Tony-OH

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.

Yeah, I heard the radio guys are not going on the road either, but that could change. It really is sad that we have both the TV and Radio for the team treated this like a 3rd rate operation instead of 1st class like our fans deserve.

I believe they would have to add him to the 40-man then DL him, which is not going to happen.

Which Elias has used to spread out across his picks to get guys like Mayo, Baumler and Wilems. Whether it works out or not remains to be seen, but I don't see how you think drafting as high as he had hasn't helped the farm system and the rebuild.

Considering he has a 6.09 ERA in 314.2 AAA IP vs the 2.39 in 37.2 IP in the majors, I agree this is a small sample size issue. No reason for him not get a minor league deal and see what he can do though.

Not sure what you see in DeJong. Seems like he's going to make a decent chunk of change for a guy who is going to give you decent defense but a below average stick at SS. Anderson would be better than Gutierrez at 3b, but he's not part of the future here so who are you giving up for him? You act like teams have blocked major league SS and 3B and I would just say, then who are they? I don't have an issue with upgrading the defense at SS and overall at 3B, but 3B is a place where the Orioles have a lot of potential candidates that should start being ready by 2023.

Be careful, he's got a quick right jab. Don't want to get on his bad side.

I'm not against going after someone like Correa this year, I just don't see the Orioles doing it for lots of reasons, to include an ownership that has shown no interest in spending. Other than Correa, I don't see a player I'd spend big bucks on because the system is strong with positional prospects. Should they consider trades for players like Mullins, Hays, Means, Mancini and any reliever, sure, but it has to be the right return. This has been short offseason because of the lockout and if they can get a deal done with Correa then great, because that shores up the SS position for some time, but outside of him, I don't see a guy you break the bank for. i know you have some trades in mind that you would do, but we have no idea if those trades are available so you can't blame Elias for not making them. In the end, I just think next offseason will be a big offseason for the club to shape the team into a contender. I do think that will be made more through trades than free agency though because the talent in the farm system will have more value if they do well at higher levels.

And hope they don't pull something in the meantime! I keed, I keed... Kinda

I do think Elias needs to show he can start improving the team to win, but I still think next offseason will be the real test. I think we're one season more season of evaluating some top talent at upper portions of the minor league system to see what they've got, then they can start wheeling and dealing and signing. While I would be surprised and happy if they signed Correa, i just don't think they will since i think they will save that money for starting pitching. Afterall, their entire drafting philosophy has been to draft bats in those first ten rounds outside a few picks. I think the idea is they are better at identifying good positional talent out of college and high school that can be moved for more mature pitching that is easier to evaluate through either their performance in upper minors or the majors. I understand why SG and some others are upset, I just think it's premature. If we're having the same kind of offseason next year, I'll be on board with their concerns.

I hope you just missed the sarcasm emoji! Rutschman is 24 years old, when he gets healthy and gets some rehab at bats in at AAA, he should be up in the majors playing this year. Which unsurprisingly will be after the Orioles gain an extra year of service time now.

3/16 - Signed Chris Ellis (RHP) to a minor league contract with spring training invite.

I'm only surprised it took this long. Guess he thought he would get a major league contract somewhere. He pitched decently last year in his stint with the Orioles even though he really doesn't have an outpitch and his command is not great. Still, he could potentially eat some innings or be a swing man/long guy.

100%. Same thing happened to them last year when they said they were not going to broadcast any games from spring training. MASN is an embarrassment. They should be paying for both Roch and Melewski to be there all spring training. Melewski should be reporting from Twin Lakes and Roch from Orioles camp, but MASN doesn't operate like that. Has MASN even announced if they are doing spring games? Are they sending their broadcasters on the road this year? Last I heard they were not which again, would be an embarrassment once again. It's just such an awfully run sports channel. Orioles fans deserve much more.

It certainly does not hurt in the service time department, but I was convinced the Orioles were not going to do that anyways with Rutschman due to his age.

Neither player was on the 40-man so this doesn't apply to them. Either way, I'm not blaming the team, just stating the obvious. Your training staff has one role and that's to keep players on the field. If your players, particularly young players keep getting strains and pulls, either you have fragile players or it's on your training staff. We'll see if the other teams top young players start dropping like flies but so far, the Orioles lost their 1st two top picks in a matter of a few days. Jinx, bad luck, perhaps, but it's worth monitoring. I know if I was Elias I'd have the training lead answering some questions for me. The only thing consistent with the Orioles is the "worse case scenario" always being the case when these "injuries" occur. Have we ever had a guy really miss a few days? As soon as I hear "soreness" with an Orioles, I assume the worse and more cases than not they end up missing significant time. Injures happen all over baseball, sure, but it's just frustrating that this team can't catch even a little break and have a little optimism going into a season. Hell, they can't even play an intrasquad game without someone getting hurt.

Everything that happens to the Orioles is a "tiny blip". Whatever hex Cal Ripken Sr. put on this franchise after they fired him will never be exercised until 30 Yankees hats are thrown into a vat of acid on the pitcher's mound of Camden Yards. It's not a giant deal overall, but certainly disappointing. In the matter of a few days Kjerstad and Rutschman have gone down to injuries. Say what you want about Hunter Harvey's concerns about the medical staff, but so far they get an F for keeping young players on the field this spring. We're not talking about 30-somethings, but young in their prime 20-year olds pulling and straining stuff. How long before Rodriguez or Hall have a "minor" set back and have to sit for a bit?

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2022/03/chirinos-knows-theres-a-mentorship-role-with-the-orioles.html Reading through Roch's post, it's pretty clear that Chirinos is a pretty quality guy who will be a good veteran presence for Rutschman and the team.

He's had a lot of time of playing, running and getting up to 100% since so I'm not sure that was factor, but who knows? Let's just hope the extra tests are precautionary.

It's also not a great sign that a 23 year old is pulling his hamstring. With all the stretching they do, a young guy should really not be pulling muscles. Ashamed really. He's a guy that really needed a full healthy year.

That's not a good sign. A slight pull doesn't need "more tests".

I'm not really sure how many times I have to say this, but I don't see them competing this year. I see them trying to win. As for a pitcher, who? Who you wanna give a huge contract to? So you entire argument is that Correa makes the team better? Sure, he does that. I just don't see the Orioles outspending a large market team, including the Astros for his services. I've said many times that Correa makes some sense if the Orioles don't really think they have an house option, but I don't think they are ready to say that.

Well these are from the other post, but they fit here. I think this is the year where they try to win, not compete, but win. But we know this team is coming off a 52 win season so even a 20 games improvement would be a lot and that still makes them a 90 loss team this year. No amount of free agent signings will help that. The only reason to sign a big free agent is if you feel they are the guy you can build around and you have no one in your system that is coming up in the future. The Orioles right now can legitimately say they have legitimate starters or high level (close to ready) prospects at C, 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, CF, RF, two starting pitchers and plenty of potential relievers. They may have a SS but we still need to see if Henderson (will he get too big or will his hands not improve), Westburg (arm strength concerns as an everyday SS), or Ortiz (will the bat play?) can stick there as an everyday guy. What this team really needs is some starting pitching and hopefully this year will be the year they find out who if any among Zimmermann, Lowther, T. Wells, A. Wells, Akin, Kremer, Bradish and Baumann can be part of that future rotation. For those who want big free agents this year, who would you sign as a Free agent this off season and what do you think it does for our record this year? I just don't see the Orioles ever being a sign Correa kind of team so I just don't think that's realistic. Could they, sure, but again, I don't see it as realistic. I do think they should be trying to win this year which in my mind means there are no more Spensor Watkins getting anything more than an emergency start at worse. I'd love to see them have a one year stop gap who is better than Gutierrez, but who? With Henderson, Westburg and perhaps Mayo is he can stick at 3B, it doesn't make sense to sign a long term option and besides, there are no good long term options available at 3B. Let's say 2023 looks like this: 1B: Mountcastle 2B: Westburg SS: Ortiz 3B: Henderson LF: Hays CF: Mullins RF: Cowser DH Kjerstad/Stowers SP: Rodriguez SP: Hall SP: Means SP: Rom SP: The winner of the other guys Does this look like a team that can't compete? Heck I left out guys like Mayo/Vavra/Prieto/the 1st overall pick this year if he's a college guy/Norby and a few others who could be up and helping out. So why dump a bunch of money into free agents this year when I don't see anyone but Correa who is a real impact guy at a position of need. I think this is an important year for the team to assess prospects at high levels of the minors and at the major league level with players like Rutschman, Rodriguez, Stowers and potentially Hall, Ortiz, and Westburg. We are not jumping from a 52 win team to a contender in one year. This is the transition yea from cellar dweller who is hoping for the 1st overall pick to a team trying to win but not necessarily compete.

Who would you sign as a Free agent this off season and what do you think it does for our record this year? I just don't see the Orioles ever being a sign Correa kind of team so I just don't think that's realistic. Could they, sure, but again, I don't see it as realistic. I do think they should be trying to win this year which in my mind means there are no more Spensor Watkins getting anything more than an emergency start at worse. I'd love to see them have a one year stop gap who is better than Gutierrez, but who? With Henderson, Westburg and perhaps Mayo is he can stick at 3B, it doesn't make sense to sign a long term option and besides, there are no good long term options available at 3B. Let's say 2023 looks like this: 1B: Mountcastle 2B: Westburg SS: Ortiz 3B: Henderson LF: Hays CF: Mullins RF: Cowser DH Kjerstad/Stowers SP: Rodriguez SP: Hall SP: Means SP: Rom SP: The winner of the other guys Does this look like a team that can't compete? Heck I left out guys like Mayo/Vavra/Prieto/the 1st overall pick this year if he's a college guy/Norby and a few others who could be up and helping out. So why dump a bunch of money into free agents this year when I don't see anyone but Correa who is a real impact guy at a position of need. I think this is an important year for the team to assess prospects at high levels of the minors and at the major league level with players like Rutschman, Rodriguez, Stowers and potentially Hall, Ortiz, and Westburg. We are not jumping from a 52 win team to a contender in one year. This is the transition yea from cellar dweller who is hoping for the 1st overall pick to a team trying to win but not necessarily compete.

Sulser very well start the year as the closer, but I was never confident with him in save situations and my guess if even if he does start the year there, he won't end the year there.