Tony-OH

Perez needs to just throw stirkes,

Nice stretch by Frazier!

Awesome. I hope he continues to take offense and keeps hitting jacks!

I'll be honest, up until this year, I've been a rWAR guy mainly because I find Baseball reference easier to navigate and work with and it was easily found. But there have been a few headscratchers this year and the Frazier difference has me really using fWAR more often for a more reliable WAR number. Frazier has been playable this year and his added pop this year has been a nice plus, but his defense has been underwhelming overall though he has made a couple of nice highlight plays. Either way, there is no way I'm watching a 2.8 WAR level player with Frazier this season. Do I think he'd be a nice bench player on a good team, sure, he brings enough abilities and has good bat to ball skills that makes his bat fairly valuable late in games when the last thing you need is a K. Would I prefer to see Westburg play 2B at the major league level over him? That still remains a solid yes and has never changed since this offseason for me. Saying that, he's an upgrade over what Odor brought to the field.

And the Angels should have a lot of pitching prospects since they draft pitcher heavy. I think one draft a year two ago they drafted all pitchers.

I really think people are underestimating him and what he's doing this year as one of the youngest player's in the Eastern League. This would have been Mayo's junior draft year. If he was drafted this year and was sent directly to Bowie and put up the numbers he's putting up, people would be losing their minds and calling him one of the best prospects in baseball. I like Kjerstad as a prospect and I think he's going be a good hitter, but there are defensive concerns in the outfield and he's struggled in his taste at 1B. I do think he can handle RF in Camden but will be similar to Santander. Mayo is a guy who can slide over to 1B and will probably end up a plus defender there, though I do think he can play, albeit awkwardly, 3B. Mayo hasn't even fully developed into his man strength and he's already added the opposite field home runs this year. There is some miss in the bat, and we'll see how that plays moving forward, but the improvement in the BB and K % are really good and he's still a bit under the radar. Then again, BA have always be infatuated with draft status.

You take long breaks but have no issue with coming back to bash the tone of the board? Interesting take. You were a good poster, but now you seem to have become very fragile like some others. It's a discussion board, it's going to get a little heated at times. If you don't like discussing the Orioles with people who may actually find some things that could be improved, go find a rah-rah board where you can all sit around and cheer together. It's really that simple. If it's hurts your feelings so much that you need to take long breaks from the site because of words, then I suggest some inward perspective more than worrying about what someone may call a group of fans. As for the highlighted part, that's just total ridiculousness. No one, not a single person including me has called anyone any of that for simply disagreeing with a "negative poster." I can always tell the people who never were in the military or really played on high level sports teams because they get so emotional over a simple term. Really, calling someone a Frobbyite, which I personally found funny when I wrote it, is telling people how to fan? lol Come one man, stop being so sensitive. It's not all that serious. I've known Frobby on here for over 25 years and we have watched ball games together. He knows I respect him, but he also knows when we disagree, I'm going to call him on it like he calls me on it at times. Neither one of us grab our balls and go home because we're not children. We don't make post after post saying how the mean man called him a Frobbyite or fan boy. We might disagree in one thread, then be right back to supporting each other in another thread because afterall, this is a discussion board. So yeah, for those of you out there, and I'm not just talking to you, that needs breaks from the site because it's so negative (which is a joke in in of itself when you review the board as a whole), I guess you need to do what you need to do, but I'm not going to apologize for mixing it up sometimes.

i agree. We don't need those types anymore. The orioles should be a team that no team wants to play any longer. That's a good thing.

Kjerstad is three years older than Mayo and Mayo put up similar numbers at Bowie. Neither are a plus defender, but Mayo possesses a plus arm. I still like Mayo more a prospect.

Rodriguez graduated too but BA only uses the innings and PAs. He's had more than 45 days on the active roster.

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on my mood at the time of posting.

We discussed this offline, and while you softened the tone towards the end, you literally wrote, " I feel the mood of the board is overwhelmingly negative. Just constant whinging about roster construction, the cheap owners, the daily lineups, etc." and "It’s a very good team, created by Elias and steered by Hyde, and I’m very happy with how the team is run and content to let the professionals do their jobs without believing I could do it better." So as you can see, you took two very big shots at the board as a whole and insinuated we should just let the professionals do there jobs without "believing you could do better," which means, don't question them. Now it's over, and we can move on, but at the end of the day, all discussion and opinions are welcome and should not be labelled as whining if they mention something that might not be perfect. I don't want anyone to feel they can't have a complaint or concern without being labelled a whiner. We can still love where the team is and have concerns or things to discuss.

And this is the first time that I can remember that I really don't "fear" the other AL East teams. Maybe it's because we're 11-7 so far, or maybe it's because I have faith in this team to play well overall, but I don't feel the Orioles ever go into a game as a deep underdog. That's a credit to how they've played this year, but it's nice to know they only have to play their inter Division rivals 13 times vs the 18-19. It's still a little unbalanced for a "balanced" schedule, but it's better than it was.

It was the third post in a row about how terrible my post was. You earned it at that point. But yeah, crying about rep is about right for you today. Maybe take a deep breath. Maybe just take a break for a bit and calm down. You are making this out to be much more than it needs to be. Hell, Frobby and I have already discussed this over PM. It's over. Next topic.

Another factor that some forget is the balanced schedule has really made things easier for the orioles and the other AL East teams. They no longer have to beat each up for 18-19 games a year. I probably didn't take that into consideration enough when I thought they would be around an 85-87 win team this year. I think we can see that in the standings this year where all of the AL East teams are but Boston (who are one game under) are over .500 this year. I know I like facing KC and Oakland more than I do facing the Rays or the Yankees. The balance schedule has made things more fair across baseball for making the playoffs. That should help the Orioles hide some of their current weak areas a bit.

Interloper is a Frobbyite who goes off on the slightest bit of citiscism directed at him. He's done this before and it's actually kind of funny how mad he gets over it all. Like, how DARE I say anything to longtime and respected poster! lol Guess what, I like Frobby a lot, but he knows, as well as anything else that if i disagree with you, I'm going to disagree with you. Then when I agree with you right after, I'm going to agree with you. I've been doing this for 25 years. I can get into it with a poster in one thread and completely back them in another thread that I agree with. It's how I've always done things but some posters are a little more fragile than others. I think you are a perfect example. I can get on about how you react to things and disagree with your points in one thread, but I'll be right behind you if I agree and have something to add. I just don't get all the "horror" over a post. I'm not even mad at Frobby. I'm disappointed in his post and told him that. But people are who they are!

First off, you can have any opinion of my post as you like. I don't really care. My post did have a little hyperbole in it for a reason, to point out the ludicrous post that Frobby made where basically said the board is full of whining. Of course Frobby has had his share of criticisms or the team, which is why this post is so out in left field. But he basically said people need to stop whining and smell the roses. As a Frobbyite, and I know who you guys are, I'm always ready for the criticism that will get thrown my way whenever I dare disagree with Frobby. This is a discussion and all well thought out and hopefully stat-backed opinions are welcome. We are not going to start labeling people who want to have discussion or disagree with a lineup or move as whiners. just not going to happen. That might hurt your feelings and others who live in the unicorns and rainbows world, but discussion will always be allowed without being labeled as whining. If you guys wants to agree with everything Hyde, Elias and company do because the team is playing well, that is your very right. Just don't tell others how to fan or labeling discussion as whining.

I think this is the key to most of the discussion. I'm not even sure why this is being questioned or being called whining. I doubt anyone on here is upset at where they are this year in the standings, but good lord this would be a boring place if all we discussed was how great they are. I see this kind of stuff on the Facebook page that I renamed Orioles Hangout Fanatics just to differentiate that place from here because I expect a higher sense of community and discussion here. I don't expect people to tell others how to fan or just blindly accept anything Hyde does because clearly he smarter than us. I'm incredibly happy where the Orioles sit right now, but I do think there are tweaks that they can do to improve the team and that is what this board is all about. Sharing those thoughts and having others give their thoughts. Crazy, it's almost like this is a discussion board about the Orioles, not a rah-rah fan club.

The overwhelming majority of Orioles fans are pretty happy with this season, but this would be a pretty boring place if no one discussed anything. I think I understand the spirit of this thread, but you come across as Facebook-type poster who just believes the orioles must be right all the time. You received a lot of good rep for that and that's fine, but I'd rather have good constructive conversation then have everyone run around smelling the roses and telling everyone how sweet they smell right now. That would make this a very boring place if we followed your "advice". I also disagree that this place is constantly whining. I see a lot of really good discussions with points from all sides. Sure, there are some that will never be happy, and that's their right, just like it's your right to feel all sunshine and rainbows no matter what happens. I will say this though, you better not complain at all about anything the rest of the season. You've made your bed now lie in it. Everything is awesome, every lineup is perfect, every bullpen move is perfect and anyone discussing these things on an actual orioles discussion board should stay quiet or be called a whiner by Frobby. I feel like you are telling people how to fan, and that is a really, really disappointing post from a longtime member of this board.

That was he role we thought he could perform. I'm seeing Hyde allowing guys to longing out there in the pen and that's a great thing. Maybe he's making some adjustments for his bullpen usage. Akin can be a big part of that if used this way.

Exactly. It's all about scouting and certainly a little luck in them staying healthy. I just don't think long term they can continue to ignore pitching in the top five rounds. It gets real tough to find those gems after that and while the draft is filled with pitching prospects that didn't make it, you can say the same thing about hitters. Just think at some point they have to take some shots and get away from the Zach Watson, Hunter Haskin and John Rhodes types and start taking some shots at college arms that could move quickly and provide some starting pitching value.

It was a lot easier to "steal" a guy off waivers when you are first on the waiver list. Not so much now. that strategy is not going to work so you will see more "trades" or cash consideration deals.

This is a good point. What are needs are now vs the deadline could be different based on performance and injury. Right now, I think this team needs one more starter and one more shut down reliever in the pen. I think they can upgrade the offense by bringing up Westburg and Cowser at some point.

This is part of the reason why I'm not thrilled with the Orioles drafting philosophy. Drafting almost all hitters in the first ten rounds has left them woefully short in real starting pitching prospects in the system. You can't expect to just trade these hitting prospects stuck in the minors for pitching help because most teams don't want to move impact starting pitching. On top of it, with the extra playoff spots, few teams are completely out of it and very few teams want to trade young, good, controllable starting pitching. When you look at the system, I'll be honest, once you get outside of the top 12 or so, you start getting serious question marks and besides Rodriguez, Hall and Povich, I'm not sure there is a legitimate starting pitching prospect in the system and each of those three have question marks. Sure, the old adage of TINSTAAPP is a real thing because of the amount of things that can go wrong, but clearly some teams like the Braves, Cardinals, Tampa and probably Dodgers have been pretty good at over the years so it's possible. I've always thought it harder to find legitimate pitching then it is hitting since you can find guys like O'Hearn or Lester who can help you for a bit, but finding a starter is much, much harder. Until I see Elias pull if an impact starting pitcher (No I'm not counting Irvin who is more of a 4th/5th starter) trade, I'm going to question his drafting philosophy. Elias and company have this thought that they can develop college pitchers that they find from the 8th round on, but who hit? Arbruester is the top guy of that group but I'm still not impressed with his stuff despite the numbers at AA. Not surprisingly Trace Bright (5th round) last year is probably the best starting pitching prospects drafting by Elias but he has a ways to go to find consistency. At some point Elias needs to pull the trigger and take a gamble on a young pitching prospect in the 1st or 2nd round if the right guy is there. He's drafting way too many 4th outfielders and hitters with questionable fielding skills in these first 5 rounds and needs to start going after some potential starting pitching prospects. This might be the year since it's the first year he's not drafting in the top ten. I'm hoping for pitchers this year, but I'm not holding my breath because Elias has not shown much changes in his philosophy since he got here and the only pitcher he gave over a million dollars to (Baumler) can't stay healthy which probably makes him stick harder to that philosophy.

This is still where I am. I'm glad to hear that he wants to start and of course his coaches are going to say the same thing publicly, but at the end of the day, he he has never been able to consistently throw strikes and throws way too many uncompetitive pitches which runs up his pitch counts. I get it that it's tantalizing to think of him as a 4-pitch starter, but I think the best you get is a 3-5 inning guy on most starts and that's because his pitch cons will get too high. And looking at his statcast numbers this year, I think it's a misnomer that he has four plus pitches. He has a plus fastball, a change that is plus, and a slider and curveball that can flash plus but is not consistent. The Orioles could use a good left-handed starter in the rotation and in the perfect world they'd have a couple of them because of the Walltimore in left field, but I think due to his injury and command issues, the best value they will get out him will be in relief. Now could he be a bulk guy or turn into an Arthur Rhodes type who can eat you 3 innings once in awhile and save your bullpen even in fairly close games? Sure. But he's a weapon right now against lefties and if his command is ok, he'd be fine against righties too. I think we see Hall at some point in the second half or if anything happened to Perez or Akin. But I think we're going to see him as a reliever. Now, he could get a spot start if an injury or something happened and they needed a starter on his his day of work since he's on the 40-man, but I doubt he'd be any better over an extended outing than say Rodriguez was.