Tony-OH

I got 2 x sausages, a jumbo hot dog, a 20 ounce Coke and some peanuts for $27 outside at the vendor by Pickles. Everything was really good. I 100% rather support local vendors outside, get a reasonable price, and take it into the park.

I stopped to get two beers for me and my wife. $34 later ($2 tip) for two 32 ounce Miller Lights. I didn't even know they were 32 ounce nor was there a sign that gave prices.

I'm not making a big deal out of it, but it does show how inadequate the Orioles roster decisions are. Let's say Stowers stayed and got some start and Vavra or Santander or Hays sits on the bench. Who would you rather have a pinch hitting option, them or Bemboom? Proper use of a 26-man roster is setting roles for all players and using them in those roles. The Orioles never seem to have clear roles for their bench guys. Most bench guys bring something like defense, speed or power. Bemboom brings nothing but being able to catch, and the Orioles have two of them now.

BTW, I've never said that Stowers should play INSTEAD of Hays or Santander, just that he should be in the mix with them getting days off. I don't know if Stowers would outperform Hays or Santander, but I do think it's certainly possible. At the end o the day, with proper roster and lineup management, there was playing time and PAs for all three.

I'm not hating on those three, but their track records don't scream "I must play everyday and never sit." Obviously you are right, the Orioles have chosen to give the vast amount of OF playing time to those three and then used Vavra and McKenna as their backups instead of Stowers. But my biggest issue to all of this is if they knew they were going to go that route, why not keep Cordero or O'hearn and send Stowers back to play everyday in AAA? And now, they're going to keep Bemboom on the roster and as a 3rd catcher?

If you are always going to fall on this as your "proof," you are adding nothing to the conversation. I hate to tell you, but Elias has not proven to be infallible. Sig's computer actually has proven multiple times that it has failed. Now, you can have an opinion that you want, including just believing whatever the Orioles do is the absolute right thing because they are the professionals, but you are adding nothing to the discussion when you do so. Now, if you want to actually give some evidence why you believe the way you do, great, if not, you are doing nothing but being a Facebook or twitter like fan and that's not really what we do here and I think you know that. I've been running this board for 25 years and I've heard that same argument for EVERY SINGLE GM. Guess what, they are were eventually fired. I'm a fan of how Elias and his team have brought in the use of analytics and technologies for development and his scouting team and draft selections, but he was widely given very low marks for his first offseason when the team should be competing and his roster assessments have been lacking. So I get it, your a big Elias guy and believe his decision must be correct because he paid a lot of money to make those decisions. But here at the hangout, we will have a lot of smart people who have been analyzing baseball for a long time. That does not make us infallible either, but I will say one thing, using crowd sourcing across a large group of people with experience is not a bad thing to add into your equation. By the way, what information do you think they have that we don't? Sig's computer program? What has Sig's computer program done to win ball games at the major league level? You do know that it was widely known that Sig was going to be let go by the Astros even before Elias got the Orioles job, right? You also know that other teams have their own Sig's, right? The Orioles are not two steps in front of everyone.

I'll be honest, none of really know what kind of player Stowers will be at the major league level. What we do know is he hit well enough at AAA to be given that chance, and it's not like the Orioles have three all-stars in the outfield currently. The fact that Hyde can't seem to fathom how to give him PAs against lefties because of Santander, Hays and McKenna all hit right handed makes me wonder if they really know how well he hit lefties in AAA. I'm not going to sit here and say that Stowers is a future All-Star, but I do think he's deserves a chance to show what he has and if not this year, when? Stowers is young, cheap, and has upside. He has had success against both right-handed and left-handed in AAA. He's an adequate defensive outfielder no worse than Santander.

My issue is you said we have an emotional attachment to Stowers. That's not true with me at all. I just think he should be given every day PAs or at least 5 games a week PAs at the major league level and don't see any reason, and I mean zero reason, that they can't sit Hays, Santander or *gasp* Rutschman (so he's not burnt out by August) once or twice a week (depending on matchups). Heck, sit Mullins once a week too with Hays playing CF. It's just all mindboggling that they keep sending the same lineup out there every game pretty much. yet none of their outfielders have been hit. Hell, take away that one 5-for-5 game and Hays has been downright bad this season. It's not an emotional attachment to a player, it's that it's time to give that player a shot and they have enough PAs to make that happen with a little creativity. And you know what, maybe some of these guys will play better with more rest? There should never have been an issue with getting Hays, Mullins, Santander and Stowers everyday PAs between the three outfield spots and DH. None.

It has been illogical and honestly, extraordinarily disappointing for me. Their love for guys like Hays and Santander, who are probably 4th outfielders on good teams, just doesn't make a ton of sense. They are role players on good teams, not guys you play 7 days a week while a good prospects wastes away on the bench. Something is wrong with their evaluation system when it comes to building a 26 man roster. You want either speed, defense or power from your bench, hopefully from guys who have proven they can be productive with less than use. You don't sit your 25-year old outfielder who mashed AAA pitching last year. And what system decides that AAA split stats don't matter at the major league level? It's all so disappointing because I really do think they are pretty good at drafting hitting talent.

I don't think Hyde is making these lineup decisions because his excuses don't hold weight. I can guarantee a good manager (if he were making out the lineup cards himself like they used to do) would have found a way to get Stowers 4 starts a week at worse. His excuse to why Stowers gets no PAs against lefties was weak. BTW, good on whoever asked those questions. If Hyde really feels the way his answers come across, then I do think he's over his head a little bit when it comes to using all his talent on his roster. There is a reason you have 26 guys on a roster and you wanna just run out the same basic lineup everyday they will be cooked by Late August. BTW, his "Have you looked at our outfielders" comment is hilarious. Hays (.715 OPS), Mullins (.647), Santander (.556) with back ups in Vavra (.311) and McKenna (661 OPS). Yeah, I don't know how he could have found some PAs for Stowers with the way they've hit the ball. Lol Just more BS from Hyde and the Orioles. If Hyde is making out the lineup cards by himself, he's over his head and should not be around here when the team is really ready to compete, but I think he does nothing more than give health updates to Sig or Sig's computer minions before the computer spits out it's "optimized lineups". Sure, it's early in the season but the team is last place once again, is 2-4 against the AL East, and has rarely looked like the best team on the field talent wise against their opponents. We are 5 years into Elias' reign. He gets judged on wins and losses at the major league level and his roster decisions are not looking good at all.

It has nothing to do with emotional detachment to anyone. If you don't understand the frustrations many of have over Stowers than I don't know what to tell you. If players are blocked in AAA by much better players then great. When players are not getting playing time over lesser players, than yes, those of us that are using actual baseball logic are upset that the Orioles have chosen to go in another direction. It has ZERO to do with "emotional Attachment". I want the Orioles to build a roster with the best talent they have and they are choosing otherwise.

Adley is pretty much the last guy I'd be worried about on this team hitting wise. Those numbers will even out over a larger sample size. After starting the year 6-for-6, he went into a 1-for-23 funk that did not help his numbers. It's early, he will be fine but I don't know if he'll ever have extremely high EVs because he will take those soft oppo hits when they are there.

I had zero issues with releasing Cordero when I thought Kyle Stowers was going to be the everyday RFer/DH with Santander. Then, Stowers was given last guy on the bench status and Vavra got starts in the outfield over him. And now, less than 8 games into the season, the Orioles think Bemboom is a better choice to be that guy. So yeah, if you told me at the end of spring training that Bemboom would be on the roster instead of Stowers and Cordero, I'd say you were utterly insane. Yet here we are with Elias logic. When you think playing Aguilar over Stowers wasn't crazy enough, he ups the stakes this season with his absolute mind-boggling roster management a week into the season. So yeah, if I knew Stowers was going to be given no real chances and then sent out, I would have been ok with Cordero being the 26th man off the bench guy. Heck, maybe they would have even given him a start over Santander once. Does seem like his power is a good fit for Camden Yards. But I'm sure Bemboom will be just as good.. lol

He was 90-93 early in the year last year but was up to 93-96, touching 97 by year’s end last year. It was hard to judge the stuff by the camera angle though the fastball looked like it had late life and the curveball had good movement. Saying that, 19 swings and misses in 3.1 IP is pretty darn impressive. That says more than anything.

Why would you think that I or anyone else would know who was available? It's not my job to know that, it's Elias and his staff's job. When you have a surplus of talent in one area you trade it for your lack of talent in other areas (pitching). Elias and his staff has done a good job of collectors hitters, but several or them are defensively challenged or play positions where this team has major league talent. The only trade that Elias made was to get Irvin for Hernaiz. Time will tell whether that will work out but it was the right move (position of strength for pitching). Norby was a prime suspect to be traded and even he made a statement last offseason that he expected to be traded. He was not and now he's tearing up AAA offensively, but continue to look like a guy who probably is not a second baseman long term.

There's a lot of different factors that would decide that. He could be traded to another team or he will be moved to left field but Westburg needs a place to play as well. This is why Elias should have moved some of his talent this offseason for the pitching this team needed.

I still think Irvin is going to end up pitching a lot of good games for this team. For some reason his command has not been there in his first two starts of the year. When you look in baseball savant, the stuff is actually better than it was last year. Its all been command related so far and he needs to stop hanging his curve in the middle of the plate.

Can't sit Santander, no way. And now they didn't even have the option of starting Stowers since they preferred to keep their boy Bemboom on the roster. lol.. Can't make up this roster management. Doesn't matter anyways, all Stowers did was slash .330/.441/.577/1.018 in 118 PAs against AAA lefties last year so clearly he cant hit major league lefties. Apparently know some kind of secret analysis that says Stowers would never hit a major league lefty. It's just absolutely bonkers. I'm quickly getting to the point that Elias/Sig know how to draft and even develop (though defensively develop is still a question in my mind) but really, really struggle with their major league management understanding. They certainly are going against the grain and only time will tell whether their analysis that devalues Stowers' ability will turn out to be correct.

Orioles lineup management logic. Leadoff Mullins (L) and play Henderson (L) when Cortes absolutely dominates lefties holding them to a .110/.180/.159/.338. Why is McKenna on this team if he's not going to start against tough lefties? Well I guess Mullins does have that one single in 12 PAs against him vs the 0-for-7 McKenna has vs Cortes. Must be enough to give Mullins something like .00000034% better chance of getting a hit today. lol

He was unable to complete a tailor made 6-4-3 when his throw sailed right of 1B last night. But of course, he went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs. The dude can hit, but I don't think he's going to sniff 2B with the Orioles because of the defense.

He only had a line drive single hit to him that he rolled to him no real chances for him. Glad to see him playing some outfield. That infield is going to be tough to crack when Henderson is DHing a good bit. On top of it, Ortiz is just killing the ball with very high consistent exit velocities and is a much better defender at SS and 2B then Westburg.

It's better to not think logically when it comes to the major league roster management of the Orioles. I'm not sure there's another organization in baseball that would play Vavra and McKenna over Stowers and now they'd rather have a 3rd string catcher who will rarely play. The only good news is this will allow Stowers to play everyday and hopefully allow him to play well and gain value in trade. He clearly will never play for this organization in any meaningful way despite the fact that all he's done since hitting AA is hit both right-handers and left-handers. I've never seen a better player who was less valued by his organization. It really is puzzling, but then again, I've just come to the assessment that you can't think logically or use any common baseball analysis when it comes to how the Orioles will set up their major league roster. It is what it is at this point and we just have to hope they're right and logic and common sense are wrong. Kyle, some of us out here believe in you as a player. We realize he's not without fault and probably not a superstar, but he's going to be at least an average major league outfielder in this league for someone. Hopefully the Orioles lack of belief in him will not affect what they should seek in return for him in trade. BTW, there is no way between Hays, Santander, Henderson, and Stowers they could not find fairly regular PAs for all. Henderson, who struggled against lefties in the minors is 0-for-3 with 3 Ks, and a walk in 4 PAs this year against them. Seems like Kyle could have started at DH against lefties, but yet Kyle couldn't sniff a PA against them despite the fact he hit them his entire minor league career. Oh well. I hope Kyle doesn't pout when he goes down as this will be a big gut check for him. I'm sure it's been hard for him to understand why he's been treated this way and it's sometimes tough for guys like this to refind it in AAA. It would not overly surprise me if he struggles a bit, gets traded this offseason for scrap and then ends up putting in all together with an organization that will give him a true everyday opportunity at the big league level.

Sat 93-95 with a hammered curveball. I only saw a few changeups. Got 19 swings and misses in just 3.1 IP, striking out all ten of his outs. Only blip came when he made an error on an easy play that would have gotten him out of the 3rd inning. Got two strikes on the next guy but hung a curve and the batter hit a bases clearing double down the left field line. Pretty impressive start for the young man.

Say what you want about the guy because he dominates us, but damn, he's quite the personality.

This awesome pic alone is worth the click! Hard to believe it was 40 years ago that the Orioles last won the World Series. If you had told 13 year-old me, that the Orioles would not win another or even get back to the World Series before my 53rd year, I would have laughed at you with your utter senselessness. I also find it crazy that Earl Weaver thought retirement at 52-years old (He had to be the oldest looking 52-year old ever) was the right thing to do and that it wasn't an early age. “Earl was a stickler on playing the game the right way and if you didn’t, he was on your case, there was none of this, ‘Wait around ‘til tomorrow to talk about it,’” says Singleton. “He was the best manager I ever played for, but my feeling was—and if you asked some of the guys, I think they’d say the say same thing—we wanted to prove to the world we can win without him. Joe was completely different. He had a veteran team and knew it. He just made out the lineup, let us play, and we won day after day until we eventually won the World Series.” https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/sports/remembering-orioles-1983-world-series-title-raucous-orioles-magic-era/?fbclid=IwAR1pxtxyZQjVduGVI6oPaFcimDNBrBowpoFp4AamZStscsj4yTXP7K2R7_8