Jump to content

turtlebowl

Members
  • Posts

    365
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About turtlebowl

  • Birthday 11/07/1966

Personal Information

  • Favorite Current Oriole
    Hays
  • Favorite All Time Oriole
    Murray

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

turtlebowl's Achievements

Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee (7/14)

  • Dedicated Rare
  • Reacting Well
  • First Post
  • Collaborator
  • Conversation Starter

Recent Badges

86

Reputation

  1. I agree that a personal mentor type is an important part of the overall process. If you have someone that has "been there, done that" it likely gives more credibility and I could see where new information may be better received. One thing though, just because you have the technology doesn't mean a player has the physical ability to replicate. A Greg Olson curve or a Zach Britton sinker is just god given talent.
  2. I said it a while back, just build a lockdown bullpen. We can trade from some of our positional depth to get quality bullpen arms. Most everyone would trade a bullpen arm for a potential full time positional player, even if they would be considered league average talent. If we do this we should have enough depth in the starting rotation. Also with a couple strong additional it should free you up to put Hall in the rotation to see what happens.
  3. How did fortune work out when we traded 3 promising young players Harnisch, Shilling and Finley for Glenn Davis? LOL There is a risk reward for every trade but since we have an owner that will not spend money we can't just give up players that could be a large part of our future for a pitcher (Cease), that is coming off a sub par season and his pure stuff was down across the board. Because of Angelo's the front office needs to be more cautious and I am happy that they are.
  4. At this point I think my preference is to basically keep what we have as a starting 5 and put resources into building the best bullpen you can put together. By doing that you can make Hall your 5th starter and see what we got there. I would also do the usual signing of a back of the rotation starter for added depth. By doing this you are almost assured of not trading your top prospects for a 1 or 2 year rental. Teams will give up a good bullpen arm for a top 10 positional prospect even if you have to throw a lottery ticket in. When you shorten the game to 5 innings and have a dynamic offense you can win a lot of games.
  5. I think other teams are frustrated because they see all the talent the O's have in the minors and believe that they have to move some of these players to eliminate a log jam. So teams are coming to Elias believing he is going to cave to their demands since he has to make a move because of that perceived backlog in talent. Personally I'm happy Elias isn't trading with the mindset that he has to move players because that is a position of weakness. I think Elias will make a trade that is considered fair and he isn't going to do one otherwise.
  6. One of the key moments in the game came in the second inning. After the Rangers got a lead off walk Jung had a 3-1 count. An obvious fastball count and Adley sits on the outside corner and gives a target. The pitch was actually executed pretty well but the ball was hit on the ground into RF. The thing was, if we weren't shifted it probably would of been a double play and then we have 2 outs and nobody on. My question is who sets the infield defense and do they adjust based on who is pitching and counts?? If I have a guy throwing in the upper 90's why am a playing a hitter to pull but then calling an outside fastball? I know its easy to look back and pick apart things. Also if Rodrigues isn't falling behind we don't end up in that situation but it just seems crazy to me that they don't position the defense along with who is throwing and the pitch calls.
  7. I would be shocked if we don't have the 1:05 game on Saturday. As far as Sunday goes, Fox 1 already has the times listed but not the matchups. Looks like either 4:05 or 8:05 game time. I would expect it to be 4:05 because the Rangers if they win wouldn't go against the Cowboys game that night. If Tampa wins, I don't see the O's - Tampa matchup being the primetime game.
  8. I thought the idea was to trade guys while they still had value (before the crash) and fill that position with a cheaper version? You are speculating that Mullins would of hit better if he wasn't injured. All I'm saying is this is 2 years in a row with stats showing a downward trend so if it happens again next season you have a player that won't be worth a bag of balls at the end of next season because it will be assumed his skillset is fading. We basically got Hicks off the street because he couldn't stay healthy and his production had completely fallen off. Also, you make a statement that Cowser is a sub .600 player so does that mean you don't make plans for him next season? Of course you need a fall back option but I thought you are always all for making sure the young guys get opportunity. We do agree that Cowser isn't a natural center fielder but in my scenario you would have a defensive minded backup, be it Hicks, Mckenna or someone else. If Cowser doesn't hit enough to make up for lack of range then we definitely want to have someone on the roster who can play top notch D to fall back on. You can't predict development. I know I didn't expect Gunner to look this good at short and honestly Westburg has been way better than I thought we would see based off of scouting reports.
  9. Don't disagree, Cowser would hopefully be the fill in until either Beavers is ready or if that doesn't pan out you have Bradfield that hopefully can fill the spot in a couple seasons. I wouldn't be shocked if Mateo could also be above average in center with extended reps. Obviously the long term hope is Cowser hits and becomes our fixture in LF and then Hays is moved or platooned.
  10. I think the guy who goes is Mullins. He has slipped 2 years in a row offensively and is getting older. He is still a plus center fielder so hopefully you can get something valuable via trade because of that and reputation. You could then play Cowser and Mckenna in center and probably get better offense with an obvious drop off in defense. Hicks could also be kept if you prefer him for insurance over Mckenna even though I thought Mckenna had a pretty solid year overall. That still allows the DH position to go between Kjerstad, Santander and Adley with the first 2 alternating in RF. In the infield I think Urias is gone. Right now Westburg and him are too similar with Westburg having the upside. In this scenario I could see them keeping Frazier for 1 more season because of his LH bat. I want to see Ortiz at 2nd to start the season while Holliday gets another few weeks in the minors. This gives you Westburg at 3rd, Gunner at SS, Ortiz at 2nd with Frazier in when they face a tough RHP. That would also keep Mateo as more of a utility guy, pinch runner. Lastly if they could get a haul for Mountcastle I could see them making that move knowing that you have Santander who hasn't embarrassed himself there and O'Hearn who has been a godsend (even though struggling this last month). The hope is by mid season Mayo needs to be up so he will need somewhere to play so he can go to first or 3rd depending on the need.
  11. I have always been a huge Hay's supporter. I have to admit though that this may end up being the best of what he can do and truthfully that falls short of what I thought he could end up being. Still a solid player that leaves it all on the field. You can win with guys like this in your lineup. Probably see more platooning needed moving forward as he really struggles with right handers that have good breaking pitches. Hopefully he will remain on the team and will be a valuable contributor with teams making yearly championship runs.
  12. I didn’t say he was physically exhausted and needed to be rested. I just meant that he appears to be an analytical guy so the game becomes more about the mental hurtles for someone like him, especially with the extra work needed to call games. I expected Adley to have a year like he is. Maybe the final stats don’t blow you away but in my mind he is the most valuable player because he just has that it factor. Some guys are just winners.
  13. I think he could be mentally exhausted as much as physically exhausted. He has a lot on his plate and he is probably just learning now how to prioritize everything. Saying that, I do believe he is the type of hitter that needs to learn who he is at the major league level. I think if he decided to focus on getting on base he could be a .300 plus guy with over .400 OBP. I think he knows he needs to sacrifice some of that skill to hit for more power. It’s possible he slumps when he kind of gets himself on the extreme side of either of those 2 approaches. I’m betting that he will find the sweet spot in his approach moving forward and will maximize his abilities.
  14. All year the focus has been work the count, get ahead and attack the ball. It’s almost like Tampa is saying, I’m throwing strikes so when you take that first pitch you are going to be down in the count. Tampa is not afraid of throwing the ball over the plate. The announcer even said “look at the catcher, basically sitting down the middle”. They are almost reinventing the wheel with the pitching philosophy the use.
×
×
  • Create New...