LookinUp

Well, if you pick the right start/end date, they were the winningest team in baseball over like a 4 year period. Still, all I'm saying is that success moderated the negativity. I'm certainly not here to defend PAs ownership.

Whether he was lucky or good, JA's complete rebuild has set this team up fabulously. I know some wanted spending sooner, and just more in general, but it's inarguable that the new ownership is inheriting a near-perfect situation. He has payroll flexibility, player assets, systems in place throughout the minors, a well-functioning international program and a team coming off a 101 win season. John Angelos deserves a ton of credit for that, even if Elias is the person who led the way.

The Buck Showalter years definitely moderated the negativity around his ownership. It was really bad going into those years.

1. He didn't know he was going #1 overall. He likely negotiated that pre-draft from his perceived bargaining position. 2. Yes, he can still win the ROY award. Now if the O's keep him down for a significant amount of time, that would change.

Lol. Isn't this what you're doing?

You're reading it as he's open to an extension, which is why you think it's a positive. I'm not reading it that way at all. I see a guy who understands what happened probably happened because he didn't have an extension, and he's fine with that. We have no idea how new ownership will handle things, but I'd be much more positive about the likelihood of Holliday signing an extension if he was on the opening day roster. At least then I could make up tea leaves that they've had preliminary talks that give the O's some comfort. But he's not, so I read it as he's not indicating a willingness to re-sign anytime soon. And all of that is speculation.

This board can be such a wet blanket. If I have a nit to pick with the OP, it's the thread title. It should have been something like "O's get new ownership today, it's a great day to be an O's fan" or something like that. This is a day we've been waiting on for 2 decades. I'm actually a big fan of what John Angelos did here, but his way will only work during a rebuild. Today should be a joyous day. There's nothing wrong with rejoicing.

I 100% disagree with this point. If they asked me about Jackson Holliday being up, I'd probably say exactly what Matt Holliday said. If he was already signed, he'd probably be up, but he isn't, so he's not. Just because Matt is the source doesn't mean there's a hidden meaning that he wants to extend. It's just an objective assessment of the system baseball has in place. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I've seen people predict that Elias gets the President title and she gets the GM title. Honestly, I think Elias has built a juggernaut front office just like he has young talent. The top 3 are well known, but I bet they'll be fine if one or two of the top 3 leave. That said, I obviously hope Elias remains here for a long time to steer the ship.

Matt Holliday is a savvy former player. He chose his words carefully. He's not being disingenuous. You're just reading into his words what you want them to mean.

Maryland high schools have been playing already. The weather sucks, but it's better than not having baseball.

The only issue I have with the OP is it implies that we don't already acknowledge her. Maybe we don't enough, but she gets a lot of notoriety amongst the nerdiest Orioles fans. She's a really impressive interview for sure, and seemingly quite important in the front office.

By the way, I meant to link to @justD post about Michael Forret...

Well, 2 years with a player opt-out after 1 isn't a 1 year deal. It puts the team on the hook for $20+ million in a year that could theoretically be missed with injury. That's a real risk for a #3 starter. I do love the idea of him in our rotation though. Burnes, Montgomery, Rodriguez, Means, Bradish allows us to spread out the righties/lefties, move all of Kremer, Wells and Irvin to the pen, etc. Assumes perfect health, but that's a hell of a plan.

@justD gave us a new person to be interested in through the Amateur forum. Thanks! As for Basallo, I'm expecting that everyone will be mad that Silas Ardoin makes the opening day roster next year instead of him. He's the next Holliday/Mayo in terms of timetable, IMO.

It's not that we won't do any extensions, it's that we won't be able to do them all and Boras's clients are the least likely to get them, IMO. So you extend the clock. I hate it, but I get the business side of it.

If we were just talking about Holliday, I'd agree. However, he comes after Adley, Gunnar, Rodriguez and Bradish. Following him are Mayo, Basallo and lord knows who else. Long story short, they're not going to be able to pay all of these guys to stick around even if they have a large influx of money. I personally think what we're seeing is this org extending the competitive window as much as possible knowing that they won't be able to do it by paying guys big extensions.

I hate this decision. That said, I suspect Sig's sexy models say an extra year of Holliday and Mayo in 2030 (or whatever year it is) is more valuable than the #34 draft pick in the 2025 draft. Unless this really is just a gaming of the roster for the first series of the year versus LHPs. I doubt that though. I do wonder if this is also an indication that the O's have approached either of these two in particular about extensions and not finding common ground.

I just don't understand any other possibility. Urias is the elephant in the room. O'Hearn is LH. Mateo has speed and can play outfield.

Yeah, I should have been more clear. I don't equate McKenna and Urias in terms of value on a sheet of paper. However, for this team, I'd argue their place on the team provides negative value on paper when considering the people they'd be keeping from the team.

I know he's not a DFA guy, but he's a guy that I'd be motivated to trade. Someone would make a deal. You're not getting premium value, so it shouldn't be hard to agree on a profile of a guy and make a trade.

It just feels to me like this board is giving Urias much more credit than he's worth. I like the guy, but he's not far above McKenna in my personal book. He's a useful non-scrub. I don't see any reason to keep him over a guy who is ready and seriously profiles as a future stud.

Josh Beckett in 2007 is the type of guy you dream on. His career was just good overall, but he was a dog in the playoffs for that team that won the World Series.

He was much better than I expected last year. I know it was a small sample size, but a really low WHIP, also a really low K rate. I'm sure the numbers were about to normalize.

I think this is a good point. I'm asking for a comparison between a just turned 20 #1 prospect in baseball, not a #20-40 level prospect. I'm sure people who say "always take the hitter" are referring to similarly tiered prospects. I still think I'd go with Skenes and accept that he'll pitch 1/5 days and miss 2 of 6 years due to injury. I just love that he'll likely be a workhorse starter who helps the bullpen and needs fewer runs/less defense behind him to be successful, and then you have him for the playoffs too, in theory.