George

An awful .200 team has an 80% chance of losing a game. The probability of this .200 team losing 19 games in a row is 0.8 raised to the 19th power. The odds are 1 in 100. Very unlikely if the players are all trying to win and play up to a low bar of a .200 winning percentage.

Doesn't matter much if a team picks first, second or another low round. Only the Rays and the old Expos have impressed me with their consistent skill in acquiring young athletes and developing them into high end major league players. Most teams are hit and mostly miss in this critical skill. Too bad the O's didn't choose to rebuild in the early 2000s. The first step should have been hiring the entire Expos scouting and development team from low A to the majors.

People are saying the windfall from Davis's early retirement will be allocated to reduce ticket prices at the Yard.

Afficianados of the race to the bottom know that its the W column that's important. The Rangers have won two more games than the O's. Texas has to live with those 2 wins and cannot decrease their wins with more losses. The O's remain in the driver's seat!

The good news is that the Diamondbacks are on a 4 game win streak. The O's are only one game behind the Dbacks in the W column. Elias can take the first draft pick and deserves all the credit!

The 1960 "Baby Birds" were competitive with the Yankees for the A.L. pennant until mid-September. The team had some very good young pitchers.

5'9 is the same height as Luis Aparcio.

Right now, pitching keeps the O's competitive. The team is only 2 games behind the D'backs in the win column.

Going into the season, I was hoping for a .400 team. That's competitive enough to make each game interesting to watch as a game, as opposed to watching to see young talent evolve up or down.

Hope is the thing with (Orioles') feathers.

Gotta like Hays, mostly for the excellent fielding, speed on the bases as well as in CF, his pleasure in playing a child's game, and the potential a real athlete has to hit well too. All these reasons are already in the comments. Another reason is an invidious comparison with regard to fielding with other position players, who will remain nameless. Hays is old school "Oriole's Way." He is not an affront to the baseball gods with ungodly fielding.

The players loved playing and winning with Joe Altobelli, perhaps in part because they had endured Earl's antics for years.

Hope that Chris Davis's contract will be remembered by O's fans. Perhaps, at least for a time, we will think twice and then thrice about the Davis episode when another fan favorite wants a big mult-year contract. No hope such reservations will be long-term.

Want the O's to win the games I watch, but lose all the games I miss watching. The rational part of my brain sees it one way, the Neanderthal part the opposite.

If you haven't had a crab cake in Baltimore or the Eastern Shore, then you never had a crab cake. You may have eaten a "crab cake" on the menu of some restaurant in some foreign land, such as Alabama, but you were denied a real crab cake.

19/60 = 0.317 ball puts us in the running for the top draft choice. I'm more comfortable with the O's winning 16 games or 0.267. Could make the O's #1.

The simulation program may not have enough dumb luck coded into it. This is an underapprciated part of the national pastime.

Don't know the answer for MLB owners. Most billionaires inherit the foundaiton of their great wealth. Inheritance taxes are mostly avoided by tax attorneys specializing in estates.

A CPA needs to pore over tax returns to attain a true picture of an owner's MLB business. If a billionaire signs off on a bad contract, then the contract must be honored. It's our free enterprise system. You win some, you lose some. Self-made billionaires win more than they lose.

Billionaires losing money. Boo Hoo. Millionaires losing money. boo hoo. Pick a side. Millionaires are worth 1000 x less than billionaires. Both will survive, One group will feel the pain 1000 x more than the other. I have a hard time ginning up much empathy for either side.

Neither the franchises nor the players are to blame. MLB is not an amateur league. The owners and players are in it for the money. Each side aims to maximize profit.

Baseball was destroyed many years ago when batters were required to wear helmets. It's was a national disgrace when batters lost the freedom to feel the breeze of a high inside fastball.

Please provide a citation for the newspaper that says "it was like a mass shooting." Would like to read that item and need the name of the paper, the date of publication, and the title of the news article. Thanks so much.

Let's say $100. But, there is an unusual caveat. If I am staying at home most days, then I am looking for baseball games in the afternoon. The game should be played anyway in the sun, as the gods intended. For night games in empty stadia, let's say $50. Although the team has major flaws,, the GM is working to create a respectable one. It'll be fun to follow the young players and enjoy their development, sometimes postive and often a step back. Might even be fun to see Chris Davis at bat, if spring training was a harbinger of a miraculous comeback.

Kaline went from Baltimore's Southern High School in 1957 to a HOF career with the Detroit Tigers.