The interesting thing about Bregman’s draft year was they gave him a reasonably aggressive low A initial placement, he didn’t exactly dominate there (.699 OPS) and yet they jumped him to Hi A anyway after 29 games. Goes to show that sometimes the numbers don’t reflect whether a guy is ready for the next level.
Pretty simple
1) Elias wanted to go underslot which eliminated Martin
2) Elias did not want to take a pitcher 1:2 because of his experience with the Astros
3) College position players are less risky than high school position players.
4) He thinks the SEC prepares players better than other conferences.
Bummed about Thorne, he and Palmer were the best. And to a lesser extent, Tom Davis and Dempsey. Dempsey is an unabashed homer. Wouldn't want him in the booth for an entire game but on pre and post game shows he's fine. And Tom Davis is Balmer, hun.
At least McDonald is staying, he's good.
Are you sure that means Steve or Roch is gone? It just says pay cuts to the MASN web site, with at least one paid position eliminated. It doesn't say that position is necessarily am Oriole writer. Could be a Nats writer. Heck it could be an editor or a web designer.
A couple other notes from the article for those who don't pay for the Athletic:
There will still be a 15 minute pre- and post-game show, just with the game announcers. So instead of a half hour pre and half hour post-game show when the likes of Dempsey and Davis or Rob Long, there will be 15 minutes before and after with whoever is announcing the game. Unless the team opts to pay MASN for more.
Also, it notes that MASN will broadcast "very few if any" exhibition ges for the O's and Nats this spring.
It's interesting this is happening at a time when MASN had added it's highest profile non baseball programming ever by being a part of the regional network that broadcasts ACC basketball games this season, a big step up from any of the basketball they used to broadcast. It's the lower tier of ACC games, the ones that aren't on the ESPN channels or the ESPN-run ACC Network. But it's still the ACC.