LookinUp

Yeah. I don't disagree at all. I distinguished between hope and expect in my post. Guys have career years. I absolutely think Santander can do that, or better, in a career year. He can really hit for power.

Off topic, but it feels like you haven't read what Tony wrote about Neustrom. He profiles as a platoon guy/pinch hitter at best. Might be a better fit in the NL if they don't have a DH.

I think it's reasonable to HOPE for an .850 OPS. He's a talented guy who is never healthy, so I don't expect anything close to that. This guy is the typical guy that traps a team into keeping him, only to trade him right before he blows up. If you told me in 5 years that he started hitting 30 hrs annually while maintaining a .260-.270 BA, I wouldn't be shocked. But how long do you wait?

Better than more corner outfielders.

It's certainly not ideal, but if I were him I'd just be targeting spring 2023 for the first time as a pro I've been in the best shape of my life. There are a million hitting drills he can do for ~ 6 months before that time where he'll be able to build his swing into something that he really wants for 2023. This is a setback. Not a sentence of failure.

You should bookmark this post, just in case. There's a non-zero chance this happens.

What's your point? Does that mean the O's are stupid? I just think that's about the laziest description of the O's that someone can make. I think it's much more reasonable to question their motivations as it relates to ownership. Calling the signing stupid is just lazy.

You don't understand their rationale. You assume they're stupid. Who's being stupid?

This thread is depressing, and it's not the posters that are depressing me. I'd rather the O's have a $19 million payroll than spend $7 million on a guy who just led the majors in HRs allowed. I can at least defend that strategy. This one, I just have to hope because "yeah, he sucks, but at least he can eat innings and protect our other pitchers" is a really thin defense of a guy.

This is all I'm saying. You can decide value between Hays, Santander, Mullins, Kjerstad, Stowers, Cowser, Henderson... and make the trades accordingly.

I still think that if we add expensive, it should be through the field. We draft better there. Take advantage of that and trade our drafted players for pitching. The premium on pitching through FA is crazy. My guess is the range of outcomes for this CBA is relatively narrow and will not present drastic change.

"Not so" fun projections.

What does still happen? International signings? Anything?

So I'm about to doze off last night and see the Rosenthal tweet. Come here and post the thread. Look at BBRef, see the age, ERA, etc. Go to bed and expect to see this exact post above. There had to be a rational for this signing because it wasn't apparent from his standard performance statistics. This is an underwhelming signing, for the money, to say the least. Hopefully he proves me/us wrong.

If they don't improve, I can't see Hyde staying. At some point guys need to perform. A lot of these guys have in the minors, and you can't replace the whole team, so the manager would seem to be the guy to go.

The challenge, of course, is we have no idea how this year will go. With that said, I'd expect the O's to target outfield signings and maybe a middle infielder while trading away outfield prospects and infield prospects for pitching. I'd much rather sign a mid-level hitting outfielder than a mid-level FA starter in terms of probability of getting my money's worth. I think the idea of targeting an Eovaldi or DeGrom just isn't realistic. We're more likely to make a Cleavinger deal like San Diego did previously.

That's a long list of people. Some will pop this year and be worth targeting. Some won't. I'm not convinced we spend either way for better or for worse. Free agent spending will never be the key to building a winner. Pitchers in particular will want to see guys having success here before signing here for anywhere near market price. I'm on board with Elias specifically because I think we can draft and develop enough talent to win and or to trade for the people we need to win. That's my focus. Not overinflated free agent prices.

Right. It's just a great development that we have a place (e.g., need) for a Dominican instructor.

The Dominican Academy guy now running low A? I kind of like that and what it might mean for promotions in our system. I am surprised that they let go of Anderson and (particularly) Jones. I thought he was on board with the new approach and I thought he had success. Also, Buck Britton seems destined to take the big league job at some point.

Tough crowd in this thread.

I think you didn't read the other article very carefully. This is at the end. It was a specific question that SM wanted to ask, not meant to represent the main thrust of any training program.

Yeah. I thought the command piece wasn't very good. [Edit: e.g., not very inciteful.]

If you look at Frobby's post, he shows the first of two articles was about command. The second was about velocity. So they actually did write about it. Now, whether you think either article is earth shattering in the least is up to you, but they do talk about command.