Jagwar

He's had 100 AB this year and hit 208/328/615. Those aren't stats that scream "Don't option me"

That was brutal... but I also remember 1986. The O's beat Toronto on Aug 5th to pull within 2.5 games of the Red Sox at 59-47. They were surging and everyone thought Orioles Magic would lead to another pennant chase. Then the O's lost a weird game in Texas 13-11, which started a brutal 14-42 stretch that took them from 2.5 games out in second place to 22.5 games out in 7th place at 73-89. That was a collapse or the ages.

At the very least we get to see Mateo instead of Valaika. Much more interesting and potentially exciting.

I'd feel a lot better about "#2 system" if there were 3-4 pitchers knocking on the big club door.

The pitcher's reaction there is awesome

I can't believe Davis never hit the warehouse in his good years.

My first thought when I saw the headline on ESPN was "I wonder if the O's could pick him up to cover 25 innings the rest of the year."

Even a blind squirrel knows where his nuts are. (Wait... that's not right)

I think I'm somewhat agreeing with you. I think the O's are doing everything they can. But the organization was in such sorry shape that the transformation is going to take longer than we want

I get what you're saying. Most teams can do that. I just think the O's organization never showed any capacity to do those things for decades. Elias & Co are building that capacity from scratch.

Ah... the "almost" is the key isn't it? Unfortunately, the O's are smack dab in the middle of the "almost". I would slightly amend your statement as follows... "Almost every team, the O's excluded because their organization had to build this from scratch, is able to do both of these things"

Maybe my math is a wee bit off. ?

I understand but I'm not sure that's entirely true. Everything we are discussing here costs money, and dollars are a limited commodity. If it takes $10 million to beef up international scouting and $10 million to institute a long over due analytics department (I'm making these numbers up), then that is $20 million you don't have to spend on a few free agents to get 75 wins instead of 60.

I thought the ranking should have been lower, maybe like #53. ?

Makes me wonder if MLB could institute something similar to the luxury tax for the teams at the low end of the salary scale. Call it a "Tanking Tax". ?

I've said this a few times... I believe a number of folks had no idea what a sorry state this O's player development system was in when Elias took over. Yes, the rebuild is taking longer than most... but couldn't it be because the necessary demolition was more extensive than expected?

Another fair point. But I just as easily could have typed "The odds of player X having an impactful year on a non-contending team in year 1 just isn't that good.

Fair point. Really hoping that AR is not Wieters 2.0, but isn't that a typical risk with high draft choices?

I get that and I respect your insight. But I would rather see AR playing in an O's uniform in 2027 on a strong O's team than in September 2021 on a last place team.

No I don't. Because the overarching goal should be consistent long term strength and success of the O's franchise. That means holding onto your best players for as long as possible. Bringing AR up at the end of 2021 for a smidgen of games on a horrible team does not align with that goal. I personally would rather wait until next April to bring him up. I want AR in an O's uniform as long as possible, preferably on teams that don't suck.

Just don't bring him up to the bigs this year. No point wasting service time on a team that is going nowhere.

I'll say nobody. I don't want the O's to spend money until they start trending upward in competitiveness.

I agree. I think the tear down task was much more difficult than most were willing to admit.

Who? I know not this Davis you speak of.

We had some studs... but the depth wasn't there. Very little international presence. Who was in the pipeline after the names you mentioned? And after all of the talent Elias has added, why are we still talking about years from being competitive? The hole was deep IMO.