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But why should this bother you if a team choose to rebuild that way? I get watching teams like the Orioles stink at record levels each year is no fun, but as fans we have a choice to stop watching if we want to. Why should anyone tell a team how they should rebuild? I'm not even saying what the Orioles have done was the right way or not, I'm just saying that no one should penalize a team for trying to rebuild how they see fit. Perhaps a way around this is to to take the last three years records to determine the draft order. I like this idea because it stops the Red Sox from tanking once they know they are not going to be good and then get a high draft pick while signing every high price free agent and be to competitive the next season.

I think you are interpreting "fan experience" a little differently. I agree that the ballpark experience has little to do with the players outside of their performance on the field. However, part of the "fan experience" is having a fair game where teams have a chance to compete year in an year out. The players don't have interest in ensuring anything but that the large market teams can spend as much as possible, because that's more money for them. They don't care about competitive balance which is a pretty big for fans. No one asking any player to "put their livelihoods on the line" but let's face it, the lowest paid major league players makes about ten times what the average fan makes in a year. You also have to face the fact that the MLNPA doesn't really care about the younger players making minimum salary, they care about ensuring a system where teams are forced to meet minimal salary structures and that big market teams can spend what they want. This world where players can make the most money is not a fairly competitive world and that affects the fan experience for many fans of teams that can not afford to keep up with the mega market teams. Now does that mean they can't compete some years no, but it makes it a lot harder when your team's budget is $120 million and the Dodgers and Yankees can go to $300 million. I don't think there are any good guys in this situation. The owners won't open the books nor do they want to be fair about revenue sharing which would be the best way forward, more than allowing unfair advantages to big market teams.

I've been here, trust me. I belong to the Baseball 197o-79 Facebook page and trust me, almost every day they get me to start looking someone up. I find it fascinating to see the behind the scenes on some of these guys. There really are some interesting stories. Like Dyar's bio. I had no idea that he was first signed as a catcher and released quickly. It was interesting how he just called up a scout the family knew and got signed. Then, actually earned his way up the chain until he finally broke through in his late 20's.

Then we agree. I don't know why you are so pro player union but that's your right. I 100% understand what the MLBPA's role is and suggesting I don't is disrespectful and ridiculous. Your fanboy like love for the MLBPA tells me you have an another reason for pretending that the poor millionaire players are so underpaid. Should the union be fighting for players like Mullins to make more money earlier, sure, that's reasonable. But most of their concerns are over making minimal salary floors and screwing up the draft to try and get teams to pay for overpriced veterans who are no longer worth that money. As you stated "They represent the players not the fans. They are not and should not be concerned with improving the fan experience." That's why they are failing their own constituents because if you don't worry about the fan experience, then you won't eventually have fans. The players union leadership is money and power hungry and most likely corrupt like most other union leadership. They are listening to the big money players who can sit around and not play or get paid because they have plenty of money squirreled away. I don't believe for a second that they really care about the younger players and are using that as a chip to get a system in place that will basically force teams to overpay for mediocre older talent that are no longer worth the money (ala Jimenez). Because at the end of the day, they care about making the ultra rich players richer, veterans richer, and of course by default, themselves richer. Making the fan experience better or making a more competitive game is not their concern. And don't get me wrong, the owners are not without fault here. They are just as greedy as the MLBPA and the ultra rich players who control them.

I'm always surprised by how little reaction "Historical" posts get. I find a lot of these stories fascinating. I love the SABR bios of players I only knew from baseball cards or my OOTP game.

No, this is a very specific error that will come across your screen that starts with "403 error".

Wayne Garland will always mostly be know as the guy the Indians gave a 10 year, $2.3 million contract to after his 1976 season with the Orioles in which he went 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA. Garland was only 25 years old when he put up those numbers so the Indians thought they were getting a stud for a long time. They ended up getting a 26-year old who went 13-19 in with a 3.60 ERA (110 ERA+) in 38 starts over 282 innings, including 21 complete games in his first season. Perhaps an intense workload of 515 innings he threw between his 25 and 26-year old season, including 25 complete games, was too much, and by his 1978 spring training, his arm and shoulder started hurting. He tried to pitch through it, but after pitching to a 7.89 ERA over six starts, he was shut down and found to have a torn rotator cuff. After the injury, Garland was pitched to a 5.02 ERA (82 ERA+) over 55 games including 44 starts over the next three seasons before the Indians released him, despite five years left on his contract. But let's go back to that 1976 season. Garland was a former first round pick by the Orioles who was starting his 3rd season in the Orioles bullpen despite his desire to start. He and Earl Weaver did not get along and Garland felt Weaver would not give him the opportunity he thought he deserved. After the Orioles traded Ken Holtzman and Doyle Alexander to the New York Yankees in June, a spot in the starting rotation opened for Garland. He made the most of his opportunity by going 17-7 with a 2.75 ERA over 24 starts (yes, he got a decision in every single start over this period) to finish 20-7. But considering that he and Weaver never got along, it's apparent Weaver let him pitch as long he wanted to in that final start in order to get that magical 20 wins plateau. The Orioles were sitting at 88-70 in 2nd place, but were seven games behind the Yankees and eliminated from post season. With Garland sitting on 19 wins, Weave sent him to the mound for his final start of the year against the Brewers who were 65-90 and in last place. It was the first game of a double header and it pitted Garland against Baltimore native, 20-year old Moose Haas, who was making his 2nd major league start. The Brewers got on the board first with a two-out, two run single by Jim Ganter after Garland had loaded the bases with two singles and walk. The )rioles got one back in the bottom half of the inning to cut the lead to 2-1. A walk and an RBI double by Sixto Lezcano put the Brewers up 3-1 and it did not look good for Garland to win that 20th game. An RBI groundout by Reggie Jackson cut the lead to 3-2 by the end of the 3rd. Garland held the Brewers down in the 4th, but the Orioles ended Haas' homecoming in the 4th when he was replaced after allowing a single and walk without retiring a batter. The Orioles would end up scoring two off reliever Eduardo Rodriguez (the original one) to give Garland a 4-3 lead. Garland held the Brewers in the 5th and 6th, but in the 7th, the Brewers tied the game at 4-4 after Garland allowed three singles in the inning. Unfortunately, there is no pitch count available for this game, but you have to imagine Garland's pitch count was pretty high by this point as he had allowed four runs on 10 hits and two walks over those seven innings. in the 8th, the Brewers were on Garland again getting single, a sacrifice, then another single to make it first and third with one out. Garland though looked like he might get out of it when he struck out Von Josua with the go ahead run on third. But with two outs, future Hall of Famer Robin Yount singled to right field scoring the go ahead run to make it 5-4. Now most manages would have pulled Garland but Weaver left him out there despite having two guys on and now having allowed five runs on 12 hits and the two walks. Garland got Scott o pop out to second to get out of the inning. Leading off the bottom of the 8th, light hitting catcher Dave Duncan led off the inning with a solo home run to tie the game so Weaver sent Garland back out for the 9th. Despite a lead off single by Mike Hegan and sacrifice to put him on second, Garland got out of the inning unscathed, keeping the game 5-5. The Orioles though were not able to get anyone on base against Rodriguez who was still pitching so the game went to the 10th inning. Garland, who was only 26 years old and had allowed five runs on 14 hits and two walks, was sent back out there to get that win. Whether Weaver was trying to help Garland get that 20th win or whether he was saving his bullpen for game two is unknown, but it's pretty crazy, even in these days that Garland would still be sent back out there. In the top of the 10th, Garland got two quick outs before that pesky Von Joshua singled and stole second to put the go ahead run on second. Garland though got Yount to ground out to Brooks Robinson for a 5-3 to end the threat. Rodriguez got the Orioles 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th and off to the 11th inning they went. Garland went back out there and put up his first 1-2-3 inning since the 1st inning taking the Orioles to the bottom of the 11th. Finally, in the bottom half of the inning, Al Bumbry single and Booby Grich then connected for a long two-run game winning homer to deep left field. Garland had won his 20th game. Again, we have no idea how many pitches Garland threw, but he faced 50 batters in the game and allowed 17 base runners so even if you average 3.5 pitches per batter, Garland probably threw somewhere in the vicinity of 175 pitches. Garland got the 20th win, and then got the huge contract from the Indians after turning down a $40,000 offer from the Orioles in mid-season (smart move). But even though he had one more workhorse year with the Indians, you have to wonder if he sold his shoulder/arm for that 20th win. Garland had only faced over 40 batters in one other start before this game (43) and only faced 40 or more batters in a game three more times with the Indians, never going over 41. By retrospect, 30-year old Jim Palmer, who led the team in 1976 with 315 innings and a career high 25 complete gams, never faced more than 41 batters in a game and only twice that season faced over 40. In fact, glancing through Palmer's game logs, he rarely ever faced more than 39 batters in a game. It was rare for him to hit the 40 mark and if he did, it was usually 40 or 41 batters at most. So was Weaver final parting shot was allowing Garland to pitch himself to his own demise? Guess we'll never know but I doubt too many pitchers won their 20th game while facing 50 batters in a game.

You literally said the median income of a player is $1.15 million. That means their median income makes them millionaires. I don't doubt the owners can give more when it comes to profit sharing, but prove me wrong on anything I said about the union and what they've been asking for. Show me one thing they've asked for that will improve the experience for the fans?

I can't figure that one out. It obviously only affects mobile so I'm trying to find out where I have mobile google adsense code. I thought I had replaced it all. I'll figure it out eventually. Thanks.

Yep, perfect!

This post is probably for our 50 and over crowd since most others probably don't remember the right-handed reliever Dyar Miller. I really don't have any strong memories of him since I was 5-7 years old when he pitched for the Orioles, but I remember his baseball card and remember his good ERAs in 1975 and 1976. What I didn't know was his interesting career that saw him stay in baseball for half a century. Here's his great SABR Bio.

I find all of this quite fascinating from a standpoint of following the minor leagues for so long. The Orioles are clearly trying something new by bringing in so many coaches and managers who never played or coached professionally. It's really interesting to see how all of this works out. Mercado seems like a really hard working guy who loves baseball and has obviously impressed a lot of people who have met him. I'm very interested in meeting him and all these new young coaches this year. Hopefully with COVID lightening up it will be easier to get down to the affiliates this year and talk with them.

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From his 20-24 year old years, Machado put up an impressive 10.7 dWAR. From his 25-29 seasons, he's put up just 2.1 dWAR. So I would say we saw Machado at his best early in his career, but he's closer to average defensively, Baseball Savant shows that he's not very good to his glove side most of his career, but is very good at going towards third base and in on balls, which is where we saw most of his amazing plays. His best years was in 2016 and 2018 according to statcast though dWAR said he was good, but not great in 2018. I'd say Machado is a 60 defender at 3B right now but may have been a 70 for a few years.

Yes, to an extent. I do realize the union's job is to make the most money possible for their constituents, but they also need to be worried about the health of the game and the relationship with the fans. Baseball is at a crossroads where they seemingly are making more money from TV and merchandising as they do from gate receipts. Ticket prices have flown through the roof as players have gotten richer and richer and at some point, it's going to reach a point where it's going to affect the average fan's interest. Now I'm not talking about the diehards like those of us on here, but I do believe baseball is losing a generation of kids and eventually that's going to catch up to them. Gone are the days high school kids would skip school to see a day game or go out with their friends on a weekend, get some cheap tickets, and enjoy a game. Families of four now have to pay over $200 for a decent experience at a game and the more money the players end up squeezing out of the owners will just get pushed back on the fans. Playoff and World Series games start at 8 PM and last long past the bedtimes of most children under 15. This is why I believe profit sharing is so important and should be the focus. At the end of the day, if baseball does well, then the players should share in that success with the owners but unfortunately, this is where the owners fail the fans because they are not willing to open the books to the players so they can get an accurate profit share. IF this work stoppage ends up costing the fans regular season games, I think it's going to have a devastating affect on the game, especially if it goes on for s significant amount of time. People have way more options for entertainment than they had in 2004. Post COVID, some people are going to seek out different types of entertainment than packing a stadium so any kind of work stoppage is just going to alienate more of the average common fan and they may very well not return. The player's unions should realize this. No one in major league baseball is worried about their next meal and while it's understandable that they are trying to get the best deal possible, ultimately they will be losers in the billionaires vs millionaires fight.

Let's be honest here, that's all these proposals are about. It has zero, and mean zero to do with stopping tanking from a winning and losing standpoint, and everything about forcing bad teams to go out and overpay some mediocre 30 something like the old days. I haven't seen one Lottery proposal that makes sense to me. But the players are just trying to figure out how to beat the analytics that tells good GMs that signing 30 somethings to large contracts are risky propositions. Anyone who thinks the players union is doing anything to better baseball or the fan experience is fooling themselves. Everything they want is about raising their already outrageous paydays because what really need is more Ubaldo Jimenez's making $12 million a year. That's fun.

Henderson is certainly not "just a bat". He's got things to work on defensively and I'd like to see the hands and throw accuracy imporve, but he's a very good athlete who should find a place on the dirt besides first base as a home.

Not sure Henderson has shown the hands to be a 70 defender anywhere on the dirt, but I do feel he will end up an above average defensive third baseman. I don't however see a future Manny Machado unless his hands and throw accuracy really improve.

He gave Henderson a 70 grade for defense? That's absurd if he did.

Worthington was in the running but he really only had one decent year. Gomez was head and shoulders better overall.

Yeah that was a particularly bad year, but like I'm sure you know, there were many other just awful drafts. Honestly, the Orioles could have just put names on a dart board and had better drafts. I'm not sure what happened over this time and why the team went from finding so many great players to drafting guys who could not get out of A ball with early picks. Gary Nichols did ok in 1997 with Werth and Hairston, but otherwise most of his drafts were disasters as well. DeMacio was ok, but blew too many first round picks. Jordan was better than people give him credit for with his pitching selections, particularly Rodriguez and Hall and of course he drafted Machado. Let's hope Elias' drafts are what helps turn things around along with their international presence now.

It's my list... my requirements. Honestly, guys like Wieters, Jones, Markakis and even Machado all have credentials to be in the Orioles HoF. I made it more than 5 years to get away from those guys since I really was trying to make a team full of non Orioles HoFers.

Wieters didn't make the requirement of being retired for 5 years.

Boddicker is in the Orioles HoF.

He's in the Orioles HoF.