Slappy

Haha, I remember that guy. And JTrea too.

I may have done this wrong, but we had only one 5-5 stretch last year using this slicing. The last above .500, sequential, 10 game stretch was from 8/28-9/7/17 when we went 6-4. That's pretty pathetic.

I'm definitely on the side of "shoulda been called up earlier". I get the arguments about his MiL history and the juiced IL ball. But he does have some ML numbers (426 PA) that aren't horrible (.721 OPS). And he is an actual center fielder. I'm not sure why we didn't bring him up instead of throwing Wilkerson and Santander in CF for 2-3 months. I don't think we need guys to be .900 OPS potential guys before we bring them up.

O's affiliate system finished 421-393 (.517). That's the best winning percentage since 1997, and only the 3rd winning season since that year. Delmarva's .652 is the best A or higher winning percentage since Hagerstown went 91-48 (.655) in 1986!

We can’t resist letting this guy turn every thread into a flame war, can we??

I totally agree with this, and I think baseball's real solution to its length-of-game and lack-of-interest problems are finding ways to get the ball in play more. Length of game is closely correlated to the rise in K's and BB's.

I think they will prove to be very similar players but I went with Mancini just because he's shown he can do it in the Show.

Pretty clear that the time has come to do something about Davis. Especially if the manager feels his effort or focus are not there. He has no future here and is going to be a bad example to the young guys in this case. On the other hand, Hyde should probably try to keep this stuff in his office. Kinda embarrassing to the franchise to have it out in the open (which he admitted). Ultimately though, as a fan, I'm happy to see guys caring, even if it boils over.

Several ways to look at that. When he arrived we were in a 14 year non-playoff and losing season streak. When he left we had 3 additional pennants on the walls at OPACY. But I get the other way of looking at it as well. I guess I just disagree with the black-or-white arguments when it comes to Duquette. MacPhail deserves credit for the 12-16 years - he put the core of position players in place. But DD was key in finding pitching and depth (both of which AM was awful at), and made some good FA signings. His trade acumen was subpar. Ultimately, he did a pretty good job as GM, particularly when you consider how awful the organization was at the top.

Did the SoCal stadiums a few years ago. Dodger and Petco are both awesome (in different ways). Anaheim was “meh”. Definitely get some pics of the actual Big A, which is still in the parking lot. And the giant helmets and baseball diamonds at the entrance is a good place for pics. They have all kinds of food options there. If you are in the area Disneyland is literally 5 minutes up the street.

I think we would need a World Series appearance to really gauge what the attendance potential of the franchise is. If that doesn't get a casual fan's attention, nothing will. I think it is probably about 2.8-3 million. Which is plenty to support a team.

Gosh, it's been since 2008, sooooo many things I thought were wrong. But if we are just limiting this to the 2019 season, there's a few that come to mind. 1) I was a big DSJ believer early in the season. I thought he might even be able to hold down LF long-term. But his bat has cooled and his defensive value is way below par. So, wrong about that. 2) Like a lot of you, I thought Mullins would hold down CF. Wrong. 3) I thought Cashner would suck this year. Didn't think Bundy would be any better than last year. Wrong on both of those (happily). 4) I thought we would have at least an average bullpen. Boy, was I wrong on that one!

Just asking "Would you trade Means?" is an incomplete question without specifying what the return would be. You would have to get something of reasonable value, given the fact that Means was a legitimate All-Star and a real ROY candidate. We've got 5 years of control after this, and if Elias is worth his salt we should be competing well within that window. A better question would be: "What kind of return would it take for you to trade Means?"

4 teams went unrepresented in the All-Star game itself: Toronto, Washington, San Diego, and the O's.

Is the 1-1 really that important next year? (I'm genuinely asking). Is there a standout player? A lot of years there isn't and having the #2-5 pick is just as impactful.

Phil Regan was the harbinger of much worse things to come from Angelos. BTW, that 1995 team was a pretty good one in every category but wins and losses. The offense was middle of the pack, but the pitching staff was 2nd in ERA, 2nd in Ks, 1st in CG and shutouts. That team ended the season pitching FIVE consecutive shutouts! Our run differential was +64, which would equate to a pythagorean recored of 78-66. That would of put us just one behind the Yankees for the wild card, and given we played them so much, we might have won it. So yeah... little to suggest Regan was a great game manager.

The clarity of the team not trying to win comes from the off-season, when there were a lot of relatively low-priced, reasonable quality free agents out there and the FO opted to go with a lot of unproven but cheap players. I've actually felt like, Straily aside, Elias has put at least some effort into cycling through his (poor) options in-season. Witness the Wright trade, Rickard DFA, Phillips, Kline, Yac, Stewart, Santander, Mullins being sent down, et. al. Ultimately, given the rules in MLB today, opting to field a 50-win team instead of a 70-win team is a good decision for the club long-term. It allows Elias to stockpile high amateur draft slots, go first in Rule V, be at the head of the waiver wire, etc. I don't necessarily agree with the system and believe it does incentivize fan-unfriendly team building like this, but it is the system and it is the right strategy for the long-term health of the club. It's also damn painful to watch. As for the fans... if we win, they will be back. This is a fanbase that has endured 14 year losing streaks and 25 years of gross mismanagement. A few years of a rebuilding project isn't going to do a whole lot more damage, and at least we are seeing a clear direction now. Keep the faith!

I don't see any major mistakes Elias has made yet. A lot of his positional pick-ups have been effective at low cost: Severino (.895 OPS!), DSJ (.759 with 11HR and 41RBI), and Hanser (.305 average). Rio, Broxton, and Richie at least provide quality defense, something we lacked last year, and Richie in particular has shown signs of improvement at the plate. On the pitching side, he added Armstrong (our most effective reliever) for Wright, something we are all thankful for. Straily and Karns were flyers from the beginning. If anything, he should have tried a few more of those for the rotation/bullpen, instead of running David Hess out there at a 7+ ERA. Means credits Chris Holt (an Elias hire) for his blossoming, and Bundy's ERA in his last 9 starts is 3.42. Some good stuff here... just not enough.

Is Gunnar Henderson

Bunch of noise. They will take Rutschman or Witt.

I certainly don't know how to quantify his other duties, but I'm not seeing it with Flores. He has had some absolutely awful sends this year, and our baserunning as a whole has been shaky. Not saying its all his fault, but unimpressive so far.

Nunez is on a 30 HR pace and high .700's OPS. Hard to believe a 55-ish win team would want to DFA him.

I agree we are probably better than Detroit, certainly offensively and probably in the field too. Pitching-wise, the two teams are equally bad. The one “advantage” we have as to having a worse record is that we play the Yankees, Red Sox, and Rays 54 games while the Tigers get 54 against the Royals, White Sox, and Indians (who are mediocre this year).

I don't really care whether we spend $3.5 million or $6 million or whatever, to me what counts right now is that we are focused on developing a program to scout and sign kids internationally going forward. The fruits of that labor may not be obvious until 3 years+ down the road, but at least it really seems like the Orioles as an organization have clear leadership and a clear plan and that is a MASSIVE improvement over the past 20 years.

The only two things I learned were that the O's actually haven't submitted an ASG bid, and that they have not notified MLB of ownership changes. Both of those things are interesting. The rest is typical losing season nonsense. There are a whole bunch of teams with tumbling attendance, many of them with attendance levels similar to or worse than the Orioles, and many of them without losing as an excuse (Tampa, Cleveland, etc.). The O's are not going anywhere, and the MASN stuff is a legal p*ssing contest.