Sanity Check

We all know you think you're passionate about your team and your ideas. but the way you continually insult people whose ideas you don't agree with, or who disagree with you, is incredibly childish. It's a form of cyber-bullying. I'd like to think you're better than that, and wonder why more people don't call you out on it. Maybe they know it won't change anything? Is it not possible to disagree without having to insult either the person or their thoughts? I know it's hard to self-reflect and realize that you constantly do this, and maybe make a change for the better, but I kind of expect some insults are now headed my way for trying to make this place a bit less hostile.

I would consider adding Tommy Pham in our McKenna/Slater role......he's a better bat and it pretty much guarantees that we'll be in the playoffs again. He always gets there. Yes, I'm serious.

So, you would be okay putting him in left field, or a you thinking of him platooning in right with Kjerstad?

I feel like they did it to entice pitchers on short-term deals to come here and now have their stats blow up.

The moved it back on one offseason, I don't see why they can't move it forward in one offseason.

Question for the baseball stats junkies that may very well know where to find this. Is there any data available that can tell us how many home runs the Orioles have lost to "The Wall" both this year, and since inception, and also how many our opponents have lost? It's easy to see it when we lose one, and it hurt us in both playoff games this year, but I'd love to know over a season, whether it has been worse for us, or better in terms of results. It still doesn't take away from the fact that a right handed free agent might find our dimensions detrimental to their results, and choose to go someplace that will look a lot better on the back of their baseball card.

I agree with this. The answer is simple, Tony Kemp was the guy who was let go to give Holliday his shot. Mateo and Urias were the backups at that point. Holliday laid an egg, and the rest is history. He wasn't blocked by Mateo, only given some time at the start of the season at AAA to get better prepared for the Majors, and maybe some service time manipulation, but it was clear he wasn't ready.

and yet there are a few posters in this forum who think that "pressure" is just a made up thing, and doesn't exist.

And its still astonishing to me how many Hangouters refused to recognize the reality of what many of us were pointing out, as if we were somehow seeing something that wasn't there. And telling us as much. I agree with everyone who says that the league adjusted to us.....and were not capable of adjusting to their adjustments.

I'd like to add another question. A serious one. How do we improve our first inning performance. We had a lot of 1-2-3 starts to games, unless Gunnar was hitting a home run. Who is the answer to a high OBP guy (or two) at the top of the lineup? All we have are guys we "hope" can do it, but hope is not a strategy. I'd prefer someone that has maybe proven it at the MLB level.

Technically, you did ask 12 questions. #'s 3 and 5 had two questions each in them.

One player having a really good year will matter if the other guys around him don't improve their overall approaches and results. Our issues in the 2nd half this year didn't come down to one player making a difference. the key to next year is a top of the order than can disrupts other pitchers early in games, something we failed to do a LOT this year.

This is such BS. Guys got hurt yes, but it wasn't the fill-ins that killed us in September, it was the regulars who we all expected to be better. What's the excuse for those guys? We expected the fill-ins' to create a drag on us, but certainly not the regulars who weren't hurt. Lets please stop with the injury excuse. Even if Westburg, Mountcastle and Urias were not in top form, the rest of the guys have to come up with a couple of runs in the playoffs, and they didn't. Next Man Up.....Did Not Happen.

Gotta say, in the postseason the past two years this team has played like a 55 win team. And you know what, I did "worry" about them in the postseason, both years, because they weren't crisp going into either one. If my team is going to be in the playoffs, I'd prefer that they show up and play quality baseball. This version is still pretty unwatchable.

O'Hearn does not have to be the RF insurance. There could be better options available as free agents or in a trade. As much as I hate to say this, it's time to remake the starting lineup with some more guys who put the ball in play. This won't be popular here, but guys like JD Martinez and Justin Turner (using them as examples) here bring leadership and they are historically not chokers.