Tony-OH

You know what fans enjoy during broadcasts when the team has scored 2 runs in 21 innings and has never held a lead in a series in which Cubs fans are about 50-50 with Orioles fans in the stands. Food. Let's talk about food!

McCann is not a major league player anymore. He's a good veteran presence, but he's not a major league caliber catcher or hitter anymore.

The hitting "tends to be contagious" has a lot to do with the pressure being off and vice versa. Saying that, this team has a very poor approach as Hyde and Ben have pointed out. Everyone is trying to hit home runs. No one is going to the other way, taking their singles, just getting on base. The way the game is coached now, the young inexperienced hitting coaches who never played at high levels are more about giving the hitters information about the pitchers they are facing, then really working on swings or approach. This team is going to live and die on hitting home runs and they don't have the coaching or leadership, to include Hyde who is more of a buddy then a leader who can get players to change approaches, to make changes. When this team hits home runs, they will win. When a team can stop them from hitting them they're going to lose because they're approach this year is aggressive, doing damage approach vs the getting on base approach.

The Orioles seem to have an aversion to hitting 91-92 MPH fastballs.

I'm just a little annoyed that people are so easily influenced by a puff piece. I'm also annoyed that the Orioles keep crapping up against the Cubs, so that doesn't help.

This team literally craps it's pants when it it plays a NL central team. Its really weird.

Wait, hold up.. You mean the Cubs took a lead against the Orioles and it was wit a wo-out hit? Say it a'int so.

But that was part of their plan. They felt they could "game the system" by finding guys that fit "what they were looking for" and didn't have to "waste" early picks on them. Meanwhile they were wasting picks on players like Donta Williams (4th round) with literally no upside. I could have picked who whole bunch of other guys, but he's just the first one that popped into my head. Meanwhile, look at these teams that we're playing and we're seeing starting pitchers that were 5th or 7th round picks and impact relievers taken throughout these last five drafts. People need to stop making excuses for Elias/Sigbot/Holt on drafting and developing pitching. Go look at the Pirates top ten and look at that pitching. Elias is great at a lot of things. Drafting and developing pitching is not one of them. Maybe we'll see more Forret-types taken in this draft? Maybe we'll actually see some high end high school arms taken early? All I know is there's not a lot of impact pitching in this system and the reason why the pitching has filtered it's way up is because the good hitting prospects have lost their eligibility and the ones of late have not been doing very good this year.

No, I refuse to take that argument. That argument no longer holds weight with me. My point is 100% backed up by FACTS. Something that you or whatever national guy touting 24-year olds in High-A ball that you want to listen to don't have. The Orioles felt they knew better. They felt they had some magic formula that Holt talked about. But guess what? Nada. That's how many of these pitchers that they knew what to look for from have made it to the majors or even look like impact guys. The Orioles went hitter heavy and thought they were smarter than everyone else and that they could find guys 7th round and later with "what they look for" in pitch shapes and spin rates. Has that developed, oh I don't know, one single major league pitcher? Even a reliever? How bad are you at finding and developing pitching that you can't even find a reliever in five years? So you'll have to excuse me if I'm not going to drool over what Holt says and give them a pass for not drafting and developing any pitching. Now I think Elias has done a great job in rebuilding this franchise from the ground up including some great early draft picks selections, but there is not one single reason to give the Orioles the benefit of the doubt that they know how to scout and/or develop major league pitching from players they acquire through the draft. Could that change with guys like Forret, or reliever candidates like Bright or Brandon Young? Maybe. I just don't take anything out of these fluff pieces because the results are not there.

What does that have to do with my point about pitching? Povich was not drafted by the Orioles. If you want to counter my points, maybe actually counter my points.

I'd take an Orioles lead if that's too much to ask. I mean if you're granting wishes!

Ben: "Disengage that!"

It's been 5 drafts, coming up on their 6th, and they not only have never drafted and developed a pitcher yet, they don't have one in the top ten of their prospects. I know it's not popular to question the Orioles on here, but the results matter, not words. Holt, Elias and his scouts can start spiking footballs and celebrating when their system of identifying and developing pitchers bears fruits at the major league level. Call me unimpressed at this point and a fluff piece on a 24-year old guy, with a 3.90 ERA in High-A ball, who right-handers slash .285/.356/.486/.842 against, is not going to change my mind. Forrett now is a guy with some impressive pitches, youth, and ability that could be something to get "excited" over. The facts are this, the Orioles have shown zero ability to identify and/or develop impact pitching talent in 5-years of drafting. I mean, not even a reliever of use. Nothing, nada. Their best pitching prospects at the upper levels are guys they traded for. Whatever system they are using needs to be scrapped or at the very least, re-evaluated.

Dillon Tate = Burch Smith with a fresh arm Neither miss bats, both get a decent amount of ground balls, but Smith comes with the added bonus of getting hit harder than Tate. Guess the bonus for Smith is that he can be stretched out for more low leverage innings.

Every contract is risky and particularly pitching contracts. But if we can get a guy like Burnes for 6-years around $36 mil a season I'm pulling trigger because a one two of him and Grayson is pretty good and there's not a lot in the system that suggests another ace is going to emerge.

If that ends up his price range, I'd hope the Orioles would be in on that. He's an ace with a history or good health.

Agreed on the rumor.

Not a lot of guys want to play 3B so that's why it's rare to see guys like Mateo play over there. It's such a reactionary position that it's really quite different from SS and 2B. I think most organizations think it's unfair to ask a guy to play there without a lot of experience. Could he emergency fill in there, sure, but his lack of 3B experience suggests he would only play there in an emergency and I honestly think if it were to finish off a game, they'd play Gunnar for a few innings at 3B rather than Mateo, and allow Mateo to play SS.

Jared Jones is a guy I would target and consider giving up a guy like Kjerstad for, but probably not Holliday. BTW, the Pirates are a good team to match up with because they are doing a great job of drafting and developing pitchers.

The rain ended up being a pretty short nothing burger as the storms really died out as they approached Baltimore and Anne Arundel County. I was at the game so we all just went inside for a few minutes and came back out. Obviously it did not affect the Orioles bats as they couldn't hit before, or after the rain delay. lol

I don't think we see Holliday back up here until he starts to play an effective 2B once again. He may not be back until September, though is he starts to playing very well they could push that up.

I feel like the Orioles believe they can survive in the summer by playing these guys to keep other guys fresh in October. The Orioles have also faced a lot of lefties it seems, so that gives them that opportunity to start McCann and keep Rutschman fresh come September and October. The issue is McCann looks exactly like a veteran catcher in his last major league season when he's not really a major leaguer skill wise any longer. As for Mateo, I agree with a statement you made either earlier or later in this thread where you said that the Orioles became enamored with his speed and defense at 2B. Right now, I believe his defense is what's keeping Mayo in AAA despite the fact that he belongs in the majors. Personally, I'd rather have Mayo bat potential in the lineup over the better defense that Mateo provides over Westburg at 2B. At this point, I'm sending Cowser back to AAA and bringing up Mayo. Mateo can back up Mullins who has been hitting and I'm fine with the Kjerstad/Hays platoon LF, though I'd rather see Kjerstad get 80% of all playing time out there at this point. Mateo is super sub that should get some playing time against lefties and late inning defensive subbing.

We all knew it would come, now we just have to see how much Hyde/Elias/Sigbot is willing to allow that hole to exist in order to have better defense.

Good teams do play bad at times. They just look very lethargic since coming back from the west coast. It's like they have two days of jet lag.

I dont know if they know, bit you actually have to score runs to have a chance to win. This team is sleep walking since it got back from thr west coast. Not a single player wants to step up offensively .