oriole

Yes, I am very aware I’m getting ahead of myself! I have been surprised by some performances so far though and it’s not out of the realm of possibility, especially if the pitching stays average and then guys like Mullins and Mancini start hitting like we hoped for…plus potential additions of Rutschman and others. I actually agree with this sentiment. The guys I listed are not long term options and if we’re lucky enough to see them playing well enough to pull the team out of obscurity then we could get a real option for middle infield or some pitching depth. But it will be an extremely tough sell, not only to the fan base, but to the league as a whole when it’s a very unpopular approach lately to tank.

I don’t want to start a new thread in case this is a dumb question or it’s already been talked about and I missed it…but what is Elias supposed to do if the O’s are playing around .500 or even slightly better by the trade deadline? Obviously, in context of how horrible they’ve been and were expected to be this year….500 isn’t too shabby and pretty damn close to exciting as sad as that sounds. Assuming players like Mullins, Santander, Mancini, Lyles, Lopez (guys that aren’t expected to be around for the hopeful winning years) are all contributing…how can Elias possibly take the PR hit by trading them but how can he possibly keep them (especially the outfielders) when there’s other players that are ready to come up to replace them? If Lopez is a dominant-ish closer, you gotta sell high and see what you can get obviously. Same goes for the other guys I listed. But that’s going to really sting if the team overall is doing better than expected and there’s a fan base that is hungry for baseball that’s not awful. Anyways, just something I was thinking about driving around today. If we’re lucky, this will be a good problem to have. I’m still hesitant to get too excited about the team though.

I don’t like Odor I don’t like Cano So if they switch one for the other, it doesn’t matter a whole lot to me. I’d rather see a young guy hit below a .600 OPS than a tired veteran. But if it’s Odor out and Cano in, would that make any difference whatsoever?

Just curious, did anyone really think Urias was a solution? It always seemed like he was a stop gap and has proven himself a very useful one thus far. If he reversed course, why should any of us be surprised?

It’s not exactly a surprise so it makes it hurt less but it still sucks. Maybe the only good that could come from it is that we can be sure that Means will be around for the playoff push next year?

I think there’s still a chance he has a decent MLB career, but it won’t be in Baltimore. I bet he is claimed. I also have no issue with that because I don’t wanna see him try to gain traction at this level while blocking other OF that I would much rather see.

Santander will get injured at some point Hays will get injured at some point Santander will possibly be traded Mullins may be back to his old self Not sure why were talking about Mancini, he is a backup OF/DH so he wouldn’t take away at bats from Stowers Stowers will get his shot for sure

Can’t even be mad. Cortes looked good

Isn’t that everyone on the roster except maybe 4 or 5 guys?

I’d have rather seen Kevin Smith give up the runs. At least then we could chalk it up to a learning experience for him and still have hope for the next outing. Lakins is grade A terrible and we all knew it before he was even put on the roster.

You’re using players that aren’t on the team as evidence that Elias is not tanking? I get that a lot of those players will be up sometime this year but the fact that they’re not up yet despite being ready while also giving playing time to terrible players that have no business on a major league roster seems like evidence to the contrary. And then you mention Lyles…like Elias couldn’t have spent that money on players that would actually help win games rather than just eat innings. I’m just not really following your logic as to how any of this points to Elias not actively trying to lose games. It’s obvious we’re still watching a bottom dweller by design.

How can you possibly think that? Watkins last night? Odor? Trading BP arms when not necessary? He is definitely all in on tanking this year.

Bye

I got crazy and my vote is 71 wins. As negative as I feel about the team, I really want to be an optimist. So I’ll choose to be optimistic and say everything goes well this year and they have a major improvement. Here’s some things I think that could go right… Mancini has a really good year here before getting traded Rutschman comes out the gate a good and contributing player Gutierrez plays similar to how he ended 2021 Mateo proves himself to be an everyday SS At least two of the group of starting pitchers that we’ve been watching crap the bed the last few years turn a corner and play like mid-rotation guys

For as much as there should be a salary floor, there should also be a salary cap. It’s annoying that everyone loves to hate on the clubs doing the tanking but never comment on why a club would tank in the first place. Not saying it’s right, but it’s become a necessity for a lot of teams.

Considering he’s always an injury risk they might be keeping him out while orchestrating a trade

Weird. What exactly is the point of an option that has almost no chance of being exercised by both parties anyways?

150 innings would have led the club last year. If he can match his 180 innings from last year then he far out performs any other pitcher. He is being paid a premium for this reason only. The conspiracy theorist in me still thinks it was to save face going into the lockout but there’s no way to ever prove that.

I love the idea of getting an established player in the infield and letting Henderson, Westburg, Mayo or whoever else fight over the other two spots. It’s not like the system is overflowing with good infield prospects. Count me as one who hopes Correa opts out next offseason

Ummmm is it too early to hope for the Correa signing to actually happen?

To be fair, Chris Davis had a Spring OPS of 1.468 in 2020. Sometimes spring stats just don’t reflect the ability of the player.

I’ll start. He should have been traded during the 2021 season.

Woof. It’s gonna be another tough one but that’s by design. I think 70 wins is absolute best case scenario…certainly not impossible but if I was a betting man I’d say they’ll have a very similar record as last year. There literally haven’t been any improvements and Mullins is very unlikely to stay at his level of play. We may be lucky to see some better play through Mateo and maybe Gutierrez. I don’t expect to see Rutschman til after the All Star break at the earliest. That could potentially lead to wins and Elias doesn’t want that.

Isn’t trading Mancini a good thing? He’ll get to hopefully actually compete and we’ll get a couple 17 year old DR guys that we’ll never hear about again after the trade

If Rodriguez, Hall, Bradish, Smith, Baumann, Baulmer all pan out and Akin, Kremer, Lowther, Zimmermann, and Wells stop being so terrible then Elias won’t need to acquire anyone!