Tony-OH

Unless that park is Yellowstone, Bundy is not going to be a TOR or #2 starter on any team. He has to have his A command to get away with a below average straight fastball.

Exactly, on first look, this isn't the worse deal for a back of the rotation starter who will begin to get expensive.

After giving away Villar it's not surprising Bundy was next as we heard he was on the trading block. Although Luke did a good job of doing a quick take, I decided to go watch some video of these guys to give mine since I'd never heard of any of them. Overall it looks like Elias went for quantity as well as basically acquiring two additional draft picks from last year's draft. Zach Peek looks like the upside lottery ticket in this deal. Here's my quick take on the four guys acquired. Zach Peek: The Angels 6th round pick this year, he probably has the most upside of any of the pitchers acquired. A guy who showed a three pitch mix who struggled with a his breaking ball and slipped to the 6th round despite some nice upside. I like this upside of getting this guy in the deal. He's a 40 with a 50 upside. Kyle Bradish: Pitched at 22-years old last year in High-A ball. Uses an extreme over the top delivery to generate a 90-94 MPH fastball that has some natural cutting action at times. His 12-6 curveball (80-82) is his out pitch and it can flash plus at times, but it's inconsistent. His changeup is firm and hard at 86-87 MPH. Looks like a relief profile to me. He's a 40 with a 45 upside. Kyle Brnovich: 21-year old 8th round pick of the Angels in 2019, Brnovich sits 90-91, with a slider (81-82, and change (82-83). Funky delivery suggests he might be better in a relief role. His slider looks like his best pitch with some late life and break. If he can pick up a little velocity he has a chance at a middle relief role. He's a 35 for me with a 40 upside. Issac Mattson: 23-years old, right-handed reliever with a 88-91 MPH fastball that he commands pretty well and seems to get some deception so it plays up a bit. He offsets that with breaking ball that he varies between 80-82 and a below average occasional change. He's a 35 for me with a 40 upside.

0-for-10 from the 3 point line through the first 10 minutes. Gotta make some adjustments.

Now you catch a ban for breaking our politics rule right after I told you not to.

Let's not get into this conversation. Our no politics rule is water tight!

I'm not going to get into this here with you on this because we are getting into politics an that's a no-no here.

Sure, just because I don't agree with someone does not mean they can't voice their opinions on the matter. I understand the sensitivity of the subject with some folks, but I also believe in due process, rehabilitation, and redemption.

Nothing is going to satisfy your hunger and lust for his demise so there really is nothing more to discuss. I've given you the quotes from him and the people in his management about him. You can choose to continue to vilify him all you want. I will choose to look at him a flawwed human like the rest of us who made a mistake and is making the corrective actions to become a better person. I will root for his success on his journey and if that journey takes him to the Orioles, I too shall root for him here.

“I’m accountable for my past actions. I am not proud of the person I was.” “Without getting into details or specifics, I just want to own that what I did was wrong and inexcusable,” Addison said at the time. “And I’m sorry. Sorry for the hurt and pain I put Melisa through.” "The fact that we have decided -- after talking to lots of experts, after talking to Addison multiple times, talking to the league -- that we'd rather support him through the process than just cut him and let him go, that doesn't mean it's in conflict with support for victims of domestic violence," owner Tom Ricketts said on ESPN 1000. "I think that it's not an easy decision and not a decision that anyone takes lightly." "We knew that it would be unpopular in some ways," general manager Jed Hoyer told ESPN 1000. "People have a visceral reaction to reading about what happened. So did we. The more that we worked and talked to experts and worked through it ... we felt like having a conditional second chance was the right thing to do. It was recommended by experts." Independent domestic abuse experts interviewed by ESPN also agreed a second chance was warranted if Russell was following through with counseling and therapy. The Cubs also expressed concern for his ex-wife and have stayed in contact with her throughout the process. "It's something that every team has to decide for themselves, but I do give a lot of credit to Major League Baseball for having good protocols and policies on this," Ricketts stated. "There was a process for him. He's already begun doing some of the things that the league requests, and he's doing things beyond what the league requests. So, we'll see where it goes. Manager Joe Maddon recently spoke with Russell and indicated he's on the right path. "He seems to be in a good place," Maddon said. "He's really working to get things behind him and make sure he does and says the right things moving forward. It's a maturation process on his part." "We decided to non-tender Addison Russell today simply because the role we expected him to play for the 2020 Cubs was inconsistent with how he would have been treated in the salary arbitration process," Cubs president Theo Epstein said in a statement. "In the year since we decided to tender Addison a contract last November, he has lived up to his promise to put in the important self-improvement work necessary off the field and has shown growth, as a person, as a partner, as a parent and as a citizen. We hope and believe that Addison's work will continue, and we have offered our continued support of him and his family, including [ex-wife] Melisa [Reidy]. "In the last year, the organization has also put in the important work necessary to bolster our domestic violence prevention training for all employees, all major league players, all minor league players and all staff. We also offered healthy relationship workshops for the players' partners and provided intensive, expert domestic violence prevention training for player-facing staff. This heightened training and our increased community involvement on the urgent issue of domestic violence prevention will continue indefinitely. We wish Addison and his family well."

Absolutely. What that knucklehead did was to basically say, "Man, I'm sooooooo happy with have a previous female abuser on our team" to female reporters. That's just ridiculous and he deserved to be fired.

Huh? See how easy it is to take someone's post and make it sound like those were his words. Here's his actual words, “I’m accountable for my past actions. I am not proud of the person I was.” “Without getting into details or specifics, I just want to own that what I did was wrong and inexcusable,” Addison said at the time. “And I’m sorry. Sorry for the hurt and pain I put Melisa through.”

While Domestic violence should never be tolerated, the things you just said are absolutely true, not ridiculous. That's the issue. It's not a black or white issue because there are countless tales of woman who have done just what you said and ruined guys lives by their lies and exaggeration. There are men who spent years in jail only to have their accusers eventually admit they lied. You can't just automatically believe every accusation (not talking just the Russell situation here). It's a tough situation because no one want to sweep any accusation under the rug, and any claims of physical abuse should be investigated thoroughly, but we live in a day and age where electronic media allows people to quickly, and thoroughly accuse others without a shred of evidence while the media picks and choose the facts to report. Now you can have any feelings you want towards a person, but the fact you believe a 26-year old man should not be allowed to play professional baseball over an incident he apologized for and has taken constructive counseling to better himself says more about you then him in my opinion. There are so many people quick to judge others, yet I'm pretty sure they would not want to be held to the same standards. And BTW, the Cubs did not non-tender him because of this, they non-tendered him because he was going to be too expensive for his role. It was a smart financial decision.

This is the real key in all of this. If the Orioles want to be focused solely on achieving their strategic goals, and they feel Russell can help do that, then I'm fine with that. If we are going to be ok with the organization giving away good players because of money, then we should be fine with acquiring a player who could help meet those strategic goals whether that by him developing back into a player who can help them or by flipping him for someone who can.

I'm not lumping you in with those folks. I understand your point of view fully. If all things were the same and I had a choice between a model citizen and Russell, I'd go with the model citizen as well, but I just don't feel like professionally burying a guy when it appears he's remorseful and has taken actions to improve.

He literally sounds very remorseful and speaks to the person he is now. This reporter sounds like some of the high horse sitting people in here. Good riddance... Put the Scarlet letter on him. Abuser, abuser. Awful human being because I read something that he did even though he is remoreseful about and has proven by his actions since that he's not that person anymore. People can't change and I can never root for a 26-year old who made mistake. Such a crock of hypocrisy.

I will end with this on this subject because we will get dangerously close to politics here at some point. But there is a hypocrisy from people who want to boo or attack a person for a mistake they made. I don't know the full story of the incident and neither does anyone else on here. It's just easy to sit on that high horse and claim the moral high ground and just drop him into the "domestic abuser" barrel and brand him with the Scarlet Letter. Domestic abuse is abhorrent, but there is typically a lot of the story that don't come out. I have no idea one way or the other whether Russell was a chronic abuser or women, or if he a relationship that went toxic and things went too far. I'm not trying to deflect any blame onto anyone else, but let's remember, he was not arrested. He clearly made enough of a mistake that MLB suspended him, but sometimes MLB tends to err on the side of PR to appease the very people who want to label him with the Scarlet letter as an abuser for life. He served that suspension, that relationship has dissolved, and his GM has publicly said Russell has gone to therapy and done everything to make sure something like that doesn't happen again. He's only 26-years old. I'd be fine with cheering for the young man as he moves forward with his life.

Well I won't argue that Villar alone is not going to change the fortunes of the 2020 Orioles much, but it did make them a little less interesting to watch next year. If I was a casual fan, no way am I paying money to watch this team if the organization cares so little about putting any kind of redeemable product on the field during the rebuild. I get it, no one player is going to move the needle much on this team, but having a few veteran players who are good on the team when the young guys come up can't hurt their development.

But is he a troubled player, or a young man who made a mistake when he was in his early 20s? Would you want every mistake you ever made to be held against you now? Not saying you are, but there are a lot of hypocrites sitting on high horses who like to judge other people from what they read and you know what, they may not have the whole story or have a good feel for who the person really is at this point in their lives. Just like a person who pays their debt to society after committing a crime. I'd rather judge them by who they are now. Now if Russell is an active abuser, jerk, or is unremorseful then yes, I'd want no parts of him, but that doesn't appear to be the case. The Cubs non-tendered him because he was expensive for his potential role. I doubt anything else came into play after reading the the GM's comments.

Maybe by the 4-dWAR he put up last year or does WAR and stats not matter any more? The Orioles are putting out a product to their fans. They just told them that next year, they have no intention of getting better but will actively work to make the team worse while saving money. Add in the fact the Orioles got little to no return for him, and might have if he played well next year and there was a need by a contender suddenly, and I just don't like this move any way it's presented. As for Davis, whether he's a sunk cost or not, he brings no value to the Orioles strategic objectives, so the only thing they could be keeping him on the team for is the hopes that he finally gets tired of embarrassing himself and retires, thus getting them off the hook for the money he's not earning. Who knows? I'm kinda done with this subject. The Orioles are where they are in the rebuild. I've said my piece. I understand why Elias did what he did but don't agree with it.

I think it's fine for anyone to not want to root for anyone, and I'm certainly no fan of anyone who commits domestic abuse. How many years ago was this now? How old was he? I'm not trying to make excuses for the guy, but his GM seemed to have good words for him since. Maybe Russell was a predator of women, or maybe he was a guy who made a mistake in a toxic relationship? This is a better conversation to have verbally since words can get twisted and will look worse than they are, but there are two sides to every story and another side that's the complete truth. I'm not going to bury a young man who made a mistake if every action he's taken since is to correct that action. Either way, my main point it seems Russell is the kind of player on the field that fits what the Orioles are trying to do and if they signed him I'd root for him like any other Oriole. After all, it's the past that should define us but rather who we currently are. Not everyone learns from their mistakes but others do. Since I haven't lived a perfect life, I'm not about to bury a guy for a mistake made in his early 20's if he's proving to be better.

I don't understand this line of thinking at all.. If you agree with the cold heartless approach of getting rid of good players in their prime to support their "strategic vision" then you need to get behind them acquiring anyone who can help further that strategic vision. Addison Russel is a 26-year old SS with an upside. If he can rebuild his swing and hit well with the Orioles, he has value to this team in either the future or through potential trade flip. Also, I don't see how Russell would be a nightmare PR move. Are their Orioles fans out there that are not going to support the team if he's acquired? Are you against people getting second chances when their actions and behaviors all indicate that he's "rehabilitated". If Hyde is ok with the move, does that make it easier for you to swallow?

Probably for a 23rd round, 24-year old A-ball pitcher who "might be a 5th starter".

I'd rather just run Martin out next year then do that. Hell, why not just release everyone making over the minimum that we don't think we be part of a winning future? That's what some of you seem to be thinking now. No one wants half measures or a team being built for .500, but we also should not be happy with the Orioles just blantantly getting rid of good players in their prime without a good return.

So you are ok with the team getting worse for no other reason than to save money and lose more games after two 100+ loss seasons? How did keeping Villar hurt their rebuild time? You and others keep saying you are totally fine with this move, and I understand your points, but what I don't get is why you are totally fine with the team getting worse after two 100+ seasons when it does nothing but better their bottom line? I'm not against anyone making money, and the Orioles afterall are a business, but if you are going to make business decisions and then veil them as baseball decisions, that's when I'm going to throw the BS flag. You can't claim getting rid of Villar is part your strategic vision and then keep Chris Davis on this roster. It's all BS unless we can see how that money saved is being reinvested back into the infrastructure of the team. It's certainly by not hiring young, cheap coaches and analysts who are just happy to be in professional baseball.