tecumseh18 wrote:Stoeten today makes the point that Stro's problems this season start AFTER two times through the order. Before that, his ERA is ~3.00.
The same is true for practically every pitcher.
Schad wrote:Eno Sarris on Fangraphs is also pretty dubious that the Orioles splits are that meaningful, in part because (as mentioned previous) they aren't actually lefty-heavy...a large part of it is that their right-handed hitters, like Trumbo, have featured atypical results against LHP this season compared to their career norms.
A full season is such a big sample, and the gap between wRC+ vs RHP and LHP is so large, that the gap in performance is almost certainly meaningful. Maybe you regress it a bit, but not nearly enough to remove the difference. To me, their RHB being so poor against LHP says that their LHB's simply aren't as good as most LHB's at hitting opposite handed pitching. That doesn't mean a reverse platoon split (which is non-existent in the long-term for every player other than Ichiro), it just means a smaller than normal platoon split.
Considering we know Stroman is starting, that likely means he is the one to get the most innings assuming things don't go off the rails. But I'm hoping that they have a very, very short leash on him and don't wait for things to unravel before going to Liriano. After he goes through the lineup twice, even if he's been fantastic, shake his hand and thank him for his service. Give the ball to Liriano to go through the lineup for two times of his own. That gets us to our high leverage relievers. I see no reason at all to let Stroman face Adam Jones 3 times. Hell, maybe you sneak Biagini in there for an inning in-between Stroman and Liriano and let him face Jones/Machado/Trumbo. It's time to be creative, we have 10 pitchers to use followed by an off-day.
