btownoriole

I would suspect Elias would want to see more than 4 good starts before promoting Povich, especially given his history of control issues.

The teams the O's have played are now 27-12 in games not against the O's and 4-8 vs. the O's.

I think they wanted to get through this stretch of lefties, so it was intentional. That said, I don’t get the Kemp signing. I would’ve kept Nevin to DH against the lefties.

While the result was disappointing, the presence of O’s fans on Saturday was impressive. That’s the 9th road ballpark I’ve seen the O’s play in and it was the loudest pro-O’s crowd I’ve seen. BTW, PNC Park is fantastic.

Hoping to be there Saturday (4/6). Looks like it's going to be a cold one! Also tentatively planning to be in Cincy in early May.

I’m mostly with you. I do think Means will end up on the IL at some point after he returns but I think it will be something he comes back from in-season. If Bradish wasn’t so dependent on his slider I’d feel better about his chances. But I agree - once he starts throwing that with intensity the elbow issue will return.

This was top 3 in my lifetime, along with ‘89 and ‘92. Part of what made those other two so special in retrospect is how those days seemed to set a tone for those seasons. Hopefully this season will play out so that Opening Day will be remembered as part of a larger story.

That’s not the way I interpreted it. He brought up the Chourios extension and also said if there was no free agency he would be on the team. I didn’t read that as indicating an openness to an extension.

Agree with “no let.” But I think that players who hire Boras do so because they agree with him philosophically. If Holliday or Gunnar were more inclined to sign an extension they probably would have hired a different agent in the first place.

I get everyone's anger...I felt the same way when I heard the news. And I am concerned the O's aren't going to gain any service time anyway, so might as well have him on the roster even if he struggles early on to get the draft pick. That said, I get the logic of having Nevin on the team at the start of the season. Nevin does have a career .798 OPS against lefties and they are facing a ton early. Holliday did not look good against lefties in the spring. For a team wanting to win NOW, this actually does feel like they are maximizing their chances. I would be surprised if Nevin is on the roster very long. I mean Vavra, Stowers, and Gillaspie were all on the early April roster last year. Now if Nevin is still on the roster in May I may join the masses!

I believe some NBA teams are doing this in response to the RSN mess. With cord-cutting teams desperately need reach and this is still the best way to do it.

This, plus this particular franchise has a lot of unrealized revenue potential. There is risk with the hazy future of local TV revenue but I don’t think the O’s have been creative or aggressive at all in building their revenue base.

I think this is more of a strategy of the streaming services to keep costs down. They do have a few RSNs but they mostly seem to be owned (or partially owned) by Fox/NBC, who negotiate them in as part of a package deal.

My hope is that this ownership group looks for ways to increase revenue. There are lots of ways to do that beyond increasing prices - better leveraging being part of the nation's 3rd largest media market is one way. Creating a better fan experience is another. "Camden Crossing" or whatever the redevelopment could be another. A streaming version of MASN could be another. I never got the sense that the Angelos family was business-savvy. They made their money through lawsuits, not running businesses.

Yes. And as others have mentioned you can drop DIRECTV Stream when baseball season ends.

I’d like to see them promote Elias to President of Baseball Operations.

I don’t see this happening anytime soon but I could see MLB eventually making the World Series a neutral site, week-long event in a warm or climate-controlled environment. It may be necessary if they keep adding rounds to the playoffs.

And 2016.

Except it’s rare for the lowest seed in the NBA playoffs to make it to the Finals. This is now two straight years for MLB. MLB is becoming a worse version of the NHL playoffs.

I’ve thought about this too, along with the fact that they outperformed their Pythagorean by so much and they were pretty healthy. I think the front office is banking on internal improvements in other areas - I think there’s a lot of unrealized upside next year with Holliday, Gunnar, Mullins, and perhaps even Adley.

The 2000 Ravens were 12-4, which was tied for the 2nd best regular season record in the entire league that year.

I’d really like to give him one more shot at starting. But it’s great to know he can handle high-leverage situations if it doesn’t work out.

Exhibit A: The 2021 52-win Orioles swept 3-game series from the 95-win Astros and the 92-win Red Sox in their own ballparks.

Well a lot of people stopped watching because it became excessive.

I think this was the thinking when the NHL created the "President's Cup." Hockey's playoffs are the 2nd-biggest crapshoot behind baseball.