now

It's not a question of whether he has an injury. It's that this injury, like past Davis injuries, is subjective enough to allow flexibility of roster mgt. Roch again today puts it like this: "This is going to take time, as much as the Orioles choose."

How do you read it?

Interesting to catch this coy quote from Roch: Pretty up front about the handling of the back issue... more flexible apparently than the back itself.

Yeah, he must be carrying some McGregor/Flanagan mojo in that 'stache of his.

"sore thumb"... hey, there's an idea! (Ubaldo pothole variation #19)

Hmm, I'm getting a strong deja vu looking at this list: * Zac Lowther had a 2.55 ERA (13-7, age 23) * Alexander Wells had a 2.95 ERA (8-6, age 22) * Michael Baumann had a 2.31 ERA (6-2, age 23) * Dean Kremer had a 2.98 ERA (9-4, age 23) * Bruce Zimmermann had a 2.58 ERA (5-3, age 24) ... going back to Bowie's staff (division champs) in 2008: * Jason Berken 12-4, 3.58, age 24 * Brad Bergesen 15-6, 3.22, age 22 * David Hernandez 10-4, 2.68, age 23 * Chris Tillman 11-4, 3.18, age 20 * Zach Clark 4-2, 3.60, age 24 Gaudy W-L records aside, that earlier squad had ERAs roughly a run worse than our current "band" of hopefuls. It produced one decent ML starter (Tillman) and reliever (Hernandez). Obviously Tillman's age at that level sets him apart. Otherwise I like our chances of improving the overall outcome in future MLB ceilings. What do you in-house talent scouts think of this comp?

There's always the Weaver method: better to give more innings to your best few guys than spread the load downward. Which holds true even if the top three aren't named Palmer, Cuellar, & McNally. (Btw how's that for the name of a crackerjack law firm?)

I agree too about the talent bar rising. Plus, Hyde and Elias have mentioned the need to give these minor leaguers some higher level competition after missing it last summer (except intrasquad).

Tate's turned me into a believer too. Who knows, it might just be our turn to develop someone else's stalled prospect (along with a fresh stable or two of our own).

Just another chapter in the long annals of Oriole decision-making incompetence... to sit on the shelf next to "25 Years of Oriole Greatness."

Wowsers. That must be a record improvement.

Kind of surprised at keeping McKenna; but yeah, exposing Pop must just be a calculated risk.

So what about Cash's decision to remove Snell? Comparable to Buck's Brittongate? (Asking for a Rays fan -- me, for this playoffs vs. NYY, HOU and LAD).

Going with the Can't Miss (Rutschman) and the Sure Thing (Mountcastle).

I think there's another animal in the room as well... the injury factor for all those players competing for spots. Especially considering most of them have recent or frequent injury histories (besides the unknown of Mancini's readiness or level of play on return). It's kind of like, you're happy to have at least 7-8 viable candidates for your 5 starting pitching spots.

I think by "roster issue" he meant the 25-man and position / playing time, not the 40-man roster.

Talk about "lack of imagination..." -- I'm talking about the ZiPS figures, not Szymborski or the Orioles. Hardly seems worth running the projections over five years if there's so little variation from year to year for each of those players. Maybe I'm just spoiled by wildly fluctuating careers in baseball sim games... or reality itself.

Wow, I'm shocked to see we're technically still in it. I basically called it done a couple of losses ago. But how could I forget, it ain't over till it's over! 6 games left, so basically the O's have been in contention for 90 percent of the season. Who'd a thunk?

That's a solid overall take, IMO.

I actually missed these last two dominant outings but after seeing what Roch had to say, went back and watched. Those were indeed impressive. (Zimmerman, not so much).

Again, for sure I agree the deal was a plus for that one year. But meh since that may be it. Unless I'm missing sth with Lucas...? Will certainly be happy if he's another Lopez.

For sure... for me the Machado deal could end up like Tillman and Jones (& Sherrill) for Bedard, just needs more time to get there. Villar was great but we only got the one year.

With recent improvements of Tate and Phillips (hard to imagine the guy blasted here is the same pitcher Roch was praising today: see https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2020/09/evan-phillips-rolling-in-return-trips.html) and arrival of Kremer and Zimmerman, it invites an update of the mega trades of July 2018. SSS of course, but if Phillips has turned the corner, and Zimmerman lives up to reports from the camp, the Guasman trade starts looking better. The same can be said withTate in the Britton trade. Looking back at my thumbnail grades at the time of those trades, maybe it's time for an updated evaluation (my 2018 grade in parentheses). Of course, with many of these it's still too soon to tell for sure, so again it's just updating my best, amateur fan's guess. Also, I'm now adding an overall grade. What do you think? For Manny Machado we received from the Dodgers-- overall grade: B B (A-) : 21-year old OF Yusniel Diaz  A (B+) : 22-year old RHSP Dean Kremer C+ (C) : 22-year old 3B/2B Rylan Bannon B- (C+) : 21-year old RHRP Zach Pop F (D): 26-year old UTIL Breyvic Valera  For Zach Britton we received from the Yankees-- overall grade: C- B+ (C) : 24-year old RHSP Dillon Tate D (C): 25-year old RHRP Cody Carroll C- (B-) : 24-year old LHSP Josh Rogers For Kevin Gausman we received from the Braves-- C D (C-) : 20-year old 3B Jean Carlos Encarnacion D (C-) : 23-year old Catcher Brett Cumberland C+ (D+) : 23-year old LHSP Bruce Zimmerman B (C+) : 23-year old RHRP Evan Phillips For Jonathan Schoop we received from the Brewers-- C- F (C) : 22-year old RHSP Luis Ortiz D (C- ? 18-year old SS Jean Carmona B (B) : 27-year old Infielder Jonathan Villar

The good news: currently in line for #7 pick in the draft (under normal rules).

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2020/09/lineups-and-notes-on-rotation-armstrong-offense-and-more.html Remember the O's can add a player for the doubleheader making the active roster 29 players. Just for the day. Gary Kendall on Zimmerman: https://pressboxonline.com/2020/09/15/gary-kendall-on-development-of-orioles-prospects/ That sounds finally like a promising return for Gausman.