emmett16

Chris Davis at his best served the ball into the LF stands with ease. He stands out as a leftie that took advantage of the short porch. Looked like he was playing pepper with the fans out in LF.

That was my thinking…Westburg to AAA. But that isn’t how they’ve played the promotions during Elias’ tenure. Maybe things start to speed up just a little bit. Here’s to hoping. Bowie does seem like the ideal spot. He dominated in Cuba which is supposed to be on or with High A ball.

That would be incredibly exciting. I guess there is a chance. Perez said mid to upper minors. I know the org likes to give guys a taste of success before throwing them into the fire so it’s probably not likely, but would be awesome if it happened.

Sorry - wrong thread

@Tony-OH in general how do you think they work the players into the system. 24 players seems like a lot to accommodate. A few DSL players will graduate to to FCL and low minors and I imagine that a few DSL players get cut. Does adding 24 new players mean that 24 guys will be gone from last years DSL teams one way or another? Will the DSL teams carry a larger roster? Just curious on the mechanics of bringing the new guys in.

Powerful swing.

Yea. We did this in high school in the 90s. Heck back in the 60s, my high school’s HOF basketball coach (Morgan Wooten) implemented a similar strategy, when he ended Kareem Abdul-Jabbars 71 game HS winning streak, by making the forwards and centers play defense with tennis rackets the week before the game.

I was thinking the same thing. That part of the game will be gone and it made for a few awesome highlights a year.

My first ever seats at OPACY are being removed! Man, I loved those seats. I've been thinking they should do this for a while now. Has to be a positive signal to all the agents out there that the O's are ready to do business with pitchers.

I think this is his ticket. If does some more damage he’s going to get some freebies. If he can get better on the close pitchers and get walk totals to 60-70 we will have a heck of a player on our hands. That’s just 1 more walk per week in the grand scheme of things.

I agree. I think he makes modest incremental improvements each year. His confident approach, how he handles success, and how he handles failure really impress me. Makes me think he will not be satisfied until he gets every drop of of ability out of himself. He will be a lot of fun to watch mature over the next 3-4 years.

JD Martinez looks like a best case scenario comp. Lots of Ks not a lot of BBs. OBP is held up by his avg. & not a solid fielder. Martinez increased his power output as he matured. If Mountcastle limits Ks a bit, increases walks a bit, and hits 35+ HR I think he can flirt with .850- .900 OPS through his peak years.

Thanks. I did not realize that was the case.

Elias walked into a company that had a -6.5mm net profit the year prior to his hire and 100+mm lawsuit that will need to be paid up sometime in the near future. Then the pandemic hit.... Wouldn't call that an ATM. I have ZERO desire to watch a 75 win team. Would rather keep up with my fantasy team and continue to watch slow sustained improvement from the lower levels trickle up to the MLB team. I also believe they will spend when the time comes. That will be my last straw if they don't. I've hung on for a lifetime so far, but I'm not an eternal optimist. If they do not take advantage of the position they put themselves in over the next few years, my time as an Orioles fan will be up. But as stated before, the new regime has been a breath of fresh air. If the wool is being pulled over my eyes, I'll gladly admit I was fooled and move on. That's all for now. Time to go surfing

You continue to say lose on purpose. They are not going out and trying to lose. They are prioritizing building parts of the organization that had not been previously built. When I built my company from the ground up I prioritized very different things than I do now. I had to build out an office, had to build out computer systems, had to build out a website, had to hire dozens of people. I didn't go out and hire a professional PR firm in year one, didn't go out and hire 2-3 high-end architects to supplement my team, didn't have an HR department, didn't buy a fleet of vehicles, didn't bring out a social media team, etc. There is no way I could be doing the things I am doing now in years 1-5. Impossible. It's about resources, investments in future, man hours, buy-in, and quantifying metrics to make better decisions. Sure, I could have done those things, but I'd be bankrupt and would not have had sustained success. Same exact thing on a very smaller scale. It blows my mind that you can't wrap your head around these concepts.

People have brought up a variety of points that are completely valid that you don't agree with so you type as many words are possible and condescend people to try and win an argument. It has been stated by management and pointed out by posters that: 1. Priority #1 was a complete overhaul of the organization. They completely gutted personnel and began hiring dozens of new employees 2. Implementing strategies that start from the ground floor and work it's way up to MLB level. 3. Building out software and baseball tech throughout all of the minor league facilities and ST facilities. 4. Building a Baseball Academy in the Dominican Republic. Hiring personnel to build, implement, and recruit in-roads in international communities. 5. Building out a state-of-the-art analytics system, hiring people who can implement & translate those analytics in laymen's terms to the players. The orioles were an expansion team in 2018 due to years of neglect and being poorly managed. I've followed the orioles for 30 years now. It's a breath of fresh air that someone came in, stated their goals clearly and concisely, and has followed through verbatim. It was said in plain English that the MLB team would not be the priority for a few years and it would be a long methodical process. For the first time in as long as I can remember there are positive articles coming out by non-orioles media about the progress being made, players in our system, and the bright future on the horizon. Everything we hear from players, team reps, and coaches is that everyone is on the same page, with same goals, and with a clear focus on what each individual needs to do to make the collective better. It is a long slow process. MLB team is not winning yet, but for the first time in my lifetime the Orioles aren't a complete embarassment of an organization and have a very bright future. Hopefully you have enough patience to make it through these last couple rebuilding years and can enjoy the fruits of the labor. But, of course, any success they have after the rebuild will absolutely have nothing to do with the rebuild

So....after the rebuild if they become a successful organization, it will not be due to the rebuild? Got it. You're obviously very knowledgeable and I enjoy your posts and very much appreciate the time you put into most of them, but I hope you realize that you contradict yourself seemingly every day with the sheer amount of quick reactionary comments that you write.

1. Adley & Grayson come up early, perform at a high level and leave us savoring for more in 2023. 2. One 'major' surprise from the SP field that doesn't include (Grayson, Hall, Bradish) 3. Moutcastle taking the next step towards an .850 OPSer while playing a better 1b than 2021. 4. Stowers makes his debut and solidifies his positions as starting corner OF in 2023 with a solid showing. 5. Trade some redundancy at ML level to bolster the farm (Mancini & Santander) w/o the ML team missing a beat, perhaps improving via Stowers promotion and Mountcastle breakout. 6. Continued improvement on the farm from the top guys at the higher levels and "prospects to keep an eye out'' at the lower level. 7. An international invasion to Low A & high A from our DSL players. If all 7 happen, I will be a happy happy man & might renew my season tickets after a 3 year absence..... If top 4 happy I will consider the 2023 a success.

Going out on a slight limb, but pretty sure he'd be better than anything else we will throw out there this year. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd say chances are pretty solid he will outperform the Orioles 2-7 Starting Pitchers.

Greinke is a fit for the the O's. He's a SP and we have no SP and we have plenty of money to spend. And we need real players. Doesn't mean we would sign him. Of course I don't believe that.

Quite possibly the best post of 2021. Murray Christmas!

My back of the napkin math was a little off. I tied to bookend best and worse with 60-70% and went a little too high and not low enough (rays). I thought SP would be about 1.75x more important at but see I’m high on that, too. How’d you find SP vs. RP innings totals? I looked at a few good teams & bad teams on bbref and jotted down totals. Couldn’t find how to categorize by starting v relieving.

I’m going to go with Keegan Akin. I think he can go from pretty awful to serviceable.

I can’t imagine hitting now vs. these guys out there. The velocity and the stuff is unreal. Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in professional sports.

On good teams the SP’s are going to cover 800-900 ip or about 60-70% of all innings. Out of ~1400 total innings the bullpen is going to need to cover 500-600. I’d say the SP is just about twice as important as the BP, but there is a lot is W’s to be had in those 500-600 innings of work.