jtschrei

I'm told patience is a good thing. I think we have to just let this train wreck play out. From the Orioles perspective, they need to put him in the lineup everyday. He needs to play even worse. Only then will he think about retirement /buyout. Believe it or not, it needs to get worse.

The gifs at the beginning of this thread are amazing. I will be totally upset if we don't take AR. He is a no-brainer. You are going to get value out of him. Don't make this harder than it is. There is way more risk for all the other guys. If it's Witt, I think I'll live. Anyone else, I'm off the Elias train.

The Orioles have real challenges. 1-- The team is really bad and the system needs alot of work. We're not going to compete for a playoff spot for at least 2 more years. 2-- Baseball attendance in general is down. 3-- The TV situation is bad. O's need their own station. Nats need their own station. 4-- The resurgence of Baltimore has been extraordinarily slow and just not happened in many places. It appears to be getting worse, not better. So... that's alot. It's hard to see the light. O's need to control what they can control -- focus on development of the team and fix the freakin' TV deal. No one can tell us the sky is falling like Rosenthal. I mean, I do think the Orioles have been poorly run for decades, so I get his frustration. But, I'm not ready to run for the hills just yet.

Did the Angelos family ever think of moving the Orioles to DC? Like, in retrospect, from a long-term financial perspective for the Angelos family, that might have been the smarter move that trying to essentially make the best deal possible to have your most important market taken from you. "No Lerner family, you can't move the Expos to DC because we are going to move the Orioles to DC first." I can't remember if that was ever a discussion. I know it sounds like blasphemy, but I wonder if I would be happier as an Orioles fan if the team was in DC?

The change up is a real weapon. Means has been great!

True. Don't suburban fans want to come to a place that's nice and fun? They don't want to see addicts on every corner panhandling and trash in the gutter. The city has to "come back" to get the suburban fans too. I wonder if the casino has hurt or helped attendance?

Agreed. If you don't look at paper, he looks like a major league-er. We'll see. I like what I saw last night.

I mean. As long as the city loses population, then attendance is going to stink no matter how good we are. There is no bigger fan of Baltimore than me. I grew up in the city. I cringe whenever I read posters talk about how dangerous it is around the ballpark. Don't get me wrong, I believe you always need to watch your back in Baltimore. I just think some it gets blown out of proportion. Anyway, bottom line. Until the city "comes back", then attendance will be poor. Hopefully Port Covington will help. There are signs of hope in the long-term outlook!

Agree with this. Orioles need to be cold-blooded right now. It might handicap Hyde in hist 1st year as a manager. It never looks good to lose tons of games as a GM, but this is the move. Swihart has some small upside. I would put in a claim and even trade international slot money for him. We'll see... I won't be too upset if lose Swihart though. The offensive numbers have not been good for years.

What is the solution? We know he's finished. I'm ready to hear solutions. 1-- Option 1. Team cuts Davis and pays him the remaining money on his contract. 2-- Option 2. Team approaches Davis about a buyout. The buyout looks like this $50M. Go away. 3-- Option 3. Team continues to put Davis out there and play him everyday in an attempt to shaming him into retirement or a better buyout situation. 4-- Option 4. Do nothing. Am I missing any? Here's what we don't know. Is Davis at all open to a buyout? If not, then I think the team has to keep running him out there. I don't think we can cut him and pay him $100M. That's not a viable option.

Chris Davis has like 25Ks in his last 50 ABs... and 2 hits! Wow. Just wow. He's got to be so ashamed of himself. Did he get his numbers and therefore his contract while using "the juice" ? Only he knows. If he did, then he needs to retire and give us half that money back at least. I'll be curious to see the reaction he gets today on opening day. I expect polite clapping. I'll hope for dead silence.

I think Jackson will be starting in CF by May 1. Mullins is going to get April. Unless he turns it on, I expect him to be sent down and DJ Stewart called up. Mullins just has not produced at the big-league level. I hope he turns it around, but I'm not seeing it. Alternatively, I could see us bringing up Hays for Mullins once Hays has stayed down in AAA for the required time.

Bundy looks exactly the same to me as last year. I'm hopeful the analytics will help him fine tune his best pitches.

Lol. Smedium!

Right. I would be ecstatic with a 60M buyout too. I got carried away...

So, did you guys see the Snell deal? This is the kind of deal I like. Snell proved it in the majors first. You pay a little more, but it seems like you have less risk. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26323236/sources-rays-bank-snell-50m-deal I would like to see Austin Hays prove he belongs in the majors before dropping tens of millions on him.

Wow. Did you guys read the Cuddyer link? I did not know he did this. Ideally, Davis would have this same sort of honor. He would say to the Orioles, "Guys, I'm sorry it hasn't worked out. You have paid me richly. I will walk away from the game and I'll negotiate a 10M buyout." It will never happen, but if Davis had any honor, it would end this way. So, if you are the FO, how do you encourage and foster a buyout? Play him everyday until it's so embarrassing that he has to walk away, right? I don't think they should release him. He'll just take the money. I think he needs to have a worse overall season than he did last year. Then, he would accept a buyout of some kind... unless he's evil... which I don't think he is.

Great question! This is why the FO gets paid the big bucks. Theoretically, the GM and other talent evaluators have seen "stars" when they were only prospects. Is Hays a "can't miss" guy? I would say, "No." Seems too risky for me. Don't sign him to that deal. Let him play in AAA until June, start his service clock. Signing Austin to a long-term deal could be done this November.

It's so, so bad. He has not improved from last season at all. If any adjustments were made, they have not paid off. He is the same Chris Davis as last year. I still cannot believe we stepped up and gave this guy 7 years, when it appeared no one else had offered 3. It's so so bad.

So, if Toronto wanted to use it, then Toronto would have to come up with the 750K from their budget? Booyeah. It's an even better trade than I thought. Again. I have no problem with this. Isn't the only guy out there worth a penny this SS from Cuba... and it sounds like he's waiting until the next international signing period. I don't get all the bitter disappointment with this component of the Elias regime. As far as I can tell, he hired a really good person away from the Indians to get our Latin American operation going. I'm willing to give Elias some time.

It's true that the "international money" is not free money. It's still money. However, the Os are acquiring a prospect in Smith for $750K at a position of need. I have no problem with the move. We probably could have traded a low A-ball reliever for Smith but many would have second-guessed that too. Bottom line -- the O's bought Smith. He could be a useful bridge to our younger OFs in the minors like McKenna. We'll see.

Sisco is never going to be an above average defensive catcher. I guess there is a question of can you play him at catcher in a platoon. The answer is yes. I don't think he should catch 120 games no matter how good the bat is. But, the big question is the bat. If the bat is what we hoped, then the O's can DH him, put him at 1st, put him in the OF. For me, it's all about the bat. That's what I'm concerned about.

I think Ryan Flaherty is the ceiling of what you're going to get in the Rule V draft. I like the picks. We need good infielders. Hopefully, these guys can get on base at a decent clip and add some value. If not, there's usually some AAAA guys like Paul Janish looking for jobs.

Correct. Those wishing for a buyout are living in a dreamland. Ain't happening.

Roch repeated again today that Chris Davis's contract went against the wishes of Dan Duquette. "He [DD] wasn’t in favor of signing Chris Davis to a seven-year, $161 million contract, but it will go down in history as happening under his watch." For me this is final confirmation. Roch knows. I'm not sure anything else matters -- who the manager is, who the GM is, what Brady's role is. As long as the Angelos Family meddles in the baseball decisions and as long as their is no clear chain of command, this organization is going to suffer. ?