TheWall

Gunnar is so incredibly special.

Awesome stuff! Can't wait to listen. Thanks for sharing!

We drafted him for his elite speed and defense. If the bat plays - he could be a star. If not, he could still be a useful piece. You don't see the same projections from Cowser, Westburg or Kjerstad because those were bat-first players. There's a reason we're having trouble finding space for guys like Kjerstad and Norby. Also you're going to say it might be his first draft flop after 13 games at A+? Wild.

Yeah, he posted on Twitter about how cool it was to watch the game with one of his heroes. Pretty awesome for him.

I think you'd see a much stronger correlation to how they were rated in the minors vs. draft position. Westburg has been treated similarly to Cowser and Kjerstad. Adley, Gunnar and Holliday were all consensus #1 prospects and have been given pretty much immediate every day player status.

I haven't watched enough of Norby to know how good he is in the OF. I just know he has limited experience thus far. Glad to hear.

He's been hitting LHP pretty well in '23 / '24. He's a pretty damn useful bench player given our roster construction.

The idea that we have 4 players "ready" to be promoted is probably flawed to begin with. Mayo is still striking out a ton and doesn't have a position that he can play at a Major League level. He's an awesome prospect, but he needs more time before he can come in and contribute to a winning team. Stowers could be promoted, but beyond his early power surge he's batting .263 with a .333 OBP. I'm not entirely convinced he'll ever be an above average Major League regular. I don't think he provides anything over the options we currently have on the roster. Norby's bat seems ready, but he's defensively limited. They've been trying to give him reps in the OF, but I doubt he's ready to play there regularly. He could hypothetically be used as a DH against LHP for now, but we might be better off letting him get more comfortable in LF / RF. Kjerstad is the most ready to help right now, but he's blocked by Santander, O'Hearn and Cowser. We could move on from Urias, but that would limit our ability to use Mateo as a pinch runner. Would probably make more sense to bring up Norby in that case to give us more defensive flexibility. I do think it's possible that he could be better than some of our regulars by the end of the season, but it's a really tough call to move on from one of those guys on take away their ABs for a rookie. I was worried about a similar situation with Cowser, but he seized the opportunity when Hays started slow.

If Santander gets more days off it's likely to result in Hays playing more.

We don't know if Westburg is an everyday player in 2 years (a lot depends on Mayo's 3B defense). I hope he turns into Bregman, but I'm not even sure if his own family is expecting that.

Really itching to get his age 31-35 seasons locked in? I really doubt there is much value there. He's not a free agent until 2030.

Hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty confident that Hyde and Elias are on the same page the vast majority of the time.

Anyone thinking that Cowser would be a 3-4 game a week starter coming into the year was very misguided.

I live in the city. I went to 15+ home games last year. I've been at every home playoff game since 2012. I know Holliday has been hyped, but I can promise you right now that all of the people freaking out about him not being on the Opening Day roster are not people the Os are at risk of losing as fans. Holding him down for a few weeks for a shot at additional service time will have an absolutely negligible impact on attendance this year or overall fan support. I also disagree with the idea that the Ravens make personnel decisions based on what fans want.

That doesn't really answer my question, but I will say that I 100% do not want Elias making decisions based on what the fans / customer base wants.