TheWall

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.

Just to clarify - are they losers even if they win games?

I'd rather have a shot at an additional year of Holliday vs. a shot the pick anyway, but it's definitely disappointing that they aren't bringing up any of the new young guys except for Cowser. He can play CF, so I don't really understand what value McKenna provides unless they honestly plan on starting him against LHP. I would much rather just give Stowers an early season audition, but we know our front office doesn't believe in reverse splits.

The list of players I would take over Frazier or Odor isn't exactly short.

Needless hyperbole is fun I guess? Hays was great in the first half last year. He was a very deserving All Star isn't even close to the worst Oriole that has made that team in the last decade.

A conventional extension would be dramatically more expensive if Witt continues on his current trajectory. I think the 3 team options helps them hedge the risk a little bit and there is no downside. Witt is only extending the deal to 11/$281M if he's not playing up to expectations. If rebounds during those last 4 years the team might want to lock him down for additional years at these $ amounts negotiated in '24 when the average contract amount will likely be dramatically higher 11 years from now.

I would be pretty shocked if both Cowser and Kjerstad start the season in the minors.

Depth doesn't diminish because players reach the majors.

And everyone else's point is that spending is usually correlated to market size. There are exceptions when particularly rich owners want to infuse additional juice, but expecting that from the outset from a new ownership group will likely leave folks disappointed. The payroll is obviously going to increase, but we have no idea what that means yet.

I think it's pretty obvious that the Orioles valued Westburg > Ortiz based on how they handled their promotions / playing time.

He showed up in some big moments last year when we needed him. Tons of talent. Wishing him the best.

There is a 0% chance he will be unless the new ownership group decides they want to find a way to be worse than the old one.

You honestly think a largely symbolic ownership share is going to give Cal the right to tell Elias and Hyde how to deploy their roster? Insanity. Gunnar is likely going to be close to full time at SS, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Cal.

Cal will not be making personnel decisions.

Did you not want an Ace?

To be fair - it's really hard to determine what fair value is for top players. I'm shocked we got Burnes for this package.