Tony-OH

Both have three inches more vertical movement than last year. So maybe he's taking more off for more movement.

Well there was that propaganda story from driveline about how he was improving his velocity but he was only 93 in spring and his first outing. The good news is he kept the ball down.

Tightrope should be Tate's Nickname!

I'm not feeling good about Tate topping out at 91 MPH. He doesn't have the stuff to work at 91.

Is it just me or is McDonald easily distracted today? This is a good close game and he seems to want to talk about everything but the actual game. Maybe they should feed him before a game.

That curveball tunnels pretty well with his 4-seamer. Now he needs to land that curveball more so they have to respect it.

The good news is Mullins certainly is seeing the ball better today. Bad luck but that ball was smoked.

What in God's name is Odor doing on the bases? First he doesn't advance on an obvious WP, then he almost gets picked off 3rd? Goofy.

A little too many pitches to get through the innings, but the fastball is certainly back!

But you re talking two different issues. I'm not worried about trying to get more people in or trying to make money here. I'm not super interested in the other aspects of social media outside of here.

Looks more like one of those tall walls from the cookie cutter stadiums of the 70s.

I will say this, it looks weird and I'm not a fan of the tall wall out there. There was always something cool about outfielders battling with fans for home runs balls.

Nice to see Cedric get off the snide. Hopefully that jump starts him.

Gotta love that energy from Mateo!

Great time for Cedric to break out of this K slump!

I think we've seen that the stuff is there, but what we don't know is whether he can maintain that stuff to 80-100 pitches. Yesterday he struggled after about 30.

Thanks for the kind words. It has been a struggle at times to keep my enthusiasm up for the Orioles at times over the years but the one thing that drove me were people like yourself who appreciated the unbiased reporting, scouting reports and of course the board. In the back of my mind I always felt as long as I had credentials the team at least respected what I was doing. Now that I realize this is no longer the case, I struggle to find a reason to devote so much of my time towards this organization. I guess people can get their news from the fanboys on Twitter and will think all the prospects are the next coming! Who knows, maybe that's what people need now. Reality is pretty crazy, so maybe sticking with the "all is rainbows and lollipops is what people want or need now?"

Thanks, but my suggestion then would just say, "Some posters" instead of classifying the entire board. Very few people are happy about this. Now saying that, I'm clearly disappointed and I do think your offseason failed if Watkins is starting your 5th game of the year, but I also will consider that Watkins has developed something new and looks good. I guess we'll find out.

I don't think this was an ownership decision. I could be wrong but it appears to be at least to the level of Senior VP Jennifer Grondahl. This was the position that Greg Bader was in in the past, and I guess Greg either no longer sees the value in the Hangout as well or is no longer in a position to help. Honestly, i didn't even contact him after my conversation with Jennifer because it's her decision. While I've had a good relationship with Mike Elias, I'm assuming he agrees too because I kind of let him know originally and he deferred to Jennifer. I'm a big boy and can accept when my run is up. I was going to make a thread about it but this seems to have devolved into it. Mainly I just wanted people to know since in the past I've been asked about things and was able to get information to the fans. I learned I couldn't do that with Matt Blood since he would just forward the most simplest of requests for injury information to the Pr department without even sending me a text back. He's the first guy in that position to treat me like that since I started doing that kind of contact work since 2000. Again, Mike has always been good in responding, but after thinking about it, I realize that none of them really care about the me, the site, or the tens of thousands of fans that have called this place their home to discuss Orioles baseball. I'll probably shut down any new Plus memberships from starting up or renewing here shortly and then we look at what the next steps look like.

I know how important this board is to people. I'm exploring opportunities that could keep it intact in some way but I haven't made any final decisions. Today is a tough day because it reminds me of all the hard work I've put into this site and being there in the press box for opening day was always one of the perks for that hard work. While the Hangout is a business in the sense it takes in money through advertising to pay the costs of operation, it could go away tomorrow and doesn't affect me financially. In the past, people like Greg Bader and Bill Stetka were always very fair to me. I think they realized what we did for the team. But the organization is not built on relationships anymore. It's built on the bottom line and the new people could care less about the Hangout because they view us as just another fan site I guess. It's the lack of respect that really gets me, but at the end of the day, I can hold my head up high and know what I built here over the 26 years this site existed.

Nope, I had a conversation up to the VP level who explained they would no longer "make an exception" for me. It was cordial, but we agreed to disagree. At the end of the day, I use to see guys like Vince Bagli on opening day with credentials even though he hadn't covered the team in 25+ years. I always thought that was great because of what he one was in the area. Now I'm not saying I'm Vince Bagli level, but damn, for a team struggling with their fanbase, you would think someone who has covered their team for 26 seasons, two of which were spent in combat areas and I still did stuff, would rate getting a credential still. Oh well, sometimes you have to see the writing on the wall, and I always told myself if I was ever denied credentials that it would tell me it was the end.

It's all about "swing decisions" which means they are looking for guys to make the right decision to swing on pitches they can do the most damage with. I have seen a difference in many of the players drafted over the last 3 years with these swing decisions. It's why you see pretty good walk totals across the board now with the Orioles affiliates. Even some of the international guys are buying in.

No problem. Good luck with the auction for your charity.

This will be the first non-COVID restricted opening day that I will not be attending since 2007. Since the Orioles turned down my press credentials for the first time ever (my first one in 2001) I've decided I will no longer attend games as a fan either. Since the organization that I've poured hours upon hours of my time over the last 26 season thinks so little of me and this site, it tells me how little they care about their die hard fans. They just take everyone for granted. Although I haven't made any final decisions, this is probably the last year of this site in this form. If they don't care about their fans, why should I continue to run a site dedicated to them?