Aglets

This has been pointed out before but just to restate things for perspective. Our top 5 starters last year by WAR: Kremer - 2.8 Voth - 1.8 Wells - 1.2 Lyles - 1.0 Bradish - 0.4 For comparison's sake Irvin last year had 2.1 WAR and also btw threw more innings than any of our guys. Now you can say that that means guys like Kremer and Voth have a lot more upside if they can push to 180 innings (Voth almost certainly will not; his total of 101.2 last year was a career high) but i would counter that we have no idea how their arms will perform with that kind of workload yet. Obviously having a workhorse like Irvin (only 23 guys threw more innings than him in all of MLB) should help make our bullpen better too. I think this is a pretty solid trade. Not over the moon exciting, but i think our rotation may surprise a lot of people next year, assuming everyone gets / stays healthy. Which almost certainly won't happen.

The Angelos's are involved in TWO major pieces of ongoing litigation related to the Orioles. I'm sure they don't want to talk about it with the press, and I'm sure John knows that if he tries to talk to the press he is gonna be asked about MASN stuff or how dysfunctional the relationship is with his brother/mother. I don't blame him for ducking that. But yeah I think the way he treated Connolly was pretty abysmal. I think he told some pretty bold faced lies. No need for that. Looking forward to the Baltimore sports media getting full access to all of the team's financials next week!

On Roch's blog today he said there will be a press conference involving the mayor and John Angelos later today. Presumably the lease will be a topic.

OK guys are you ready? It's time for......... BOLD PREDICTIONS. I boldly predict that the O's will exchange figures with some of those players on Jan 13th. Then I predict that Elias will be asked about arbitration negotiations in the media. His response will be "We are a file and go team." No more negotiations. And finally...... Elias will continue to negotiate and reach agreement with all or nearly all of them without going to a hearing. It's the circle of life................and it moves us all.

We have Frazier! We have liftoff!

It's all about the EVs baby. And no I'm not talking about Teslas.

So he was 29 in 2022 and put up 3 WAR at the age of 9!!??!?! Dude I am ALL IN here. Let's do it O's.

If you make a list of the top players in the Orioles minor league organization..........and person X accuses you of 'forgetting' Druw Jones.............. that is not a fair criticism. You would simply correct that person about their mistake, right? Then hopefully everyone would just let it go and go on their merry way.

You are certainly welcome to think whatever you want of O's prospects and what level they 'should' be at. The fact is that Handley is currently not at AAA at the moment so that is the most logical explanation for why Roch didn't bring him up before. Saying he 'forgot about him' is unfair.

Ah ok. I think after looking at it again that is probably correct.

Is the "finalist" there a FA player or a team?

Ooooh what if Machado opts out after 2023. Anyone in the mood for a grand homecoming? Yeah I don't see it happening.

Maybe Bogaerts will get better as he gets to age 40.

Rosenthal reporting that Quintana just took a 2 year deal with the Mets.

Looking forward to hearing the reports showcased tomorrow. "Did we sign anyone yet?" Nope. "Who is still available?" list of names. "Who will we sign?" Hard to say.

Well good. Because by the time the season starts he will be 36.

He started about 100 games across various levels in 2022. Ending up at AA. Out of those 100 starts only 2 of them were NOT at 3B or DH. So if he isn't a 3B they aren't apparently in a hurry to try him anywhere else.

With Gunnar already on the team, and with Ortiz and Westburg close behind, where do you think Mayo is most likely to fit onto the eventual roster? Are we likely to package one of these guys in a trade in your opinion?

Adley is 100% a natural born leader. Not something I am losing much sleep over.

What do you have against a 4 WAR player (3.8 acc to bb ref this year) playing with us for another few years? He is ARB-1 for 2023, so he won't be too crazy expensive. He is 28 so I can see an argument for not giving him a big extension for sure. He had a crazy good 2021. Sure that was maybe his peak.....but maybe he can get closer to that in 2023? Seems to me the discussion about moving him should only happen if we have another CF prospect beating down the door or if we are seriously concerned about his current cost skyrocketing (not likely to happen until 24-25).

I'm guessing anyone who is about to command a decent sized paycheck.

Pretty good read here in the Sun about how the Astros are still reaping the benefits of Elias's time there. https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-astros-world-series-mike-elias-roster-orioles-20221028-667wvxykvbdd7avqwtxwqfrbqi-story.html Didn't realize that he was responsible for drafting Pena as well. To be fair, good on the new Astros front office for not screwing up the foundation that Elias helped build.

I don't have any doubt that Ortiz COULD be as good as A Rod. I mean......it may not happen at all. But i don't doubt that there is some probability he can be on that level.

I'm sure whatever ends the front office pursues to shore up the rotation will justify the Means.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and make a prediction about the book. On the teams where he won a lot, Maddon is going to say that he was making most of the big decisions and deserves much of the credit along with the players. On the teams where he didn't win as much, he is going to say that the front office was restricting his decision making too much and the FO deserves most of the blame.