The B&G

When does All Star voting begin?

Off the top of my head, 4m?

Yep, I think Cowser did Hyde a favor there. If not for Cowser's hot streak, I doubt we would have seen a full platoon take place until mid-summer. Obviously Hays made it a lot easier too with his awful start. This worked out perfectly imo, I was nervous Cowser wouldn't get a true shot due to Hyde's loyalty to veterans, but now Cowser has forced the issue and should be a full time player for the foreseeable future.

A scout told me his stuff looked pretty bad in his second start when he saw him, so I was pretty concerned coming into this one. Gonna be very interesting to see how this plays out.

Another really impressive performance today, continues to show the 2nd half of last season was no fluke. Best home grown Starting Pitcher we've developed in some time.

Gonna try not to overreact to this, given it's just 1 start. If the next few are rocky, it'll be very disappointing.

So what's the game plan pregame if the Pickles area is being rained on? That's a ton of people that will need an indoor bar.

Coming into ST I didn't think there was a chance in hell this happens, but after the way Mayo has played...he's almost forced the issue. Trade Urias for a relief pitcher and make it happen

My hope coming into ST was that one of Mayo or Holliday would crack the opening day roster, we really don't have room for both right now. Even if just one makes the team, that will probably mean one of Urias or Mateo has to go. Trade Urias for a reliever and let Mayo cook!

32 years old with 51 career major league innings and a 6.27 ERA, why on earth would we assume Elias thinks this guy is a replacement for Bradish and Means?

I'm intrigued to see what Hilliard and Burdick bring to the table in Spring Training. Their power potential could be a fun addition to this years club. One interesting aspect of this debate that won't get talked about a lot if McKenna's role in the club house. You can easily see it on TV and Hyde's mentioned it a few times that McKenna is very well-liked in the clubhouse. If neither Hilliard or Burdick crush it in ST, I could see Hyde sticking with McKenna. I'm sure all three guys and Stowers are really feeling the heat coming into camp, the OF is very crowded.

I would have the order slightly different, but given the team make up entering Spring Training, I would be very happy with this being the opening day roster. This scenario would have Mateo being the primary backup CF and Kjerstad being the primary backup LF, which going into spring training are pretty big question marks. I guess O'Hearn played some LF last year but I don't think we want to be seeing that at OPACY on a regular basis. A little wrinkle I would consider to this scenario. Trade either Mateo and Urias for relief pitching and have one of McKenna, Hilliard, Stowers or Burdick make the team.

In the Minors he's shown good/great power and looks good with the glove. Seems like a RH version of Sam Hilliard, with less MLB experience. At this point I think I prefer both Hilliard and Burdick's skill set over McKenna. I'll be sad to see Ryan go but seems like the writing is on the wall. Between the two prospects, Stowers and now Hilliard/Burdick's arrivals, gonna be an uphill battle for McKenna to make the big league club

Mullins being fully healthy is gonna be a huge help this season, it's not talked about enough. Imagine if he comes anywhere close to his 30/30 season (doubtful I know), but would be a huge addition to the offense. He's also got to be thinking about his upcoming free agency a little bit, back to back .721 OPS seasons, I'm sure he'd love to get back in the .800 range the next two seasons before it's contract negotiating time.

Age 22 Season OPS: Cal Ripken Jr: .888 Manny Machado: .861 Gunnar Henderson: .814 Some non Shortstops just for fun: Adam Jones: .711 Nick Markakis: .799