Brooks The Great

Now we just need to get Frazier out of the lineup and make Westburg the everyday 2B. 1B O'Hearn 2B Westburg SS Gunnar 3B Urias Will be solid against RHP. Eventually Ortiz should be given a chance to play SS everyday, and have Urias play some 1B. If O'Hearn turns back into a pumpkin, I'm super cool with Urias as the everyday 1B until Kjerstad is promoted.

Move both. Keeping Westburg, Cowser, Kjerstad, and Mayo makes the team's long-term success more sustainable.

Mayo isn't a guy Elias would trade at this point. He's broken out this year to become a top 25 prospect, and that's someone who's going to be difficult to get fair value for. Just my opinion. I think Elias will be in the market for relievers this trade deadline and will trade guys like Mateo, Urias, Hall, and Prieto to acquire a couple of quality RPs. There are enough high end hitter prospects to promote to the big league roster (Cowser, Westburg, Ortiz, Kjerstad) that the team will be able to leverage a great offense in order to make it into the playoffs.

But this could be similar to concussion situations where team doctors are relying on the player divulging how they're feeling. If Mountcastle isn't sharing all of his symptoms and/or wanting to get back on the field despite not feeling 100%, then it becomes a difficult situation for everyone involved.

What if the vertigo is still impacting Mountcastle, though? Vertigo can be a chronic and long-term issue. Part of me thinks there's a possibility the vertigo was an excuse to give him a break. But it's also likely that the vertigo is really affecting him. If so, he may not able to contribute for a while, and his 0-5 with 3 K's last night was discouraging in that regard.

It's really not, though. Not long ago, Frazier was hitting leadoff even though he had no business doing so with his putrid on base skills. But right before Hyde threw him in the leadoff spot when Mullins went down, Frazier was the "hot hand". Frazier proceeded to be Frazier and sucked there, so Hyde thankfully pulled the plug and moved Gunnar to leadoff. O'Hearn and especially Hicks have no recent track records of sustaining elite production for long stretches. With Hicks, he hasn't done so since his age 27 and age 28 seasons (5 years ago!), while O'Hearn has never shown it to even actually be a regular starter (he had a nice debut in 2018, but that was over just 44 games). This is literally O'Hearn's first hot stretch to the point he's forced his way into a lineup regularly. It's bad management to let players like them dictate your lineup or roster moves. If O'Hearn in particular has unlocked his potential and he is now worthy of starting regularly, he'll continue to demonstrate those skills even in a bench role. And it'll be a good problem to have. But to keep future regular starters for your major league roster down in the minors because of journeymen having a good few weeks would be foolish.

So disappointing how they've jerked him around, and that he deserves to start over Mateo. McKenna should be the guy getting sent down. Poor roster move in terms of the guy getting sent down.

I understand their reasoning, but they were wrong, and it was a gamble by them to go against industry consensus and doubt a guy with Cowser's elite discipline skills to not improve whatsoever on his splits. Cowser may still have issues against lefties in the majors, but ranking him so low was a big miss by those guys.

Thanks for the clarification. Hyde may have no intention now, but he's a player-first guy who's overly loyal to mediocre veterans, like a lot of other below average-to-poor managers (such as Buck Showalter, who recently had Tommy Hunter give away a game because Tommy's "one of my guys"). If Frazier continues to hit below .200 for the next couple weeks, I really do think a move will be made. I don't think Elias is incompetent. The fact Frazier has actually been worse than Mateo since around June 1st is pretty mind-boggling. Mateo is straight up one of the worst everyday hitters in MLB going back to last season. That's damning for Frazier. I've made my hatred for the Frazier signing clear. Right after the signing, during spring training, and all during the season, even when Frazier was hot and lucking into some home runs. Same with McKenna - even got called out by some regular posters when McKenna was in the middle of a hot streak and I still called him out as a terrible player who shouldn't be on the team. A lot of the times the eye test for talent and basic analysis of metrics over a couple seasons can give you a good idea if a player can be productive. If I can see Frazier's lack of value and skills, Elias can absolutely see it. And I think Elias will know deep down that he made an overpay, but he made it to have a cushion and not to put pressure on his prospects. But now those prospects are clearly ready to contribute. So I think the change with Frazier will eventually happen, even though it never happened with Odor last season.

That might be what I'm remembering. Didn't Longenhagen at Fangraphs have Cowser ranked after 100 prior to the season? I want to say 103 or lower. Big whiff by him if so. I get that a lot of these guys have to make a stand to validate their rankings, but I remember thinking to myself that Longenhagen's credibility would be damaged by missing that badly on Cowser. Law is just a contrarian clown, but in the end not all that much different from a lot of the other prospect sites.

The "vote of confidence" frequently comes before a player loses his job. Happens a lot with closers. If anything, that should tell us that Hyde is aware of Frazier's struggles and hopes that backing him will help him out of his slump somehow. Given Frazier's track record since the beginning of 2022, I don't see it happening. Frazier is a declining player and was a bad signing by Elias.

NFL football is similar because it's such a physically taxing sport. Most running backs only have a shelf life of 3-5 years at their peak. That doesn't apply to quarterbacks and kickers, but a lot of the other skill positions can see drastic dropoffs. Baseball is the toughest skill sport overall, though.

I still hate how Elias stuck with Odor last season - Westburg should have been brought up at the same time Gunnar was to replace Odor and the O's very possibly would have made the playoffs with that one change. But I really do think this year is a different scenario since there are two players clearly ready to replace Frazier and Mateo, with Ortiz literally already on the roster. This year the team is also in a much better spot to make the playoffs and is on pace to do so - last year the team was always on the outside looking in. I think Elias was more enamored with extra years of Westburg than a LH bat - after all, what good is a LH bat if the bat sucks, as was the case with Odor and is the case with Frazier? Well, now Elias has maximum control over service time for Westburg now that the Super 2 threshhold has been/should be passed. It's time.

Frazier is worthless. I would rather DFA him than keep him if he can't be traded. Mateo can be a good utility IF/pinch runner off the bench if Mateo himself isn't traded. With Ortiz and Westburg - and Urias if he's kept through the deadline - Frazier is completely unnecessary. I'd rather have Prieto off the bench than Frazier.

I'm too lazy to look it up because I think Law is a tool, but didn't Law also have Cowser ranked super low to start this season?

Moving on is the right thing to do even if there weren't something going on with Mountcastle, whether it's the vertigo or something else leading to his further decline. The organization has too many prospects to stick with Mountcastle at 1B, both later this season once Kjerstad is ready, and longer-term when players like Westburg and Mayo can get at bats at 1B starting in 2024.

With the prospects we have available to step in - Ortiz, Westburg, Cowser, Kjerstad - between now and September 1, yes, we are a World Series contender. Potential trades for pitching make it even more of a likelihood. I was one of the few posters that expected this team to make the playoffs before the season and early in the season before it became clear to the general public (sports books, Fangraphs type sites, media outlets) that this team is a playoff-caliber team. I also think TB can be caught, but Elias slow-playing COW (Cowser, Ortiz, Westburg) and allowing Mateo and Frazier to kill the lineup hurts those chances each day that the correct changes aren't made.

I agree, but what should give Elias more urgency to replace Mateo and Frazier is that both players were terrible hitters last season. So these "recent" slumps aren't necessarily something short-term. I would actually be totally dismissive of any upcoming hot streak by either player - it's time to install younger players that actually have a future with this organization in Joey Ortiz and Jordan Westburg.

I'd trade Mateo, Frazier, Urias, and DL Hall (either multiple players packaged in the same deal, or seperately) for relievers. I don't think anyone would be interested in Frazier, but trading them for bullpen help is realistic, not difficult to pull off, and can be done with a trading partner that is either a contender or building for the future (in Hall's case).

Don't be fooled by a small sample size. Hicks has a long, established record of mediocrity. His play with the Orioles is most likely a fortunate/lucky stretch where he's hitting extremely well. If he cools off, it will most likely be an ugly slump that brings him in line with his previous 2,800+ at bats. And his previous 2,800+ at bats are not a player that the Orioles are going to want to give playing time to, especially not over Cowser, who has a clear future with this team.

Ortiz should really just take over for Mateo. The only thing I really dislike about Elias is that he sticks with terrible/mediocre players like Odor, Mateo, and Frazier for way too long. McKenna as well, since he should have been demoted at the beginning of the season and adds no value to the roster even as a 4th/5th OF. Making it worse is that Elias has competent prospects available at his disposal who could likely exceed the value of the struggling scrubs, and perhaps outperform them significantly.

That's not really accurate. He's one of the worst hitters in baseball and an excellent defender.

DFA'ing Cionel Perez and giving Wandisson Charles a shot could be a good start. I just don't see Elias making any trades just yet, simply because there are too few teams that have decided to become sellers this early in the season.

Exactly. Being able to hit a baseball is far more important than speed, and Mateo can't hit. If speed mattered as much as that poster claimed, Billy Hamilton would have lasted longer as a starting MLB outfielder.

I'd love to see Ortiz play against all LHP at 2B moving forward, and at SS more regularly against RHP, phasing out Mateo unless Mateo has another super hot streak in him coming up soon. I hope Ortiz is finally up for good, it makes us a much better and deeper team. Once Cowser and Westburg are finally up, and once Mullins comes back, then we'll really be in business.