Yardball85

Fangraphs has Stewart at 0.4 WAR and McKenna at 0.00. Stewart looks silly out there sometimes, but he is a much better offensive player than McKenna.

Agreed. We all love Mancini, and he's the man, but baseball-wise, he's an .775-.825 OPS guy with poor defense, no speed, and no real position. And he has one year remaining before he hits free agency. Hate to say it, but his skill set is kind of a dime a dozen in MLB.

In the case of Stewart, though, I disagree that a random guy from the farm could do as well as him.

Good points on both Lowther and Kremer. I really hope Kremer can turn it around.

and he got rocked. The Kremer situation this year is extremely concerning, not just for him, but from a standpoint of players falling off a cliff with this team (see also Zac Lowther)

well, that's from 2007. That being said, I do not give any Angelos a single benefit of the doubt for not meddling and screwing things up.

Yup, great to see. He has been one of my favorite players since 2019. At the end of the day, I would still trade him, but he obviously needs to perform well for it to be worthwhile to deal him.

It was horrible defensively with Franco playing everyday. May as well see what that group can do with the bats.

Mateo is one of the guys I am most excited to see for the rest of the season. As I said in another thread, an infield of Jones, Mateo, Urias (and hopefully Bannon) will be one of the (very) few reasons to watch the team in September.

I'm not. He really isn't that good. Though it is pretty sad, for him, that he was optioned on a team that is awful with no real option at SS. Not a good sign for Richie.

Same.

Exactly. He should've been recalled a while ago with a Franco DFA, but better now than in mid-September. I guess the O's are now okay with his defense.

Well, considering he was willing to trade Mountcastle for a bag of balls, I think his write up on Jones will be must read message board content.

Lol. I knew he was never as good as a .900 + OPS, but if he could OPS in the mid .700s and at least show some capabilities with the glove, he could be a factor next season. Nothing to lose by trying.

This is where I'm at. Play him in regular season games and see what you got going into the offseason. I would like to see Urias at third, Mateo at short, and Jones at second at least 5 times a week. Got to evaluate these guys.

This. Thanks RZNJ. Re Yaz: Hindsight is 20/20. But I, like most, did not have a problem getting rid of a 27-28 year old AAAA player. It happens.

True, however Franco is an established vet on a one year deal. The other players who have struggled are for the most part still young and controllable.

* OPS is .778. And he probably has a better chance of being a long term solution here than Richie Martin, for instance.

Really? He as the Angels 7th best prospect when we got him. He is currently the Orioles 18th best prospect. Overall, he has had a solid but unspectacular season and his OPS now is around .750. He's young, cheap, and under team control for a while. It really isn't that hard to understand why he should get a look.

I agree, and would love being pleasantly surprised. Offseasons are always just such a place of misery when other teams do things to improve, and the Orioles spend all their time preparing for the Rule V draft. As they do pretty much every year.

I would certainly be interested in taking a look. However, I have seen no indication whatsoever that the Orioles will be targeting any "real' free agents this offseason. I'd expect 2-3 more LeBlancs/Harveys/Millones. It's just what they like doing. It sucks and I disagree with it but it is what it is.

I'm constantly amazed that Franco not only has not been DFA'ed, but is still getting regular at bats. Thank him for his time, wish him well, and send him on his way.

Sure, but we need to see if he is a capable major leaguer. Give him some time. It's not like we'll lose more games with him playing.