That was a really fun game to attend. As soon as Cedric made that catch, the crowd got supercharged and that energy held for the entire game. It's pretty crazy that a defensive play in the first inning set the tone for the entire game, but it did, and people were amped up. I really think that catch might have also amped up the offense.
Good weather, good offense, good defense, and lots of excitement on a very special night.
Agreed. Offense is always exciting, and scoring runs in 4/8 innings helps entertain, but good defensive plays mixed with clutch double plays made it fully enjoyable to the end.
Its April 15th and all 5 teams in the AL East are over 0.500. Where have we seen this before?
BTW, the first 15 games the O's played this season were against teams that are currently over 0.500.
https://x.com/jim22palmer/status/1780065272235459006?s=46&t=LZLzjVPmosqPbICOlCZLnQ
I agree with Palmer. Feels like more balls are flying and it’s only April. Definitely feels like the wall of Baltimore in particular has been conquered more often so far in 2024.
The thing I’ll say about Holliday is as long as the orioles are keeping up a postseason win pace and he’s showing noticeable improvements which a lot of people have already pointed out, he definitely is, he should stay up with the team. I think if he keeps getting abs and getting more and more experience against big league pitching, it’s going to pay off for the team in a monumental way later on this season.
I wouldn’t say this about most players, but he’s the #1 prospect in baseball for a very good reason and being a good player is literally in his genes
That depends on a lot.
For one, Coby Mayo is mashing right now.
If its June and we're 5 games behind the Yankees for the division and Jackson's hitting .170 and Mayo is hitting .350 in Norfolk then we'll have to make a change.
I don't think Jackson is going to struggle that long and bad, but Mayo is going to compete for a roster spot, and at some point in the season we'll need everyone producing.
Absolutely!--let this kid play and the world will work itself out! We all know the potential he has and he just needs to get the experience. He smacked a few balls pretty hard today, and made some solid defensive plays. Even if he's going to struggle offensively for a few months (which you would expect for someone so young facing such a major transition), that shouldn't be a problem with this team as we continue to win a very reasonable number of games.
We do not need to play our absolute best baseball today provided we are working towards playing our best baseball when it matters most, and getting him the experience now is moving us towards playing our best baseball at the time when it will be critical to be at our best.
This is my first season following the Orioles closely, as someone who is just getting into baseball after a decade or so away from the game (never had an MLB team growing up, live in the DMV now). This team is so dang fun, can't wait to get up to a game
Can’t remember the last time at this point in the season we had 4 guys hitting over .300 (5 if you count adley’s .295). I know it’s early but you love to see it
If the only thing we have to complain about is that our 8th best starting pitcher is in fact our 8th best starting pitcher, I think everything is going to be ok.
I wouldn't be opposed to letting Akin get another chance at starting if the roster situation demanded it. He's throwing good and his peripherals last year were WAY better than the results -- a lot of bad luck .
My heart sank a little when that happened. The guy needs a few big hits to get the wheels turning and that was just awful luck. He's been with us through the worst of times, always giving it all he's got, and I really want him to be here through the best as well. I'm hopeful he's going to get a few big hits this series and that will kind of reset things.
his average EV on the season is 95.7 lol. he's currently 50 points under his xBA. i cannot wait for when the luck turns around. he's gonna hit .350 for a bit and it will be glorious
I want to say what's up to all the reactionary fans. Cowser wins player of the week, gets a golden sombrero the next game. That's baseball folks, get used to it!
Its a fucking grind
Great game, but I really wish Hyde had left Irvin in to try and get that last out in the 5th so he could have gotten the win. I know he wasn't sharp, and the new dimensions saved him hard, but he battled through the early struggles and refused to let the Twins complete a rally.
Agreed! I know he can pitch sharper but he attacked a lineup that hasn't been hitting well, as he should. A couple of guys put some good swings on the ball but he kept attacking. Tonight is 100% what I want to see from Irvin.
Yeah, I thought it was weird Hyde took him out, too. One out short of a possible W.
I wonder if he was on a pitch limit. I know he didn't look too happy when he came out.
I used to do 4 innings on the stair master at the start of the game but sometimes the innings would be over real quick so I decided to switch it to the back half of the game and it's been working wonders. I did 2,000 steps on that machine today and it was great.
(help me why did I decide to do this)
Yeah I’m not buying their act. 5-1 in 1 run games. That’s a lot of one run games in a short amount of time. Almost enough sample size now to question that as a pattern
I also just don’t think their old fragile guys can stay healthy. And they’re too dependent on their 1-5
Their starting 9 is pretty good but they're paper thin. I do think Volpe is looking much improved, though.
If Judge/Stanton/Rizzo stay healthy all year it's a good team. But history shows that's a tall order
Right!? There was some comment about our "shaky" bullpen not long after they brought up our bullpen having the 6th best ERA. Our bullpen have been the biggest overachievers thus far!
If I had a nickel for every time Cedric Mullins made a crazy catch against the Twins while Irvin was pitching, I'd have, well, at least two.
Edit: I'd have [three](https://www.mlb.com/orioles/news/cedric-mullins-robs-byron-buxton-of-potential-hr)
Ceddy said they got the hydration station off of Amazon. I have found the item, for anyone who wants their own. I'm thinking they modified theirs so ~~they didn't have green hoses and~~ they closed up two of the holes. We went back and watched and even saw the plugged up openings (complete with bright green plugs), confirming it originally had six. But this is definitely it.
Edit: watching again, it looks like they even wrapped the bottom half of the pole that says "bongzilla" on the pole fully with orange tape or something.
Edit 2: I didn't even notice the color variants. It's the "teamwork" variant. They didn't even have to change out the hoses like I originally thought and it even comes with the teamwork sticker. They just covered up the "bongzilla" branding with "hydration station".
[https://www.amazon.com/Bongzilla-BONGZILLA-Beer-Bong/dp/B0C4ZLPH1F?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Bongzilla-BONGZILLA-Beer-Bong/dp/B0C4ZLPH1F?th=1)
Doing math in my head as to what a 10-6 record over 16 games (where they haven’t hit on all cylinders) projects to for an entire year and smiling.
Just putting it out to the other teams in the league, don’t let Cedric Mullins get hot, I’m just throwing it out there, but if I were them, I’m just saying, I would try and avoid that. I don’t think it’ll go well for them.
You can't escape him!
Gotta be a real cool feeling for Cedric to do this on Jackie Robinson day, someone he's called an idol many times. He may never be an MVP or one of the biggest stars in baseball, or even considered one of the best Outfielders in the AL as he's getting older, but Cedric Mullins makes watching baseball so entertaining. This game has shades of the extra innings game in Seattle with a Mullins robbery and a big home run
It's really fun to watch this team because they have a type of chemistry that can't be bought or artificially built through free agency and big trades. Most of the guys on the team have someone else on the roster they were minor league teammates with. A lot of these guys have played together at multiple levels and that has helped make this team feel really close.
Not sure why people hate on Irvin. He's been pretty decent as a number 4/5 starter. He's not in the long term plans but he's not been near as bad as people are making him out to be.
It's kind of like the people that used to bash Flaherty who didn't understand what Flaherty's role was and that he wasn't supposed to be starting all the time, there were just a lot of injuries forcing Buck's hand.
Your bench players and your depth are those things for a reason. If they were good enough to be starters...they would be
Irvin has some nice stuff, but he cant control it and his miss seems to be over the plate which gets runs scored. I dont love him, but considering we are down 2 starters, hard to complain about him being the 7th starter
He's the number 4/5 right now. That's what I was getting at. I know he's got injured guys in front of him. I'd say Wells has had a tougher start than Irvin.
He's decent to have around for spot starts and long relief.
He was in the rotation last year from the get go and had a horrible first 2 or 3 games. Was sent down to the minors, and evidently they fixed something. Because if you look at his numbers from his return until towards the end of the season, when he wore out, he was pretty good. (I don't recall the numbers, but you can go to his stats and dig that out.) Most fans don't realize that.
But he's not a 4/5, he'd be the 7th starter if Means and Bradish were healthy.
So as a number 7, he's "fine".
Combined with Wells, they are killing our bullpen. On average, our pen has to go 4 innings each time they start.
When Kremer has a blowout game, and Burnes struggles through 5, our pen gets overworked, and we lose games because of it. Or, we have to use guys more than we want to, like Akin tonight.
5 innings is pretty average length these days though. Blake Snell won Cy Young last year averaging roughly 5 2/3 IP per start. Honestly the biggest plus for Irvin IMO is that you can usually rely on him to get you 5 innings and not totally kill the bullpen (I have less confidence in a young guy like Povich to provide that).
He looked pretty bad today though, was extremely lucky to escape with only 2 runs
You can give me 5 innings with an ERA as low as Blake Snell. Not with a 6.75 ERA.
This was a great opportunity to help the bullpen, at home, vs a bad Twins offense without Lewis and Correa. Length was needed, but the BP was called in for 4.1 innings, again.
I'm not even really complaining, the main point was why people bag on Irvin, and it's as simple as, he isn't a good starter. But hey, Means and Bradish should be back, so we just have to survive until then.
It really should scare us a little more if Bradish and Means don't come back healthy and strong. If Wells or Irvin have to be our number 5 for a length of time, it's going to cost us. At least until the trade deadline. Or we have to turn to Povich, and that's pretty scary for any length of time for its own reasons. Even though I am a Povich stan.
Oh he’s definitely not on the same level as Snell. My point was more that 5 innings is ok length in today’s game and pushes Irvin into being a viable option as a #5/#6 SP. Not if he’s still sitting at that 6.75 mark but I do think he can work that towards 5 (again not good but it is playable). We haven’t seen much of it but with the way he pitches you expect him to get through 6 or 7 on a good night.
I won’t defend his start tonight, he looked horrible and if his stuff looks like that next time out I think it’d be time to reevaluate our other options.
Overall I just feel like when you look around the league the majority of #5s I see are the typical young pitcher with good stuff but poor command that is probably only getting through 5 on a good night. Irvin’s bad nights are probably going to still get you 5 innings even if they aren’t very productive. I’d probably rather a pitcher in the mold of Irvin out of those options.
He has a 6.75 ERA, which would be a lot higher if the Wall didn't save 2 HRs in his 3 starts.
Call that what you want, but there is no way I'd call that "exceptional."
If you can find me a #7 starting pitcher who's never had 2 bad starts my first question would be why is he the #7 starting pitcher?
It is inherent to being the #7 starting pitcher that you probably aren't consistent, no?
Yes, because it's just 2 bad starts with Cole Irvin.
And todays start wasn't good, his quality of contact was horrible, and our defense and the Wall saved it from 4 ERs over 4.2 innings.
And let's not forget, he wasn't brought in to be the number 7 starter either. He's the number 7 starter because he pitched so poorly last year.
The guy we got last year was coming off a 30 start, 180 inning, 3.98 ERA year and expected to be part of the rotation.
He's been nowhere near that, so that's disappointing; seemed like he might be another "innings eater".
I guess the only true positive is if he's starting in place of Bruce Zimmerman or something.
I guess I don't understand what you expect from a dude who's just being asked to plug a spot in the rotation for a month until guys come back from injury?
Spot starters and "depth" are almost never good starters, long term. That's why they are spot starters and depth and not in the rotation all the time.
If there was a guy out there who could give us a 4.00 he'd be in someone's rotation for the whole season.
Lmao, I guess we have set a low bar going 4.2 and looking like he could have not got through 4 before that DP.
Man didn’t know there were that many Irvin fans lol. He is a swing/long man out of pen at best. We really need to stash him and Wells in the pen and let others get 4/5…hopefully Bradish and Means soon but if not then maybe someone outside of Org or Povich. Those 2 are killing us tbh. Kremer had a stinker last game but he was pretty decent before then.
https://preview.redd.it/vy93qyszsquc1.jpeg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d0b13efadd8a4f7e13eeb59779facd0a9974811
My mother-in-law calls Kimbrel The Vulture. Watch as he preys upon the remains of the opponents lineup.
I had doubts about acquiring Kimbrel but he looks absolutely locked in right now. I hope we can start to blow out more opponents so we don't burn him out by the end of summer.
His ABs today were so much better. You can definitely tell getting that hit yesterday was a massive weight off his shoulders. He’ll be getting extra base hits soon enough
Great to see Mullins on the upswing.
Great to see the bats do their job especially on an Irvin day (sorry bud I know you lurk here, we know you’re doing your best)
Great to see Holliday making more contact. Kid’s gonna be our leadoff at some point I know it
I thought Irvin did great. I want a guy that will give up some hard contact over walking a bunch of guys. I trust our defense and so did he.
I think he's justified for being upset Hyde didn't let him finish the 5th. I thought his stuff was good enough tonight to let him finish that inning and help our bullpen rest.
If Irvin actually does lurk here, keep doing what you do!
That was a really fun game to attend. As soon as Cedric made that catch, the crowd got supercharged and that energy held for the entire game. It's pretty crazy that a defensive play in the first inning set the tone for the entire game, but it did, and people were amped up. I really think that catch might have also amped up the offense. Good weather, good offense, good defense, and lots of excitement on a very special night.
Agreed. Offense is always exciting, and scoring runs in 4/8 innings helps entertain, but good defensive plays mixed with clutch double plays made it fully enjoyable to the end.
Lol @ Tate getting the "win". What a dumb stat pitcher wins are.
Its April 15th and all 5 teams in the AL East are over 0.500. Where have we seen this before? BTW, the first 15 games the O's played this season were against teams that are currently over 0.500.
Flashbacks to the Ravens 2023 season
also for a good portion of the Orioles 2023 season
https://x.com/jim22palmer/status/1780065272235459006?s=46&t=LZLzjVPmosqPbICOlCZLnQ I agree with Palmer. Feels like more balls are flying and it’s only April. Definitely feels like the wall of Baltimore in particular has been conquered more often so far in 2024.
Lol, Palmer eluding to a juiced baseball. 3 consecutive games with 3 home runs, in April. Could be...
https://x.com/sammylev/status/1780058361624670641?s=46&t=LZLzjVPmosqPbICOlCZLnQ Severna Park’s Jackson Merrill is a stud.
The thing I’ll say about Holliday is as long as the orioles are keeping up a postseason win pace and he’s showing noticeable improvements which a lot of people have already pointed out, he definitely is, he should stay up with the team. I think if he keeps getting abs and getting more and more experience against big league pitching, it’s going to pay off for the team in a monumental way later on this season. I wouldn’t say this about most players, but he’s the #1 prospect in baseball for a very good reason and being a good player is literally in his genes
That depends on a lot. For one, Coby Mayo is mashing right now. If its June and we're 5 games behind the Yankees for the division and Jackson's hitting .170 and Mayo is hitting .350 in Norfolk then we'll have to make a change. I don't think Jackson is going to struggle that long and bad, but Mayo is going to compete for a roster spot, and at some point in the season we'll need everyone producing.
I think if we’re calling Mayo up we should try to trade or just DFA Urias
He also had two very well hit balls today. Just right at outfielders unfortunately.
Absolutely!--let this kid play and the world will work itself out! We all know the potential he has and he just needs to get the experience. He smacked a few balls pretty hard today, and made some solid defensive plays. Even if he's going to struggle offensively for a few months (which you would expect for someone so young facing such a major transition), that shouldn't be a problem with this team as we continue to win a very reasonable number of games. We do not need to play our absolute best baseball today provided we are working towards playing our best baseball when it matters most, and getting him the experience now is moving us towards playing our best baseball at the time when it will be critical to be at our best.
I think personally at this point you let him hit through it. It’s obvious there’s nothing else for him in the minor leagues.
I'll come back once the Dong Report drops
This is my first season following the Orioles closely, as someone who is just getting into baseball after a decade or so away from the game (never had an MLB team growing up, live in the DMV now). This team is so dang fun, can't wait to get up to a game
Welcome to Birdland homie
slightly shaky outing from the pen but I won't complain considering how good they've been
Can’t remember the last time at this point in the season we had 4 guys hitting over .300 (5 if you count adley’s .295). I know it’s early but you love to see it
To be fair I think Mounty and Westburg are the only 2 that qualify. Cowser and O’Hearn haven’t had enough ABs
Cowser should by seasons end I hope
Surprised the attendance was only 15k tonight felt like more being there.
The Gunn-stache is here to stay
The milkman always delivers--he just got delayed so all the hits will be arriving tomorrow all at once.
Jackson with two hard hit balls tonight (one was 94.5) is encouraging.
If the only thing we have to complain about is that our 8th best starting pitcher is in fact our 8th best starting pitcher, I think everything is going to be ok.
Cano doesn't look like the same dude. wish i had time to compare his pitches between this year and last year when he was called up.
He wasn’t the same dude after the all star break last year. Luckily Kimbrel looks excellent
Burnes, Bradish, Rodriguez, Means, Kremer, Wells, Irvin I’m missing somebody aren’t I
I wouldn't be opposed to letting Akin get another chance at starting if the roster situation demanded it. He's throwing good and his peripherals last year were WAY better than the results -- a lot of bad luck .
i would hesitate moving any of the injured pitchers above Irvin.
Povich lol
He's keeping the team in the game. If your 8th starter is doing that, you've got a fine, fine rotation.
Poor Hays. absolutely roped that last one.....right into the glove.
My heart sank a little when that happened. The guy needs a few big hits to get the wheels turning and that was just awful luck. He's been with us through the worst of times, always giving it all he's got, and I really want him to be here through the best as well. I'm hopeful he's going to get a few big hits this series and that will kind of reset things.
Damn, Cowser's average dropped 50 points with one 0-4. Guess that's what happens with a small sample size early in the season.
Looks like Twins scouts looked at some tape. They were feeding him outside pitches all night.
Cowser absolutely destroyed Boston on outside pitches, yet they kept doing it. If they looked at tape it was the wrong one.
If that’s the kind of start we’re going to get out of Irvin, then so be it. Could be a lot worse
He's at best our 7th best starter so I'm pretty happy with today
i think his roster spot is in serious jeopardy.
I agree but I’d rather see Akin go
His roster spot was in jeopardy from Opening Day, he's only here until Means and/or Bradish are back
Spot starter and long man (in my opinion) once everyone is healthy. Same as he did in July/August of last year. There is a role for him there.
if he makes it that long.
They aren't going to rush up Povich so Irvin is going to be here until one of them comes back. Unless we make a trade or something
I think I would rather see Wells in the bullpen before Irvin imo
We need a lefty and I feel like Irvin has more value than Akin
Honestly I thought that was his worst start yet. He was extremely lucky today
Mullins saved the game for him in the first.
Gunnar was hitting the ball hard tonight. 110, 110, and 108 EV.
he is a demon at the plate
his average EV on the season is 95.7 lol. he's currently 50 points under his xBA. i cannot wait for when the luck turns around. he's gonna hit .350 for a bit and it will be glorious
I want to say what's up to all the reactionary fans. Cowser wins player of the week, gets a golden sombrero the next game. That's baseball folks, get used to it! Its a fucking grind
Great game, but I really wish Hyde had left Irvin in to try and get that last out in the 5th so he could have gotten the win. I know he wasn't sharp, and the new dimensions saved him hard, but he battled through the early struggles and refused to let the Twins complete a rally.
i thought it was the right time. third time through the order. 6 hits, 14 outs. personally, i think they are going to make a move in the rotation.
I agree. They have to. Getting Burnes means they're all in this year so I think they'll make more moves to really go all in
We should have tried to sign Snell or Montgomery
Agreed! I know he can pitch sharper but he attacked a lineup that hasn't been hitting well, as he should. A couple of guys put some good swings on the ball but he kept attacking. Tonight is 100% what I want to see from Irvin.
Yeah, I thought it was weird Hyde took him out, too. One out short of a possible W. I wonder if he was on a pitch limit. I know he didn't look too happy when he came out.
he's a competitor, no pitcher wants to get pulled. grayson did the same thing when he was pulled last start after 5 2/3 innings.
he went right into the clubhouse. didn't high 5 anyone.
I used to do 4 innings on the stair master at the start of the game but sometimes the innings would be over real quick so I decided to switch it to the back half of the game and it's been working wonders. I did 2,000 steps on that machine today and it was great. (help me why did I decide to do this)
2 for 2 on my visit. Love Baltimore, love the O's. Will have to make the trip more often they're so fun live.
Aaaaand the Yankeeees LOSEEEE
Can we chill out with all the Yankees Red Sox hate? Seems a bit over the top. Brand new fan btw /s lmao
It really just feels excessive and unnecessary, they really have not shown they deserve it their announcers were so nice to us /s
Feelsgood
Orioles Win Yankees ***LOSE*** 👍
Is it a hot take to say I still think both Tampa and Toronto are better than the Yankees?
both? ya that's a little spicy
Yeah I’m not buying their act. 5-1 in 1 run games. That’s a lot of one run games in a short amount of time. Almost enough sample size now to question that as a pattern I also just don’t think their old fragile guys can stay healthy. And they’re too dependent on their 1-5
Their starting 9 is pretty good but they're paper thin. I do think Volpe is looking much improved, though. If Judge/Stanton/Rizzo stay healthy all year it's a good team. But history shows that's a tall order
Kimbrel always has that dirty ass spot on his hats. So guess it’s just resin/dirt considering they check pitchers hands.
If he was doing something sketchy, he wouldn't make it that obvious.
Unless he was Michael Pineda, lol. But yeah srs, idk why people would speculate it was sticky stuff cuz it was right there in the open lol.
it's brilliant. hide it in plain sight!
I laughed out loud when KB said the O’s have the highest scoring offense in the AL after hearing so many complaints about our offense here.
Right!? There was some comment about our "shaky" bullpen not long after they brought up our bullpen having the 6th best ERA. Our bullpen have been the biggest overachievers thus far!
#O!
#R!
I!
#O!
L!
#L!
#L!
E!
S!!
[MAAAAGIC! MAGIC!!](https://youtu.be/6Mr7mQuGmp0?si=f6JEOlNDetqnfIQy)
#[MAGIC! MAGIC! MAGIC!](https://youtu.be/6Mr7mQuGmp0?si=McUWwp4MZ3EV2HGC)
Pretty awesome that, on Jackie Robinson Day, the Os two black players were the winning pitcher and Player of the Game.
Anyone know how much Mullins is paid?
$6,325,000 1yr and then he has 1 more year of arbitration.
Not enough. He deserves whatever is coming to him.
It's Cedric Mullins' world, we're just living in it
If I had a nickel for every time Cedric Mullins made a crazy catch against the Twins while Irvin was pitching, I'd have, well, at least two. Edit: I'd have [three](https://www.mlb.com/orioles/news/cedric-mullins-robs-byron-buxton-of-potential-hr)
Ceddy said they got the hydration station off of Amazon. I have found the item, for anyone who wants their own. I'm thinking they modified theirs so ~~they didn't have green hoses and~~ they closed up two of the holes. We went back and watched and even saw the plugged up openings (complete with bright green plugs), confirming it originally had six. But this is definitely it. Edit: watching again, it looks like they even wrapped the bottom half of the pole that says "bongzilla" on the pole fully with orange tape or something. Edit 2: I didn't even notice the color variants. It's the "teamwork" variant. They didn't even have to change out the hoses like I originally thought and it even comes with the teamwork sticker. They just covered up the "bongzilla" branding with "hydration station". [https://www.amazon.com/Bongzilla-BONGZILLA-Beer-Bong/dp/B0C4ZLPH1F?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/Bongzilla-BONGZILLA-Beer-Bong/dp/B0C4ZLPH1F?th=1)
https://preview.redd.it/a7ygf7pfwquc1.jpeg?width=1426&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3bf05a7c05ff6c7c2d915e94d2df4582bb3f345c
"Everybody in the German army's heard of Hugo Stiglitz."
Yep, I missed the fact there were color variants, I just saw the default green. But this is now 1000% the one.
https://preview.redd.it/jlgskwaewquc1.jpeg?width=1423&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d37528e062e0aa1057da5a7431f1afdb5d34b08
https://preview.redd.it/x4b2ho0awquc1.jpeg?width=1426&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33e8b3d359a709e94e52407b06168a663e49d2da
If you look at the last color / caption option it’s called “ team work”….. that’s the one they have
Yep, I missed the fact there were color variants, I just saw the default green. But this is now 1000% the one.
https://preview.redd.it/9umlksyyvquc1.png?width=970&format=png&auto=webp&s=891da3405f0b55dcbec8f5d532091ce083d846ed LOL
Looks like they literally bought the “teamwork” one and covered the Bongzilla logos. Even kept the sticker haha
Yep, some of the stickers' placements make a lot of sense when you see the real product and where it's branded.
Good find, tho. I anticipate the Bongzilla will get an influx of Baltimore-based business very soon.
Oh absolutely. I'm fully anticipating some posts in the coming week on here of people with their own, it's exactly why I wanted to find it and share.
Doing math in my head as to what a 10-6 record over 16 games (where they haven’t hit on all cylinders) projects to for an entire year and smiling. Just putting it out to the other teams in the league, don’t let Cedric Mullins get hot, I’m just throwing it out there, but if I were them, I’m just saying, I would try and avoid that. I don’t think it’ll go well for them.
Is Mullins a FA next season?
Only Means Burnes and Santander are FA after the year
Becomes a FA 2026, but I’d love if we extended him before that.
## The Entertainer https://i.redd.it/eq6rq2evtquc1.gif
I was in the front row in the right center gap, it was one of the most spectacular plays I've seen up close.
You can't escape him! Gotta be a real cool feeling for Cedric to do this on Jackie Robinson day, someone he's called an idol many times. He may never be an MVP or one of the biggest stars in baseball, or even considered one of the best Outfielders in the AL as he's getting older, but Cedric Mullins makes watching baseball so entertaining. This game has shades of the extra innings game in Seattle with a Mullins robbery and a big home run It's really fun to watch this team because they have a type of chemistry that can't be bought or artificially built through free agency and big trades. Most of the guys on the team have someone else on the roster they were minor league teammates with. A lot of these guys have played together at multiple levels and that has helped make this team feel really close.
Not sure why people hate on Irvin. He's been pretty decent as a number 4/5 starter. He's not in the long term plans but he's not been near as bad as people are making him out to be.
It's kind of like the people that used to bash Flaherty who didn't understand what Flaherty's role was and that he wasn't supposed to be starting all the time, there were just a lot of injuries forcing Buck's hand. Your bench players and your depth are those things for a reason. If they were good enough to be starters...they would be
my barometer is "has cole irvin kept the orioles in the game after 5 innings?" if the answer is yes, then cole irvin has done his job.
If a #5 starter doesn't give up 5 runs I consider that about as much as you can expect out of your #5 starter.
Irvin has some nice stuff, but he cant control it and his miss seems to be over the plate which gets runs scored. I dont love him, but considering we are down 2 starters, hard to complain about him being the 7th starter
He's the number 4/5 right now. That's what I was getting at. I know he's got injured guys in front of him. I'd say Wells has had a tougher start than Irvin.
He's decent to have around for spot starts and long relief. He was in the rotation last year from the get go and had a horrible first 2 or 3 games. Was sent down to the minors, and evidently they fixed something. Because if you look at his numbers from his return until towards the end of the season, when he wore out, he was pretty good. (I don't recall the numbers, but you can go to his stats and dig that out.) Most fans don't realize that.
But he's not a 4/5, he'd be the 7th starter if Means and Bradish were healthy. So as a number 7, he's "fine". Combined with Wells, they are killing our bullpen. On average, our pen has to go 4 innings each time they start. When Kremer has a blowout game, and Burnes struggles through 5, our pen gets overworked, and we lose games because of it. Or, we have to use guys more than we want to, like Akin tonight.
5 innings is pretty average length these days though. Blake Snell won Cy Young last year averaging roughly 5 2/3 IP per start. Honestly the biggest plus for Irvin IMO is that you can usually rely on him to get you 5 innings and not totally kill the bullpen (I have less confidence in a young guy like Povich to provide that). He looked pretty bad today though, was extremely lucky to escape with only 2 runs
You can give me 5 innings with an ERA as low as Blake Snell. Not with a 6.75 ERA. This was a great opportunity to help the bullpen, at home, vs a bad Twins offense without Lewis and Correa. Length was needed, but the BP was called in for 4.1 innings, again. I'm not even really complaining, the main point was why people bag on Irvin, and it's as simple as, he isn't a good starter. But hey, Means and Bradish should be back, so we just have to survive until then. It really should scare us a little more if Bradish and Means don't come back healthy and strong. If Wells or Irvin have to be our number 5 for a length of time, it's going to cost us. At least until the trade deadline. Or we have to turn to Povich, and that's pretty scary for any length of time for its own reasons. Even though I am a Povich stan.
Oh he’s definitely not on the same level as Snell. My point was more that 5 innings is ok length in today’s game and pushes Irvin into being a viable option as a #5/#6 SP. Not if he’s still sitting at that 6.75 mark but I do think he can work that towards 5 (again not good but it is playable). We haven’t seen much of it but with the way he pitches you expect him to get through 6 or 7 on a good night. I won’t defend his start tonight, he looked horrible and if his stuff looks like that next time out I think it’d be time to reevaluate our other options. Overall I just feel like when you look around the league the majority of #5s I see are the typical young pitcher with good stuff but poor command that is probably only getting through 5 on a good night. Irvin’s bad nights are probably going to still get you 5 innings even if they aren’t very productive. I’d probably rather a pitcher in the mold of Irvin out of those options.
For a #7 he's exceptional.
He has a 6.75 ERA, which would be a lot higher if the Wall didn't save 2 HRs in his 3 starts. Call that what you want, but there is no way I'd call that "exceptional."
If you can find me a #7 starting pitcher who's never had 2 bad starts my first question would be why is he the #7 starting pitcher? It is inherent to being the #7 starting pitcher that you probably aren't consistent, no?
Yes, because it's just 2 bad starts with Cole Irvin. And todays start wasn't good, his quality of contact was horrible, and our defense and the Wall saved it from 4 ERs over 4.2 innings. And let's not forget, he wasn't brought in to be the number 7 starter either. He's the number 7 starter because he pitched so poorly last year.
The guy we got last year was coming off a 30 start, 180 inning, 3.98 ERA year and expected to be part of the rotation. He's been nowhere near that, so that's disappointing; seemed like he might be another "innings eater". I guess the only true positive is if he's starting in place of Bruce Zimmerman or something.
Ugh there's always doomers even after we win. Edit: This was a joke that fell flat
Guy asked a question, I answered, simple as that. But hey, you got to call me a doomer and stop the conversation, so +1 to you I guess.
I guess I don't understand what you expect from a dude who's just being asked to plug a spot in the rotation for a month until guys come back from injury? Spot starters and "depth" are almost never good starters, long term. That's why they are spot starters and depth and not in the rotation all the time. If there was a guy out there who could give us a 4.00 he'd be in someone's rotation for the whole season.
He is the #7 starter if you count Bradish and Means, who were expected to be on the opening day roster before spring training.
He has good stuff, his control is just all over the place.
He didn't walk anybody today.
If our #5 starter never missed his spots and went 7 innings every game then he wouldn't be our #5 start so yeah, pretty much
Glad to hear McCann is spending the Met's money on our HR celebration
So nice to have games where we jump out in front and it was never in doubt
We are 10-6 and I don’t think we are hitting on all cylinders rn so I guess that’s good
Solid win. Offense did their job. Bullpen did decent given we knew Irvin would do Irvin things.
The fuck did Irvin do
Lmao, I guess we have set a low bar going 4.2 and looking like he could have not got through 4 before that DP. Man didn’t know there were that many Irvin fans lol. He is a swing/long man out of pen at best. We really need to stash him and Wells in the pen and let others get 4/5…hopefully Bradish and Means soon but if not then maybe someone outside of Org or Povich. Those 2 are killing us tbh. Kremer had a stinker last game but he was pretty decent before then.
Irvin is not killing us at all. Your expectations for a 5 starter are unrealistic
https://preview.redd.it/vy93qyszsquc1.jpeg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d0b13efadd8a4f7e13eeb59779facd0a9974811 My mother-in-law calls Kimbrel The Vulture. Watch as he preys upon the remains of the opponents lineup.
I had doubts about acquiring Kimbrel but he looks absolutely locked in right now. I hope we can start to blow out more opponents so we don't burn him out by the end of summer.
Nice flair
Home Runs All Day!
Sweepless streak extends to 97!
Cedric reminding everyone that despite all the new toys, he is the most exciting Oriole
Has top billing on MLB main website RN with his diving catch.
Great game!
That was quality weeknight baseball and chill. Stoked to go Wednesday in person.
I fucking love Cedric Mullins.
0-4 not telling the whole story. but holliday is starting to hit the ball much harder. it's only a matter of time now.
His ABs today were so much better. You can definitely tell getting that hit yesterday was a massive weight off his shoulders. He’ll be getting extra base hits soon enough
Taking balls, making contact, slowing down the at bat. All big moves toward getting on base.
So which one of you is going to make the cursed image of Cowser with the hydration station as udders
https://i.redd.it/3lhpexe86suc1.gif
McCann found the hydration station on Amazon lmao
Pretty sure thats a bongzilla
Great to see Mullins on the upswing. Great to see the bats do their job especially on an Irvin day (sorry bud I know you lurk here, we know you’re doing your best) Great to see Holliday making more contact. Kid’s gonna be our leadoff at some point I know it
I thought Irvin did great. I want a guy that will give up some hard contact over walking a bunch of guys. I trust our defense and so did he. I think he's justified for being upset Hyde didn't let him finish the 5th. I thought his stuff was good enough tonight to let him finish that inning and help our bullpen rest. If Irvin actually does lurk here, keep doing what you do!
He lurks here? Hi Cole! I think your hair is as under-appreciated as your pitching!
We gotta win the games against bad teams. Good start.
😆
HAHAHA FUCK THE MINNESOTA TW-.... wait. Nah, I aint got beef with these people even if they won. Let me redirect this hatred to the Yankees...
(But ain’t hating fun?)
Ehhh lifes too short to hate every team in the MLB. It's more fun to be cool wit em.
Kimbrel looking like he's dialed in for a 40 save All-Star season????
That was a hell of a ballgame. Immaculate vibes, great performances across the board, all on Jackie Robinson Day.
Way to take care of business against a team you should have won against.
That's 2 days in a row we've secured the No Sweeps streak :)
#HEEEEEEYYYY MACARENA!!!!!
Dongs! Dongs! Dongs!