urrutia is that he batted .310 for the month.  The negative for Urrutia is that his on base percentage was also .310 for the month.  It was only 29 at bats but Urrutia didn’t take a single walk or have a real extra base hit.  He did have a triple but it was a line drive that bounced in front of a diving David Lough of the Royals that he missed.  The ball rolled to the wall and Urrutia strolled into third.

Without a single walk or true extra base hit, it appears that Urrutia may need more seasoning in the minors.  Since he’s not a great defender, he’s been DH’ing and hasn’t been providing value on that side of the ball either.  He’s also something less than a good baserunner.  Thankfully, Wilson Betemit has started his rehab assignment and it’s likely he takes over the Orioles DH job against right handed pitching when he’s healthy.  When Betemit gets back, we’ll probably see Urrutia head back to AAA to work on his game.

The Orioles didn’t add any hitters at the trade deadline.  The club felt it was more of a pressing issue adding to the pitching staff and added Scott Feldman, Francisco Rodriguez, and Bud Norris.  You can read about each of those trades in previous pieces on BSL.  But the club’s front office felt that they had enough firepower in the dugout to take care of business on the offensive side of the ball.  The only bat that will likely be added is Betemit’s.  As long as the dip in run scoring the Orioles saw during July is a one month blip and not a trend, that strategy should work out just fine.

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I’d argue that this was the incorrect decision from Showalter.  He generally makes very good decisions as the Orioles manager, but bringing in Jim Johnson as soon as the game presented a save opportunity was not one of them.

First of all, Tommy Hunter had only thrown 23 pitches.  Already this season, Tommy Hunter has worked as many as two innings a total of 10 times.  He has also thrown as many as 24 pitches in an outing 17 times.  I don’t think the argument can be made that he was tired.  He was still throwing in the upper 90’s and was throwing his curveball for strikes.  Actually, the last pitch he threw to his last batter Adam Lind was the hardest pitch he threw in his entire outing.  The pitch was a 99 mph fastball off the inside corner.  The pitch labeled number four below was the one that Adam Lind grounded down the first base line for a double.  It wasn’t a bad pitch as Lind had already fouled off and swung through fastballs in similar locations.

Adam Lind’s double was the third hit of the inning that Tommy Hunter had given up but only the single off the wall by Edwin Encarnacion was hit particularly hard.  If Encarnacion had not advanced to 2^nd on defensive indifference, it’s likely that only one run would’ve scored on Lind’s double.

As you can see from this graph of Hunter’s velocity, he was not tiring at all.  If anything he was getting stronger as he worked to try to end the game.

So Hunter had given up two singles and a double in the inning, but only of them was a hard hit ball.  He was not tired, had exhibited the ability to work multiple innings in a game 10 times this season and he was maintaining or increasing his velocity. Then why did Buck Showalter go to Jim Johnson to face Colby Rasmus?

The save rule, of course.  As soon as Adam Lind doubled to knock in Reyes and Encarnacion, the tying run was on deck and the game became a save situation.  A manager is forced to bring in his closer in a save situation, right?  As I’m sure you can tell from the tone of this article, I don’t think he should be.

Closers get paid in arbitration and free agency often times by how many saves they are able to accrue so managers feel obligated to bring them in when a save situation presents itself.  But if there is a pitcher already in the game capable of getting the last out or two of the game, why go through the trouble of bringing in the closer?

If anything Jim Johnson has been overworked this season, having already thrown 42.1 innings after throwing 68.2 all of last season.  His 42.1 innings are the most in major league baseball for a full time closer.  If you want to be generous and include Kenley Jansen of the Dodgers who has only closed for the past month, he falls to 2^nd.

Furthermore, Johnson had worked the night before picking up a save versus the Rangers.  If a save situation presents itself in today’s game, Johnson may not be at 100% as it will be the third game in a row he has worked.  Yes, he only threw one pitch in Friday night’s game but when you add the pitches he threw in the bullpen to get ready to come in, it still takes a toll.

As we all know Johnson has been struggling this season, while Tommy Hunter has pitched extremely well.  Even after giving up two runs last night, Hunter has a 2.26 ERA while Johnson has a 3.80 ERA.  I’m not advocating taking Johnson out of the closer’s role.  I still think the bullpen works best with him at the end.  And Hunter’s versatility to pitch in different situations and over multiple innings is extremely valuable.  But if you’re not going to let him throw multiple innings when he clearly has the ability to do so as a former starter, what’s the point?

A pitcher who is as good as Tommy Hunter should be allowed to finish a game when the ninth inning begins with an 8-3 lead.  It doesn’t make any sense to put another appearance on Jim Johnson’s ledger just to get him a save.  Other pitchers can get outs in the ninth inning besides the closer, especially pitchers as good as Tommy Hunter.

This is a saying that every manager should put up in the clubhouse just to remind themselves: Don’t be a slave to the save.

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Matt Wieters’ most impressive statistic during the month of June might be his 25 games played out of a total of 28 for the club.  His durability and ability to play almost every day are impressive in this day and age of catchers being rested frequently to conserve their legs.  Wieters is actually on pace to play in 152 games this season, which would be a career high.  It’s likely that the club could get better production out of Wieters if they are able to rest him more as the season goes along.

Wieters had his worst statistical month at the plate during June.  Hopefully the All Star break gives him a chance to rest up and get ready to perform better over the second half of the season.

Chris Davis had another monster month in the power department with 12 big flies.  His isolated power was phenomenal once again at .402 for during June, which led the league by a considerable margin.  While his power production was once again superb, you can begin to see cracks in the armor when you look at his plate approach.  He only walked 5.2% of the time while striking out in 35.3% of his plate appearances.  However, when you’re hitting 12 home runs in a month you can get away with a less than pristine approach at the plate. 

On the other hand, the big improvement that led to his break out was improved plate discipline and that certainly regressed during the month.  He had an alarmingly high 18.7% swinging strike rate while swinging at 36.1% of pitches out of the zone.  If he doesn’t revert back to the improved plate approach that we saw from him earlier in the season, we could see his batting average and on base percentages start to slip.

Flaherty’s line for the month looks good, but it was really the tale of the halves for him.  From June 1 to June 17, he posted a line right in line with the rest of his Orioles career of .186/.222/.233 with only two extra base hits.  From June 18 to June 30, he posted an incredible line of .452/.485/.839 with four home runs.  There’s no doubt he was absolutely on fire during the second half of the month, but I’d prefer to see him perform over a larger sample before concluding that he’s found whatever it was that his offensive game was lacking.  On the other hand, he did play fantastic defense throughout the entire month.

Casilla somehow slugged .619 for the month of June with just a 30% fly ball rate.  That’s quite a feat, but probably not something he can pull off again.  It’s amazing what can happen in small samples.  Now that I think about it, maybe I should’ve left Casilla’s 25 plate appearances out of this analysis.  But then we wouldn’t have gotten to see what will surely be his best monthly slash line this year.  What a tough choice!

Hardy had a great month while accruing over a win above replacement during June alone.  He was second on the team in home runs to Davis with five.  His slugging percentage was far above the typical shortstop all the way up to .520.  On top of that, Hardy posted his best mark in each of the triple slash categories so far this season during June.  However, he’s still as pull happy as ever as 14 out of his 15 home runs have been pulled to left field so far this season.  At some point a hitter just has to admit that he’s better off just trying to pull the ball.  There’s no need for Hardy to even try to go the opposite way at this point.

Manny Machado had another great month at the plate as you see from the slash line above.  His month was punctuated perfectly with a 3 for 4 performance including a double and his only home run of the month on Sunday night against the Yankees in front of a national TV audience.  Including the double on Sunday night, he smacked 13 doubles during June giving him 38 on the year.  Even with all of his success, there is room for improvement in his game.  During the month, he only walked three times while striking out 24 times.  If he shows some improvement to his plate discipline, we could see his production improve even more.  That’s a scary thought considering he’s already one of the best players in the league.

Nate McLouth had a decent month at the plate, even though his numbers were brought down somewhat by increased exposure to left handed pitchers.  After Steve Pearce went down, McLouth began to get starts against left handed starters as well.  With Nolan Reimold out too, Buck Showalter shifted him out of the leadoff spot and into the 7^th or 8^th spot in the order.  Despite the increased exposure to lefties, McLouth was able to maintain his incredible plate approach.  He only swung at 23% of pitches outside the strike zone, and only missed 3.4% of the strikes he did swing at.  These are truly impressive rates, which make me a believer in his continued ability to get on base at the top of the lineup.

Adam Jones easily had his worst month of the season so far.  Incredibly, he managed to make it through the whole month without drawing a single walk and now hasn’t drawn a walk since May 18^th.  When you drill down into the numbers, it’s not that surprising.  Considering he swung at 48.3% of pitches outside of the strike zone during the month, it’s hard to draw a walk.  The only hitter that swung at more pitches out of the zone during the month was notorious hacker Alfonso Soriano.  For the season, Jones has swung at the third most pitches out of the zone behind swing at everything hitters Pablo Sandoval and the aforementioned Soriano.  He’s going to need to at least get back to his bad, but not awful control of the strike zone if he wants to get back on track.       

In what is another example of how looking at RBI can lead to a faulty perception of a player’s performance, Jones managed to pile up 20 RBI in the month despite a .237/.248/.386 slash line.  Jones had a much worse month than it appears on the surface.  The stats that I’ve chosen to show you above illustrate the fact that Jones was pretty bad.  You just have to look past his four home runs and 20 RBI’s to see it.

Nick was another Oriole that had his worst month at the plate this season during June.  An OPS of .573 just isn’t getting the job done.  Unlike Jones, Nick’s problems weren’t plate discipline related so I would expect him to go back to producing at around a league average rate shortly.  I don’t see anything to really be concerned about with him.  Players just have bad months sometimes and this is one of those instances.  A 23% line drive rate for the month shows that he was still hitting the ball hard; the balls just weren’t falling in for him.  Expect him to bounce back soon.

It’s a good thing Davis, Machado, and Hardy hit well during June, because Dickerson was another guy that really struggled during the month.  Not even a .400 BABIP life preserver could save him from being swallowed up in the ocean.  That’s what happens when a hitter strikes out in 40% of his plate appearances.  For the year, he now has a 31 to 3 strikeout to walk ratio which is something he’s going to have to tighten up if he wants to keep getting playing time.  His playing time will probably dry up dramatically when Wilson Betemit returns to the lineup.

Danny Valencia was surprising solid in a small sample of 39 plate appearances during the month.  He slugged .500 while hitting three doubles and two home runs in his limited at bats.  Brought in to be a lefty masher for the team, he surprisingly has hit three of his four home runs against right handed pitchers.  However, he’s only batting .138 against right handed pitching despite the three home runs.  Valencia is now slugging .508 on the season, but we shouldn’t expect that to hold up as his career high in slugging percentage is only .448.

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After the game last night, the club made the decision to send him down to Triple A Norfolk to get his first taste of Triple A ball.  The team didn’t immediately announce a corresponding move, but early Friday they announced they would be calling up Jake Arrieta prior to Friday’s game.  Anyone who has followed Buck Showalter’s bullpen management over the past few years can tell you that he pays close attention to the workload of the relievers in his bullpen.  After the 13 inning game last night, he feels the need for reinforcements.  Apparently the Red Sox feel the same need as they’re calling up Rubby de la Rosa and sending down Alex Wilson who threw two and two thirds innings last night.

Gausman hasn’t been great in his five starts so far, but he’s shown tons of promise and he’s had two good starts out of his last three.  He’s also compiled a 20 to 6 strikeout to walk ratio over his 24 and two thirds innings.  The problem is that he’s been leaving too many balls over the center of the plate and he’s given up seven home runs already.  He also still needs to refine his slider as it hasn’t been effective at the major league level.

The Orioles have called up Arrieta even though he hasn’t been pitching well in Triple A.  He’s given up seven and eight runs in his last two outings.  He’s also not striking hitters out at the Triple A level.  With his natural ability he should be dominating in the minor leagues, not struggling to get outs.  Odds are he was called up because he was already on the 40 man roster and he hasn’t pitched since Sunday so his arm should be fresh.  Considering the level at which he’s pitching I wouldn’t expect it to be a long stay.

There is a problem with the way that the bullpen is currently constructed; there is a lack of flexibility.  Only Matusz and O’Day can be optioned to the minors without clearing waivers because they have options left.  It wouldn’t make sense to send down either of them because the club needs them and they’re both pitching well.  Technically T.J. McFarland has options remaining as well but as a rule 5 draft pick, he can’t be sent down without risking losing him either.  That left the team with a choice of designating Strop for assignment, or sending down Kevin Gausman.  Freddy Garcia could have been an option to DFA as well, but he’s at least holding serve at the back of the rotation.

I don’t think that the team should give up on Strop right now even though he’s struggling mightily.  I think the Orioles should have given him some time in AAA before he came back from the DL to get straightened out but it’s too late for that now.  Strop’s velocity is down about a mile and a half from last season, but he’s still averaging 96 mph with his fastball and sinker so that’s not the problem.  His control on the other hand, is the problem.  With a delivery that isn’t very balanced and includes Strop falling off heavily to the first base side, it’s difficult for him to be able to predict where the ball is going.  That’s led to a 15.8% walk rate and balls getting left in the middle of the plate that are getting crushed.

But he still has an electric arm that the Orioles shouldn’t give up on.  If he’s able to tweak his delivery to become more balanced, his control should follow suit.

Returning to the game last night, six of the seven relievers in the pen were used in the 13 inning game against the Sox.  Each reliever except Strop whose struggles we just discussed came into the game for the Orioles.  Matusz and Patton both worked for the second day in a row, and Johnson worked for the second time in three days.  While Hunter only threw 21 pitches, he did work two and a third innings so he had to get up and down three times.  Odds are Matusz isn’t going to be available on Friday after throwing 26 and 23 pitches the last two days.

Since this demotion for Gausman wasn’t really based on his performance last night, there is the chance that after Arrieta comes up for what is sure to be a tough, long weekend series with the Red Sox that the Orioles find a way to sneak Gausman back onto the roster before what would’ve been his next scheduled start on Tuesday.

Typically, when a team sends a player down to the minors he has to spend a full ten days there before he can be recalled except if the player is recalled to replace another going on the DL.  However, since Major League Baseball instituted the new paternity leave list last season that can be used as another loophole to bring players back before their ten days are up.  It just so happens that Miguel Gonzalez’s wife is due to have a baby any day now.  Gonzalez is scheduled to start Sunday against the Red Sox, so if everything works out perfectly Gonzalez could start Sunday and then be placed on the paternity list so that Gausman could be recalled for his start on Tuesday.

There’s no guarantee that things work out so well though.  If his wife goes into labor before his start, he would need to be replaced on Sunday with another starter which would then eliminate the Gausman loophole.  In this case, it’s likely that Zach Britton would be recalled to take his turn in the rotation.  Britton has turned things around over his last few starts in Triple A and has 24 to 6 strikeout to walk ratio over his last four outings.  He’s also compiled a 2.16 ERA over that span.  If Britton were recalled for that start, odds are he’d be sent right back down for a starter on Tuesday.

In addition to Gausman not performing great at the major league level, there’s also the service time game.  Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this was the main motivation for sending him down to Triple A but I’m sure it was down on the list in terms of the clubs decision making.  As we’re seeing more clubs turn to their top prospects like Gerritt Cole and Mike Zunino at this point in the season, the Super Two deadline is getting close if it hasn’t already passed.  If the Orioles are able to buy another few weeks of time for Gausman in the minors whether now or later in the season, they could potentially push Gausman’s service time past the Super Two deadline.  Accomplishing that would hold down his future salaries by making him only eligible for arbitration three times instead of four.

Isn’t it fun trying to keep up with Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter as they shuffle the roster to get the pieces they need to build a winner in the AL East?

The post Kevin Gausman Sent to Triple A, Arrieta Recalled appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

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The Orioles actually hit 16 more home runs in May than they did in April, but still scored less runs.  They also had a higher batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage in May.  It’s interesting that they averaged less runs per game in May than April with the facts in the previous sentence.  It just points to the importance of the sequencing of events.  I strongly suspect that many of the Orioles extra base hits came without runners on base.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at how each of the Orioles primary hitters performed during the month of May.

Matt Wieters  

Matt Wieters had a decent month of May hitting 3 home runs and driving in 17.  He didn’t show much in the batting average and on base departments but his .447 slugging percentage for the month is impressive for a catcher.  His strike out rate was solid during the month, four percentage points lower than his career rate.

Chris Davis  

Chris Davis had an absolutely phenomenal month of May.  He hit 10 long balls and slugged an astronomical .768.  His .768 slugging percentage led the league for the month and so did his .404 ISO (isolated slugging percentage).  Davis has truly blossomed into an elite slugger this season.  If he hadn’t won the American League player of the month award during April, he probably would have won it for May.  And there’s also this.

Ryan Flaherty

The Flaherty as my colleague Lance Rinker likes to call him had a very nondescript May facing right handed pitchers and getting sent to the minors for a brief stay to find his swing.  He didn’t hit well before or after his trip to the minors, but he did play some good defense to help balance out the scales.  Flaherty played at about replacement level for the month.

Alexi Casilla

For most of the month, Casilla drew starts against left handed starters.  The club flirted with having him give up switch hitting and bat only from the right side.  Nothing much came of that talk.  It’s possible that he’s still working on the switch.  There’s no sugar coating it, he didn’t hit well.

J.J. Hardy

Hardy had a good month in the power department swatting seven long balls.  He didn’t walk or strike out much, and his low on base but high slugging ways are fitting in much better lower in the order this season.  He slugged .518 for the month, fantastic for a shortstop.  He now has 12 home runs on the year.  That kind of power for a shortstop with a good glove is extremely rare in the game today.

Manny Machado  

What is there to say that hasn’t already been said about Manny Machado?  The 20 year old continues to have a monster season on both sides of the ball.  He hit an incredible 14 doubles during the month, one for every other game that he played.  Machado had an astounding 44 hits during the month, 18 of which went for extra bases.  He tied for the league lead in both hits and doubles for the month.  And almost as an aside, he played fantastic defense at the same time.  We are witnessing an unbelievable beginning to his career.  I feel lucky to be able to watch him play every day.

Nate McLouth 

The most impressive thing about Nate McLouth’s May are the nine stolen bases.  Nine!  In only 24 games.  The amazing on base percentage we saw during April from McLouth came back to earth a little bit, but he was still able to provide value to the club on the bases.  As the leadoff hitter, Nate is doing leadoff hitter things.  He scored 14 runs on the month, which is pretty impressive considering he only had 104 plate appearances and had a .308 OBP.

Adam Jones

Jones had a great month for all of his fantasy owners out there, piling up seven dingers and seven steals.  His plate discipline didn’t improve any as he drew walks at a 4% clip for the month.  On defense, he seemed to settle down after making some gruesome errors during the month of April.  His most impressive offensive number for the month was his .546 slugging percentage.  That’s fantastic for a center fielder, as the position has turned into more of a place to put plus defenders who don’t hit a whole lot.

Nick Markakis 

We continue the theme with another Oriole who had a great month at the plate.  A .336/.391/.526 slash line tells the story for Nick Markakis.  An excellent all around month for the Orioles right fielder.  He continues to be almost impossible to strike out.

Chris Dickerson

Dickerson is starting to see more and more time at the DH position for the Orioles.  He is getting more and more playing time as a result of his solid play.  And he also had this walk off home run to beat the Tigers on the last day of May.  A few days prior to that, he had a two home run day against the Yankees.  If he continues to put up these kinds of heroics, he’s going to be a big piece of the Orioles this summer.  Dickerson had a .400 ISO in 35 plate appearances.

Steve Pearce

Pearce continues to get at bats in left field and at DH versus lefties.  He only batted .250 but was able to post a .341 OBP because of a strong walk rate.  He also popped two homers in 41 plate appearances.  Pearce is basically doing what he’s been asked to do, which is hit left handed pitching.

We’ve seen a number of Orioles hitters have fantastic months of May.  If the pitching didn’t struggle as much as it did, the Orioles would have had a much better record than 15-13.  The team is currently 2^nd in the league in runs scored.  The hitters are definitely holding up their end of the bargain so far.  We’ll check in on them again after the month of June to see how they held up.

The post Orioles Hitters in May appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

You can discuss this post on the BSL forum here.   

If you happened to miss the game last night, or just want to watch the highlights again, you can watch them at this link at mlb.com.

First, let’s establish his repertoire.  His electric fastball sat at 95-97 mph, but touched 99 a few times.  The full range of the pitch was from 94-99 mph.  The pitch had late life when located well in the zone.  A few of them had tremendous arm side run, which at times carried the pitch out of the strike zone.  It’s possible that these pitches with extreme movement could have been 2 seam fastballs.  Of his 89 total pitches, 63 were fastballs.

His changeup was the secondary pitch that he turned to most often.  He threw it 15 times on the night, to both lefties and righties.  Most pitchers will only throw changeups to opposite handed hitters, but Gausman chose to throw the pitch 8 times to lefties and 7 times to righties.  The change was his most effective pitch of the evening, only being put into play once all night (for a harmless fly ball out).  He threw it from 82-86 mph with a little arm side fade and big downward drop.  9 out of the 15 times he threw it on the night, he was able to throw it for a strike.  You heard that the change was his best secondary pitch going in, and it certainly was on this night.

He located the changeup extremely well, which you can see from these Heat Maps from FanGraphs.  The heat maps are from the catcher’s perspective so a left handed batter would stand on the right side and a right handed batter would stand on the left.  Gausman focused on locating the changeup low and away to left handed batters, while working both sides of the plate low in the zone to righties.

Gausman (CH vs LHB)

Gausman (CH vs RHB)

His least developed pitch is definitely his slider.  Gausman brought out the slider 11 times on the night, but was only able to throw it for a strike four times.  After throwing both a curveball and a slider in college, the Orioles and Gausman decided to scrap the curveball when he entered pro ball.  So the slider being slightly underdeveloped at this point is understandable.  The velocity range on the pitch was 82-85 mph, similar to his changeup. 

In the fourth inning when Gausman got into trouble, it was because of the slider.  He hung one to Adam Lind starting off the inning, and Lind took the pitch off the wall in right field for a double.  Matt Wieters had to have been looking to boost his confidence in the pitch because he called another one on the first pitch to the next batter, J.P. Arencibia.  Unfortunately, he hung this one too and watched Arencibia drive it over left fielder Nate McLouth’s head for another double.  The back to back doubles led to the first run of four he would give up on the night.

Through the first three innings on the night we saw what has the organization so excited about Kevin Gausman’s future.  His first three innings were scoreless with only two hits and a walk while striking out three.  He ended each of the first two innings with a swinging strikeout.  In the first, he got Adam Lind to swing over mid-80’s changeup after hitting 98 on a fastball earlier in the at bat.  The velocity difference between his fastball and changeup can be absolutely devastating at times.  He rung up Emilio Bonifacio in the second inning on a fastball that was probably up and out of the zone.  Gausman showed us he could use his plus velocity to get hitters to swing through his fastball when it’s above the zone.

I found the most interesting at bat of the evening to be the at bat against Colby Rasmus in the fourth inning.  The first three batters had reached via two doubles and a bunt single from Brett Lawrie.  This brought up Rasmus with runners on first and third and one run in.  Rasmus had singled to right field off a fastball in his first at bat, and it was clear that Gausman wanted to get him out with a changeup in his second at bat. 

He started him out with a change that was located well and went for a swinging strike.  Then he missed with the fastball, before going back to the changeup for another swing and miss.  The two whiffs he got in this at bat were two of the seven he got on the night.  At this point, he threw three more changeups in a row trying to get the K.  That didn’t work so Gausman went back to the fastball once more, which Rasmus fouled off.  Finally, on the 3-2 count – Gausman went back to the changeup and missed, walking Rasmus and loading the bases.  He realized quickly that some things that work at the minor league level don’t always work in the major leagues.

”I threw a great changeup 3-2 to (Colby) Rasmus and he just kind of spit on it,” Gausman said. ”At this level, those guys are so good it’s kind of crazy.”

The plan to get Rasmus out by throwing almost exclusively changeups didn’t work.  Even though Rasmus has struck out 37% of the time this season, throwing him six changeups out of eight pitches didn’t work.  He swung and missed at the first two but once a major league hitter sees the same off speed pitch that many times in an at bat, he’s going to be able to adjust to it.  Gausman will have to adjust back if he’s going to have success at the major league level.

Gausman showed the talent that made him a good choice for the Orioles with the #4 overall pick in the 2012 draft.  His average fastball velocity of 96.5 mph is the fastest of any major league starter this season, ahead of guys like Stephen Strasburg, Jeff Samardzija, and Matt Harvey.  In the major leagues, batters can hit fastballs in the mid to upper 90’s if they’re not located well but having that kind of velocity will allow him to get away with more mistakes than most.

One mistake Gausman didn’t get away with last night was the fastball he threw on the first pitch of J.P. Arencibia’s at bat in the fifth inning.  Wieters wanted the ball low and outside, and the ball ended up belt high on the inside corner.  To an all or nothing fastball hitter like Arencibia, the poor location led to him lining the pitch over the left field wall for a two run home run.

So, Gausman has some things to work on.  He needs to work on the consistency of his slider.  He can’t get away with hanging two of them in a row.  He needs to work on his fastball command as we saw in the at bat to Arencibia.  And he needs to work on his pitch sequencing as we saw in the at bat to Rasmus.

However, there are so many good things to take away from this start that leave me incredibly excited about his future.  Gausman held his velocity all the way through his start and even hit his max velocity in the fifth inning, touching 99.  Even though Buck Showalter decided to pull him after 89 pitches, it wasn’t because he was tired.  I see a young precocious talent with the pitches to get major league hitters out who has just a few things to work on.  There will be better nights in his future.  Despite his struggles on this night, I believe we just witnessed the beginning of a young man’s career that’s going to quickly turn into a top of the rotation pitcher.

The post A Mixed Debut: Kevin Gausman appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Of course the first thing I did was search for all of the current Orioles and I was somewhat disappointed to find that there aren’t any reports for them on the site.  I assume that’s because the teams didn’t want to release reports to the public for players that are still playing and give away information that they are still using.  Once I got past this initial (brief) disappointment, I moved on to searching for players who were no longer playing for the team.

This brings us to Cal Ripken Jr.  When you search for Ripken (the search is by last name only) you get 5 reports each for both Billy and Cal.  Jackpot!  That’s what leads me to this post.  I’m going to share with you the 5 reports that come up for Cal Ripken Jr. with minimal commentary.  The reports are so awesome by themselves, you don’t need me telling you how awesome each one is at length.  So that’s enough of this intro.  Let’s move on to the reports.

You can click on each report to make it bigger.

Orioles scouting report Sep. ’85

This report is from September, 1985 and has information on a bunch of Orioles.  Cal is listed as having plus arm, hit and power tools.  His run tool is graded below average and I’m guessing the X under fielding means he was viewed as an average fielder.  There are also extra notes on Larry Sheets, Michael Young, and Mike Boddicker.  I’m impressed by the impeccable handwriting, something scouts are definitely not known for.

Cal Ripken Jr. scouting report 7.1.89

The next report from July 1, 1989 focuses only on Cal.  At this point, he had been in the major leagues for 8 seasons but the White Sox were still doing individual reports on him.  I’d expect this to be a report on how to pitch to him that an advance scout would file, but it’s not.  They graded his 5 tools all average or above, and even added the ever important 6th tool – bunting.  I guess Cal wasn’t good at bunting because the scout only gave him a 40 for the drag bunt that Cal laid down.  I can’t imagine he saw him drag bunt more than once.

I like his summation “He can play.  Would help any ML club.”  I wonder how much that helped the White Sox considering he was a 7 time All Star at the time.  Still, it’s pretty cool to see.  I also like his strong points “Good day in, day out player.” This was in the midst of his consecutive games streak so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this scout respected his ability to play every day.

Cal Ripken Jr. scouting report 9.23.89

This report is also from the White Sox organization and even though the form is the same, the information contained on it is quite different.  From browsing through the reports, it seems that every organization has its own scouting forms and that each teams forms changed somewhat through the years.  This report has the advance scouting information filled out in the bottom right hand corner of the form.  It says that the White Sox should attack Cal up and in or on the outside corner when ahead in the count.  The report also recommends to shift the defense towards the left field line and deep because Cal was mostly a pull hitter.

Orioles scouting report 10.1.90

This one is an Orioles team report filed by Scott Reid.  Filed to which team, I don’t know.  But the report is fascinating.  Mickey Tettleton was still on the team, and was showing his power.  You’ve got to feel bad for Billy Ripken when Reid says, “Plays hard but has limited ability; extra man.” In this scout’s opinion, Cal Ripken was already better suited for 3B but he was not willing to move.  He’d be proven wrong in 1996.  He also thought Brady Anderson was an average extra outfielder and advised his team not to go after him.  Brady didn’t put together his first good season for another couple years, in 1992.  Reading the note on Ben McDonald just makes me sad, “Great potential; Plus FB, CB, CH; Intimidating.”  It’s a shame McDonald never filled that potential.

Also included is a 24 year old Jose Mesa, as a starting pitcher.  Reid hadn’t seen him so he couldn’t file a report on him, but he was still a starter.  That is fun to remember.  There’s also a great report on Curt Schilling.  Remember when he was on Oriole?  “Plus FB and SL. Young will get better.”  He was 23 at the time and posted a 2.54 ERA in 35 games out of the bullpen that season.  It’s a shame the Orioles didn’t hang on to him.

Orioles scouting report 12.1.90

There are some duplicate notes on this report because it’s filed by the same scout, Scott Reid.  Reid still thinks Cal Ripken would be better off playing third base than shortstop.  Here’s his report on Gregg Olson, “Plus FB; Great CB; Quality Closer.”  I miss watching his outstanding curveball dive under a batter’s swing.  Check out the report on David Segui from Frederick and Rochester.  The report notes that he was a plus bat with power potential.  He did end up having some good seasons at the plate, but the power never quite came to fruition.

That’s the end of our little journey through the scouting reports through the prism of Cal Ripken Jr.  In my opinion, these reports are one of the most fascinating things to be released in the baseball community in quite some time.  If you get some spare time, I’d highly recommend spending some time on the Diamond Mines website.  It’s as enjoyable as it is illuminating.

The post Orioles Scouting Reports appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

(US Presswire)

Last night against the Kansas City Royals, Nate McLouth went 1 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base.  Hitting out of the leadoff spot for the Orioles, that raised his line for the season to .313/.414/.485.  Getting on base in two out of his four plate appearances has been a pretty common occurrence for Nate this season.  He has taken to his new role as the leadoff hitter for the Orioles against right handed starters with aplomb.

The job of a leadoff hitter is to get on base so that the more powerful hitters behind him in the lineup can drive him in.  That said, there are still some managers who just take the fastest guy in the lineup and put him in the leadoff slot.  Take Juan Pierre for example; he’s batting leadoff for the Marlins with a .287 on base percentage.  But look at those steals.  He has 12 steals!  Even with the steals, he’s not getting his job done as a leadoff man because he’s getting on base less than 29 percent of the time.  No matter how many stolen bases a leadoff hitter racks up, he’s not doing his job if he’s not getting on base.

On the other hand, McLouth has been doing an excellent job in the leadoff role for the Orioles by getting on base over 41 percent of the time.  He’s been doing everything well so far this season as evidenced by his .391 wOBA and 147 wRC+.  What’s behind Nate’s success so far this season?

Well, for one thing he’s drawing walks an excellent 14.5 percent of the time.  On top of that, he’s rarely striking out with a strikeout rate of only 9.4 percent.  He’s actually drawn 17 walks while only striking out 11 times.  All of this getting on base has helped him score 25 runs in 28 games.

Watching his at bats this year, it seems like he’s done an excellent job of not swinging at pitches that were out of the strike zone or that weren’t in the part of the zone that he can do damage in.  Let’s drill down even deeper into his plate discipline numbers and see if that’s really the case.

According to FanGraphs, McLouth has only swung at 16.4 percent of pitches that were outside the strike zone to him this year.  While he’s always been above average at not swinging at pitches out of the zone, this year he’s taken it to a whole new level.  16.4 percent would be his career low, or high depending on how you want to look at it.  It’s also the second lowest rate in the major leagues right now behind A.J. Ellis of the Dodgers.  The league average rate so far this season is 29.2 percent.  It’s pretty clear that McLouth is doing an excellent job laying off pitches outside the strike zone.

If you thought that McLouth’s walk rate was up because pitchers were throwing him more balls than normal, that’d be understandable.  But it’s not the case.  51.3 percent of pitches thrown to him have been in the strike zone when the league throws 46.2 percent of all pitches in the strike zone.  So he’s seeing about 5 percent more pitches in the strike zone than the typical batter and he’s still walking 14.5 percent of the time.

The other thing that McLouth is doing exceptionally well so far this season is making contact.  His contact rate of 92.1 percent is the 5^th highest rate in the majors.  He’s able to maintain that kind of elite contact rate because he almost never swings and misses at strikes.  And as we saw earlier, he’s doing as well as anyone at not swinging at balls.  When a pitcher is throwing a strike to Nate, he is only swinging and missing at the pitch an astonishing 3 percent of the time.  That is the 4^th lowest rate in the league behind such contact luminaries as Marco Scutaro, Placido Polanco and Nori Aoki.

To sum up McLouth’s approach at the plate these days: he’s not swinging at balls, he’s swinging at less strikes than an average hitter, and when he does swing he’s making more contact than almost everyone else in the league.  That’s how he’s accumulated 17 walks and 11 strikeouts so far this season.  And that’s the approach that’s led to him putting up a .414 on base percentage so far.

I also wanted to look at his batted ball mix to see if anything had changed dramatically.  He has traded a few fly balls for line drives but his ground ball rate is exactly the same as last year.  Everything looks pretty normal, though he is hitting less infield flies than he has in the last few years.  That is a good thing since over 99 percent of infield flies are turned into outs.  McLouth’s HR/FB rate is right in line with his career as well, so he hasn’t seen any more of his fly balls leave the park than normal either.

The one thing we haven’t talked about yet is the fact that McLouth has done almost all of this versus right handed pitching.  He has only been in the lineup when a right handed pitcher is on the mound for the opposing team.  When a lefty is starting for the opponent, Nolan Reimold has been inserted into left field.  During the offseason, I wrote that McLouth should be platooned with Reimold because McLouth has historically struggled versus lefties.

His career slash line versus lefties is .222/.302/.347.  Not so good.  For comparison, Nate’s career line versus righties is .260/.350/.449.  So I thought at the time that it would be a good idea for him to only be in the lineup versus righties.  Apparently, that idea made some sense and that is what Buck Showalter has decided to go with so far.  But with his new and improved approach at the plate this season, should he start to see more time versus lefties too?

I don’t know the answer to that question.  Nolan Reimold has struggled so far this season and has only put up a .194/.267/.344 slash line in 105 plate appearances.  He’s been slightly better against lefties than righties, but not much.  I think we can all agree that Reimold has a lot more talent at the plate than he’s shown so far this season.  Will that talent come out if he’s limited to the designated hitter solely versus left handed pitching?  I doubt it.

It’s tough to say whether Nate McLouth’s improved approach at the plate this season would continue if was facing pitchers of both hands on a consistent basis.  If it did, it would be worth playing McLouth every day no matter what hand the starting pitcher threw the baseball with.  Hopefully McLouth maintains this approach throughout the season, because it’s led to him starting the season doing everything the Orioles hoped for when they brought him back in the offseason.

What do you guys think?  Should McLouth start to see time versus left handed starters?  Feel free to discuss that here.

Note: All stats are through Tuesday night’s game.

The post What’s Behind Nate McLouth’s Fast Start? appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.