Mondo Trasho

I think the likelihood of the team moving to Las Vegas or anywhere else is low. Probably very low. But not zero. Lots of teams move, lots of teams who appear very likely to move, don't (I'm old enough to remember when the Sacramento Kings moving to Virginia Beach was viewed as "very likely"). The future is hard to predict sometimes. I wish Mr. Angelos good health of course, but no one lives forever, and as others have stated it's not a given that the sons will own the team, whether that's due to MLB interference, tax issues, or just disinterest in doing so. The MASN case, the continued competition with the Nationals for the hearts and minds of area fans, and dwindling attendance are all issues to keep in mind down the road. Even if they don't result in the team moving, they could still impact the team's ability to compete. I don't see anything wrong with 105.7 having a lawyer appear on a talk show saying he heard of or knows of an offer to move the team to Vegas. Maybe someone did offer to buy the team but Angelos turned it down. Who knows.

Even though I was born and raised in Northern Va, both my parents are from the Baltimore area and were O's fans. My mom actually got kicked out of the 1983 parade for jumping on stage and trying to convince Tippy Martinez to give her his hat. So I pretty much grew up rooting for the O's. Some of my fondest memories are firing up the old SNES and playing Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball and playing the World Series as the Orioles back when I was a kid. Then my brother and I world go outside and play home run derby. Great times.

Especially if you're getting it all up front. The difference can be made up with some kind of managed investment account with any number of well known firms fairly easily.

I voted A-/B+. I think they certainly could have gotten more (hypothetically) by trading earlier/later, and I think it might be a mistake to keep Bundy but trade Gausman. But, all things considered I think they made good decisions and decent trades. The thing is though, the work is not finished, it's a start. If the effort isn't kept up to acquire and develop talent, we'll just be back here at some point. So whoever it is who ends up being the guy building the roster, they need to keep going.

I'm not sure why he'd take a buyout that would be anything less than what he's owed. It's not as if he can go out and get another high paying MLB job after this.

If they "dump" Davis, they're still on the hook for his paycheck. No one is taking his contract off our hands. I don't see the O's front office paying Davis and not playing him.

Your assumption is that the salary cap is responsible. But, we also have to account for sample size. An NFL team only needs to win 10 or 11 (sometimes less, sometimes more) out of 16 games to qualify for single elimination playoffs. A baseball team has to win 90 or so out of 162. It's a small sample, but consider the past 10 champions in either sport. 8 MLB franchises have a won a WS, 9 different NFL franchises have won the Super Bowl. The numbers are almost identical.

Is there evidence that salary capped leagues like the NFL or NBA have had more championship level parity than the MLB? Because from what I've seen, the evidence seems to run the other way.

Some random thoughts. Remember Ryan Kohlmeier? He was supposed to be the closer of the future back in 2001. Or at least that's what I read in the Seagram's baseball preview pamphlet I got from my dad after one of his trips to the ABC store. Back in 2007 I actually thought the O's best chance was to sign Johan Santana, to give them a 1-2-3 punch of Bedard, Guthrie, and Santana. Speaking of 2001, I remember hearing that offseason that the O's were rumored to be interested in Tino Martinez and Brett Boone. Glad they didn't sign them. If the rumors were even true in the first place.

I wish MLB wouldn't have any rules on their use.