155 replies to this topic

[NewMarketSean]

Streak was impressive and it’s great the team is good again but they were swept in the playoffs last year so the regular season thing was just a silly technicality.

They earned the sweep, though. Poor hitting, a major fielding error and baserunning blunder.

[CantonJester]

They have Cedric under contract through next year. Bradfield won’t be ready (if he ascends) until, what, late 2026 or 2027? If this is who Mullins is now, then he indeed is ideally a late inning defensive replacement. Who then plays CF? Cuz ideally you don’t want to replace an .876 OPS bat (Cowser) out of the lineup in a close & late situation. Stowers has MILB experience at all three OF positions. Daniel Johnson is a career minor leaguer down in Norfolk. 

 

I’m legit curious about Dylan Beavers (playing RF in Bowie cuz Jud Fabian is playing CF) and his longterm potential. 

[jamesdean]

Look, they could sweep the pitiful White Sox, go on a 10-game winning streak and this little downswing will all be forgotten.  But I do think the criticism is warranted as far as the offense goes and their infuriating approach to hitting.  It's not something that is extraneous or shouldn't be addressed.  If it was a few guys in the line-up slumping while the others were compensating for it, there wouldn't be as much angst here.  For me at least, the concern is real. 

[BSLSteveBirrer]

If Mullins' hitting is what it is now I don't think you can have him on the roster at all. Roster spots are too few to carry an almost auto out just for defense. And before somebody chines in with he got a ph single today ....he hit a weak grounded that just found it's way through.

Now I don't know if he's hitting is done or not but that base running mistake today....Holy hell....

[NewMarketSean]

Definitely at a crossroads with Mullins.

[BaltBird 24]

Mullins isn't and hasn't been good for a while now.

Saw a stat today that since 7/1 of last year, Mullins wRC+ is 66, which ranks 209th out of 217 batters with 300+ PAs. Hays hasn't been much better at 72 wRC+, but he's at least appearing to be hitting the ball hard.

Mullins has a soft contact rate of 25%, a strikeout rate over 33%, and a line drive % of 7.4.

His days as an asset at the plate may very well be over.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Probably no need to go look up that thread on extending Mullins, unless it's to delete it. Dodged that bullet.

[BSLSteveBirrer]

My wife is really sad about Mullins as he's her favorite Oriole. But even she says enough is enoughm

[Mackus]

I think Mullins has until Cowser starts looking good in CF.  I'm skeptical, but if Cowser can play adequately there everyday, then Mullins' time is going to start going down significantly.  If he can't play an adequate CF, then I think Mullins has to get going soon enough to avoid them pursuing a deadline solution, so early July and play well for a few weeks.  If he keeps hitting like a pitcher, then that'll happen quicker, but I don't think that's possible.  He's in a slump and hitting like someone in a deep slump.  but when he gets out of the slump, he needs to hover around 700 at a minimum and not hover around 600.  If he falls below 700, then the defense doesn't save him and we need an alternative.

 

No arguing for his performance lately and most of this season, it's been dreadful.  Also terrible late in 2023.  I still think he's a low-to-mid 700s guy with some small upside to have an 800 season, but we're aiming for a division championship so I wouldn't ride out that evaluation too long before seeking alternatives (especially if an alternative is already in-house like Cowser might be).  Or hell, Mateo might be the alternative, though I prefer the potential offensive uptick that would come with Cowser and Hays or Stowers.  I'm not optimistic about Kjerstad or Norby being able to play LF, but if they can, then include them as options.

[Mackus]

Maybe Mullins is another victim of Shack's "first kid" pitfall theory.

[BaltBird 24]

Cowser hasn't looked bad in CF. Range is good enough, arm is certainly much stronger than Mullins, though not accurate.

[BSLSteveBirrer]

It's a tough situation. The only way to know if Cowser can play CF is to give him time there. The only way for Mullins to break out of his slump is to get a good number of at bats. The only way to do both is to give Mullins the DH spot. Not sure how that can work.

[jamesdean]

The problem with a team wide slump is that everyone is pressing and trying to do too much.  I don't know why it took so long but the book is definitely out on how to get Orioles hitters to look pretty foolish.  Stay away from the center of the plate, throw a lot of change-ups and cutters down in the zone with an occasional breaking ball also off the plate.  Naturally, pitchers will make mistakes and leave one out over the plate but right now, the Orioles, outside of Gunnar, are missing those too.  And of course, Orioles hitters have failed to adjust.  They just can't lay off balls out of the strike zone.  None of them are seeing the ball well and are incapable of differentiating a ball from a strike right now.  Like I said, if it was just a few guys in a slump, it wouldn't be so bad.  But this is the whole line-up for the most part.  There's no way the pitching can continue to flash a sub-3.00 ERA indefinitely and with only scoring a 2-3 runs a game, they're going to lose most games.  

[Mackus]

Rutschman, Mullins, and Westburg are the big surprises in terms of walk-rate.  Hard to argue too much with the approach from Adley and Westburg, since they are hitting so well.  But Adley is walking only 5% after walking over 13% his first two seasons.  That's an almost unfathomable dropoff.  Westburg is around 7%, which matches last year but is a good bit down from his minor league numbers of over 10%.  Mullins has been awful at everything, so no surprise his walk-rate is down, but its under 6% after being 8% for his career.  Mateo at 2B instead of Holliday is also a big drop off, but can't expect more from Mateo.

 

Everyone else is doing what you'd expect. Mountcastle is down a noticeable amount, but I always expect him to be a free swinger.  O'Hearn is actually walking a lot this year after never being able to before.  Tony is around his averages. Gunnar is near 10% and Cowser is over 12%.  But those three above are a third of our lineup and are way down collectively, which drives down the rest of the squad.

[weird-O]

Seems like so many hate this streak related to winning.  Great.  

 

Now that we lost 3 in a row, everyone happy now?

Being happy that they have avoided being swept for so long, and being tired of hearing about it multiple times a game, while also seeing it blasted all over their socials, aren't mutually exclusive. It wasn't something we needed to be beaten over the head with all day every day. It was a quirky, little anomaly.

 

I like that we get to listen to Kevin Brown call the O's games. But it got to the point to where I feel like every morning, he woke up and said to himself, "I get to talk about the streak again today".

 

I don't remember Cal's consecutive game streak being talked about, every game.   

[weird-O]

If Mullins' hitting is what it is now I don't think you can have him on the roster at all. Roster spots are too few to carry an almost auto out just for defense. And before somebody chines in with he got a ph single today ....he hit a weak grounded that just found it's way through.

Now I don't know if he's hitting is done or not but that base running mistake today....Holy hell....

Yep!

Like someone posted when it happened, he could have run to 2B, held there, and still scored if the ball fell in. No veteran player should have made that mistake.