Brooks The Great

I hated Odor with a passion last season. I wanted him DFA'd in June or July, but he stuck around the whole season like a cockroach and inexplicably got regular playing even after Elias and the team stated that he would play less in favor of younger players (which never really happened). As of right now, Frazier is going to replace Odor as the focus of my hatred, because he's going to be blocking players (Westburg, Ortiz, Norby) that will most likely be better players than Frazier is.

It would be great to be able to trade Mateo for anything of value. I think Ortiz is going to be the superior player the moment he starts playing for the Orioles, so getting any sort of trade value for Mateo would be a big win, especially since he was a waiver wire reclamation project. As much as the lack of free agent signings (and the underwhelming Frazier signing) have been disappointing, trading Mateo would be a fantastic move.

Completely disagree. The reason we have the best farm system in baseball is specifically because Elias targeted hitters in the early rounds of all of his drafts, and he and his staff have done a great job scouting and developing a lot of those hitters. Pitching prospects are more volatile, less projectible, and far more injury prone for significant stretches.

As I said in another thread, Matt Gorski would be a great pick. Power, speed, can get on base, can backup multiple OF spots and 1B. Only box he doesn't check is that he's not a lefty. He's major league ready and would help us win in 2023.

I would love this if it happened. Cashman would sink the Yankees even further by panicking to fill the Judge void with overrated and overpriced veteran hitters of some sort (probably trading more prospects like he did with the Gallo trade).

Jose Quintana. Wouldn't mind him because he wouldn't cost as much as Manaea, but will probably provide similar or better value.

I definitely am. I think both Westburg and Ortiz are upgrades over Mateo right now. That's how bad Mateo is with the bat, how good Westburg is with the bat, and how good Ortiz is with both with his glove and bat. I love Edgar Quero. Getting him for Mateo would be a steal and found money, considering Elias picked Mateo up off of waivers. The Angels are both in win-now mode and a poorly-run franchise, so it might be possible that they'd give us Quero for Mateo. We need to keep stacking talent and also make some room for our middle infield prospects at the minor league level. Trading Mateo should be one of the top priorities of the offseason, and doing so will make the Orioles a better team in 2023.

Matt Gorski. The O's should definitely select him if he's available for their pick. Good power, good plate discipline, good speed, can play a good OF, has enough range to play CF, and can also backup 1B. This is a player who the O's can carry on the MLB roster all season and actually help the team win. Let's get him!

Trade both Urias and Mateo. We have a depth of infield prospects (Westburg, Norby, Ortiz, Holliday, Hernaiz) that have higher ceilings and perhaps also higher floors than both of them. And that's not even counting less projectable prospects like Prieto, Bencosme, and Carter Young.

Do players qualify for insurance or get some sort of compensation for every day they are on the 40 Man Roster? Maybe that would explain why a couple of these scrub catchers were added to the roster for short periods?

Bohm came up through the minors as a hit-tool-over-power guy, and still is in the majors even though he had his struggles early on (in 2021 especially, he didn't hit for average OR power). Mayo is more of a power-over-hit-tool guy, even though there's a possibility (perhaps unlikely, but still a possible outcome) that he can bring both the hit tool and power tool to the table in the majors. But the power is going to be his calling card.

Westburg will be a leader once he's promoted in May/June. Hopefully even from Opening Day.

I heard from a reliable source (and I had two different reliable sources tell me that Jackson Holliday was the #1 pick well before the pick was announced) that Mayo dealt with a nagging injury towards the middle of the season. Which makes sense, because he started out the season pretty hot, sat out for a few weeks, and then came back and wasn't the same. Mayo didn't play any games from July 2nd through July 28th. He hit 14 of his 19 home runs before July 2nd. I personally think the injury affected him and accounted for some (or most) of the regression in his K's and OPS this season. He's so young and has so much power, and he has a great swing. I'm super high on Mayo. I think how he starts out next season will tell us a lot. The possibility of an infield of Mayo, Westburg, Ortiz/Holliday, and Gunnar in a couple years with Mayo at 1B is mouth-watering.

I believe Yohendrick Pinango from the Cubs is Rule V eligible and wasn't protected. He's intriguing - I think he could be worth a pick. We have pretty good OF depth, but he doesn't turn 21 until May and has some nice tools. Could be a player who could build some value next season as a 4th or 5th OF and who the front office could trade away as part of a package for an area of need in a year or two. The Cubs minor league system Top 25 is pretty solid, and Pinango slid into the back half of their Top 25. The O's system Top 25 is stacked, but we have some garbage like Tyler Nevin at the end of the 40 Man that we can jettison. We may not have the room on the major league to carry him all season, though. I like the Foster Griffin suggestion by Aristotelian as well.

That would be such a Dan Duquette move. I expect way more from Elias.

Disappointing to hear we're linked to Archer. Yuck.

I don't think that will be the case. We have plenty of other IF options to trade for pitching. I don't think Elias will trade a talent like Holliday for any kind of SP. For the same general reasons Elias has clearly stayed away from pitching in the top 3-5 rounds of all of his drafts for the Orioles.

I'm not skeptical outside of the fact most prospects don't match their minor league production in the majors. Ortiz was raking prior to a serious long-term injury in 2021 which ended his season prematurely. I think his first half struggles in 2022 can be attributed to coming back from that injury. I'm convinced that Ortiz is a quality hitter.

I agree on Mateo and Ortiz - I hope Mateo is dealt this offseason. Wouldn't even want a lot in return, we need to free up SS to see what we have in our multiple IF prospects (even including Prieto, who will need to be traded if he's ever going to play regularly in the majors). I don't think Westburg will be trade bait, though. I think Norby is more likely to be traded, although I'd like to see the O's make room for both Westburg and Norby by putting Westburg at 1B if the O's can trade Mountcastle at some point. Westburg profiles as another leader on the team, and he has more positional versatility than Norby does. Westburg also shares the patience/power makeup that the other young players - Adley, Gunnar, Cowser - who will be in Baltimore long-term have. Those guys will certainly form the future core of the lineup, and Westburg fits that superior hitting approach more so than veteran holdover hackers like Mateo, Mountcastle, and Hays do. We should build around the young hitters who will be making opposing pitchers work, and Westburg should be one of those guys.

Tonight's crappy lineup is a perfect example of why Jordan Westburg should have already been called up. It's stupid to have Odor hitting against a tough lefty, even if he winds up somehow hitting a home run or having a good game at the plate against Valdez. Hyde also has to stop treating Stowers as a strict platoon player. Another bad lineup from a manager that doesn't understand the players at his disposal.

Hyde showing one of his weaknesses as a manager by continuing to treat Stowers as a platoon guy, when Stowers has proven to be a solid hitter against lefties in the minors. I'd rather have Vavra in there against a tough lefty than Odor. At least Vavra will work the count better than Odor. It's a joke that Odor continues to get starts. Another poor lineup by Hyde today. Every game is must-win, but Hyde insists on handicapping his team.

You clearly don't remember how Buck completely botched Jim Johnson in 2013, which cost us a playoff spot. You also clearly don't remember Buck costing the Orioles in 2016 against the playoffs against Toronto by inexplicably going to Ubaldo Jimenez instead of Zach Britton in one of the worst managerial moves of all time, regardless of sport. And you definitely don't remember Buck habitually and consistently sticking with starters way too long into the 5th and 6th innings, costing the Orioles countless games. Buck was and is a dinosaur of a manager, and stubborn to a fault. All the analytics that show that starting pitchers are no good the third time through the lineup - Buck completely disregarded all those statistics and was the total antithesis of understanding a starting pitcher tiring after a certain amount of pitches. Completely disagree with you across the board. Buck was an awful manager, and I'm glad he's long gone.

You must have not been paying attention during July and August of 2007 when Erik Bedard went 7-0 over 9 starts in one of the most dominant stretches by any Orioles pitcher ever. His complete game shutout against the Rangers striking out 15 is easily a top 5-10 Orioles start of all time.

Totally agree. It's not really strange how Stowers has been used. He's just been used poorly and mismanaged. It's one of the few reasons I don't think Hyde is the long-term answer as manager of this team as it transitions to a perennial playoff contenders The preference for veterans is one of the reasons Buck Showalter was/is a mediocre manager and one of the reasons why he ultimately got fired. The only area Hyde is better than Buck was is with bullpen management. Both were/are awful managers for lineup optimization and quickly making needed roster changes (for example, Hyde benching Odor, Buck moving Hardy out of the 2 hole, etc.) to help the team.

It's clear to me that both are worth playing over Hays right now to see if they will be better. Hays has been awful for a long stretch. It doesn't matter whether an injury is the cause or not, he's been poor for months. Vavra has been a better offensive player since his promotion in much more limited at bats. And I think Stowers' minor league track indicates that he'd be more productive than Hays has been if Stowers were to be given everyday at bats. The "we don't know for sure" argument is weak. Hays doesn't deserve to be playing regularly right now, and Vavra and Stowers deserve more playing time at his expense. Period.