MurphDogg

Agree to disagree. He could continue to talk about domestic violence, he could donate time and money to efforts dedicated to eradicating it. There are real concrete steps he could take to seek redemption. But it is true I don't give him credit for sitting in an uncomfortable press conference one (1) time before the start of Spring Training and the requisite flowery quotes issued by the people who are financially and professionally dependent on him seeming remorseful and having grown. A person who spends years as an abuser (while paying another woman child support in coins) doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from most people after a single press conference. It is great that you are so forgiving and believe that he has changed. Other people want more evidence.

A team required statement is not enough for some people to forgive a guy for alleged years of abuse. He could have done more this past season both on and off the field to improve his standing with the Cubs and their fans. He chose not to do so. Hopefully he does so in the future, but I don't really want the Orioles to be the team that gives him another chance. One press conference and then total silence (followed by complaining about being booed) isn't enough for me.

You have mentioned this several times, do you have evidence that he's remorseful and has taken actions to improve? As far as I have seen, after denying the claims against him he issued a standard apology that was no doubt required by either the team or the league for him to be welcomed back into the fold. If there are concrete steps that he has taken to improve, I am not aware of them and would certainly like to be if he has taken any such steps. If he wanted to be a leader in curbing domestic violence, he certainly has the platform to do so, I didn't see him mention the issue last season other than complaining that he was still being booed by some Cubs fans. Curious if I missed anything.

You look to be correct with the 1-2 per week schedule. They posted their 3rd team on Monday and have now posted on 11/19, 11/26 and 12/2.

With as empty as the stadium will be next year, the boos that Russell gets when he comes to the plate will ring through loud and clear on television. I will make sure of it. Fans can support the team without supporting him. Many Cubs fans booed him and he was part of their World Series winning team, imagine how fans of a team that signed him as a mercenary, merely hoping to flip him for additional value with treat him. Also, I need a citation on his actions and behavior indicating that he is rehabilitated. Even from a baseball standpoint, he was demoted to the minors last year because he didn't know the signs.

Oh, I know, and I don't expect anything, I have been pushing for him to be released. Hopefully if he does nothing in Spring Training and other players are clearly better he will be let go at the end of March before the season starts, like Jay Gibbons was. Though I expect that DJ Stewart not being ready until around Opening Day and wanting to play service time games with Mountcastle will probably keep him on the Opening Day roster.

It does the opposite of saving money. It costs $563,500. Davis was a lot better last year than 2018. He actually had three productive month-long chunks of games, April 13 - May 17 (.273/.341/.506), June 21 - July 21 (.300/.357/.460), August 28 - September 28 (.222/.364/.500 although only 11 games). For three months he was actually a productive player, although he played like absolute garbage the rest of the season, March 28 - April 12 (.000/.132/.000), May 18 - June 19 (.093/.183/.130), July 22 - August 27 (.105/.232/.228). If he was merely mediocre during his cold stretches rather than worse than a pitcher, he would have been at least replacement level. My guess is that they want to give the new coaching staff one final crack at him before releasing him.

That is as relevant a question as asking who is pitching if those guys are playing second. Someone else. Either Martin or someone not in the organization.

Being watchable for the next couple years with young interesting players, being competitive for at least 5 years after that. I don't care much about World Series wins. Baseball is a long season and playoffs are a crap shoot. I want to enjoy the season.

The reason was that we didn't have enough good outfielders and had a 4 WAR 2nd baseman. He was bad in the outfield. I am not a fan of Wilkerson, but a Wilkerson/Alberto platoon at second makes the most sense to me for this coming year.

My 28-game-plan seats are in the front row of the upper deck behind home plate and I have a really booming voice. If the Orioles signed Addison Russell you would hear me booing him every pitch of every at-bat. You would know whether I was at that game every time he came up.

Would give Taijuan Walker a shot. Ideal situation for him, low pressure to prove health and the O's can trade him if he is any good.

MLB.tv is included with a season ticket plan. You just need to pay for a VPN (or use a free one, but you are better off paying for one).

It's a business. How can they simultaneously have the pride to have people hate them for dumping the best player on the team for nothing while not having the pride to dump a sunk cost that they weren't even responsible for signing?

My dude, you said in the other thread that I wasn't paying attention. Your own ability to understand other's perspectives isn't exactly shining through.

What do you think the reason is? Do you think they believe he will provide more value than the $560k player that would replace him? Do you think they believe that fans would be angry if they released Davis?

It is entirely unprecedented for a profitable team to decide that they don't want good players who make more than a minimum salary. It is crazy to me that anyone can defend this move.

Absolutely. The other money is gone. If they wanted to cut Davis it would cost them $560k to replace him on the roster. They have made a business decision that $560k is an unnecessary expense so Davis remains on the roster.

Not cutting Davis is about not spending an extra $560K, if it takes saving $9M to spend $560K then no, it does not change my opinion.

He was the best baserunner in all of baseball statistically, per Fangraphs. Like Buck said, if your third base coach goes a whole year without getting thrown out it means he wasn't aggressive enough.

Except they still have an asset that is continuing to appreciate $1 billion. The value of the team doesn't depreciate, so paying off the purchase price isn't an issue as long as you pay off the interest on the debt.

C'mon man. Read the whole thing. A stolen base percentage of around 80 percent has a small positive, but not substantial impact on baserunning runs, it was all the other things he did on the bases. If he stole 60 and was thrown out 30 times it would be a negative impact.

Nope. Stolen bases do not have a substantial impact in WAR. In 2016, it likely had slightly above a neutral impact on his WAR because he was caught 18 times, for a stolen base percentage of 77.5% which is just above the break even point. Last season he stole 40 and was only caught 9 times for a percentage of 81.6% so though they were a net positive, they were again not a huge impact. The area that he outperformed in 2019 was baserunning as a whole. He was, statistically speaking, the most valuable baserunner in baseball at 10.5 runs above average. Mallex Smith and Christian Yelich were second at 8.5 runs above average. From 2016-18 he was 3.5 (the 62 steals year), 2.6 and 3.3 runs above average.This includes not only steals and caught stealing but extra bases taken on singles and doubles and not being thrown out on the basepaths. He is projected to only be 3 runs above average next year, which would be responsible for about a .7 drop in his total WAR projection versus if he repeated his 2019 baserunning performance.

Yup, it is a completely rational decision that the Orioles made. It is an MLB problem not an Orioles problem. Mike Elias has almost no interest in whether the six year-old potential fan ends up becoming a season ticket holder in twenty years. That is a problem for the long term health of the sport.