Tony-OH

All of Stewart's value is in his bat and the question is, what is that value? When you look over the stats from last year, he really had a nine game stretch where he hit like Barry Bonds, but other than that was almost a complete zero besides walks at the plate (4-for-54 with 18 walks and 1 extra base hit). Overall his WOBA was above average (.347 vs .317) but his xWOBA is just a little above average (.326 vs .321) suggesting he was a little lucky but also because some of that WOBA is driven by his exceptional 17.9% walk rate. So as a DH who can go out into the corners and hopefully not let to many balls bounce of his face, he probably can stick out a major league career for awhile if he can keep his WOBA where it was at this year, but I think we'll need to see how streaky he is over a full season. Either way, he's going to need to hit because if Diaz is raking in AAA, he'll need to come up which will move Mountcastle to DH or spelling Mancini at 1B, and that takes Stewarts PAs away. As for McKenna, his value of course is in his defense, but his tools at the plate including some occasional eye opening oppo power, keeps people interested in case he puts it all together. McKenna his an opportunity to be a Craig Gentry type of player as a 4th outfielder but his defensive ability and speed makes him worth watching.

I'd put Santander is center before Diaz, but they would play similarly out there. They would be adequate on most balls, but you lose the range that you would want because they don't have center fielder speed.

And on top of it, clearly Davis is about Davis. Why would he do anything to help an organization that he won't retire from even though it's clear to everyone to he's an embarrassment on a major league field?

Kjerstad had a number and the Orioles knew that number before they drafted him. There have been cases of players in the past changing their number after getting drafted, but it's pretty rare as that is part of the process and is pretty well defined now. This allows teams to do what the Orioles did this year with Kjerstad so they could get high ceiling high school kids in the 4th and 5th rounds. Team also do this during normal drafts by drafting senior signs or cheap $10k players in 5th-10th rounds so they can use the savings to get guys with high numbers in other draft positions within the first ten rounds.

If Santander is traded and the package returned does not include at least one high ceiling guy, then I'll start to get real worried. Santander is still a guy who can be part of a willing future here in Baltimore so he's not a guy you move unless you think his return will give you even more value for the future.

Because we've told 50 times why this has nothing to do with the Orioles being cheap. I did hear the Orioles had allotted extra bonus money to a player that was taken before they could pick so they ended up with Baumler who wasn't going to cost as much. It's not like Elias had a prospect he liked better than Baumler, but the player's number was 200k more so he went with Baumler to save a few hundred K. Yes, it's clear the Orioles are cutting the budget in ways we've never seen before, but they also just spent the most money they've ever spent in Latin America, so it appears that Elias is using his meager budget to build for the future, which means guys like Iglesias and Alberto had to go because of their price tags. Hopefully this is only because of shortened season last year with no fans in the stadiums and the most likely scenario of reduced fans in the stadiums this summer as well. Saying that, I don't think many people around Baltimore would be upset if the team was sold by the Angelos family.

You do know they went with Kjerstad to be able to get two high ceiling high school kids in Mayo and Baumler, right? I don't think that has anything to do with them being cheap, but was how Elias wanted to get the most high ceiling guys in a five round draft.

Only Thorne comes as a mild surprise but after hearing about his contract dispute with the team last year (something I did not remember hearing about last year), it really doesn't come as a surprise. I'm disappointed that they could find a role for Olson who I thought was pretty solid at times on the radio. Saying that, the writing was on the wall after the changes announced before last year. With all the new blood being added, and the reduced roles for Bordick, Dempsey, Davis, Hunter and Johnson, it really should not be a surprise that they were being transitioned out. A few thoughts on the departed and the people staying on: As others had noted, Bordick had become insufferable to listen to during broadcasts, particularly when he was teamed up with Hunter because it was homerfest. His catch phrases and baseballisms "steaks for RBIs" did not become endearing and made it hard to listen to him. The thing is, his baseball knowledge, which is very high, shown through as the analyst on the post game show where he was able to focus on the analysis and not have to fill time by describing the exact action we just saw (Personal pet peeve of mine because the analyst should be adding analysis to what we just saw, not describe what we are seeing). I personally enjoyed Thorne and it's sad to see him go. His pairing with Jim Palmer was a great telecast, even if he would annoy me at times by calling the wrong pitch types (something he was supposedly talked to about but kept doing). I'll miss Gary's voice, his intelligence, and his humor. As for the others, sometimes it's time to move on. Yes, they've been around a long time, but with the Orioles under Elias doing things in different ways here, perhaps some fresh voices are needed. As for the current crew, I'm interested in hearing about their roles for next year. I felt most of the new crew last year were pretty solid. I'm a big fan of Kevin Brown on TV, but his play by play on the radio needs some work and yes, he needs to work on his enthusiasm at times. Not Hunter level of course, but getting a Thorne level for excitement would be good. Saying that, Brown is really up on his statcast information and does a good job of adding those in at times and he has a great announcer voice. Garceau got better as the year went on and became pretty solid. He's a 1st class guy who knows the history of the Orioles and teaming him with McDonald and Palmer should be good. Arnold was the big "surprise" for me as he was once teamed with Brown a few times on the radio and I enjoyed that duo. Hollander was pretty good in his couple of appearances and Newman really knows her baseball and is up on analytics, but I find her play by play to be uninspiring and hard to follow at times on the radio. Announcers are one of those things that fans generally disagree on because everyone has their own tastes. Some like the homerisms and some like the more measured approach, but in the end, I think the Orioles broadcasts are heading in the right direction. Hopefully whenever Caleb Joseph retires they can bring him on as an analyst. He would probably be amazing in that role.

I feel like we saw that from Ben last year as the broadcast was adding in some statcast metrics like EV, distance, arm strength from the outfield, base running speeds, etc.

#truth

He has an option left and I think they'll want to look at Lopez over him, but I could see him making the team over Sulser. I'm real high on Sulser but then again, i could say that about a lot of the current arms in the bullpen.

Yep, good point.

If nothing changes, Orioles pitchers and catchers are due to report February 16 and with things being as they are with the Orioles, it's doubtful they add any significant pieces before opening day. Obviously that could change with potential waiver wire transactions, signing of a minor league free agent or the Orioles trading away someone like Santander, Cobb or Mancini before the season starts. Either way, without much to discuss, why not run an exercise where we will try and predict the Orioles opening day 26-man roster (Note: It hasn't even been announced yet whether that number will be 26 or not this year yet). I'll do it by position by who I think will be starters. (13) 1B: Trey Mancini 2B: Ramon Urias SS: Yolmer Sanchez 3B: Rio Ruiz LF: Ryan Mountcastle CF: Austin Hays RF: Anthony Santander C : Pedro Severino DH: DJ Stewart UTL: Pat Valaika OF: Cedric Mullins C : Chance Sisco Bench: Chris Davis (though I think they will try to DL him after it steps into the Ubaldo pothole) (13) SP: Means SP: Cobb: SP: Akins SP: Kremer SP: Zimmermann RP: Cesar Valdez RP: Hunter Harvey (assuming he doesn't spontaneously combust) RP: Armstrong RP: Scott RP: Lopez RP: Max Sceroler RP: Lakins RP: Fry

I'll tell you, for me the Kevin Brown/Ben McDonald booth was the best last year. Geoff Arnold was also very good on TV and radio and I enjoyed Gregg Olson on the radio as an analyst. Kevin Brown is a future national broadcaster.

Hunter's strength was his play by play ability which is why he was more tolerable on radio. It's just when he started talking narratively did he become excruciating. I'll never forget the time he annoyed me in the first spring training game of the year on radio when he said, and I'm paraphrasing here a bit. "Chris Lee is one the Orioles top prospects and you can tell this by his 5-1 record at Bowie last year before getting injured." I facepalmed so hard I almost crashed me car. Saying that, I don't want to kick a guy when he's down. While I'm not unhappy to see him go, I do appreciate his 24 years he gave to the organization. Oh, and he was a decent MC for opening day so I'll leave with something positive.

Maybe they hadn't made a final decision and were waiting to see what the schedule looked like this year. There are so many factors with COVID potentially affected the schedule and travel that maybe they just didn't make a final decision?

Just as a side note, Bevacqua's twitter can be a fun follow. The 1975 Bazooka bubble blowing champ can get quite animated. In another side note, Bevacqua was one of my favorite non-Orioles growing up for two reasons, his last name just seemed cool, and every year it seemed like he was on a new team when I saw his baseball card.

I agree. Woman should be treated exactly like their male counterparts and any player, coach or front office personnel that tries to take advantage of that are pretty disgusting. Britt was always professional in how she acted when I was around and she's very good writer and reporter. Even if the player liked her, there are 100 different ways than faking a news tip and asking her to his room to make a move. That's just disrespectful and honestly a bit creepy.

Let's keep this positive and about Kline and his decision. We have lots of posts to discuss Davis. Thanks.

He's just a very impressive young man who will no doubt end up doing great things outside of baseball. You can teach a young man better mechanics or how to spin a ball better, but you can not teach a young man the kind of moral courage and compass that Kline obviously has inside. I will certainly be rooting for him.

Well I had no idea about their preferred name now I learned something. Hey, this time of year, it's pretty much open game to keep the conversation going!

And that would make some sense if that's the case (I haven't looked at the schedule but I'll take your word). I can see the Orioles doing that because if they can gain an extra year for one potential missed start, that certainly would be prudent..

Nothing here to argue with, but if Baumann looks to be healthy, pitching well and successful this spring, I would not be surprised to see him start the year in the rotation or at least once the team needs a 5th starter.

We have clearly run out of things to discuss this offseason! lol

Again, if it's keeping him in the minors for a few weeks then sure, but if it's significant time, like more than six weeks, then no, I don't see Elias doing that.