[How long do the O’s need to be bad]

It seems like that the only possible way that the O’s (or most teams for that matter) can compete is by building an elite farm system.  Given how hard and how slow that process is, I wanted to ask the O’s experts on here a few simple question for discussion:  

1. how long would you estimate that it takes for a team to go from a mediocre/poor farm system, to a system that has produced enough major league talent to win in the AL east?  Additionally, how long in your opinion does the pro club need to suck while building the farm.

2. is there a team that you would prefer that the O’s model their approach after?  Is it Tampa?  Toronto? St. Louis?  I think the Tampa model is the most brutally efficient, but I can’t see many people truly being happy with that model in the long haul (getting rid of good players while value is high, rarely spending a dollar in FA).

3. do you like the financial model of baseball as opposed to other professional leagues?  Baseball has always been my favorite sport, but it really seems to favor the larger market teams in the end.  Not that smaller market teams can’t compete, it’s just that every year it seems the larger market teams win.  I know there are some poor large market orgs, but I personally get disinterested when I see how imbalanced the competitive landscape can be at times.

 

[Would anyone like to see mlb have more football style contracts]

13 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think teams should practice restraint when it comes to offering these type of deals

 

Yeah they should 

[Chris Davis: I’ll be at Spring Training and I’m not going anywhere]

1 hour ago, Roll Tide said:

Ditto!

I’m pretty sure in Patrick Mahomes’ contract, I remember reading that after year 5, each year he plays will guarantee 2 more years of pay.  Something along those lines.  That’s makes so much sense to me.  The guy will never be poor, he will never have the rug ripped out from under him, but if starts to suck, he will get some a large chunk of his money and the team won’t be paying him every cent.

[Would anyone like to see mlb have more football style contracts]

Good points all around.  The union is incredibly strong.  I dislike how much the union favors the older players. I’m all for players making a ton of money.  Just seems ridiculous to pay guys the most money on the team while the player is horrible.

[Would anyone like to see mlb have more football style contracts]

I dont know about you all, but watching the stars of my youth playing out their careers while being an embarrassment to the game is absolutely heartbreaking to me.  I like how football does contracts with a portion being guaranteed and a portion, typically the last year or two not guaranteed.  Football contracts are typically much shorter.  I think it’s partially steroid related, but these baseball players seems to hit a cliff in their low 30s now.  Obviously this isn’t true for all players, but these massive contracts seem terrible for the game.  
 

any thoughts on how to make baseball contracts better? The obvious answer would be to not give out foolish contracts, but that always happens as gms are understandably short sighted.

 

[How Much Do You Credit the Elias/Sig Development Methods for the Teams Offense]

55 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

That is exactly how I see their approach. The O's comparative advantage the last three years has been near unlimited opportunity to try out random castoffs. Contenders can't carry multiple DFA guys and Rule 5 picks. Teams with rich farm systems have to protect more guys on their 40 Man Rosters. They have gone through a lot of chaff to get to the wheat but they have found some value in the process. 

Certainly the O's developmental people haven't done any harm. 

Yeah good point.  Being bad has a lot of advantages from a playing time standpoint.

[How Much Do You Credit the Elias/Sig Development Methods for the Teams Offense]

55 minutes ago, murph said:

I've been wondering the same thing and on the pitching side as well, but impossible to quantify what is just natural talent coming through and what is analytical changes to the players game unless they specifically site something they changed with a player.  Regardless, I just hope we keep seeing positive results and start working our way out of this rebuild sooner than later, really been enjoying competitive Orioles games of late. 

That's exactly what I was thinking as well.  Its hard to tell what is just natural talent and what is the new processes.  I was expecting this team to be far worse and I am encouraged about the team.  I think the only real way to tell is to look over a 5-8 year time horizon really.

[How Much Do You Credit the Elias/Sig Development Methods for the Teams Offense]

Question for the O's faithful here.  How much stock/credit do you put in Elias/Sig's player development approach for some of the young guys on offense who are performing well?  Do you give their "process" a lot of credit for some of the successes with Nunez, Alberto, Santander etc?  Do you feel confident that, after a small sample size of their development process, that they can improve more players?

[Markakis hits 500th double]

I didn't see a thread posted on here (maybe I missed it), but Nick now has 505 career doubles.  That's incredible.  I miss him on the O's alot.  Still wish Sabathia didn't hit him in the hand that year.