oriole

He has put the team in a ridiculously good position and he is still a young man with plenty of future endeavors to work towards. If he could be the one responsible for building a perennial winning team from a mix of ashes and nuclear waste then he would put himself in a good position to take almost any job he wanted with MLB clubs. All that to say that I imagine he’d want to see this through a bit and not jump ship over some non baseball related drama. But maybe that’s hopeful thinking

I’m generally a pessimist in every faucet of life so don’t let my words speak for the whole board lol

100% no matter what happens the rest of the year, it’s been an amazing season. All the teams in the wild card hunt right now just seem to be playing pretty decent right now and we’re still over here throwing Odor out there every night. I know I sounded pessimistic, but really I’m not. A late addition of Rodriguez or Wells could be big and Henderson will presumably be a positive. But all the other teams look pretty damn good right now so it’s hard not to feel like an uphill battle feels insurmountable at times

Right? It doesn’t seem like rocket science but somehow Hyde puts out a less than ideal lineup almost every night. I feel bad saying this but the Henderson move seems like too little, too late at this point in the season. It’s been a great ride and overall, it should go without saying, it has been a wildly successful season…but unless they absolutely catch fire, it’s looking highly unlikely they can make up even three games.

It’s getting there! Now switch Urias and Stowers in the lineup, sub Henderson for Urias, but then sub Urias for Odor and finally we’ve got a lineup full of potential

I think most teams would do that deal in a heartbeat which means he is likely to get more. I think both get 3 years, minimum. Maybe even 4.

I’d be very happy with a rotation like this. Kremer, Bradish, Voth as depth. Eventually get Means back and have a good problem to sort out. Though, I imagine both Hall and Wells will still have an innings limit, nothing crazy but I doubt they’ll be going to 180 innings or anything…so a 6-man rotation at some points would play into Means’ return quite well. Assuming no injuries of course which is assuming a lot.

He’s hitting lefties pretty good this year. Would a Mullins/McKenna platoon really be that bad of a thing?

I’ve got a lot of traffic to drive through to get home this afternoon but today, I will do it with a smile on my face

The plan should be to secretly develop an artificially intelligent algorithm that we feed every move that Elias ever makes into so by the time he leaves, we can just introduce new data and it will spit out what Elias would do. Elias 2.0

Something I’d like to point out is that DJ Stewart is also killing it at AAA and DJ Stewart sucks. Maybe Stowers isn’t up because the organization can see flaws in his game and want him to get regular ABs to work on it before bringing him up to sit on the bench half the time? Not saying I think that’s the entire reason but just because he’s doing great at AAA doesn’t mean it’s going to translate. He may not even be able to pull off Mancini numbers like we all seem to be assuming.

Hmmm I’ll take one Syndergaard and one Clevinger off that list please

It’s gonna feel silly when he’s going through a rough stretch and he had just blown a couple saves in a row and we’re not all so confident he’s gonna be lights out. It’s cool when he’s doing well though

So obviously we gotta keep this going…whose the next #1? Holliday? Cowser? Povich?

I believe Santander will be around 2 more years and Mountcastle 4 more years? Seems obvious not to give up on Mountcastle yet and to sell high on Santander. It’s hard to watch Mountcastle play sometimes though and I wouldn’t necessarily be upset if both players were traded in the off-season.

It’d make sense that the trade deadline and all that came with it would get in his head. He can relax and just focus on hitting now and he’s getting results immediately it seems

I voted no. Elias has no intention of making any kind of decision based on whether or not the Orioles get a wild card. If they do, he’ll cheer them on but nothing he has done leads me to believe he wants to push for it. Hyde or Elias or whoever influences the lineup every day obviously has a thing for Odor and Henderson would push Urias to 2B, meaning Odor is on the bench. I can’t tell you why this is a thing, but it’s very clear they want Odor in the lineup. I voted no before I read Frobby’s post about the 40 man roster manipulation during the off-season and that cemented my suspicions that Henderson stays at AAA. I don’t necessarily think that means he won’t be on the OD roster, as ST will likely be what decides that but I think it’s valuable for Elias to have some open 40 man spots for waiver claims and protecting guys that need to added.

It’d be nice to have a power bat in there somewhere, Mountcastle is supposed to be that guy and he very well might be but the more I watch him, the less inclined I am think so. He is streaky though, so ask me again when he’s not an automatic out lol Mayo could be a good trade piece, he isn’t going to make it in a crowded OF or 3B farm system so his best bet is 1B or DH in this organization. That may be where he’ll end up anyways but it does limit his value to the Orioles a bit. It makes him expendable

This type of off-season would be a dream. I mean that it’s be amazing IMO but unlikely to happen. That is a very competitive team you’ve listed. I think if you remove the Rodon signing then it’s a lot more realistic though. Wells is still in the SP picture and Hall could still go either way. So I don’t think they’re going to handcuff themselves to too many expensive pieces. But a rotation of Manaea, Wells, Rodriguez, Means/Hall, and whoever Hays and Mountcastle are traded for is still a really good rotation. I think the trade Mountcastle and sign Bell is a bit too aggressive for how Elias has been working but I’d support it, assuming Bell doesn’t cost something dumb which he might.

Out of all the current OF options, I feel like Mullins is the guy to keep. I’m not sure that the Marlins would have much interest in Hays though. I also don’t know when they view their targeted window of contention, so the timeline might not make much sense. But if they’re offered something along the lines of Hays and Cowser, they might do it. It’d be a short term and long term CF fix for them. But then again, it’s only 2 years of Lopez so I doubt Elias trades any decent prospect right now.

I used to think signing a solid FA SS was the way to go to anchor the team but after this year and the emergence of Mateo, Henderson and Westburg pushing themselves into the mix, and then Holliday being drafted…I just don’t see it anymore. I think your idea of sign an arm and trade for arm makes sense too. Manaea is who I hope they get. I think a left handed pitcher is really important due to the new wall and Hall is basically all there is until Means comes back and Hall is still a big question mark whether he’s even a rotation piece or bullpen. I have my doubts they go for Manaea though unfortunately, probably too expensive. I could see them going down a couple tier and looking at Boyd, Perez, or Quintana but honestly, at that point those signings wouldn’t excite me much because they could all easily regress to their career norms. Those are all LHP though and there’s plenty of other guys who throw right handed that would be good options. Trading is harder to predict but if Lopez or Urquidy are still available then one of those guys would be a good target. I really don’t know what it’d take to get them though and I don’t think Elias will be trading any prospects any time soon.

I think Vavra ends up as an offensive minded utility piece, Ortiz is a defensive minded utility piece, at least one of Mullins, Hays, and Mountcastle sticks around…if not all three. 2B could be any current infield prospect not named Henderson. I could even see Mateo sticking around.

Why exactly is 110-51 off the table??!

I agree, everything you posted is good news and way better than hearing nothing, for both fans and the players. After Halls last couple starts, I’ve sort of counted him out of any 2022 plans. He seems to have lost momentum and only about 30 innings away from being shut down anyways.

I don’t like a lot of his moves lately, but I do think Elias will eventually have a good team put together. I’m sure the players appreciated the visit but probably rolled their eyes the minute he left the room. He traded their team leader and all star closer for guys that might be helpful after most the guys in the locker room will be gone. But either way, I like that he went down there personally to help alleviate any notion that he doesn’t expect them to be competitive. Not sure what the point of calling DL Hall was except to publicly let everyone know that he personally called Hall to tell him please stop being terrible. But you know, it’s better than nothing lol The “signing someone” comments will be sure to make some pretty wild threads here this winter. I’d love to hear him expand on that thought because I have a hard time believing that means the O’s will be active with any top free agents.