BRobinsonfan

I keep forgetting that he's still only 21 years old. It's encouraging to see the hits start to fall and the power start to show itself, but with 26 walks, the second most on the team, he's shown from the beginning of the season that he has a good sense of the strike zone.

I'd be surprised if Nike reverse-engineered a narrative around an already-finished design. I've sat in these meetings (not for Nike), and the truly frightening thing is the level of detail that goes into it. The research department gets up and presents 50 slides about "Baltimore's Uniqueness," then the quantitative research will be presented, then the focus group research will be presented... a month later the design department will have their turn, then two weeks after that the Brand department will present their findings about how 2/3rds of what Design presented doesn't comport with company font standards, etc., etc., etc. Then, Design will return to the drawing board and present new concepts, followed up by Legal making a presentation shooting down about half of those because of copyright considerations... it's a spectacle to behold and not for the faint of heart. The end result then looks like something that was reverse-engineered when in fact, it was probably over-engineered.

You know what would have been cool? Shiny black velour uniforms!

You know, when the jersey pictures were leaked, I didn't like them. Then when it was released yesterday, I thought "I kinda like that." But now today, I'm back to "I don't like this." The more I look at them, the less I like them. Having lived in Baltimore years ago, I actually love the concept behind the uniforms... "we're more than what we seem," diverse neighborhoods, etc. I just don't think they executed the concept particularly well. Having been a part of marketing/branding efforts for a few Fortune 100/500 companies, I can tell you that sometimes the problem is too many cooks in the kitchen. I have NO IDEA if that's what happened here, but it has that feel. Rather than handing it off to a small design team, everyone wants to "put their mark on the process" so they can say they contributed and to justify their budgets. In the end, this looks like it was either the result of a 1st generation AI artistic design program or a massive corporate collective effort where everybody and their sister had "input."

Yeah... not a fan of the white belt at all. And while the Jersey looks a lot better being worn than I thought it would, I think orange pants would have made the whole look "pop" a lot more.

Do you have actual evidence for this, or is it just your opinion influenced by your dislike of the design?

If you think we have adequate starting pitching then we are at fundamentally different places. I think yours is a minority opinion.

Old#5Fan would be proud of you for applying "the eye test." I just wonder where he would come down on this debate. I mean Adam Frazier and Joey Ortiz are both solid baseball names.

This is basically where I'm at. At 31, Frazier's best days are probably behind him. But he is most definitely an upgrade over Odor, and that's his value. It's just a value we didn't need to pay for to acquire. On the O's hierarchy of needs, we should have put the money toward a decent starting pitcher.

I would have loved Charm City on the front as well... here's the explanation of the "Baltimore Across the Chest" from the web page: Baltimore stretches fearlessly across the front of the jersey. We're not hiding behind a catchy nickname, and we don't shy away. We are Baltimore. The bold typeface is inspired by the Globe Collection and Press at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and our homegrown arts scene. The speckled details and imperfections represent the shared grit the Orioles and the Baltimore community possess." Until I read this, I didn't even realize there were imperfections and "speckled details" in the script. https://www.mlb.com/orioles/fans/city-connect?fbclid=IwAR0xNcCk9QBnbiSceW1owZCBTqpz4o8YPm-a2q6ZkX7xTeXPbLxk-zl6-V8

The Black & White is part of the theme... this is from the Orioles City Connect web page: "From the outside, it looks all black and white. But there's always more to our story. In art, black doesn't exist without color. You can't see what you're not looking for. Threaded from the artistic tapestry of our City, the palette is like our people: colorful, vibrant and quirky."

I don't like the design either but It's really going to be hard to make sure no one buys a single one.

I think Tony said it best. He's a prototypical 4th outfielder. He has a .3 WAR over the last 3 seasons. For a 4th Outfielder he does a lot of things pretty well. That's why Hyde puts him in as a defensive replacement so often. He's managed to get in around 100 games a season (and he'll likely do it this season) by playing this role. If he were a better outfielder he'd probably be starting somewhere, or at least a platoon. He's fine for what he is... a 4th outfielder. He'll be gone as soon as they feel they have a better option... but until then... he has value to this team.

The wheels are coming off Cano. He needs to be sent down until he can go 20 innings without giving up a run.

And there it is! Drungo you never disappoint!

That's sooooo JTrea!

Don't let it define you. You can bounce back from this. Maybe.

This thread is transcendent in the way Seinfeld was transcendent. It's literally a thread about nothing.

Now that's a pickle!

The velocity is encouraging.... and Cionel Perez started the season giving up 18 hits in 8.2 innings and now appears to be turning things around... but then again, he didn't have the dreaded "forearm strain" issue to contend with, and he wasn't in pitching in AAA. The next couple of weeks or so should be telling.

OldFan was like a bad traffic accident. You know you shouldn't look, but you just can't help yourself. Cindyluvsbrady was another epic poster from the old days. Her knowledge and appreciation of advanced statistics were ahead of her time.

Perfect! This made me laugh out loud!

And now - just like Chelsea_Phil - I too feel deeply aggrieved. I said good day!

@DrungoHazewood still intimidates me... he is also my favorite poster. My one disagreement with him over all these years has been the inexplicable shade he threw on "Field of Dreams" by not recognizing it as the greatest movie of all time.

OldFan could be maddening. He produced some epic posts, though. Some of my favorites were: How a certain player "didn't have a good name for baseball," how "walks weren't manly," and how people shouldn't bring children to the stadium. He was the living embodiment of the meme "old man shakes fist at cloud."