They must have seen enough to gamble. The downside, of course, is that you are paying this guy $8.375M AAV when he would be less than $1M for the next 3 years and $67M total even if he ends up being Henry Davis.
I hear ya but I think it’s minimal risk. Basallo will be a stud. Elias on the hot seat too. Oriole fans think ownership has opened their pockets, but also that Elias is trying to be cute and do it on the cheap. They hate him.
I predict a W tonight. Lance had better control in his last rehab start, so I think he’ll struggle through 5 but keep things from spiraling. The Astros are seeing Povich for the second time and he’s the one bad Baltimore starter they hit pretty well against last series.
I am hopeful Lance is still a major injury risk, but if he can find his command he is still capable of being a very good MLB starter.
On your last point...there is no doubt this is true of a huge % of fans It's really hard to put a "grade" on Dana because NONE of us know what restrictions/demands Jim puts on him, but by and large I think he has done a great job On Espada, it's obvious that the players like him, for what that's worth. And he has kept the ship afloat through a crazy crazy injury season. My problem with Espada is the same issue I had with Dusty, and it shouldn't surprise that he manages very similarly to Dusty as he was his right hand man. Espada manages like it was 1985. Damn the actual info available and damn with looking at exactly what guys are good and bad at, there are certain things that must be done a certain way to him. The other night against Detroit (extra inning loss) was a great example. Espada pulled his entire OF to get left hand batters up there even though Finnegan doesn't fare much better or worse vs either handedness. Forcing Melton and Trammell into a game at that point just didn't give us an advantage against that pitcher, Sanchez was in the midst of like a 2-32 slump and Melton is hitting below the Mendoza line. Then on the other side AJ pinch hits a Righty for the Lefty vs the RHP, yes he brought in the right hand hitter for the left hand hitter to face the RHP. He did it because he knew Jones wouldn't chase the breaking ball several inches off of the plate that Ort was throwing up there, and his left handed leadoff hitter possibly would. Worked out to perfection for him as Jones took all those crap pitches to bring up Torres who also did for the win There is ZERO chance Espada makes that move. In fact, if Jones had been the one in the game and Keith was on the bench, Espada would have brought Keith in to hit for Jones because he is left handed, and Ort would have had someone up there who is more prone to swing at crap That is the problem I have with Espada All the moaning and b!tching about starting lineups and so forth, you would have those complaints if God himself was writing out the card
I was complaining to my friends during the game last night when King came in because him and Souza are the only two in our pen I trust and we were using King in a 5 run game. Now no Souza. DAMNIT
Good thing we have Yordan dicking around in AA so we can DH Altuve, who has been terrible lately and could just use a full day off
I don't disagree about Espada doing too much lately with the PHing, especially when he's leaving us in situations where the pitcher would have had to hit in a critical spot the night the Orioles thrown home instead of trying for the double play. That said, none of the part about Hinch is accurate. He brought in Jones as a PH for Keith in the 8th inning to face Sousa - not as a PH in the 10th to face Ort. Also in the 8th, the batter before Keith/Jones spot, he used Baez to PH for Sweeney. This is why Joe brought Ort into the game instead of Okert - Hinch had pulled his lefties in the 8th so there was a string of right handed batters in a row and no lefties on the bench to PH for them. I don't know what the **** Ort was doing in that AB against Jones though.
So, Espada sent him down to use his curveball more......and it worked, It is almost like they read my posts. DD
Every move Espada makes is cookie cutter 1985 moves, just like his predecessor I really thought he brought Jones in to pinch hit in the 10th, but admittedly I was about 14 beers in at the time. If you are right I ALMOST feel sorry for my buddy I was watching the game with cause I was wearing his ass out about it (he is a big Espada fan) lol AJ doesn't go strictly by the old school baseball book, even though he played at the end of that era. Him and Luhnow both wanted a player who could be successful against the player they were facing, regardless of their hand strength. We wouldn't always go with a LHP to face a lefty, we would always go with a reliever who had success getting batters from that side out. If we had a RHP who could get lefties out the best, that's who we would go with. We carried that over at the beginning of the Dusty era, in fact there were long stretches where Click woudln't even put a LHP in the pen for Dusty, likely for fear he would mis use him. Just too much easily accessable info available in today's game to make the cookie cutter move basically 100% of the time. Drives me nuts
