deward

It looks to me like what it is - a change that has been grafted on (or carved out, I guess) to an existing layout. It has no natural flow with the rest of the park, it looks out of place. And not just because it's new (at least I don't think so....I am TRYING to be objective).

I hope not. This thing's already ugly, that would just make it look cheap as well, I think.

Nah, it was Juan Gonzalez who threw a fit about Comerica Park after he signed there and then only hit 22 home runs. They didn't move the fences until he'd been gone for 3 years, so I don't know how much that actually played into the decision. Mays and DiMaggio didn't really have the option of leaving, so I don't know that complaining would have done them much good. Although, you raise an interesting point, no one ever really complains about the CF dimensions, no matter how deep they are. I could almost get on board if this got prime Sandy Koufax to sign here, but he'd need Scherzer money. Probably a little rich for the Orioles blood.

I guess I don't see why skipping AAA, failing their first big league test, then having to go back and work on it in AAA would be the cause of that death spiral either. I would still argue that if that's enough to trigger it, then they weren't long for the job anyway. If anything, I would think getting a sneak preview of what they need to work on to achieve big league success would be an advantage, not a detriment.

I would argue that a pitcher who goes into a death spiral because he struggles in his first exposure to the big leagues is not likely to see much long-term success anyway.

They used to be (Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Belle, Miguel Tejada). Those days may be gone though. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the big obstacle to signing a free agent pitcher was Angelos. He didn't like giving out the type of long term contracts to pitchers that other teams were willing to do, and when he was willing to consider it, it always came with extra scrutiny of that pitcher's physical that the players tended not to appreciate. In the past 15 years or so, they've barely tried to sign one. The highest profile pitcher I can recall was Ubaldo Jiminez, or maybe Alex Cobb, who were both past their primes. You're right that pitchers will sign where they are being offered the most money, and that's never us.

Not exactly to your point, but the mention of a trial run reminded me about an article I was reading yesterday - couple of months old but I missed it when it first came out. The author made an interesting observation that other teams in recent years that went with pitcher friendly dimensions (Tigers, Mets) ended up deciding to move their fences back in after a few years to keep players and fans happy. I'll be curious to see how long this change sticks, or if getting snubbed by enough high-profile right-handed power hitters will generate pressure to recalibrate. https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2280317/amp

People are getting frustrated that their chosen entertainment product is going to continue to provide no entertainment. Seems understandable. I don't know that the specific names really are the issue.

One thing the last few years has taught me is the vast difference in entertainment value in watching a 75 win team vs a 55 win team. It strikes me that the risk factor of completely neglecting the big league product for years on end is possibly an underrated aspect of this type of rebuild process. A 12 year old today probably barely remembers the last time this team was worth watching. As bad as things were in the 2000s, the team at least managed to put together stretches of entertaining and enjoyable play every year. What happens to the fan base if the next phase doesn't come together the way we all hope? Elias has said they'll spend money when the time is right, but what if attrition and bad luck with the next wave of prospects makes it unclear if the time is right or not? Does he just keep tanking then? I think the risk of permanently losing a generation of young fans isn't negligible.

Pretty much where I'm at. The major league product has been unwatchable the last 3-4 years. I just check the box score to see if anything interesting happened and then watch the highlights. I would have laughed at you 30 years ago if you had told me this is where I would be at now in my Orioles fandom, but it is what it is.

I wouldn't be opposed to a windmill. Can it light up after a home run like that thing the Marlins had?

If I had some reason to believe that it was going to make the team better, I could grudgingly talk myself around to it. Otherwise, it just feels like a bad organization flailing around.

Sanchez isn't with the Yankees anymore, but if he was, he'd hit less home runs in OPCY when the team has pitchers who aren't just throwing batting practice out there. Looking at his spray charts since 2019, I only see one obvious home run that this takes away. I suggest that a better solution to that issue might be not feeding Judge, Stanton, and Sanchez with guys like Adam Plutko, Spencer Watkins, Asher Wojciechowski, Jorge Lopez, David Hess, Dan Straily, etc, etc, etc....

Given where Judge's home runs tend to land, I'm not thinking this is going to stop him.

The warning track flyouts will be very entertaining.

Does this make the team better? If nothing else changes, does this add more wins?

I suspect that the fan experience was very low on the list of considerations when they came up with this dumb idea.

I second this one. I also like Elias' Folly.

I think you're right. We spent decades complaining about how the team couldn't bring in a big name pitcher because A) Angelos wouldn't pay market rates, and B) Angelos was unreasonable regarding the physicals. Now everyone has suddenly forgotten about that and decided that the ballpark was obviously the REAL problem all along. When/if Elias does sign a star pitcher, it'll be the dump truck full of cash and the perception that the team finally has enough talent to win that gets the job done, no other factors.

I think the idea that the LF wall is suddenly going to allow us to sign pitchers that otherwise wouldn't have signed here is a fallacy. Good pitchers will sign here when the team is willing to make the top offer on the market, which hasn't happened under Angelos. I can't think of a single instance where the team made the best offer for a pitcher and he walked away because he was afraid of the park. They're going to have to be willing to pay the price to either trade for a good pitcher or pay the free agency premium, if they want to supplement GRod and Hall.

Aside from my emotional reaction to (from my perspective) the mangling of a park that was visually perfect, I truly don't understand how this is supposed to make the team better. Because it will be harder to hit home runs? Both teams play in the same park under the same conditions, what inherent advantage does that give to the Orioles? I would suggest that they should try assembling pitching staffs that aren't historically bad, that seems far more likely to improve the product on the field. Because it will make Baltimore a more attractive option for free agent pitchers? Who have we been making competitive offers to the past several years that turned us down because of the park? Perhaps they should actually try to spend some money before they assume people won't take it. If anything, I would suspect that pitching in the AL East is a more significant deterrent than the park. I've heard the argument that this will lead to a more exciting brand of baseball, and I can sort of see that, but having an actual good team in the park has always been exciting. I just don't understand what problem got solved here.

I hate everything about it. I think it's a major detriment to the aesthetics of the park. Not all changes are good.

Nothing about how the park has played over the past 30 years has ever bothered me. The only joke has been the recent pitching staffs.

So....my gut reaction is to hate everything about this. Partly due to the hideously ugly aesthetics of the new configuration, maybe partly a sentimental reaction to such a drastic change to the park I grew up with. I can think of at least a dozen memorable moments that don't happen with this configuration. Cal's home run the night of 2130 becomes a routine fly ball. I'm not sure the one he hit the next night would be out in this configuration either. Some of the key home runs that Reynolds and Jones hit during the wild card run in 2012 would have been fly ball outs. I'd really like to know what free agent pitcher turned down top dollar to sign elsewhere due to the park. I can't think of one off the top of my head that we've heard about. I'd also like to know what the home run figures in the park would have looked like the past few years with a pitching staff that even approached being competent. When (if?) they finally build a better pitching staff, the results will improve, not because they screwed with the dimensions of the field.

Not to derail a thread about Davis, but there was nothing wrong with drafting Kjerstad. His medical issues are unfortunate, but no one could have known about that at the time of the pick. You could take it as proof that the org is cursed, I suppose.