Tony-OH

He definitely struggles to repeat his mechanic and that certainly is a big part of his control problems. the thing is with Fuji, when he's on, he can be an absolute dominant pitcher, but unfortunately, when he's off, he's awful. I wonder if they can tell that during his warm ups or if has to be determined on the mound in a game? Either way, he always needs to be monitored closely and always have a guy up behind him just in case bad Fuji arrives on the scene.

Drop the mike Too Tall, drop the mic. This bullpen is toast due this stretch of games, but also because outside of Flaherty now, they don't really have a length guy out there. Wells seems like he would fit the part, but he really hasn't been looking all that great down in AAA and they've been using him as a one inning guy and not a length guy anyways. This was why I was not happy they demoted Cole Irvin. Irvin is a guy that is able to provide length and with so many guys throwing so often, he could have taken some of those innings. Instead the team choose to stick with Lopez and sent Irvin down for 15 days and I think that's bit them a bit, especially yesterday when it was clear the bullpen is absolutely toast. They have to do some kind of move for tonight because the pen is still toast. If Grayson has a bad night and has to come out early, they are in a lot of trouble to cover down on those innings.

Nope, he has to stay down for 15 days unless an injury to a pitcher occurs. From the MLB Glossary: "Upon being optioned to the Minor Leagues, a position player must remain there for a minimum of 10 days before he is eligible to be recalled to the Major League roster. For pitchers, the minimum is 15 days." I suppose Lopez could step into an Ubaldo pothole though.

Irvin can't come up until September 28th unless there is an injury to a pitcher since he was demoted on Sept 13th and has to stay in the minors for 15 days. It was one of the reasons I found it strange that he was demoted.

Lol. No, I basically gave each grade about 10 second or less of thought!

I think that's a valid question, but I doubt we'll ever know. I would imagine he would have come in for a medical exam before the signing was official, but not sure you can fail a guy for being overweight.

Lol, you really are too much sometimes. You literally said, "but I don't think that is really a great way of looking at it." I NEVER MADE THAT POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!! I never placed a grade. I never said all the moves would be added up and then given a grade. Clearly some moves were meaningless or small moves and don't get the same "weight" as the others. Instead of just admitting you were wrong, you keep doubling and tripling down.

This has no doubt been Hays' best full season with the Orioles. He's also been very good defensively even though he's put up a 0 OOA in statcast. He did get a 2 run value for arm value. The best news is this is two seasons in a row without a lot of injuries or getting banged up so we can put that to bed.

But you literally said this was not the way to look a it, when I never said I was looking at that way. I never made any assessment in that post about an offseason grade for Elias. It was just a fun post to look at each move individually.

I just went with Incompletes as a sort or no grade since they had low expectations and never amounted to anything positive or negative for the team this year.

Bassitt was my guy as well this offseason, but interestingly, despite his much better ERA than Gibson, his 4.49 FIP was actually worse than Gibson's 4.23 this year. Gibson's ERA was really hurt but some truly awful outings. As for Elias' overall grade, that was not what this "exercise" was for. It was for grading his individual moves and how they worked out for 2023. Obviously if you rate his offseason based off results this season, he gets an A+ for this year, and no one should argue that. Saying that, he may have "lucked" a bit into his two best acquisitions in O'Hearn and Coulombe, still overpaid for Frazier when he had a better option in Westburg, and struck out totally on Givens. So from a pure offseason moves perspective, when he spent money he got maybe two C's (Gibson and Frazier) and an F (Givens). If you add in the two A's and let's give the McCann trade a B, and the Irvin trade a C we get to a 2.42 (Solid C) grade point average for the offseason. But again, the sum of the parts have equaled success at levels we haven't seen in 40+ years.

I would have made this argument during most of this season, but let's just say the Orioles win it all this year or get into the World Series. An argument can be made that Elias was able to have great success at the major league level and still retain an extra year of control of Ortiz while keeping his value high for trade. Saying that, I do still believe a full year of Westburg would be more valuable than Frazier, even with his clutch hits, but how much more I don't know. I don't know how we can really quantify Frazier's value besides through WAR which significantly is different between rWAR and fWAR. The one thing we can take from this year is that sometimes, the sum of the parts can out value the individual players when added individually. Does that make sense. It's hard for me to nitpick too hard on the Frazier move when he's had several really big moments this year, and the Orioles may be on their way to their best record since 1979. I mean, the last time the Orioles won a World Series in 1983, they had Todd Cruz as their starting 3B. Grant it Cruz was a plus defensive 3B with a rocket arm, but he couldn't hit water falling out of a boat.

Where did I weigh any of these and give a final grade based off that? I just gave a grade for each individual move and how it worked out for the Orioles in 2023. I rated the free agent and waiver claims respectively for expectation.

McCann has been good, but not great. Was he a better option than anyone else the Orioles had in the system, absolutely, but not sure he was an A move.

I certainly understand that train of thought and honestly, maybe that hit in the 9th against Tampa that keyed that comeback has jaded me a bit toward the better grade. But I do think he's had some value this year even if it came at the cost of Ortiz spending most of the year in AAA and Westburg only getting part of the year in the majors. Again, late in game against a hard throwing right-handed strikeout pitcher with less than two out and and a runner ins scoring position, I have hard time thinking I'd rather have Westburg or Ortiz up vs Frazier. But, overall for the whole season? I'd still would have preferred Westburg as the everyday 2B all year vs Frazier.

We have enough time to now judge Elias' 2022-23 offseason acquisitions and how they've worked out. Many of us, including me, were not happy about this offseason particularly after his "Lift off" comments. So Let's to a quick review his moves this offseason and grade each for value to the team. December 2, 2022 Signed Franchy Cordero as a free agent - This was a kick the tires and for that 1B/OF/DH combo that Elias clearly wanted to fill on this roster in some way. He was released at the end of spring training, signed by the Yankees. Had no effect on the Orioles season other than him hitting a 3-run homer against them early in the season. - Grade - Incomplete Jake Cave selected by the Philadelphia Phillies off waivers - Elias was looking for a 5th outfielder who could play CF. He was eventually DFA'd this offseason and reclaimed by the Phillies. Grade - I Selected Lewin Díaz off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates - More 1B/OF/DH depth. Was eventually DFA'd and played all season in AAA Norfolk where he had a nice season but never played for the Orioles. Low cost AAA depth that ended up unneeded due to O'Hearn. Grade - C December 5, 2022 Signed Kyle Gibson as a free agent to a 1 year/$10 million - As of today he's won 14 games and tossed 180 IP (Most since 2018) with a 5.00 (4.23 FIP) for 0.3 rWAR. He's either been real good or real bad but he did win 14 games and provided rotation depth. Grade - C+ December 6, 2022 Signed Josh Lester as a free agent - 1B/DH/OF depth who played most of the season at AAA but did get his first major league hit in his cup of coffee this year. Grade - C Signed Nomar Mazara as a free agent - 1B/DH/O depth. Released at end of spring training - I December 7, 2022 Jonathan Araúz selected by the New York Mets off waivers - Lost off to the Mets who used him as a utility player this year at times. He had no role on 2023 Orioles team. Grade - C Hector Perez selected by the Tampa Bay Rays off waivers - Lost to Rays where he had no impact. He had no role on 2023 Orioles. Grade - C December 15, 2022 Signed Adam Frazier as a free agent to 1yr/$8 million: The guy who caused the most conversation and uproar ended up being worth 1.8 rWAR or 0.4 fWAR. He was below average defensively in every aspect, slow a foot, but did find a way to be clutch many times. He did block Westburg most of the year and caused Ortiz to spend most of the year in AAA. Sayin that, those clutch hits and ability make contact late in games has given him value. Grade - C (Which I can't believe I'm giving him but he's played a role this year) December 19, 2022 Signed Eduard Bazardo as a free agent: Pitched well in AAA and eventually got a cup of coffee with Orioles. Was DFA'd and traded to Seattle for a minor league pitcher. Grade: C+ for getting a minor leaguer Signed Kyle Dowdy as a free agent: Ended up as minor league AAA depth. Grade - I December 21, 2022 Signed Mychal Givens as a free agent to 1YR, $million: Showed up the spring way over weight still with knee issues. Rehabbed most of the year, promoted for a little bit and was absolutely awful with terrible stuff. Eventually released because he no longer had major league stuff. Basically $5 million flushed down the toilet. Grade: F Traded a player to be named later and cash to the New York Mets. Received James McCann. The Baltimore Orioles sent Luis De La Cruz (minors) (January 13, 2023) to the New York Mets to complete the trade: McCann had a slow start, but he's been a solid backup catcher overall. The minor leaguer traded never played this year: Grade: B January 1, 2023 Tyler Nevin player rights sold to the Detroit Tigers: Nevin had no role on this team in 2023. Grade: I January 3, 2023 Purchased Ryan O'Hearn from the Kansas City Royals: The 1B/OF/DH guy that worked out and worked out in a huge way. Has become a starter and well worth the $1.4 million he made this year. Grade: A+ January 11, 2023 Purchased Darwinzon Hernández from the Boston Red Sox: Pitching depth was pitching well with at AAA when he was allowed to sign with a Japanese team: Grade: I January 19, 2023 Signed Reed Garrett as a free agent: Reliever depth signing that go a cup of coffee but wasn't very good: Grade: C- January 26, 2023 Traded Darell Hernaiz (minors) to the Oakland Athletics. Received Kyle Virbitsky (minors) and Cole Irvin: Irvin has been up and down and was never really the 5th starter option the Orioles had envisioned. He started pitching well out of the pen when the Orioles sent him back to AAA. Virbitsky is a C-level minor league pitching prospect who ended up having a decent year after a poor start. Hernaiz hit well and ended up in AAA but was in hitter's league. Grade: C since Irvin has helped this year while there was no role for Hernaiz on this 2023 team. January 27, 2023 Signed Curtis Terry as a free agent: 1B/DH/OF depth option: Released after spring training: Grade: I March 27, 2023 Purchased Danny Coulombe from the Minnesota Twins: Looked like a head scratcher but has been huge for the bullpen. Has pitched to a 2.47 ERA and has been worth 1.4 rWAR. Grade: A

I went back and reread my take on O'Hearn and while I saw the good EV's, I certainly did not expect a 29-year old to suddenly change this much. When you look at the offseason, which I thought was very disappointing after the "Lift off" comment made by Elias, O'Hearn is certainly his best pick up. I was certainly wrong about him.

WHY IS LOPEZ in the GAME???????

Hays... Now let's see if Gibson can hold it!

Is it just me, or has Gibson never seen a lead he didn't want to give back?

I agree Roy. I said this in the game thread last night. I can't think of a more fun Orioles team in all the years I've watched Orioles baseball. Sure, the 1983 team was fun because it won so much, but the hitting was never really that good overall and the talent besides Cal was on the older side where you knew this was the end of the window (Well I was 13 and didn't understand windows but when you look back you can see it). This team hasn't even really hit it's window yet here they are!

Say what you want, but I can't ever remember a more fun team to watch then this one.

That may have been the main reason to bring him in! lol

Rays fans watching this game:

Hell yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Freakin A!!! Had that all the way! lol