[Holliday called up!]

Did they find the guy from the FO that was up on the grassy knoll yet? 

[Holliday called up!]

25 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Free agent deals are.  Arbitration deals aren't.

Guy from the Giants got cut this spring.

If Kemp is cut and get's picked up by another team, are the Orioles on the hook for any portion of his salary? 

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, spleen1015 said:

BUT if they TIE!!

Then the other 29 teams file a grievance with MLB. 

[Holliday called up!]

6 minutes ago, spleen1015 said:

When Holliday and Cowser finish 1-2 in the ROY, do we get 2 draft picks?

Pretty sure its just for the ROY, not runner up.  

[Holliday called up!]

12 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Maybe.  @Sports Guy's post about avoiding Super 2 might make some sense.

But to your point, they couldn't really bring up another player if Westburg is hurt.  I mean, they could, but they'd have a real, real hard time explaining it to Holliday, his dad and the fanbase.  

If Matt Holliday wasn't pissed before (I disagreed with SG, I didn't think he was that upset), that would be sure to piss him off and rightly so.  They couldn't call up someone else with JH raking in AAA and make some lame excuse as to why they didn't call up JH with a straight face.

Do you seriously think Matt Holliday feelings (I agree I read nothing into his comments) factor into their decision making? I don’t.  And BTW, I bet Norby and Stowers’ pops are equally if not more perturbed lol.  

I think the whole things is so completely simple that it’s hard to comprehend. 
 

They waited until the absolute last minute to get him AAA experience.  It’s not about the sample size, it’s about the hard date.   Bringing him up to start the season would have been the easy thing to do.  They made a hard (non-emotional) decision to keep him down until the absolute last minute they had to. They took flack from all kinds of people, they could have put him on opening day roster easily, and avoided that, but thought that was the optimal path.   The kid is good and has  a very legit chance at ROY.  
 

 

[Holliday called up!]

6 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Probably true.  But hoisting up a long rambling quote from Elias as proof that it wasn't about service time when no GM would ever mention service time isn't winning that argument.

Getting back towards the conspiracy theories from last night, I'm wondering if Westburg is hurt or something.

 

If someone were hurt and they are gaming his service time, they bring up someone else. 

[Holliday called up!]

What number are they gonna give him? I’m guessing 1.  

[Holliday called up!]

No fun video of his call up meeting like Gunnar and Adley?  

[Holliday called up!]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I know.  I just wanted an excuse to post it, since it was in his final MiL game.  Not a bad throw from that position, either.  

He made a pretty tough play look easy.  That’s the first time I’ve noticed some getty up on one of his throws.  

[Holliday called up!]

 

 

[Holliday called up!]

4 minutes ago, Philip said:

 

SS Gunnar, C Adley, RF Santander, 1B Mountcastle, DH O'Hearn, CF Mullins, LF Cowser, 3B Westburg, 2B Holliday

thats a world winning lineup.

Starting to look like those dream lineups that have been posted the last couple years.  
 

Just missing the Mayo for extra flavor.  
 

First time 3 #1 prospects have been in same lineup? 

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

Well I don't think anyone is calling for Elias' head for signing Kemp, but I do think it's entire fine to discuss the merits or maybe more precisely, the need for the move. I agree with you that losing $280K ish of money is no big deal, but it just seemed entirely unnecessary if they had planned to bring Holliday up this early.  

Completely agree.  The Kemp signing was super odd.
 

 I do think they had this date on the calendar entire time, though.  

[Holliday called up!]

6 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Well when the reasons he was sent down for a few weeks don’t seem to make sense in the first place, I dunno.  They said he needs to work on hitting lefties better and he got 12 PAs against them. That doesn’t seem to be a lot to improve upon. 
 

 

Him coming up with 142 PAs in AAA is unprecedented for this Org.  He only had 91 coming into the season.  I think the additional 51 just made the FO sleep a little better going against what they’ve stated as important to them (mastering each level especially AAA).  

Last year in AAA he was .267 / .396 / .400

Decent, but not exactly mastering the competition.  He blew that out of the water this year.  

[Holliday called up!]

13 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Good Lord man. TAKE A DEEP BREATH and don't think you have to personally go on crusade to defend Elias IN EVERYTHING HE DOES. Signing Kemp was dumb. It was unnecessary. They had Maton and for the little bit they used Kemp they could have used Maton. 

Now who cares if they spend $300k ish more than major league minimum, it's was a dumb unnecessary move that made little sense when it happened. 

The fact that it appears that Holliday is not going to be down for any length, and signing Kemp makes even less sense. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. 

I agree it was a head scratcher and said as much.  Again I wouldn’t have done it.  But folks made a big deal out of a very minor move like it was a life or death situation.  It means absolutely zero in the long run.  I get we all need things to talk about, but the random 1 week Tony kemp signing got a lot of play. 

[Holliday called up!]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Yes, those 12 extra PAs certainly developed him into the major league ready players he wasn't out of spring training. If you are going to be unreasonable, I'm going to keep calling you out. You are way too smart for any of these takes. 

Elias can make mistakes. I love him, think he's fantastic overall, but when crap don't make sense, I'm going to say it doesn't make sense and not just try and agree with everything he does. 

 

I’m not saying it’s what I’d do, I’m trying to explain his thought process.  Seem to make perfect sense to me.  Not how’d I’d do it, but also it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  I wanted him up day 1 and thought he would be and was pretty vocal about it. 

[Holliday called up!]

4 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

Couldn’t they have signed him to a minor league contract and been free to cut him at any point?

Would seem to make more sense for a guy who you intend to have on the team for a month or less. 

Ideally, but it takes two to tango. 

[Holliday called up!]

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5jueqYO509/?igsh=MWRhOGJnbjQya2x3cA==

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, ChuckS said:

We all asked the same question when he was signed.

I don’t recall anyone providing a rational answer. 

You are aware that 1 million is 260K over league minimum? 

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, waroriole said:

But what is gained by doing that instead of putting him on the OD roster? With an extra 10 games, it’s more likely he wins ROY. 

Development & reps.  He’s had 51 PAs….in comparison Gunnar has had 39.   He likely wouldn’t have started every game and would have only had like 25-30 by now.  He got time to work at 2B.  He avoided some of the more challenging lefties in MLB.  

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, waroriole said:

Does 10 ABs against LHP altering their thinking jibe?

Yes.  They are incredibly methodical and they waited until the absolute last minute they could.  They maxed out their available time down to the final AB & inning on D. 

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, ChuckS said:

It will probably take an injury for a few of the guys in triple A to get a chance any time soon.

It’s part of the equation among other things. 

But they decided to go with their most valuable asset and blow his service time at the very last minute, going against their set plans when they could of brought up, say, Norby(who has 700 PA in AAA and is on fire)? 

[Holliday called up!]

6 minutes ago, Morgan423 said:

Unless someone actually is going on the IL and there's no need to drop a player. 

So…all along they were planning to game his service time and an injury popped up (the day before full year service time date) and they changed their minds/plans at the very last minute?  

[Holliday called up!]

Just now, ChuckS said:

We’ll find out tomorrow. I’d bet on an injury to someone. 

So a random injury would cause them to deviate from their original set plans?  Doesn’t seem to jibe with how they operate.  

[Holliday called up!]

2 minutes ago, Philip said:

Psssst…….it was a joke

My bad.  Some wild takes going on in this thread.  

[Holliday called up!]

1 minute ago, eddie83 said:

Signing Kemp for 10 days makes no sense unless somehow his deal was a split deal. Unless it’s an injury. 

Why? He makes a tad over  league minimum.  Seems like it makes perfect sense.  They likely knew that was the plan/date all along.  Strange thing is why not just stick with Wong.