Aristotelian

Wasn't McKenna DFA'd off the 40? My theory with Norby is that he is a fringe guy who they will lose when they run out of options. Its not worth it to burn an option if he is just replacing Hays for a few days. Whereas McKenna they can DFA again.

I don't know, I just remember a game last year when the other guy had a mitt that was ridiculously long.

I'm fine with 18" mitts if our guys get them too. What bothers me is no rule and then the mitts get longer and longer. Make it the same size for everyone and I'm good.

This article cites research showing head first is twice as likely to cause injury. I don't know how you could prove one is generically better than the other since one technique may be better than the other for any specific play depending on the timing and location of the defender etc. It's not like a force play at first where the only variable is time to the bag. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/sports/baseball/headfirst-slides-increase-risk-of-injury.html

I wonder how long Holliday stays down. Just enough to get the extra year, X number of AB's, or some performance metric they are looking to hit?

You didn't?

I paid through the nose to get Witt on my fantasy team this year. I have Gunnar as a keeper so I've got them both!

By the way, something they absolutely need to legislate is the size of the oven mitt. I forget who it was, one of these guys had one that was basically giving him 18 inch fingers.

You can also slide to the side of the bag and reach back... I'd like to see data both on safety and success rates for each one before making a call. Either way, I agree, a team probably shouldn't on their own put themselves at a competitive disadvantage by voluntarily imposing rules on itself. So if this is a problem, then the proper way to deal with it would be to change the rules like they have with catcher's interference (which I support).

fWAR had him at #16. Not quite top 10 but very close. If he is on someone's top 10 list I'm not arguing.

Headfirst at the plate in particular seems like an awful idea.

Prefer to move Irvin? Or stash Means in the bullpen? I don't have a strong feeling either way but it would make sense to back Means up with a RHP throwing 96. I don't think Suarez is going to have a 0.00 ERA forever and I like having a matchup proof guy like him or Wells in the pen.

I think "well" is a bit of an overstatement. He did give up 5 runs to three outs across three appearances recently, and the two outings since then were not clean.

Agreed, but I think Gunnar needs to sustain his April production for a bit to get in that top 10 conversation for those who aren't O's fans. Based on last year, his biggest flaw was the room for improvement vs LHP. So far he is off to a great start in that department.

I agree with OP, these are the best guesses as to what will happen. However, Elias being Elias I am going to predict at least one of them is wrong, with no clue as to which one. Maybe Means to bullpen and/or possibly Bradish takes longer.

Move Suarez to the pen and have Means on a tight leash.

As much as I value defense, Ohtani is that good as a hitter that you have to think about it. Right now they are neck and neck in fWAR (I believe Ohtani was ahead before Gunnar's big game yesterday). bbref has Ohtani slightly ahead. I would take Gunnar but it's close in my mind. By the way, going into the Angels series Gunnar had like .500 something OPS vs LHP. Now he is at .324/1.017. He just keeps getting better.

He would have been a good 1:1 but he is an absolute game changer at 42. If I had to pick between the two... That's really tough. Fortunately we don't have to. Elias accomplished the impossible by getting them both in the same draft. Along with Stowers, Ortiz, and Hernaiz. That has to be one of the best draft classes of all time.

"Who do I want this year between Ohtani and Gunnar Henderson, I'd take Gunnar Henderson"

He was up in the second series, hit .455/1.026 against us.

He was up in the second series, hit .455/1.026 against us.

I hadn't seen the Gelof injury. From what I recall he was a beast against us last year. We won the series 7-1 but one of those wins was a walkoff and another was in extras. Don't sleep on the A's.

Houston is an interesting team with some talent but off to a terrible start. Despite their poor start Fangraphs has them at 44% to make the playoffs, but they could get the fork stuck in them soon.

Yeah, I was looking at our OPS numbers last night. Updated for today, we have two guys over 1.000, four guys over .900, and eight guys .736 (116 OPS+) or higher. So almost our entire lineup is above average or better with four guys producing at an elite level. Cowser 1.139/232 Gunnar 1.022/199 Westburg .941/176 O'Hearn .938/175 Mountcastle .866/157 Rutschman .786/135 Santander .741/118 Mullins .736/116 We also have Mateo off the bench at .746/120 and McCann .667/96, slightly below average but not too shabby for a backup C. Whenever I get the road announcers, they are always talking up our offense. Even when we are down, whenever we get a couple runners they say "here comes that Orioles offense again, they are relentless and they are never out of a game."

I don't think the point was to trash Holliday but to question the reliability of the metric. I share the question about Holliday's OAA. He hasn't been bad but I can't think of a single plus play and OAA thinks he is the best defender on the team.