FlipTheBird

And they’ve actually outdone that. The Orioles are 40-30 against teams above .500. Only Atlanta’s 40-25 is better. Several playoff bound teams (the Astros, for example, at 30-33) actually have losing records against opponents above .500.

We’ve got folks here that make it sound like they’ll commit hare kari after a scoreless third inning. Nothing brings out the crazy more than… the Orioles being successful. It’s truly astounding.

Yeah, that had nothing to do with the pitching matchup being Zac Gallen against the corpse of Rich Hill. They faced San Diego’s top 3 arms, in San Diego. It didn’t go their way. The Padres did not suddenly feel the need to try harder. It’s just baseball.

You think teams were taking them lightly? You think Machado gave the Padres some sort of rousing pregame speech because… Orioles? None of that is logical. Sometimes you just lose baseball games to talented teams.

Of course, Tampa *also* having one of the top 5 records in baseball has had *nothing* to do with the AL East remaining close.

I mean Dean Kremer left down 3-2 and they lost 5-2. They certainly needed to score more runs and Snell and Hader were key parts of why they didn’t… but the second half of your statement is a little aggressive. It’s not like Fuji or Cionel squandered a lead. Not good showings but we were trailing before either came in.

Well has thrown all of 6.2 innings since going down to Bowie, and the two appearances were purposefully a week apart. They’re taking very specific care of him. I do not expect to see him back up here in a starting role this season.

They day off and then Medina-Waldichuk-Sears is indeed a favorable weekend.

They’re building him up to it, for sure. Wasn’t just a flyer move by the FO - they saw something they liked a lot in Webb.

I was worried we’d gotten this far into a Game Thread without a doom and gloom post if this caliber. Whew. Saved us.

In terms of cutting into market size, yes, it was inevitable. And he had right to be upset about it. That said, the arrival of the Nationals had nothing to do with the Orioles already by then going on 7-8 consecutive losing seasons, nor did it impact the next 5-6 losing seasons. That remains, and always will, on poor overall organizational leadership.

You can dislike PA all you want for being a meddling owner that made some poor baseball decisions… but blaming him for the Nationals, rather than Major League Baseball (which created an incredible amount of carnage by first voting to contract two teams and then changing its mind, and then actively allowed the deterioration of the Expos after Montreal refused to build a stadium)…is pretty misplaced. PA tried to fight it. Given the bag DC offered the league, he had few options. That team was going to DC.

Allowing? MLB owned the Expos at the time. They *wanted* them in DC. And they were going to get what they wanted, no matter what. Angelos tried to get what we could in the TV deal. Which obviously has been problematic in itself. I am confused as to what you’re alleging, here.

Truthfully, it doesn’t benefit him at all to blast ownership or the organization or anyone here, even with all the shenanigans. For the length of his career he will be a public facing employee for somebody. So he’s got to consider every word he ever communicates, because he can’t take them back. They’ll be recorded forever. Making a professional statement like this, getting back to work and then moving on to the next career stop at his first opportunity are the smart plays. John Angelos has already done plenty of damage to himself - there’s honestly not much Kevin could say or do that hasn’t already been said/done.

Of anyone that works for the Orioles/MASN, I feel like Jim Palmer is the mostly likely to have literally no idea of what the Orioles Hangout is.

If Palmer has COVID then, yeah, I imagine they sent home everyone that's been sitting right next to him the last few days. So it'd make complete sense. However, this certainly makes it even more noticeable that Brown *isn't* there, given that hey, they've got a pretty good broadcaster that's been sitting at home lately and hasn't been around Jim...

Ah there are folks here that wouldn't trust any pitcher on this team, no matter what their numbers/current events were. And most of them are regulars in the Game Threads. This is not a place for positivity.

Do not bite on the Troll with 31 posts, man. Just ignore.

Jim Palmer is of course excellent, but I think Ben McDonald has rapidly grown into a fantastic color guy in his own right. Now if we wind up stuck with someone like Brad Brach taking a front seat in a color role because of his connections...it's a very, very severe downgrade.

That’s how misinformation spreads. People believing it because they *want* it to be true.

Agreed. And I know previously that some folks here didn’t like that KB could be a bit of a “homer” on air, but recent news could possibly suggest that was… how he was instructed to sound?

Major League Baseball has actively made great efforts to *not* have its teams relocate in recent decades. The Rays are a fantastic example of a franchise that really should pull up stairs economically, but haven’t. In Oakland they delayed years and years trying to make it work. In Montreal it took an incredible odd series of events - including local TV networks that actually wanted the team to pay for air time, and the league at one point voting to contract the Expos and Twins before changing its mind - for the team to fall into MLB hands and ultimately require a move. The city of Baltimore is actively trying to whatever it can to keep the Orioles. MLB knows that. The Angelos family is a regular throb in the side of literally whoever they deal with. After thr MASN dispute, MLB very much knows that. The franchise is messy, but it’s not physically relocating.

We get it, you think they’re doomed because they didn’t overpay for a 40-year-old SP at the deadline.

The first four cities on your list dwarf Baltimore in terms of population and market size. St. Louis admittedly has clung to baseball very closely, which is due in part to their incredible history of success but also, I think, to the fact that they at best were only ever borrowing the Rams. There are no shortage of gripes that can be dumped on the Angelos family, but there were periods where they spent, too. Just not always wisely. The Baltimore Orioles are second fiddle to the Baltimore Ravens and that was happening no matter what.

It would definitely appear as if the changes Manfred and his team have enacted, and the pretty substantial marketing campaign the league has bought into, has had the desired effect. Good on them.