LookinUp

I just want to make sure my position on this is clear. I want Elias to get his Verlander. Burnes could be that guy. The price is totally fine with me. I'd have even paid more. The reason I hesitate is because it's for 1 year, which means he's not our Verlander unless/until we extend him. Let's say we lose him this year. Do we trade Tavera and McDermott for next year's Burnes? Even with our system, it's not a sustainable method of talent acquisition. The good news is I believe Elias thinks Burnes is his Verlander. I think he thinks Rubenstein will try to re-sign him. I believe there's a good chance we do. If that happens, I'm also over the moon. It's just that, right now, all we have to go on with Burnes is his comments last year.

I’m hopeful, but would prefer we signed Montgomery than get one year of Burnes for those two guys. Ortiz and Hall could have been great pieces for us too. Even this year, especially Hall in our pen. That said, if we resign Burnes, it’s a home run. As it stands though, we just put a lot of eggs into a one year basket in a sport littered with champions who got hot at the right time. If we’re doing this, I think we need another high leverage reliever now.

I love having his talent here, but I want him here for a long time. I get that everyone here sees it differently. It’s just a lot of risk for a one year contract.

I just don’t like it for one year of control. Pitcher is the riskiest position.

I might as well go on record that I don’t love this trade, unless we have a real chance to extend him. I do get it though.

Hard to say. Leonsis would have to pay the O's for broadcast rights. I'm sure the O's will make the best deal they can, whichever way that goes.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. I have a few points to make... 1. Journalism is dead or dying. If you're not at the top, you're struggling to get by. You need to get and keep a job. Roch did that. 2. Since it's a dying industry, it helps to have some kind of schtick. The streak was Roch's schtick. Not terribly important from a content perspective, but smart from an outsider's perspective. I'm sorry he ended it. 3. I don't get how people here spew hate at Angelos AND Roch. Roch was clearly not allowed to be an actual journalist. He did his job in light of how MASN has been run by the terribly thin-skinned Angelos family for years. I'm not saying Roch's a great reporter or a perfect human, but I do remember him from a long time ago. He has actual personality and can actually write and report. But he got stuck in a tough profession and a tougher organization. I don't hate him for that. He also seems like a good family man, which I respect. I hope he can thrive under better management. fin

He wants to televise the O’s, Nats, Wizards and Caps. He’ll add football programming if possible too.

I listened to him, but don't agree with his reasoning. I think he makes assumptions and jumps to uninformed conclusions. Doesn't mean he's not right, but he recorded that as news was breaking and without any reporting about owner's meetings next week. Personally, I wouldn't be shocked if things are pretty far along on this already and the agreement is approved by owners very quickly.

Adley, Gunnar, Holliday, Basallo, Mayo, Rodriguez, Bradish...and Elias. In a perfect world, even with rich owners, do we really think the O's will be able to extend them all? The Braves kind of did, but their future payrolls are really high. Not to mention the new talent acquired through trades or free agency. Two days ago I had no interest in Woodruff. One year deals aren't for me. Now I could see a Glasnow type of trade/sign deal. Suddenly there's more options than Cease, or we could do a Glasnow type of deal with him. For the first time in years, the O's will be open for real business. This will be fun.

I appreciate John Angelos for the rebuild and preparing this team for sale. I suspect his brother suing helped that process too. Either way, when this deal is final, the Orioles will be in the best position of my life.

This is beautiful. Comes with almost perfect timing.

I'm here for the poker talk. Well, I have to run to meetings, but I'm here in spirit.

Means is an interesting candidate. I was thinking one of the big two (Gunnar/Adley), but even Bradish and Grayson are interesting guys to consider.

Just going on the record here as saying I think you're wrong about this. We'll see.

I don't think there's any debate about whether the O's need to add one or more starters. They do. Elias has said he's looking for starters many times. He agrees that we can use more. The question is what he gives up in cash, draft picks and trade assets. That's what he's actively navigating now, not a binary question of whether we need a starter. That answer is yes.

I think the Rays are an amazing org, but they were crushed by injuries last year and that really hurts this season. They were still hard to beat, but I feel like this might be the year in between really good ones, where they "only" win like 88 games.

A couple of other things that Elias said in that long interview. 1. They view Hall as a starter. What they don't know yet is whether they plan to stretch him out in the spring or throughout the year. 2. He's deliberately quiet about player extensions because he wants their agents to know that what's said behind closed doors will stay there. That doesn't mean that we'll extend anyone, but it offers a sliver of hope for those of us who think there's a real chance they extend 1-2 guys this spring.

Put me in the category of stupid people who think we're extending Gunnar sometime in the next 8ish weeks.

Judging by the vote, we’re either homers or we’d prefer the lower risk of position players over pitchers. For me, it’s the latter and I think it colors my opinions over how much I’d give up for a 2-year pitcher.

That's 14 guys that I'm very excited about, and doesn't include about 5 more that I'm also very excited about. Such a deep system.

I'd argue Mullins boom/bust spread is about as big as anyone's on the team. If he can stay healthy for a full year, I can see him putting up one more monster year (e.g., well above 3.5 WAR). If not, you're looking at 1.5-2.5 WAR like this year, or even worse if his decline is precipitous. I don't necessarily buy the spring speed stuff. He clearly wasn't right for much of the year. I'm not saying that his speed isn't declining, but I don't think it is 100% declining as fast as it might look.

He's an amazing guy to follow either way. He'll be in Baltimore in September if he has another year like last.

Does this mean that the Orioles gain an extra year of control over Ortiz, Norby, Cowser and Kjerstad (and I assume Holliday too)? I know that's a frustrating consideration and it would probably not be well received by players, but the GM would have just extended the FV of this group another year. There are worse outcomes to fear, IMO.

I get what you're saying, but it's kind of like bragging on your 7th grader that already hit puberty and is dominating the other small kids. Alvarez definitely hit professional puberty. If Basallo turns out like him, we'll all be happy.