Tony-OH

Had to look up Baumann and Uvila. Baumann hasn't pitched anywhere since 2018. Uvila was a minor league signing wo mostly played in AA last year at 27-years of age. It's always interesting when guys are scheduled to pitch who are not even officially invited to major league spring camp.

It's always more fun late in the games! I wonder if the MLB installed statcast in Ed Smith stadium this year?

If it's coming from anywhere it's coming from the Boros side. Now Boros has been known to use phantom teams to drive up the price and that could be what he's doing for Correa while trying to get more money from Houston. Saying that, I don't think the guy is just making stuff up. The question though is if the fed information is legit. The other thing here is income taxes between Maryland and Texas. Players pay a lot more taxes in Maryland than in Texas and I'm sure that's another contributing factor in the decision. At the end of the day, Correa makes sense for the Orioles as an impact guy at an impact defensive position to build around as the rebuild draws to an end. The question is, even if Elias did want him, will he get a greenlight from ownership?

One thing to remember here is the the Orioles payroll is ridiculously low right now and for the next 2-3 years minus any free agent signings. they can afford Correa if they really do believe he's the center piece to the rebuild along with Rutschman. Even in the system right now, while Henderson, Westburg and Ortiz all have the potential to play there, none of them are sure fire everyday SS either due to defensive or offensive questions. Correa makes sense in his position, youth and capabilities. With Correa and a few starting pitching acquisitions next off season, I think the Orioles become a contender by 2023.

This is how I look at it really. Give him the opt out after four years. If the Orioles haven't drafted and developed a replacement in four years that's on them.

This is true as well. Harvey has a good arm velocity wise, but it's a low spin, fairly straight 4-seamer. None of his offspeed pitches were even consistently average. There's a lot of guys who can throw 97 now in the majors and without a true outpitch, he's vulnerable to major league hitters. He's a guy that will get a minor league contract somewhere and try to prove he's healthy enough to pitch regularly enough to be of value to a major league team. Unless he's hurt, I would not be surprised to see him show back up in the majors this year with someone.

Of course there were concerns over his ability to pitch regularly or at all, but you can make all the excuses you want, the timing of his release certainly suggests it was the straw that broke the camel's back. The Orioles had plenty of time to release him before the comments so why a few days afterwards? I never said it was only because of the comment. In fact, all all I said was he probably burned some bridges with his comment since the Orioles organization is very close hold with information and access and anyone that strays off is shortly let go.

This literally looks like the "We don't think our regulars are ready for game action" lineup. lol

Make your own decision...

If he can regain his 2019 stuff, absolutely. What we saw at the end of the year was not even a good middle reliever stuff. Just depends on who shows up this spring.

I kid you not, this was in this piece about why Correa makes sense to the Orioles: https://calltothepen.com/2022/03/17/baltimore-orioles-pursuit-carlos-correa-makes-perfect-sense/

Good thing the Orioles don't start drafting pitchers until the 11th round/

Stretching out Jorge Lopez is just a complete head scratcher and waste of time. He has proven he not going to be a good starter and he pitched well in short stints last year. These are the kinds of decision that make me question the decision making of this organization when it comes to best utilizing it's talent. It was dumb last year, but it was a little understandable since the team was going to have pitchers on limited work load due to the COVID shortened 2020, but to do this again borders on insanity. Lopez needs to be in a relief only mode of one to two innings at most. Stretching him out to be a starter or piggy back starter or long reliever is just a waste of resources and tells me the organization really is struggling to understand how to appropriately evaluate the numbers and get the most value out of a player. Apparently carrying a 6.36 ERA in 273 starter innings does not seem to be enough information that he's not fit for that role. Maybe the posters that say the Orioles still don't want to win are right? Who knows at this point because if that little computer is telling them they should use Lopez in anything but an inning or two role, they need a new program or analysts. They should have just not offered him a contract and they intended to stick him back in his same unproductive role.

Harvey was amazingly DFA'd shortly after these comments. Not to add a player, not with a series of moves, but by itself randomly in November. I'm sure the timing and the individuality of the move is just pure coincidence. lol

I actually enjoy the later innings when they start bringing over all the prospects, especially when they have the statcast info up and on savant for the game!

It's cutting into the Angelos' bottom line.

I think technology is really helping to define talent now. Now scouts, scouting directors, and GMs have much more data on most of the players to include EV, LAs, details on quickness for jumps and routes in the outfield and for pitchers, now they have spin rates, true spin, movement data besides just plain on radar gun velocity. There are still going to be misses, but I think we're going to see a lot less huge busts then we've seen in years before 2014-15 ish. Go look at some of the Orioles drafts in the 70s, 80s and even the early 90s. They may have had a better chance just pulling names out of hat in some of those drafts.

Would need to know more about the "banned substance" and the circumstances of his usage before determining when the risk fits the potential reward in drafting him.

Agreed, not sure what happened there but I'm sure if you follow the money trail it will give you an answer. they had a perfect opportunity to steal a fanbase from a local MD city.

Which is amazingly cheap to do but alas, it does not appear our cheap broadcast overlords are worried to much about bringing quality broadcasts of any kind to the fans. So it appears they will throw the fans a bone and do 8 radio games and three TV broadcasts, one of which overlaps with the radio broadcast so really 10 games are covered out of 20. Meanwhile Yankees and Red Sox get every game on TV.

I will agree that it is a fact in your black and white world of Rob's opinion. Sure, you can draft well without high draft picks, but it's harder and having that extra money certainly helps.

Nice find. Glad to hear this because it's much easier to remember. It is going to be strange having the South Atlantic League being higher than the Carolina League. Speaking of that, Frederick really should get a full season club back. They deserve baseball up there and I bet there MiLB broadcast would include an announcer and more than one camera!

It's your OPINION, not a fact. The higher the draft picks, particularly the top five picks the higher the chances of hitting on a impact guy. Spreading that money out has allowed them to get guys for overslot who have looked pretty good so far. That's a fact. We get it, you think the Orioles could have spent a bunch of money and finished with 70 wins the last few years and still think they would have five players in the top 100. I find it highly unlikely. BTW, Henderson also got higher than slot to sign. Is it possible to draft well lower in the draft, sure. But at the end of the day, that's the direction he went with. what we don't know was whether hat was by his design or because of the budget he was given to operate with as he rebuilt the organization from the ground up. Look, Elias has made some mistakes already. Keeping several players including Isaac Matson over Zach Pop was an unforced error on his part, but it's too early to judge him on whether he can build a consistent winner. At this point, it is what it is and no use gnashing our teeth over the awful records that have made the franchise a laughing stock. What I'm personally focused on is the future and the minor league system makes me feel good about it. Would signing Correa make us all feel better, sure, but again, the Orioles have no and probably will never win a bidding war on THE BEST free agent on the market. Could they? Sure, they should be able to. But then again MASN should be sending their reporters on the road and broadcasting every home game in spring training, but here we are and we don't know whether they will do anything. So in other words, Elias is operating with the budget and with the owners that he got. Taking it out on him when we don't know his operational budget seems unfair to me.

Today is the anniversary of Len Bias' last game ever. He went for 31 points in a loss against UNLV in the NCAA tournament. He would go on to be drafted 2nd overall by the Boston Celtics and then as we all know, tragically died of a heart attack brought on by his cocaine usage at his celebratory draft party. Now maybe to those of you who did not grow up in the Maryland area in the 80s, this was a sad story, But for many of us who did grow up here, this was a moment similar to when Kennedy was shot or when they found out Elvis has died. I've probably told this story before but I think it bears repeating a bit. As a teenager growing up in Pasadena, I like many others was a diehard Maryland Terps Basketball 9and football) fan. Lenny Bias was something very different from our other Terp heroes, he was like a living legend who played right in front of us. Even as a short white kid who was focused on baseball, Bias was probably my favorite athlete, even above Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken. If you watch the documentary I shared below, you can see all of the amazing things he did on the court and how he affected so many, including former Michael Jordan teammate Horace Grant who referred to Bias as the “baddest MFer he’d ever seen!” His mother, and amazingly strong lady who has fought for many things to help others to not have to go through losing a son (she lost two to drugs and violence), once said that Lenny did more with his death then what he might have accomplished in the future that never came for him. I can personally attest to how his death affected me. As a 16-year old in Pasadena, MD, I was quickly getting into the high school party scene which mostly revolved around drinking beer, but there was availability of other drugs starting to show up and be available to “try”. I didn’t smoke so weed didn’t interest me, but guys I worked with started experimenting with acid and I knew some others who had cocaine. Every time I thought about potentially trying something, I’d remember, “If it can kill Len Bias, it can certainly kill me!” I never did those drugs and that pretty clean background enabled me to get a clearance in the Army as an 18-year old, and led me to my successful career now. It’s hard to watch this documentary, particularly if you grew up idolizing him, but for those who may just know the name, this documentary does a great job of celebrating him for his induction into the College all of fame (way too late but that’s another story). Even in tragedy, good can come from the event. I will always remember Len Bias as one of the people who helped shape who I became, and as the Legend he will always be to all of us that were fortunate to have watched him play.