The Warehouse Pod
@thewarehousepod
Talking Orioles baseball... like, all the time.
Rogers' cutter has been a bit harder for a few starts now. Creates a bit of added separation from the sweeper and I think it's a great change. The two breaking balls have a tendency to run together in movement space, some added separation in velocity space will help both play up.
Before you let anyone tell you McDermott became an elite arm in his time away from the O's, his fastball was at 96.3, right in line with his move to the pen in our org. He came into the 9th, yes, but it was a 10-1 game and not any sort of leverage. And it was a clean inning but command still sucks.
This is exacerbated by it being early in the year of course. But gave me a chuckle given this conversation, and talks about a known enemy of Baltimore so figured it was worth sharing.
This is obviously a small sample size and all those caveats apply, and this is a noisy plot inherently. But Pete is seemingly swinging the bat harder as we progress here. Swing tilt, attack direction, and attack angle are all well aligned with last year's. Hopefully he starts lifting the ball soon.
In searching statcast for '25 and '26, this is the result for all pitches above 95mph with -9" or less IVB
Yennier Cano struck out Byron Buxton yesterday on a sinker that came in at 95.3 and had a MINUS-TEN IVB. That was so ludicrous that I said "I bet no sinker above 95 did that last year". And I was correct! Velo is important so you ignore Tyler Rogers and a few others, but what an unreal shape there.
This is truly an outlier fastball from Dzierwa. Sheer magnitude of movement on the fastball is huge, and it's good velo for a lefty. If he holds this, and his glove-side arsenal materializes, he's instantly one of the three best arms in the O's system to me. Hat tip to @tjstats.ca for graphic!
I started reading a Bowden article in earnest, got to the second team on the list, and then he said Caleb Durbin has power. I'm done. Again.
In my eyes, projections agree we're at least competitive there, and >50% chance of making the playoffs either way. And, while less of it remains every day, the off-season still isn't done! Haha
Chanukah Sameach to ME @fangraphs.com merch goes hard for the baseball lover in your life
JFC it was my top song in 2025. Just had it on repeat for like a week 💀😂😂
The previous start, with cutters and a few 4S's hitting that glove-side