ChosenOne21

I mean, this is possible, but it's incredibly likely Kremer is better than at least one of those guys

But our offense needs to take a step forward in order for us to be contenders!

I'd say if he has 3-4 more good starts and our rotation continues to struggle, he's going to find himself in Baltimore

Yeah, I can see it. Hardy has a much better glove at a much more premium position, and I imagine Westburg will walk more than Hardy did, but I'd expect their offensive lines to look pretty similar other than that.

Now that Pablo Reyes at bat was awful

Come on, the Cowser at bat was fine, Kutter just threw some great pitches. The strike he took was in a spot it would have been hard to do damage on. He scorched one foul and swung at a tough splitter.

It would have been a running catch, might have had to dive. That play is nearly impossible for a second baseman though and Santander wasn't anywhere close

The throw was pretty awful

Should have been Cedric's play

I have to admit, I like him more than anyone should probably like a 10th round draft pick. Real good chance Elias got a steal here.

No one has said this, but it feels like half the board is acting like it's a true statement. Of course, he might not pitch this year, but it's probably like 67% likely he will and 33% he won't.

But he hurt his UCL! That means he DEFINITELY won't pitch this year. This is totally a smokescreen while Elias trades for another pitcher! NO ONE HAS EVER PITCHED AFTER A UCL INJURY WITHOUT FIRST GETTING TOMMY JOHN!!!!!11!!!1!!

Last year it looked like he could play the position fine. Great arm, good at moving laterally, especially for someone his size, some trouble coming in on balls. Not going to win a gold glove or anything, but not going to hurt you either. This year, super small sample size, but much less good.

I don't know how you begin to solve this. I doubt it has anything to do with the pitch clock. The TJs in the first 100 days thing SportsGuy posted doesn't suggest the pitch clock has anything to do with it, nor does MLB's research showing guys who work faster aren't at higher risk for TJ. As long as there are millions of dollars at stake for throwing hard, people are going to throw hard. Maybe MLB could implement some kind of mandatory pitch count, but then guys will throw even harder since they don't have to last as long in the game. Maybe MLB can put a limit on how fast a pitch is allowed to be. Something like if the pitch is over 95 MPH it's automatically a ball, but that's not fair to the guys who can throw at high velocities easier, and I'm sure the MLBPA won't stand for it. I think the only way this gets better is if technology improves to the point where we can get more out of arms without destroying the elbows. And even then, people will still push the limits to outcompete their peers.

Agreed. I think Povich's floor is "not a useful major leaguer." His ceiling is probably ERA 3.80-4.00-ish starter

I really don't get the Orioles' love for trying to turn first basemen into outfielders. If they had a shot at being outfielders, they'd have been outfielders in high school/college instead of first basemen. Trumbo, Mancini, now O'Hearn. It's getting ridiculous.

If he's still looking bad in a month, I'll bet he starts losing serious playing time. For now though, they'll give him a chance to work through it.

I hope he makes the best of this chance and has a great career. But he's five (if you're lucky) and dive as a starter and likely an inconsistent one. I think he'll be a very good reliever. I think we're going to miss him more than Joey Ortiz.

I guess they want to learn the hard way that D.L. Hall isn't a starting pitcher.

I really didn't think he was going to make the team. Results were good in spring training, but the stuff wasn't.

You're right that UCL injuries require surgery in most cases. However, the fact he hasn't had surgery and instead got a PRP injection suggests that his is incredibly minor and he may be able to avoid surgery. I believe someone posted some paper here that said something like 2/3s of players who get a PRP injection instead of Tommy John avoid surgery for the next five years. If the only information we had was "Bradish has a UCL injury" then yeah, our best guess would be that he won't pitch much or at all this year. But we have more information than that.

It's entirely possible that the ownership transfer is making it very difficult for the Orioles to hand out any kind of big-ish contract. I'm not totally convinced it is, but I guess we'll know for sure next offseason. Yeah, it'd be worse for us if Montgomery went to the AL East, but honestly, the fact it's the Diamondbacks kind of stings more. The Diamondbacks are a mid-market team. There's no way we couldn't afford a payroll in line with theirs. We have way more room to add money and they're the ones who landed the free agent. I seriously doubt Elias is trying to "prove" he can win with a bottom three payroll. I'm sure he'd like to spend more, but I'm guessing the reason he can't is some combination of Angelos being tight-fisted and the transfer of ownership screwing with the budget.

Just when we thought we were safe from having an aging, below average left-handed second baseman on the roster...

We haven't "lost Bradish." There's no reason to think he's missing the entire season or even most of it except evidence-less pessimism. It's not out of the question, but we're not there yet. As for Gibson being our pitching wins leader, I can't think of a better argument not to use that stat. He gave us a lot of innings, but they weren't great innings. Does Means not count as an "addition" for you? Has your bottomless pessimism ruled him out from pitching this year, too?

Tell me you're not concerned because we lost Gibson... EDIT: Also, how is Burnes "adding nothing?"