Otter
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Posts posted by Otter
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Great reports, but Norby is blocked by multiple players at either 2B or LF and Mayo is still working on a position. Too bad we can't get all these glowing reports on some starting pitcher prospects...I know it's just the first game but looks like McDermott is still having serious control/command issues. At some point all the coaching, metrics, tinkering have been exhausted and a pitcher is who he is. I'd guess he has a full year to improve control/command, and if he doesn't then he's in the bullpen next year.
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On 3/30/2024 at 1:36 PM, Natty said:
This bothers me.
Yesterday Baumann comes in and walks the first batter he faces.
How many times did this happen to us last year? It seems like this happens all the time to us.
Am I the only one who just can't accept this?
If I were manager we would have a rule for relievers. You come in and walk the first guy, you are done today.
I know that's not feasible with our bullpen.
Am I the only one who hates to see this happen?
Sorry for my rant.
Do you think the pitchers are trying to walk batters? Do you think a silly rule will stop them from walking batters?
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Diminished velocity with poor control and command after being out an entire year with elbow/forearm injuries...that usually does not portend well...
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Palmer is one of the few public figures who can balance confidence with humility. It's always a pleasure to hear him talk about the Orioles or baseball in general.
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90-93. I see a regression from last year due to the question marks in pitching staff and regression to the mean from the runners in scoring position numbers from last year.
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I agree they should, but I don't think Elias will. We had a logjam last year, and he didn't trade any top 10 prospects or veterans to alleviate the surplus.
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1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:
People say depth is a good thing and while that’s partially true, there is also a lot of problems with it.
If “depth” is keeping you from playing your best players, that’s a problem.
Agreed. Depth is very important, but if you have so much depth at certain positions that major league ready talented players need 2-3 serious injuries to even get a shot then you probably need to make a move. Deep depth is needed with pitchers because they have so frequently have long-term serious injuries that some never even make it back from. That is much more rare with position players, so trade from the position player surplus (either the guys who aren't getting a chance or the veterans blocking them) and stockpile pitching.
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9 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:
Mayo just became more important to this season. We need to score some runs.
Definitely agree we're going to have to score more runs with the pitching troubles. However, Mayo doesn't have a clear path to playing time in the majors right now unless we have some trades or injuries.
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16 hours ago, RZNJ said:
Sounds like they care about their players as people. Good stuff. Most don’t make it.
Yeah, that's possible. But it also makes business sense too; good PR and a good program to brag about when courting players.
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40 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:
I believe they will settle in, at some point, with Westburg at second, Holliday at SS and Gunnar at third. I don’t know if that is this year, next year or the year after but eventually, I feel that’s where it ends up.
Mayo does come into play here as well but if he looks good enough in RF and first base, I think that’s what they do with him.
The one thing I do hope they eventually do is stop moving every one around and let these guys settle in at one spot. That’s not to say in freak occurrences you don’t move them if needs be but overall, this is your everyday spot. I feel like these guys will get into a better rhythm at the position when that happens.
Agreed. I think versatility can be good when it's needed, but for the elite prospects I like having them find one main position and play it 95% of the time so they can perfect it. For a guy who profiles as a utility guy (Urias, Mateo, Vavra etc.) it's great to have them play multiple positions, but for your starters I'd rather have them master one position than be pretty good at multiple positions.
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4 hours ago, RZNJ said:
A guarantee over 3M. I’m a little surprised he scored a ML contract at all. Amazing stuff but inconsistent as all hell and NY is not the place for pitchers who look like they’re barely keeping it together on the mound.
If I’m an NL East hitter I’m investing in body armor and a helmet with a face guard.
This. I usually hate it when fans try to guess what's going on inside a player's head, but with Fuji he just screamed lack of confidence. I remember some of his quotes when he was traded to us were bizarre and showed a complete lack of confidence. NY is the last place he should be going...
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2 minutes ago, MCO'sFan said:
I have been on hundreds of domestic calls. I lost my professional bearing exactly three times. All three on domestics. You can make the same argument with any offense. If they got one DUI then they've committed 50. That's a straw man argument to me. I will repeat, I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT URIAS' SITUATION. I too am generalizing. I have also been on dozens of domestic violence calls that were bogus. But, in many cases the statutes around the country have been changed from may arrest to must arrest. Let me be clear. I am not making excuses for any person who commits domestic violence. I just know that sometimes, there is more to the story.
I agree; I've seen many bogus reports and false claims. But with all the evidence against this guy, I don't see that being the case at all here.
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1 hour ago, MCO'sFan said:
Maybe it is my experience in law enforcement but just because someone is arrested and even charged, doesn't mean they are guilty. It doesn't even mean they did actually committed a crime. I have no information regarding Urias or these incidents. I am talking in general terms. I don't think an arrest without any further actions should matter from a baseball sense. This is not a political statement.
If you worked in law enforcement you know that a small percentage of domestic abuse actually gets reported, and even less result in an arrest and prosecution. I certainly don't know the details, but my guess is if this guy has been arrested twice then I'd bet my 401k he's engaged in domestic violence many many more times. Domestic violence is pattern behavior, and not usually just a "he's having a bad day" and let's not judge him for his worst day kind of thing...
I admit I'm generalizing and don't know him or the details of his cases but often where there's smoke there's fire with these kinds of situations.
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54 minutes ago, RZNJ said:
They aren’t going to pull the plug on a 10M investment after 3 bad starts like they did with Irvin.
No, not after three starts. However, they did trade for Irvin so they still expended resources to acquire him and they were very quick to demote him. My guess is they would move an underperforming starter to the bullpen after about 6-7 poor starts if they had invested 10+ million.
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3 minutes ago, RZNJ said:
Michael Busch repeated AAA at age 25, improved his ranking on most outlets a d was traded for a high upside LHP in Jackson Ferris a few weeks ago. Busch is now 26. It's all a out other teams perceptions. Is anyone dumb enough to think Joey Ortiz is less talented if he's 6 months older.
Yes, that's true. However, professional athletes have a small window of peak physical ability and they know they need to maximize those peak years for the benefit of their career and money making opportunities. If we hold onto a prospect until he's 27-28 and then eventually release him or leave him unprotected in the Rule V, his value is greatly diminished and he will be less likely to get a legit shot with another team than if he was 24-25. You pointed out one good exception, but a few exceptions don't disprove the general rule that age is a factor in how teams look at prospects and their value.
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30 minutes ago, waroriole said:
Yes they will sign a poor man’s Gibson and force him into starts.
I agree... my guess is they will sign a Gibson type on a one year contract, and give him starts at the beginning of the season. However, I do believe they won't hesitate to take him out of the rotation if he's failing....which they did with Irvin last year.
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27 minutes ago, waroriole said:
It’s hardly an injustice, that’s silly. Stowers and Ortiz got called up last year and hit poorly.
It's just as silly for you to cite incredibly small sample sizes of Stowers and Ortiz hitting poorly. Yes, the logjam will work itself out somehow, but the question is will it work out in a way that maximizes our assets (either by giving them legit major league opportunities or trading them while they still have value). None of us know the answer to that question right now, but I do think Elias needs to do something about this good problem this offseason or by the trade deadline.
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37 minutes ago, Number5 said:
Yeah, you did say that. In fact, you just now said it again. Your claim that Elias hasn't included any Orioles top 10 prospects in any trade discussion simply doesn't ring true to me.
You're misinterpreting my post again. None of us know what Elias is discussing in these trade talks, whether he is or isn't including certain prospects. The point of the original post was to guess what type of pitcher if any the O's will acquire before the season starts. My theory is we can only judge on results, so my guess was that since he hasn't made any bold signings or trades since he's been here that he'll acquire another Lyles/Gibson type starter on a short term deal. My intention was not to imply Elias won't even discuss top prospects, just that he hasn't traded top prospects yet.
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2 hours ago, Number5 said:
So you're saying that Elias didn't include any of our top 10 prospects in any trade discussions? I don't believe that for a second.
I didn't say that, just pointing out that he hasn't done that yet.
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6 minutes ago, RZNJ said:
Let me know when you hear the fat lady singing.
She's getting warmed up...
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3 minutes ago, RZNJ said:
Past behavior includes one off season when we were in what I’d call buy mode. If Elias was a hitter we’d call that a SSS.
That's true. But this offseason is almost over, so we're close to two offseasons and one trade deadline with us being in buy mode and no bold moves yet.
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Past behavior is often the best predictor of future behavior. We've had enough offseasons of the Elias/JA regime to use their actions to interpret what they're comfortable with and what they're not. It appears JA won't pay for multi-year FA deals, and it appears Elias isn't comfortable trading any of his top 10 prospects for a veteran starter. Therefore, I say the most likely outcome is a one year free agent contract for a #5 type starter who is slightly better than our existing #5 starter options.
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Was playing in a high school baseball tournament in Anaheim, and our hotel was close to the Angels stadium and where the visiting teams stayed. Saw a lot of players in the hotel lobby, elevators, and restaurant, and most were very nice and gracious. I remember Kirby Puckett having a nice conversation with all of us on the elevator one day. On the other side of the spectrum was Randy Johnson. We were eating breakfast at the hotel restaurant and saw Johnson sitting at a table by himself. A father and young son approached him politely, apologized for interrupting and asked for an autograph. Johnson stared at him for a long while, gave him a nasty look and said "get the hell away from me, I'm eating breakfast!" I certainly get being annoyed with being bothered by fans all the time, but you're making millions of dollars to play a game and you could at least be cordial to a young kid...
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Outside of our big 3, I don't have any real anxiety about trading any of our other prospects (depending on the return of course). That being said, I'd really prefer not to trade any of our higher level pitching prospects (Povich, McDermott) because of our lack of depth in that area. The whole reason we're looking to trade for a starting pitcher is because of the lack of depth in that area, and if we're trading pitching prospects to acquire a pitcher we're essentially perpetuating the problem.
The Defense Thread, 2024
in Orioles Talk
Posted
Agreed. O'Hearn is just a below average outfielder and should be relegated to 1B/DH only. It's also ironic for all the talk from Elias and Mansolino about the importance of defense and having plus defenders at every position they put O'Hearn in the outfield. Is O'Hearn better defensively at RF than Holliday is at 2B??