Pickles

You know I was going to ding you for the "know he's going to awful" part. We don't really know that. However, you do bring up good points, and list some guys who imo clearly have more upside. So, you kinda change my mind.

A philosophical question I would like to have answered is this: Does providing "analytics" to prospects to improve their performance in the MiLs, actually translate to improved skills/abilities and better ML outcomes?

Riding on Andy MacPhail's coattails............... Is that an option?

First, yeah, I am a jerk. Frobby basically said the same thing I did, but he's far more diplomatic than I. Second, nobody disagrees with what you just said. I mean, that's basically like saying it rains more often when the sky isn't blue but gray. Yeah, no kidding. Thirdly, I'll reiterate my point: It's just silly to me to focus on the effect on the MiL ranking when discussing a prospect call-up, rather the the actual performance of the prospect. The OP is hardly alone in this regard, and I just find it tiring. An imperfect analogy might be when your favorite band releases a new album, and the discussion revolves around the new albums ability to get them to the RnR HOF, rather than, you know, the quality of music on the new album. It's just kind of..... dumb. (There's the jerk in me again.)

Questions for Hay this season in order of importance imo: 1) Can he stay healthy? 2) Is he a legit everyday CFer defensively? 3) He can hit. How much is the question.

Who gives a s--t? You don't win because you have a top ranked farm system. The purpose of a farm systems isn't to be highly ranked. It's to produce players and trade chips to make the major league team win games. This over-analyzation of every promotion in regards to how does the farm system ranks now is extremely tiring, to me at least. The interesting question should be how do those guys perform at the major league level.

I'm a little surprised this kind of relative talent is available in the Rule 5. It suggests we have a long way to go. Great work as always. And I look forward to the draft.

It's hard to have major complaints about Elias so far.

Well, maybe it is not funny but it is true.

There's opportunity costs of course. I'm just saying a very general point: Just because we have one prosepct, doesn't mean we shouldn't take a similar one.

Well not specifically to this case, but as a general rule: It is better to have more bites at the apple; i.e. more prospects equal more players.

Who is whining, bro? It's a statement of fact. This team is bad. We're in the BEGINNING stages of a rebuild. We're behind teams people want to point to as symbols of ineptitude. There's a lot of folks talking about 2022. They better calm the hell down. And, at the same time, people who want to vent about how bad this team is, are absolutely entitled. No matter your perspective, you need to get a sense of humor about it.

I think that's what a lot of folks don't get. And they are in for a rude awakening. The 2009 team is probably 2-3 years ahead of the 2020 teams in terms of being able to compete. When did they actually become good? So when does that put the timetable for this current group? (About 2025 or so.) There's so much more losing to come.

Hey man, I am not arguing any of that. And I been around since the 80s baby. The nadir to me wasn't the early 2000s. That was shocking. And abrupt. The nadir to me was losing 30-3 to the Rangers in 2007. And yeah, both were embarrassing. And averaging 105 losses for 5 years is embarrsing. And we're not even to the middle point of that yet. And that isn't MacPhail's or Elias'or even Duquette's fault. But it's happening. And it sucks.

Correct. Let's put it this way: If the O's were in a financial position to be making these kinds of trades, they just wouldn't have traded Villar for a lottery ticket.

Here's how I feel about it, and it is largely how I felt about it in 2007 when MacPhail came on board and it was similar, if less streamlined: It is interesting But it is frustrating too. Really frustrating. Often embarrassing. And in 3 years, we probably won't be losing 110 games, but we likely won't be winning 90. We will still be in the middle of it.

I know this is going back a few pages but I want to repeat my stance. I don't think it is fair to call me a Mountcastle "hater." I think it is very likely he has a long major league career. I claim the label Mountcastle "doubter." In the sense that I don't ever think he is going to be a consistent "all-star" player. And I believe that because when looking at the power tool, the hit tool, and the on-base tool, it just doesn't add up for a first basemen. I hope very much I'm wrong. And I feel in a year about Mountcastle the way I feel about Lamar Jackson right now.

Eh. Sounds like a nothingburger. Of course any decision of that kind would have to go to ownership. And of course they aren't actively pursuing those kinds of trades.

There needs to be an epic rant thread on the main board for the frustration of what will come, has come, and is coming as we speak. Upside: An epic Reynolds and sunflower seeds meme. Downside: Losing half the board in epic flamewars. What do ya'll think?

Well, it is a good question. I'd like to hear Luke's thoughts. But, imo, by their very nature Rule 5 guys should be pretty low on prospect lists.

I think our two highest FA pitcher signings were absolutely horrible. By total amount, that would be Ubaldo and Cobb, correct? I suspect this deal will start becoming an albatross right around when the O's are decent again.

I think it is far more likely they will sign no free agents for more than 600 K guaranteed, than they will sign one for more than 6 mil.

I'd like an answer on that. I can't believe any of these guys would be in the top 15 on the O's list. And really not even the top 20.

Great work. Thanks. This will be the first place to look after the draft, for sure. Last year I had a preference for Martin. And after looking at him for a year I'm ok with it. He's Ceasar Izturis. I'm not sure if anyone has commented on this earlier, but he even physically resembles him. For a team that is going to be bad for a few years, and has no middle infield in the system, that isn't the worst outcome. My only insight this year would be they need to seek upside.

Takes a thief.