Reviews, Previews, and Ranks: Baltimore Orioles
Introduction & Glossary Post Here
We are now into the winning teams! The Orioles won 83 games and stayed competitive for most of the year, a pleasant surprise for their fans.
They may have over-performed a bit there with a team .695 OPS and a team 3.97 ERA, both marks were pretty pedestrian. It will be interesting to see what they do ahead of the 2023 season after they excited the fan base a little bit there and have a solid young core in place now.
Pitchers
The projected rotation from Roster Resource right now:
Kyle Bradish
Dean Kremer
Tyler Wells
Austin Voth
Grayson Rodriguez
Kyle Bradish
He is just 26 and had some hype coming into the season, but didn’t perform very well in his first go at it
23 GS, 4.90 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 21.8% K%, 9.0% BB%, 26.6% CSW%, 10.7% SwStr%
Nothing good there. I suppose it’s a bit more interesting to look at the “stuff” with young pitchers as compared to more established pitchers.
No impressive SwStr% marks on any of his pitches, although the slider wasn’t horrible. He shows a lot of green here:
But green on that chart hardly correlates with success. If I were a douche I would sit here jamming at my keyboard typing “BrAdIsh is ThroWiNg HiS chAngEuP tOo HaRd!!”, but imagine the gall it would take for little old JA to sit in his basement and tell a Major League Baseball pitcher how to pitch. I see this with fantasy football bro’s every day now as they tell NFL coaches how to use their players better and it’s just so embarrassing for those guys, so I don’t want to be that kind of bro. If I ever start being that kind of bro, please stop me. Be mean, I can handle it.
Bradish wasn’t even overly impressive in AAA last year (19 GS, 27.8% K%, 10.3% BB%, 4.26 ERA, 1.43 WHIP), so I don’t really get the hype. The one thing I can say in his favor is that he did have a few sparkling outings last year
And he improved in the second half of the year, going for a 3.81 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP on a 21.2% K% and 9.0% BB% after June 15th.
The bad outweighs the good here, so I’ll be out on Bradish in terms of the shortlist.
Comps/RankArounds: Josiah Gray
Dean Kremer
I’m giving you two players for free today, TWO.
21 GS, 3.23 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 17% K%, 6.6% BB%, 11.3% SwStr%, 26.6% CSW%, 40.3% GB%
Almost nothing about that 3.23 ERA makes any sense. His xFIP came in at 4.43, but the FIP was much lower at 3.80. If I am correct, the difference between xFIP and FIP is that xFIP adjusts the home run input to HR/FB. With the Orioles comically designed left field, it would make sense that Orioles pitchers had some suppressed home runs allowed rates - and it seems that Kremer benefited there.
But what do we focus on most here with pitchers? What’s most important? Answer the question - you should know me by now!
And my guy went for an 11% K%-BB%! That’s awful! Send him to the bottom of the list!
BUT JON, YOU AREN’T LOOKING DEEP ENOUGH. YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT SEAM-SHIFTED WAKE, PUSH/PULL RATES, VELOCITY, RUN, DRAG, BLAHBITTYBLAHBLAH
CAN IT, NERDS!
Comps/RankArounds: Mitch Keller
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