Ridgway22

THIS. If he loses his release point, I think he'll be walk-city. He appears, in the SSS I've seen him, to have a very wide range of possible outcomes. We can dream he's harnessing that wickedness..... it's been fun to watch.

This, and the way batters react to the movement on his pitches.

Watching Cano, I get a really weird César Valdez vibe, except the ball travels at mucho elevated velocity. Kind of gives me Stan "full pack" vibes, but dammmmmm, he's been nails. Please, baseball gods, we've been good, we've been patient, we pay our taxes, and respect women. We deserve nice things.

This mortally flogged equine continues to receive blows and lashes?

Cedric Mullins in each game, tough plays, but he should have had them both. And WTF with Hayes on the ground rule double that bounced behind him?

F'ing devastating way to lose a won game. Getting a karma-is-a-bitch vibe from last year, Hendricks of ChiSox and Stowers, blah.

Both, please. Looking at the roster and getting a strong "San-tan-der is / should be the odd man out" vibe, depending on what we could get for him in a trade. Hays, as a 4th outfielder / Merv Rettenmund '69-'71 type role, opens spots for both of them. McKenna is Norfolk filler waiting to be needed. e tu, Stowers? Man, it's nice to be talking about these "issues."

Probably would have gone with MM if he was healthy, but HK it is. At the time, I thought AM was a lock for the pick. I'm glad M.E. is running the show and not ME.

This is an excellent point. If DL can establish himself in the rotation, and GRod meets expectations, 40% of our rotation just became "pillars". And these two are replacing the #4 and #5 guys. I think this would be a huge development in our outlook for '23 and beyond.

Tony did an excellent breakdown of this very subject. I've never linked to another thread, but its here somewhere.

I agree. Way weird.

Rational brain has no ability to dispute or disagree with this. Fan Brain is short circuiting and freaking at low voltage. Free agency is the one area to add players that can make a difference. (if you have payroll space, which we "do", air quotes) With a free agent of some repute for a position, the prospects in line for that position can be traded for upgrades elsewhere. I'm having the same queasy feeling as when Jimenez was pitching and Britton was sitting.......

Jon Lester / Cubs.

This kid is going to be very easy to root for.

Winner.

Is Gunnar Henderson the greatest Orioles prospect since they moved to Camden Yards? Not sure. Manny was a great, hyped prospect, as was the Switch Hitting Lesser Deity.

What's fun is that GR will be replacing our #5 starter, which means 20% of our games go from being fringe guy to potential top of rotation guy. Any starter we sign (dream on Verlander deGrom et al, but whomever) then replaces #4. Now 40% of our games have mucho dramatically improved starting pitchers. This trickles down... longer quality starter outings and less early exits trickle down to fresher bullpen arms. The starter arms Hunger Gamed out of the rotation become bullpen options, etc. Add DL Hall to the potential rotation calculus, and we might just have a recipe to piss off yankee fans for the next decade.

Be still my beating heart. Watching him late last year, he just looked like, well, he belonged. It was interesting to compare / contrast him and Stowers, Kyle had his moments, but there is just an "it" factor that Gunnar has that you can dream on. (AR has it also, but just seemed more, well, expected) Thx, Tony for your work in putting together these rankings / evaluations. Much appreciated.

Reading this, I'm getting an Andrew Miller vibe? Strongly prefer to let him exhaust all possibilities of being a starting pitcher, but if he settles into a high value reliever, well, ok. Worked out for Arthur Rhodes.

I'm nothing more than the average idiot fan, but I'd bet the farm, ranch, and homestead that Jax Holliday is NOT traded in the next 12 months. Hard stop.

As a baseball player who had labrum+ surgery, I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. The physical recovery is rough enough, but learning to mentally trust it is a bigger hurdle. My sincere hope is Mr. J Ortiz is coming on strong.

Would love to be the proverbial fly on the wall and hear other teams discussing how they value Mateo / Urias, and even other O's players that might be trade targets. If Urias at 3B, Mateo at SS and Oritz at 2B are all plus plus defensively, and we are trying to find Gunnar's position, that seems like a pretty sittin' place.

These are key points. If no-shift results in an additional hit in 1 of 100 plays, a .250 hitter becomes .260. If 1 of 20 plays, a .250 hitter is at .300. Of course, some players are subject to more extreme shifts than others, so the effect on individual hitters will be interesting.

Been pondering this point, and while I haven't quite convinced myself, I think banning the shift WILL increase the importance of infielders range. In simple terms, spray charts show where a hitter is most likely to hit a ground ball or low liner. With the shift, you can cluster defenders in this area. The most common example is the SS/3b playing "rover" against left handed pull hitters. Absent the ability to populate the area with an additional defender, the range of the 2b in this example becomes more important. But as you say, we'll see what happens.

Phillies only 4 games better than the O's this year. I know we don't have Wheeler / Nola / Harper, but only 4 games and then spin the wheel. Let's get r' dun, M.E.