Brooks The Great

Westburg. We're going to need his bat against LHP, and he should have plenty of OF reps by then. James McCann is not acceptable as a regular DH/C against LHP.

As many people have pointed out and lamented repeatedly, this is where the Frazier signing proves to be detrimental to the overall productivity of the major league team. Frazier is blocking both Ortiz and Westburg. A lot of MLB teams would love to have those two players on their major league roster right now. It was just a nonsensical signing for the amount of money Frazier costs.

Looks like Mateo will most likely need an IL stint. Would Joey still be the first man up from the minors?

I think Baumann could be a nice piece in the bullpen for the rest of the season. His stuff obviously plays up, and his ability to go 2 innings is really useful. I also like Cano. It was obvious when Elias traded for him that the front office liked Cano's stuff and peripherals, and thought they could help him fix his control issues. I trust Baker because his stuff is so good. He'll have an occasional hiccup every so often, but he's firmly in my circle of trust. Once Givens and Tate come back, I actually think we'll be in good shape. And that's even with the possibility Tate's injury could be a long-term thing. I think just one of Baumann or Cano emerging and Givens returning gives us a nice bullpen. If both Baumann and Cano can be reliable middle (more so Baumann) and late (more so Cano) inning options, that would be some quality depth. If Cionel Perez has reverted back to a pumpkin, then perhaps DL Hall becomes an option later in the season. I'm fairly bullish on the pen.

I'd be moving Urias, Mateo, Santander, and Mountcastle. And Frazier for a bag of lightly used ping pong balls. Mateo especially has real value to lots of teams around the league. Elias could very likely get young pitching which is close to the majors for him. Westburg, Cowser, Ortiz, Kjerstad, and Norby would make this lineup incredible. Patience and power.

I'm not worried about Gunnar at all. His excellent walk rate even while slumping is the sign of a great hitter with a great approach. He'd usually slump in the minors - especially at new levels for him - and also usually still draw a good amount of walks before getting hot. Gunnar's always had some swing and miss to his game, so even the 21 K's isn't all that concerning for me. It's obviously harder to make adjustments at the major league level, but I'm confident he'll get hot soon.

No, I'll just call out bad takes that have no basis in fact.

Does the Sally League use a specific baseball that's different from the other minor leagues? I know the minors in general use different baseballs than MLB.

I somewhat followed Stallings last year. Am I imagining things, or did posters mention that he might have been tipping his pitches in the first half last year? If so, that might be an explaination for why he was hit so hard in the first half last season.

Gunnar has a .373 OBP. The fact you call him an automatic out invalidates your credibility and whatever point(s) you're trying to make.

ESPN had it as Voth. They corrected it shortly after the game ended.

The right move is to trade him. He has trade value and we have quality prospects ready to replace his roster spot.

I'll take a .389 OBP from a bottom of the lineup hitter/bench utility guy all day and all season. The Orioles lead the majors in pitches seen per at bat. I'm willing to bet that a vast majority of Orioles fans don't understand how unprecedented and important to the team's future success that is and will be if the team can come close to maintaining the amount of pitches the O's hitters see per at bat. Vavra and his approach fit in well with this team and its new offensive philosphy. An offensive philosophy that this franchise has NEVER shown previously to this degree. Not even with the team was winning World Series several decades ago.

Hyde's move to pinch run his last outfielder (McKenna) for O'Hearn tonight in the top of the 8th right after Hays was clearly running in pain was an absolutely reckless, unncessary, and stupid move. Up three runs, the benefit of extra speed at second base is simply not worth the risk of having Hays get further injured or not be able to get to a fly ball later in the game, and then not be able to replace Hays for injury purposes later in the game. McCann could come in as an injury replacement, but then you're left with no backup catcher. Unbelievable management by Hyde.

He's always had a good bit of swing and miss, though. He just walks a lot and hits for enough power to make up for it. At least in the minors up until this point. I don't really consider any of Stowers stats in the majors to be a worthwhile sample size to conclude anything because he was jerked around and sat so much.

You're not wrong, but Stowers was also sitting most days over a two week stretch with the major league team before being sent down. Totally understandable if his timing is off.

They had a legitimate chance to make the playoffs last season going into the final couple weeks of the season, and this team has more talent than last season (and also more talent on the way from the minors). The rest of the division hasn't improved very much outside of the Rays being more healthy and the Jays having a slightly better offense. But for the Orioles, the more balanced schedule will/should easily cancel out any difficulties of facing AL East teams compared to last season. So yes, the Orioles have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs based on logical deductions. I think it's more unreasonable to take the position that they don't have a good chance, or that it's not possible to tell one way or the other. If your stance is that you don't know, then questioning people who feel they have a legitimate chance to make the postseason doesn't really make for an interesting discussion. Especially if your only analysis is that they're in fourth place a little over 2 weeks into the season.

I really think it comes down to how well he pitches, the performances of Kremer and Rodriguez, and injuries. If no one gets hurt and Irvin gets bombed in AAA, I doubt he comes back up for his next start. In the event of no injuries and a bad start at AAA for Irvin, I think it would take a meltdown by Kremer or GRod in their respective next starts for Irvin to come back up as soon as he's eligible.

Totally agree. And completely disagree with the poster you quoted who said the Rays are the best team in baseball. They have a great pitching staff and are by far the best organization at developing and optimizing pitchers - both starters and relievers - but they're not the best team in baseball. Their offense isn't anywhere near the best in baseball from a talent perspective, even though they've been beating up on the absolute worst pitching staffs in baseball. We just saw the Orioles take advantage in the same way against the A's (who have the worst team in baseball in terms of talent, and both offense and pitching). I actually like seeing the Rays start out so hot. I think they'll wind up between 10-20 games above .500 for the season, meaning they'll be playing close to .500 ball the rest of the way. So hopefully that bodes well for the head-to-head matchups against the Orioles.

The Orioles are at the start of a dynastic run. What are your predictions for the team this year and over the next five years since you know so much? Or do you just like questioning people without adding any interesting input of your own? Either way, I'll circle back on this post at the end of the year.

Says anyone who can evaluate talent. The talent level is on another planet compared to two years ago, and the organization has an unprecendented amount of premium talent in the minors - both on the verge of helping the major league team and in the lower levels of the minors.

Not sure why you say "if they start hitting" when it comes to Westburg. He did nothing but hit last season, and this season he's already hit 3 HR and has an OPS over .800. Westburg should have already been on the major league roster last season after the trade deadline. Westburg should take McKenna's spot on the roster and start against every single LHP (and start as regularly overall as possible) so that we never have to see McCann DH ever again. Westburg's bat would lengthen the lineup, and he's a natural leader. This team is going to take another step up once he's promoted, and I hope Elias makes the right move with Westburg immediately. Call the man up.

During yesterday's game, she called a Mullins foul tip, then said that the A's catcher "couldn't hold onto it", and explained that the O's runner on first (Frazier) advanced to second on the pitch. I was immediately baffled as to how that was possible, and what could have possibly transpired on the play in reality. Newman went on to reiterate that the ball had been foul tipped and that the catcher couldn't hold onto it. Which, again, made absolutely no sense. Then it became clear that Mullins swung and missed, and it was just a passed ball on the catcher, allowing Frazier to advance to second. Newman then slowly began to process that it had been a passed ball, but it took her a good while to figure it out and share that with the audience. She's simply not a good broadcaster. She makes for a nice in-studio pre-game and post-game host, though. That role is where she should be assigned to exclusively, but I doubt that ever happens.

So in that case Voth still needs to be DFA'd, because once Bradish comes back, there's no room for Voth in the rotation. As I mentioned before (I believe it was in this thread), Voth - even when he was pitching well as a starter - couldn't last much past 5 innings. So having him in the rotation is too much of a liability because it taxes an already-thin bullpen. We can't afford Voth and his batting practice pitches in the bullpen while we're down Givens and Tate. I think Irvin will eventually get another shot in the rotation. The downside of continuing to carry Voth just isn't worth it. We need better arms in the bullpen, and he'll only be one of the 5 best options for the rotation if 2 injuries occur (not counting Bradish and his current IL stint). There's such a marginal difference between Voth and Spencer Watkins as starters, it's just not worth keeping Voth unless Elias and Sig REALLY believe in his spin rate analytics.

Irvin was just demoted to the minors.