Gofannon

They are not going to make the big deal they made about his arrival, give out 15,000 t-shirts to fans with his picture on it, then send him down 9 days later because he looks completely lost. It's just not going to happen. Cowser and Stowers struggled last year and earned their demotion, but Holliday's the top-rated prospect in the game and is going to get more leeway before anything happens. I do think they'll start platooning him until he heats up, and if we reach May and he's 2 for 50, I would be shocked if they kept him up. There will also be a difference between struggles on the West Coast when no one is watching and struggles at home against the Yankees. That is where the rubber would meet the road, I think.

Sounds like people think he's unlikely to start against Ragans today. Are the O's at the point where they are platooning him? If so, the rest of the road trip isn't going to tell us much, facing 3 out of 5 lefty starters. At this point, if he isn't starting, he isn't coming into the game, since you would never pinch hit him or have him as a defensive replacement. If we are backing off on the lefty-lefty matchups, I could see Tony's May 1st date as the earliest he'd get to 50 at bats.

Santander does not get a long-term deal from us with the talent in the pipeline. Not only that, our long-term contract priorities are Adley/Gunnar/Holliday/GrayRod/Bradish/other young talent TBD, not Santander. A 3 or 4 year contract would could create a logjam both roster-wise and financially.

Thanks for the catch. Then take what I said and move it to Saturday. It's the Milkman Show tonight.

Kevin Brown wrote that one in January, but it was right on time last night.

Tonight we face DL Hall, a lefty.

Austin Hays, at the very least, is a solid 4th outfielder on this team, able to play any outfield position, with a major league track record. He's not going to hit below .100. I hope he's in the lineup tonight... in place of O'Hearn. On a different note, Kevin Brown's "HOLY COWSER!!!" exclamation on the 10th inning shot is up there with Gary Thorne's "Trumbo BUMBOOOOOOOOO" among favorite home run calls of the last 10 years.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2002/05/26/batista-keeps-faith-and-quirks-with-os/ What a quirky fellow - used to stagger around at 3B after the first pitch of every game to catch an imaginary pop-up from God. “If I believe in Jesus Christ more than the pitcher, I’m going to have a base hit,” he said. “If he believes more, he’s going to strike me out.” I always loved the quote referenced above. I used to sit at games, watch him strike out and bat below .250, and think "Man, there sure are a lot of uber-religious pitchers facing Tony Bautista."

I mean, I've seen mock drafts suggesting my football team may draft a guy named Kool-Aid McKinstry, so it could be weirder. Or are you saying in a couple of years he'd be named Kool-Ayd?

Hope Kemp didn't buy any green bananas.

Maybe the Buck Britton call-up announcement video can become a Ken Burns documentary that takes five days to film and gives us an extra year of control over Holliday.

Can either you or DirtyBird say what you'd do with Mullins and Hays? I am assuming you're releasing Urias and Mateo? I'm not arguing for the status quo, by the way. I'm just wondering what the people who want to blow it up completely after a week and a half see as the moves to be made.

Say that to 2023 Colton Cowser and Kyle Stowers.

Adam Frazier is the Kevin Bacon of the Hangout message board. Regardless of the topic being discussed, you're never more than six steps (at most) from talking about ol' number 12.

Well, if anyone arrived at noon for a game that ended at 8:40, I don't know that they got their money's worth, but that's a great win.

In your original post, you highlighted their record over the past 30 years on Opening Day, and if you're going over that time, yesterday was right up there with the three walk-off wins from 2016 to 2018 and the oddity of the snow game in 2003. If you're talking about the history of the team, 1992 tops yesterday in terms of what the day meant for the franchise and the city. Truth be told, Peter Angelos hit every note at the home opener in 1992 as well. 50,000 people experiencing that ballpark for the first time can't be topped. The game was great as well (and quick!). In terms of excitement, I'd take 1989 over yesterday as well. They'd lost 12-0 on Opening Day 1988 to start their 21 game winless streak. Some writers were predicting a no-hitter from Roger Clemens at the opener in '89. Between the Ripken homer off of Clemens and the Worthington game-winner in extras, there was such a feeling of jubilation and relief leaving the stadium that day. Nobody had any idea what a wonderful season it would lead to. Runner-up status also goes to 1982 (Ripken's first HR and a Murray grand slam) and often overlooked 1985 (snowed then as well, and Eddie hit a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the 8th after Charlie Hough no-hit us through six innings).

If Nevin is still on the team a month into the season, I'll be shocked. Once we get through the initial run of lefties, I think he's gone.

To think that you just named 7 top position players and didn't even mention Kjerstad, a former top 2 pick who had a great year in the minors last year. Five years ago his picture would be all over the O's website and we'd be screaming for him. And Stowers. And Norby.

Ron Hansen, Chuck Estrada, and Jim Gentile would all earn an earlier step to free agency in today's day and age. "Baby Birds", indeed!

I'll take the demerit for being lazy and not checking. That said, it's happened 8 times ever in the 75 years of the award. I hope we can agree that 8 times out of 150 awards makes it pretty rare. https://www.mlb.com/news/teammates-to-finish-first-and-second-in-rookie-of-the-year-voting

Am I correct that keeping Holliday and Mayo in the minors for 15 days would put our young players on this schedule for free agency? Adley Rutschman - after 2027 season Gunnar Henderson/Kyle Bradish - after 2028 season Grayson Rodriguez/Jordan Westburg/(Colton Cowser?) - after 2029 season Jackson Holliday/Coby Mayo/(Heston Kjerstad?) - after 2030 season With that in mind, it does seem like it's worth it to use the "adjust to lefties and 2B" argument for Holliday and "work on defense and have innings in the outfield" argument for Mayo. If they call either of these guys up soon and they win Rookie of the Year, they've earned their year of service, and they've likely played well enough to help the team make a run. Truth be told, if you call them both up in the same year and they both produce, they may cancel each other out in the ROY voting. I can't remember a team having prospects go 1-2 in the ROY race. This also reemphasizes that next spring, even if all goes well, Lucy may still pull the football away before we can kick it and Basallo will need some April tinkering in southeast Virginia.

I'm not interested in signing Snell or Montgomery, and I'm not trading any of our top prospects for another starting pitcher at this point. I had a hard time deciding between extensions for our young guys or extensions for Elias. I think I'd lock up Elias first. If only one thing happens before the season starts, I want to know that the leadership that has been so successful these past few years is here to stay. I think if we lock Elias up long-term, he will do those long-term extensions soon now that supportive ownership is in place.

I've seen a few of these topics being discussed as the next big shoe to drop. If only one of these moves was going to happen between now and Opening Day, what do you want to see?

And truth be told, they could be in a similar position next season, where we have blocked prospects that are highly thought of but not untouchable. We could absolutely follow this model next year where we extend our young guys, ride out Bradish and GrayRod, and make a fair trade for a top-notch one-year rental of a starting pitcher with our blocked prospects that aren't off limits. This concept wouldn't last forever - our minor-league depth will graduate and we'll need to replenish it - but if you have a line-up with Adley/Gunnar/Holliday/Cowser/Kjerstad/Mayo/Basallo/Westburg down the line, we may view our future Ortiz/Hall equivalents as trade chips more than future Orioles.

There's no way you will get 450 outs with that kind of stuff.