Hank Scorpio

Brach served up a huge bomb. Crushed.

Castro was making these guys look stupid today. His changeup was diving out of the zone big time.

His command is there. Just yielded a SB on a 97mph fastball in spite of the slide step. Another K for Castro. 6K in 3 innings.

Castro’s stuff looks amazing today. 97-98 fastball 87 sharp slider 90-91 changeup He’s quick to the plate but he’s sacrificing a few mph with the slide step.

And 5) Trading away at least one viable ML pitcher for a middling rental. (Not including Eduardo Rodriguez, that could be argued as a prudent move given where they were.) 6) Not trading Machado when it became clear they have would no shot @ retaining him... and it also became clear that they just didn't have the horses to contend for the division (vs. Boston & NY.) Always have a shot at that 2nd Wild Card, baby. If they're not within 3-4 games of the 2nd Wild Card this year and they don't trade Manny Machado.... I may need to lay down.

Is the team ascending or descending? With most teams, it's reasonably easy to see this... with the Orioles, I haven't really had much of an idea the last 5 years. I guess that's part of their formula for success, figure out a way with a patchwork 25 man roster. The Orioles won 96 games and the division in 2014 without Manny Machado or Chris Davis in the 2nd half. Know how? They had really good starting pitching, that's how. Know what they haven't had in ... ANY ... of the other years? Good starting pitching. Know what they're unlikely to have this year? Average starting pitching. Someone in the FO or Buck or whoever hitched their reins to homers, bullpen and defense and the results have been pretty damned good considering the haphazard/nonstandard approach. But if you look at the historical results, they have been their best when the starting pitching has excelled. We're going into Spring Training with 2/5 of a rotation and let's be honest.... 2 guys who have shown flashes but not consistency.

I think he'll hit 45 bombs and like... 89 RBI.

It's who they are. Badly flawed team... all or nothing and mystically completely incapable of cutting down on their swings. This is elementary school stuff, guys. Adapt to the effing situation! Unbelievable! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Dammit!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's even worse, obviously.

It was a bad idea then, it's even worse in hindsight. I get that you have to find a way to instill confidence in your team when division rivals are trading for actual impact players, but the Orioles were not honest with themselves. I mean... you're going to compete with David Price + Tulowitzki with Gerardo Parra? C'mon, let's be real. We don't have the starting pitching or offense to hang in this division and we didn't really have it then, either. The only questions to me were these: 1. Could you have gotten more for Davis, Wieters, O'Day and Chen at the break than 4 comp picks? Almost certainly. 2. Is it unreasonable or overly pessimistic to "throw in the towel" only 2 games back in the wild card? Probably.... but look at how many teams you have to leap over and take a gander at your remaining schedule and tell me you felt good about it. I sure as hell didn't. September could be straight up ugly around here given the schedule. Yikes.

I mean, it does. Parra is historically marginally better than Snider. I'm not wowed.

Hope he can sustain his unsustainable BABIP...

It's not......

I don't think Davies is the 2nd coming or anything.... but I don't see Parra being much more than they've already got.

Me too. I couldn't take it anymore.

Steve Johnson, too....

I'm smiling myself to sleep

...awesome stuff. I'll rep you when I can.

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