hutchead

Since I've always been a country boy and live in the sticks in southern Virginia, I always get a kick out of traveling to Baltimore and listening to city folk sing about being a country boy. I love the song and I love the irony and I hope they keep it. (By the way, this country boy will make the trip this weekend to take in all three Ranger games).

Personally, I could never give up 18 years of control of top 100 prospects for a two month rental. I don't care who that rental is.

I'd say about the same as Angelina Jolie asking me out on a date.

Basilio sat out his third straight game tonight. Anyone know why?

One way to look at it is that we were three runs away from making the playoffs. We lost opening day 2-1 to Tampa and then we lost to them in extra innings on July 27. If we score two more runs on opening day and one more run in the first nine innings of that extra inning loss, we make the playoffs.

Officially eliminated. The most games we can win is 86 and both Seattle and Tampa have already won 86 and they both own the tie breaker.

And now we've been officially eliminated.

This is what I said in the very beginning. Although it's two questions for me. Can he sign the right free agents for the right amount? Guys that fit in well in the clubhouse? Guys that fill the roles that need filled? And the other question is can he make the right trades? Does he choose the right guys from his surplus of bats? Can he bring in the right arms? He's done really well in other areas so I feel like he can do well here also but we don't know that yet since he really hasn't been tested yet. If he checks those boxes he would indeed be in a position to demand a premium salary.

Most general managers make between $500,000 and $3 million a year. And you want to pay Elias $10 million a year? I agree he's elite but that's insanity.

Sure, the club is in better shape and I'm so glad that's the case. Elias has done a great job as I've stated before. If anyone has read my posts from the past, I have vehemently defended the job he has done against others who criticized him. I just don't think other clubs are standing in line to write him a blank check to hire him like some people suggest. I don't think we would be where we're at if he had to draft under today's rules. No one can deny that our fortunes turned around when Adley arrived. But would Adley be an Oriole if today's rules were in place in 2019? We don't know but it's extremely unlikely. Also, like I said earlier, no one knows yet how Elias will do in the next important phase of our rebuild. Can he sign the right free agents? Can he make the right trades with our surplus bats for pitching? I certainly hope so but it's no guarantee.

Does Watkins pitch today? I was kind of expecting it but from what I'm seeing Baumann pitches today. Unless you're implying that Watkins will follow Baumann.

No one said he couldn't do it. I only said the new rule changes put in place make it more difficult going forward than under the rules in place when he did it. And that's the entire point of making those changes. MLB got what they wanted with those rule changes.

Gee, did you not read what I said? I said I like Elias and that he's done a great job with the rebuild. My only point is that it's more difficult for a general manager to do what Elias did in the draft today versus the rules in place when Elias did it.

And who made that comment?? I only said it is more difficult under the new rules for a general manager to rebuild versus the rules that were in place when Elias performed his rebuild.

I'm just saying that by the old rules if you finished with the worst record, you automatically received the top pick but by the new rules, you could very easily only have the seventh pick. HUGE difference in 1-1 versus 1-7.

Yes, I agree he's picked well but it's easy to pick well when you have the first pick twice in four years. All I'm saying is if he had to pick going by today's rules, it's highly unlikely he would have drafted Adley or Holliday.

Well, sure it's allowed. You just aren't rewarded the way Elias was when he did it. He finished with the worst record twice which guaranteed him the top draft pick. If he finished with the worst record now he would only have a 16.5% chance of getting the top pick and could drop to as low as seventh.

I don't get all this talk about how valuable Elias is. I mean don't get me wrong - I like the guy and I think he's done a great job with this rebuild. BUT, he rebuilt the Orioles using a tanking strategy that is no longer allowed. I highly doubt he could be as successful building another club. Also, he has no experience whatsoever in the next important phase of the rebuild - signing the right free agents and trading from among his surplus minor leaguers to fill holes. I hope he can do as well in these areas.

Don't need help yet. Win out and we overtake the Blue Jays.

Yeah, I don't see much of a path to the wild card now but honestly I'd rather bow out now than to re-live 1989 and getting eliminated by Toronto again in the final series. I still haven't got over blowing both the Friday and Saturday games in the eighth inning back then.

Elias has done a great job on the rebuild here but I'm not sure he could do the same thing with another club with the new bargaining agreement the way it is. He was allowed to intentionally tank and get the top draft picks here but that's no longer the case. Going forward it's going to be much harder to construct a rebuild the way he did it here.

I try not to compare my love for the teams because I'm old and I've seen so many special teams in my lifetime. '66 will always be hard to beat. '69-'71 will always be special. Fond memories of '79 & '83. '82 was super special, especially that last Milwaukee series. '12 was particularly satisfying. But '89? Wow, that was something else. I'll have to agree that season was especially joyful! But I'll never forget the crushing heartbreak I felt when we were eliminated by the Blue Jays on that last weekend - especially after leading 3-1 going into the bottom of the eighth. I'm still not over it. That one hurt more than any other sports loss in my life including three World Series losses, two Super Bowl losses and five NCAA Basketball Tournament Championship game losses. I was just so invested in that club after what happened in '88. But this season ranks right up there with the best of them. I can only dream of what it could have been like had Adley not got hurt in the preseason and had started the season with the team. I believe we would be in first place right now.