Tony-OH

I agree with this. Brady hurt his reputation during the three-headed monster regime at the end of the DD/Buck era amongst those of us who follow the Orioles very closely. But to the average fan and the fact that Brady is a positive guy overall, why not? I see these things as a very Buckish type of thing to do and I like it. It's bringing back former Orioles to impart some old stories and be more of an ambassador to previous successful histories of the Orioles. I doubt any are going to impact any player good or bad in the few days that they are there, so this is just kind of a feel good thing.

Welcome back, just a note, if you cut and paste from another site, select "plain text" so it will post with white text here. Or you can select all of your text and go into the editor and change the color of the text.

Akin and Baker to a lesser extent just got a huge reprieve with Bradish and Means not starting the year in the rotation. If we assume Wells and Irvin move into those roles, that opens two bullpen roles and if Akin throws well, you have to imagine he's one because he can give you length and is left-handed. Obviously Zimmermann will be in the conversation as well but Akin has more bullpen experience. Baker will be among the handful of candidates, to include Tate that now have more a chance to make the team since we know Baumann is going to make it with no options.

Right on point. Thanks for saving me time. That infield alignment may be the one they see for the foreseeable future and probably their best overall defensive alignment. If that happens, Mayo is either moving to 1B (where they may need for Basallo is a few years) or right field. His bat is going to play at any of those positions. Even if they determine that Holliday can now play SS legitimately in the majors, that moves Gunnar to third which still does the same thing to Mayo. I still think Mayo can handle 3B defensively right now, but he's a huge guy and his quickness and agility will slow down a bit as he gets older so a move off 3B is probably inevitable anyways.

Where's the option, of yes, he'll show up for a start or two in June, get shut back down, try to rehab, but eventually get surgery in September so he misses all of 2025 too? That's where my optimism is after today's kick in the nuts news.

Seems like some extra catching reps just became available in Bowie at least through April. I don't think it's anything that should affect his hitting though.

I'd kick the tires on that honestly.

This is the Gunnar thread. Means discussion has it's own thread to keep them straight. thanks.

Hyde said he does not expect Means to make opening day so all this "might stuff" can be eliminated for our thought process. Even if there was a sliver of a chance Means was able to go by OD, Hyde would not have said that. I just don't have a lot of faith that after a whole offseason Means is not ready in spring training. I don't buy this whole January ramp up thing gets you started for the season. Hell, it cost us a Bradish injury and Means is not even ready for it after being shutdown since September. The recovery of their pitchers and timelines have been very long and reinjuries seem to be common under the Orioles medical/rehab system. Last year Tate never could pitch effectively, Seth Johnson took forever, and Carter Baumler took a long time then hurt himself again, was shut down, then started back up, then shut down again in Arizona Fall League. The Orioles are good at a lot of things, but rehabbing pitchers have not exactly been a strength of theirs.

A lot of "hope" in that analysis of the pitching injuries.

I'd by lying if the Cease trade talk didn't seem pertinent again! LOL Still not giving up one of the top 3 though.

Elias is "hopeful" but I don't think anyone will know until we see how he responds to treatment. Some people do, some don't. Basically he went from our #2 pitcher stud to a question mark who could potentially be out until mid-2025 if they keep delaying.

The Gunnar news is disappointing but not terrible for now. At least it's not a hamate bone injury that saps power. But Obliques can be tricky too.

Within current option, you have to imagine Wells and Irvin are now the 4th and 5th starters in April at the very least. This off course weakens the bullpen that was weakened with the trade of Hall.

But he was shutdown in September. He had an entire offseason to be ready. The fact that he's not ready for full go by February, is not good at all in my opinion.

I don't feel good at all. He was shutdown last September after getting started back up and now is not ready. Not good.

Yeah, I'd trying to keep the news in different threads to make it easier to get the news when they log in.

I was talking about the Means news. I know now it came from Roch's twitter.

Once they reshut him down last Fall I knew there was something more wrong with Means. the fact the Orioles knew Means' issues and Bradish's injury since January really makes me wonder why they get more aggressive getting another starter besides Burnes. You spend top prospects to get Burnes and know you are have two starters they may not be ready or ever ready for 2024?

Like I said, they know more about the injury then me, but I have very little hope that PRP therapy actually works on major league pitchers long term. I hope they are right because losing Bradish for this season and part of next would be a gigantic blow.

Where did you read this?

100%. I keep waiting that Adley has an ACL tear or something. What in God's name happened this off season? Did player's over train? Was the workouts too much? Did they not allow themselves to rest enough? I'm not sure I've ever heard of a pitcher spraining their UCL in the offseason. It's just brutal.

I hope they are right because they know way more about the sprain then we do, but they tried this treatment stuff with Tate last year and he missed the whole year and who knows how he'll look this year. I hope he'll be fine but I'm going into this thinking they are delaying the inevitable just like they did with Bautista. The problem is the timing. If they wait until April or May to have the surgery, that's part of 2025 missed as well.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/orioles-kyle-bradish-ucl-sprain-elbow-injured-list.html#respond Good Lord what an awful start to the offseason. What the hell kind of offseason program did the Orioles have this offseason? I'm not a big somebody needs to be fired person, but all of these injuries occurred due to an offseason work out design by the Orioles, they need to be "re-evaluated".

Sorry, I've never been a fan of a dump thread because it's too hard to follow for people. I'd rather big news be put in their own threads. I will create a Spring training tracker like I always do to track little things. if you want to help, someone could build that based off the 2023 version. I'll try to get to it tomorrow.