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This. I'm doubtful on all of things happening, but I wish Chris well. Be awesome to see him make it back to the bigs and have some success.

Can't happen soon enough, IMO.

Same. *exhales in relief*

I'm not so sure I agree with his take. Wait until the pennant race, or even more so, the postseason where a reliever is struggling in a tight spot after the first or second batter he faces, the manager can't pull him and is forced to let him face a third batter, and the third batter gets a game altering hit or BB. I think it has the potential to loom very large.

Beat me to it.

+1. He's a young guy in the grand scheme of things. Living in Japan in your mid-30's for a couple of years, making (probably) better money then he could in MLB, there's not much downside for home. I hope it works out for him and he enjoys playing over there.

ROTFLOL.....oh wait, you weren't serious were you?!?!?!?!?!

Yup

IMO, I think the Orioles should pass, for several reasons: 1) Russell's on-field performance is certainly questionable at this point. 2) Elias having come from Houston, and the controversy with Osuna there, would just be a bad optic. I expect some in the media might connect dots in the effort to poop out a story. 3) This is Baltimore. Ray Rice is still fresh in everyone's memory. The Orioles bringing in Russell would re-kindle some of that, and it would become a story and a possible distraction that the O's don't need.

He was a JAG, so no loss to the O's, IMO. Good for him if he gets a nice payday.

+1. Trading him was the right move, I just have no idea on what the quality of the return is.

So if I'm reading it right, MASN can now (or in the near future) sell a streaming package either direct to fans, or through a streaming platform like Amazon, Sling, Roku, etc?

The last two seasons really slammed the W-L %, but overall, it was a pretty damn fun decade to be an O's fan. 2012-2016 were a lot of fun, even with the disappointment of falling short of a WS title. I'll always remember this era fondly, even though the end has been rough. Hoping for even better things with this next era under Mike Elias.

Also this.

This.

Hate it. I'm sure someone will point out where I'm wrong, but I can't think of another rule that limits a manager's roster flexibility to the detriment of the team. A guy comes in and gives up back to back HRs, and you can't remove him before he serves up a beach ball to the 3rd hitter? Madness, IMO.

Wow, pretty big change and break with tradition there. I'm old enough the remember when the games started at 7:35 on weeknights, but they've been 7:05 for a long time, maybe around the last few years of Memorial Stadium? I'm good with it, might make it a bit tougher to get there in time for first pitch for some folks, but it is what it is. Now if they're just start the playoff and WS games earlier than 8pm.

As long as it's not for the Orioles or any MiL teams in the Orioles' organization, I have no issues at all with that.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. I think it's very extreme. I get as annoyed with the Joe Girardi 5 pitch change innings as anyone else (lawd I couldn't stand him for that), but this is taking it to far to the other side of the pendulum. It's a game-altering precedent unlike anything we've seen in recent memory.

This. If Elias is worried about the Ravens, then he shouldn't be the O's GM. He has his plan. The only thing that should cause him to consider changes to it is the state of the Orioles.

Yeah I get it, there are rules. But this one is unnecessary, ham handed, and is "fixing" a problem that doesn't exist, and will cause other issues. I mean, why not just make it that you can only pinch hit once per game? Or no more openers, the starting pitching must pitch at least 5 innings? Just because there are already rules in place, that doesn't justify stupidity like this.

I think Bundy is a JAG at this point, so I'd do it. I agree with others though, I'm not sure how much value he has.

Agreed. You want to get teams to stop shifting, tell the players to learn to go the other way. Or bunt. Then they'll stop shifting.

This. Hate, hate, hate this. They've got a 25 man (or I guess soon to be 26 man) roster, let the manager use it as he sees fit.

+1 to all of these.