ChosenOne21

I mean, if someone came along and offered the moon for Mateo, Elias would pack his bags himself. But you do have a point. If he tendered them a contract, he's probably at least interested in seeing what they do in spring training.

I want some of whatever the guy who wrote the report on Norby's defense was on.

I think he's a true talent 4.25-4.40 ERA guy who has shown some ability to outpitch his peripherals. I also think there's a 25% chance he finds more consistency and is a sub-4 ERA true talent guy. I'm not ready to anoint him as a Jeremy Guthrie Outpitch Your Peripherals For Most Of Your Career Until You Suddenly Don't type just yet, but last year did provide additional evidence he could be that guy.

Well, they didn't predict him to do what he did last year either. I'd say it's at least 50% likely Kyle Bradish is top 25 in ERA next year. His FIP was 3.27 last year. Even if he's half a run above that he's top 25 on that list.

I think we'd be pretty lucky if one out of Hall, McDermott, Povich, Johnson ends up being a solid MLB starter, and very lucky if they start being one this upcoming season

Elias didn't draft him?

I'd do it. O's probably have to give a little more though. Probably have to add DL Hall or someone eqivalent

This is an overpay according to baseball trade values at least. They have: Ortiz: 13.8M Cowser: 37.4M Povich: 5.1M Rhodes 2M Cease: 44.8M

There's "It didn't work out" and "Really should have known better" when it comes to trades, and Heim was 100% "It didn't work out." It took him, what, six years and four organizations after we traded him to be anything? Like Corn said, there was like a .1% chance of him being a good starting MLB catcher. If I recall, the book on Heim said he had a chance to be a good backup catcher if he could hit a little more.

Rob Deer as a plus defensive centerfielder would be a hell of a player.

When we have a pitching pipeline like the Marlins or Guardians, we can afford not to take risks extending pitching. Until we do, we need to secure the pitching we have.

It seems a lot of Contract II's are really bad ideas

I mean, Derek Jeter has how many of these things? Is Mountcastle really that surprising? Everyone knows this award needs to be taken with a heaping grain of salt.

I agree with this, but FWIW, I seem to remember Tony saying that Mayo moves well laterally (which sounds like it's range) and has an absolute cannon, but has a really hard time coming in on balls. It might actually be more of a "hands" issue than a range issue

Everything I hear suggests Mayo is currently adequate at 3B. He does some things well and others not so much. But he's pretty likely to get worse as he ages given how big he is. I wouldn't look to him at 3B long-term, but he could probably play there (okay) for a few years.

I mean, ideally we have dozens of pitchers better than him, but you're right that he'd probably be in the rotation for most teams. I think he's a solid 4th starter on a playoff team, maybe 5th if you're stacked with rotation talent. He's put up some incredible stretches, but he's inconsistent.

Playoffs don't count for any records/streaks as far as I know.

Well, it was a great season

Of course it's an advantage. If you think time off will hurt your team, have them treat every off day like it's a normal day and culminate it in a split-squad game that you manage and prepare for exactly like a regular game. But as was said earlier, you can't lose if you don't play, and you have the option of resting the team/players if you think you need it.

Right. You don't get to be a MLB player in the first place if you don't handle pressure well. Most of what people consider "choking" is probably just natural variance over small sample sizes

He doesn't seem to get good jumps, and Heim is one of the better catchers at controlling the running game. Pretty sure we still lose if he doesn't steal though.

Why do people act like professional athletes are children instead of some of the mentally toughest people on the planet? I assure you Hyde's emotions in the postgame conference will have zero to do with how the O's play today.

Do you really want to pay Cedric Mullins FA rates for his age 31+ seasons? I don't, and that's not a knock on him or what he's done. Just the simple reality that it's hard to play good CF defense in your thirties and Cedric probably lacks the bat to be especially valuable in left field. Hopefully Bradfield Jr. or Fabian is knocking on the door in two years.

Tampa is definitely the toughest team on there. I don't really have a strong preference between the other three.

I mean, playing Mateo didn't sink the team, but you can't just look at the W-L record and say the correct decision was made. How do we know we wouldn't have won an extra game or two while getting Ortiz necessary MLB experience if we'd gone with him over Mateo?