oriole

I expect another extremely barren off season at the major league level. I’d like to imagine at least one SP is signed...probably someone coming off a bad year hoping to turn it around who also exhausted all other options. I see absolutely no reason to go after any position players. We have plenty options. If Villar is traded then maybe some minor league deals for competition but I doubt any major league deals are handed out even in that scenario.

The jump from Delmarva to MLB is almost as big as it gets. I think he may go undrafted if left off.

I think it clearly Mancini. Especially with the way the AS game went for him and it’s also a comeback year for him. I’d be very surprised if it were anyone else. Though Means and Villar would be solid choices if chosen.

I agree...Ruiz is a good enough stopgap until either he proves himself or someone better comes along.

The whole damn starting pitching staff needs to go with the exception of Means. Just start fresh and hope that Cobb comes back decently. Maybe keep Bundy since he isn’t worth anything in a trade and he’d be hard to cut. Brooks, Wojo, and whatever other random awful players have been thrown out there just need to go.

He’s a fringe player on a competitive team but during a rebuild the home runs are nice. I’ll settle for his overall play while he’s cheap and the hope for more upside sticks around.

I always liked Gausman. It’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to claim him and see if he could rebound here.

I think Trumbo comes up to play DH for a few games before going back on the IL for the rest of the year.

I’m no advocating for it, I’m just saying if anyone loses at bats I think it will be Ruiz. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think Ruiz has an option remaining so he could even be sent down temporarily to give Trumbo a little farewell to baseball tour. Not that anyone cares. If it were up to me he’d be released the moment he’s ready to play. But then again so would Davis if it was my choice

I dunno, they won’t be taking at bats away from Núñez and we just saw him back in the field for a couple games. Ruiz could sit while Núñez plays third and Trumbo does DH.

After the Cashner trade, I have adjusted my expectations in trades. Elias will not be doing anything that’ll make us feel excitement right now. It’ll be filling in the cracks of the foundation of the farm system and be mostly nothing. I completely expect the two players from the Cashner trade to pan out to be absolutely nothing. But at the time we want the optics of an active Dominican outreach and we will see him filling in the gaps with other teams nobodies. Givens will not net a top 100 prospect and IMO its highly unlikely we even get a top 10 prospect from another team. Elias has primed me for disappointment in the name of forward progress.

He’d have been a nice pickup if there was anywhere to play him.

We value Mancini more than any other franchise. I highly doubt we even get a single top 100 prospect for him. I say keep him so we’ve got something to cheer for on the field during the lean years. That is worth more than a couple AAAA players IMO

He’s a placeholder til the Diaz/Hays/Stewart trio sort themselves out. I’m just glad it’s Smith and not Rickard.

Sounds like the consensus is Frazier is too much to give up for Bundy anyways, which makes sense. My thought on it is if we’re trading Bundy, let’s be smarter about it and trade for an area of need. Not a whole lot to be excited about in the near future at 3B, SS, or 2B. Maybe target someone who can play there? But anyways, I’d totally flip him to someone else if the Yankees gave him up.

Steve Wilkerson won’t be playing in the OF when the O’s are competitive again

I guess it’s all about perspective. In a straight up trade Frazier will likely be a better player. But where do you play him? Everyone can’t DH or play 1B. The OF of the future will already have at least one bad defender, it’s counter productive to make it two. He is just so far away from a fit with this team that I really can’t see why anyone would be for it unless the point is to immediately flip him somewhere else.

Completely off topic but me and my wife are in the midst of a Breaking Bad binge (we never watched past the first season) and there is a character by the name of Ted Beneke on the show that looks like Elias’ doppelgänger. My wife is annoyed at how much I mention it but it creeps me out.

I am surprised at how many are for it. We’ve already got plenty of young and defensively awful but promising offensively types. Mountcastle, Sisco, Nunez...I could probably include Smith and Stewart in there as well. Why would Frazier be a fit on this team?

No extension, no trade (assuming he isn’t worth much). Just let him be the star on a bad team and when competitive baseball and free agency approach you re-evaluate.

I see no reason why not...he can’t possibly be worse than whatever else we will see out there. I’m not saying to load up on declining veterans but you gotta put at least a little bit of effort in. Just a little?

Jones has always been a little more vocal about things than what is necessary but he seems like a good guy and always played hard. I haven’t a negative thing to say about him. Except he sounded like an idiot when he said “they don’t pay us to walk”. Oh yeah and every single time he swung at the down and away pitch, I said plenty of negative things then. Wait...then there was the time he refused a trade to stay on a sinking ship despite years of “all I wanna do is win”. Whatever, other than all those times...nothing negative to say about him.

Exactly my thoughts. Pitchers don’t use their hips, they use their arm!!! He could probably still pitch the day after surgery if they really needed him.

I understand what you’re saying and agree to a point. But I think Mancini is our man and I’d bet Cora picks him too.

Despite his setbacks I think Mancini is the face of the rebuild...not the future or piece of the next winning team but a nice player that does some stuff well despite not being all that great. I mean the face of the years of turmoil between the bookends or winning baseball. So anyways, my guess is Mancini.