oriole

Same, Baumann has come back down to earth since his solid start to the season and Irvin was doing well in AAA

Maybe he wasn’t allowed and this is what rebellion looks like.

Same, it seemed out of character from what I remember from him. It really is an asshole thing to have said, whether he was facing a bad team or not.

Baumann for Givens seems like a definite. I do wonder if anyone would claim Voth if he was designated. He hasn’t looked great this year but seems like the type of guy who could turn it around quick.

The idea of McKenna is great. Plays all OF positions, runs well, hits lefties….but he’s been hard to trust this year.

TB and ATL was certainly a good test. Prob on par with TOR and NYY. But this was supposed to be a team in regression that didn’t add anything of substance over the offseason, so when they come out the gate like they have, you’ll have to forgive me to want to see sustained success against the good competition before believing that Rutschman was enough to completely turn the entire team around.

I’m interpreting those exact words through the lens of what type of owner he has shown himself to be thus far. He never “opened the books” and he also made it clear that the team would spend when the time was right. This offseason was the time to start that, and even Elias’ comments made it seem like that was the plan. It doesn’t seem that far fetched to conclude that the goalposts moved between “lift off” statement and the beginning of the offseason. When I hear John say things like “work within the system you’re in” then I interpret that as a coy way of dodging the question altogether. Ive said all this before and will repeat, I am speculating. No one knows definitively what the plan is, not even Elias probably. But generally in life I think a persons reputation really frames the words they say. I’ll keep my opinion of him to myself because it’s against the rules so be insulting, but just keep in mind that this is how I interpret his words. Anyways, you’re right. He never said “we won’t extend Rutschman” but he did lay the groundwork for an excuse as to why it didn’t happen. Sure, the Rays and Guardians have extended players but they’re generally team friendly contracts. It’s too much to expect Rutschman to pull a Ramirez or Longoria and take less money because he likes the city or team or whatever.

3-0 or bust! For real though, I’d be real happy with 2-1, wouldn’t be too shocked or even crazy disappointed if they go 1-2, but 0-3 would be a harsh reality check. Between this series and NYY I think it’s finally a chance to measure up and see whether this hot start has been a mirage or not.

John Angelos is riding this gravy train til the appropriate time to sell. I have no doubt that there will always be an excuse why the Orioles can’t spend on free agents or extensions. He’s already basically ruled out a Rutschman extension, so the key is to win during the window that he’s here. Without a significant payroll increase we’ll be looking at a perennial wild card chaser…which is satisfactory considering where the team has been in recent history. I’d rather see this “dynasty” idea come into fruition but let’s face it, John is solely running the O’s to maximize profit, which is his right. He’s hired the right guy to do it and has already painted the organization as a bottom tier market when he compared the team to the Rays and Pirates. Luckily Elias is on board or I’d feel rather hopeless.

Since we’re in fantasy land I’ll take the guy on the Braves with the mustache and the legs.

This is all true. But the tax is a deference, not really a cap. The divide between the top teams and even just the average small market team is chasmic. It just doesn’t make sense to me to put all the blame on the owners of smaller market teams. Granted, the O’s could be spending a whole lot more than they are now and I wish they were. I don’t really believe the empty promises of future spending. So that’s obviously a huge issue as well. But how do you draw the line between appropriate spending (whether too little or too much) and having the whole system collapse? You can’t really force someone to spend money, and it’s anyone’s own prerogative to spend frivolously. Very difficult issue to address…I just don’t like when all the blame is put on the small market teams when it’s the system they’re working in that is the issue. Sure, there’s teams like the O’s that are abusing it a little and that’s frustrating. But overall there was never a chance that the O’s could compete in free agency with the behemoths of the league regardless of whether the rebuild type payrolls should be in the rear view or not.

Without someway of controlling what the rich teams too, it’s all kinda lose-lose. Either teams will strategically field bad teams for high draft picks or lower market teams will have to rely on luck to get valuable draft picks. The whole conversation is weird because everyone gets upset (rightfully) that teams intentionally lose but no one is terribly up in arms about the root problem which is inequality in the resources to add talent.

Awww looks like I got a warning once but no points. How’d you all get points? I gotta start getting nasty on here.

I gotta agree with you here. He doesn’t look like a top prospect. He’s still young and can definitely figure it out. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations but this is way out of the realm of just expecting too much. He’s not even replacement level. It’s too much to expect every prospect to pan out. But out of all the top prospects in this system, our only SP with a ceiling higher than mid-rotation is not the one I’d hoped to see fizzle out. You know they’re not gonna be spending on any decent free agents. And this team cannot be a true contender if the SP is going to be a balancing act between pedestrian and straight up bad.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but are there any weird rules with the SP being in the lineup? Do they lose the DH after Ohtani is done on the mound?

It’s hard to tell who is going to be able to make the jump from AAA to MLB. Stowers was hitting great at Norfolk and looks totally lost when I watch him in games. We sent Stewart down last year after he looked lost and hit over a .900 OPS at Norfolk. Diaz has been doing this dance for years now. I’m hoping Stowers doesn’t end up in the mold of Stewart and Diaz. I was excited about him

I’ll believe it when I see it. Right now, all I see is the greedy son of a very rich man lapping up all the liquidity he can get. More revenue for the O’s means more money in Johns pocket.

I was thinking about making a similar post but I’m terrible at organizing thoughts and data. Plus it’s not really worth a whole thread dedicated to this. But I am curious what anyone thinks of this exercise…. Obviously the O’s will be at a $70-$80 million payroll for the foreseeable future. Next year our current players will get their arbitration raises so for the sake of keeping things simple I’m going to use the number $75m. Also, I am referring to 2024 and beyond. Which of these two are the better course of action? First, keep the current team together and pay their raises and trade from the stockpile of near ready prospects for some SP from other teams to get us over the competitive edge. We’ll keep some of the lower minors guys like Holliday, Beavers, and Basallo to hopefully replenish the team when the current O’s leave. But for this exercise, I’m talking about trading just about anyone and everyone at AAA and AA for legit SP. Not rentals or comeback candidates. I mean like trading for both Cease and Bieber or something like that. Something that moves the needle a lot. Second, trade the arbitration guys who are blocking the prospects and play the prospects. So we’re trading Mullins, Hays, Mountcastle, Urias, Mateo, and Santander for prospects…really only Mullins would net anything particularly good…but really it’s about clearing payroll and space for the cheap young guys to play. Then that frees up a significant amount of payroll to go after really good free agents. For the sake of making a point, let’s say we sign Ohtani and Nola. But everyone else is basically major league minimum. So the obvious answer is neither. The right thing to do is a mix of the two approaches. I’m dealing in extremes here. But for the thought experiment, choose one. Just to see the lineups and rotation laid out, here is what I’m suggesting. Option A C Rutschman 1B Mountcastle 2B Urias SS Mateo 3B Henderson LF Hays CF Mullins RF Santander Rotation - Bieber, Cease, Rodriguez, Wells, Kremer/Bradish Expensive veterans and farm in the upper minors basically wiped out Option B C Rutschman 1B Kjerstad 2B Westburg SS Ortiz 3B Henderson LF Haskins CF Cowser RF Stowers Rotation - Ohtani, Nola, Rodriguez, Wells, Kremer/Bradish Expensive aces, longer competitive window but much less proven talent Also want to note, that the specific free agents and trades aren’t as important as the level of talent added

Mountcastle sucks. Can’t wait to have a different 1B on this team

Interesting! I’ve never read that quote from him before and while it’s encouraging, it’s a little perplexing because Elias seems very risk adverse. I’m not saying Rodriguez can’t throw 160 innings or so, he hasn’t thrown more than 103 in a season in his career and only like 75 or something last year. Ultimately, we’ll have to see how he does throughout the year. It’s not like his 5 ERA would be a detrimental loss at any point but he has the potential to be much better than that too.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario that Rodriguez is able to play into September and beyond. They’re going to need to cut his innings per start real low by mid-season. I think a better approach might me to put him in the bullpen once Means returns and let him finish the year there. That’s assuming no significant injuries to anyone of course…which is unlikely.

As long as John Angelos is pulling the strings, Adley will be a free agent as soon as he’s able. We should not kid ourselves. Enjoy him while he’s here.

They already have a right handed DH but for some reason they keep playing him at 1B

You know what I’m not surprised to see? Mountcastle not getting the job done. I can’t wait til there is a new 1B on this team. Bad luck or not

Montgomery or Giolito take Kremer out of the rotation. That’s enough for me at this point