Tony-OH

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.

Good Lord, this is about the worse news possible on opening day of camp. How in the world do you sprain your UCL over the offseason? Wow, what a bummer. Guess Elias better get on the phone and get something done or Tyler Wells/Cole Irvin just became starter candidates.

Tate has two options as well. I think he starts in Norfolk barring an injury. they are not DFAing a guy if they don't have to.

Yep, that's why all three of them will make it barring a meltdown this spring or injury.

Yep, I agree. They've shown no indication they want a full-time DH when they use it as sort of a semi-day off at times.

Not sure where he plays everyday though. We need the DH spot for Kjerstad/Adley.

Thanks. That is excellent video. Had to add that guy to my subscribed list.

Mountcastle needs a breakout year this year or his time is probably up here in Baltimore. His .235/.291/.349/.640 against right-handed pitching has to significantly improve this year. This may be a reason to keep O'Hearn around if Kjerstad does not show an ability to play 1B effectively this spring. If Mountcastle is struggling into May against right-handers, he's going to need to be platooned. Mountcastle would make an excellent pinch-hitter against left-handed relievers as well. They Orioles are missing that right-handed punch on their bench right now.