drjohnnyfeva

We can still do it, but this is a real test here. They can't drop any more like the last couple. Seattle staying in meltdown mode is probably our best chance, but we're still gonna need to 7-3 or better. Gonna be tough, but they've shown all year they have the mettle; so let's go O's!

It's all just sad. Every time things start going well, it's tempered - or even deflated - by this family. I appreciate what John has done and would hate to see Elias be a casualty of the on-going drama of the Angelos family; but there always seems to be an undercurrent or riptide flowing thru the organization because of this ownership group. I remember being so happy that there was local ownership when the team was purchased. But almost from the beginning, they've managed to be little less than shameful in the handling of the club. I can't imagine either brother giving in, which means trouble on the horizon. Sad after such a fun year of baseball.

Yep... beats the shift too.

We'll have to see how it works out, but having a Playoff that whittles down to four teams in one division sort of alienates the rest of the league's fans to the postseason, I would think. It's an anomaly to have 4 anyway. Maybe it's just me. I like the match-ups you don't see often in the normal run of the season. Which is also why I'd like a more balanced schedule. But none of this is really part of the discussion here, so let's all just root for a total collapse of the Yanks and then there will only be 3 East teams in anyway.

Absolutely fantastic. I love when the Yankees fail. What the league should really notice is how competitive this division is, tho. 3 or potentially 4 teams in the Playoffs from one division is not good for the game, imo. The Yanks falling out completely would be so satisfying!

I love the teams that have great chemistry. They just seem to be having a lot of fun playing and being around each other. I think Brandon Hyde is doing a fine job and the players just seem to like each other.

This kind of speculative article tells me two things. 1 - We have desirable players that other teams covet. 2 - Our farm system has players that want to take a chance on. Reading the tea leaves of what these articles mean in reality to us. We're doing very good. We need to keep to the path, however, and not get bogged down by taking on payroll for teams who are likely entering the kind of rebuild that we are still in the midst of. Trout is one of those. Pass.

Still one of my favorite cards... The Sam-my, Sam-my chants were great.

You're not wrong... but this is the stretch that matters and there are heightened expectations. Not a good start, for sure. We just went 7-10 in a stretch against crappy teams where some, including me, would have been happy with 5-5. As I said before that one started, this stretch is the one that matters. They gained a little room with the last 10, but this is the one. If they go .50 on this 10 game stretch they are in or .5 out of the WC. But I get what you're saying. They looked flat. A little flat. It happens. Let's see their bounce-back. They have to be feeling it too.

Thank goodness. Best place for info and conversation on the O's by far. You've always done a great job with this place, Tony. Glad that it's going to continue!

Your ringing endorsement is exactly the reason I don't think it happens. Would we really get any reasonable return if that's the way a buying team sees Trey?

I voted no. Not because I think they aren't trying, but more because Trey just doesn't stir the drink. I mean, he is who he is: a great team mate, a sometimes above average hitter, a reliable fielder... but the reasons why we are completely unsure this is going to happen are the reasons other teams are likely still shopping. I don't think how we are playing or the potential of a WC berth would restrain Elias in trading him for the right offer, but there's certainly no urgency to do it. I kind of think it just fizzles out and hope that that works out in our favor with him and other slumping hitters find their stride to help out on a WC run. It's been fun so far and I'm fine with it remaining that way.

With Tampa playing the harder schedule during this upcoming stretch, 5-4 would probably be ok, but 6-3 or 7-2 might gain us a little ground. I'm always dubious on the "easy schedule" hopes. The telling stretch is going to be the 10 game stretch from August 8th to 17th. 6 games against the Jays and 3 with TB. Of the 9, 6 are away games with those teams. Winning each of those series would put us in the WC.

Thanks for posting this article. It's a good read. BTW, I'm all for adopting the Pythgorian Model for calculating wins for the rest of the season.

My mother saved a lot of Orioles programs and memorabilia from the games she went to with her dad - my Pop. When I was 5-6-7 and just starting to play baseball, I found them in a box in the attic. It was like Christmas morning. I still have them and break them out for my kids. The coolest programs are the ones from the Playoffs and World Series from that era. That 1969 World Series always made me mad too.

I don't think it's too difficult yet. For me, guys on one or two year deals are up, anyone signed as a flier over the past two years who are doing well, arbitration eligible players. I don't think we are transitioning to the "win now" phase. I think there's another round of gathering prospects and trying to sell off some players like Mancini who maybe aren't part of the long-term plan of the team. As fun as they've been to watch, I think Elias is still in build and acquire mode than trying to make moves to maybe get a Wildcard. But he has to be pleased with what the team is doing right now.

Seem to have lost the ability to give reactions to posts... Am I missing a setting?

Let's make this simple... In the 1970's WINS are what won Cy Youngs. But let's go deeper... In 1979, JR "Rodney" Richard won 18 games. Flanny won 23! JR had 2 billion strikeouts to Flannys 190. JR's ERA was .271 and Flanny's was .307. JR had 98 base on balls to Flanny's 70. That's a clinic by today's standards in pitching efficiency on both their parts. Flanny earned that CY and helped take his team to the WS. ...Where I still lament losing to the "We are Family" Pirates, but I digress. JR Richard's Astros finished 2nd in the West and out of the Playoffs. There's nothing unclear about Mike Flanagan winning the Cy Young that year. He was the clear MVP of a team that made it to the WS. JR Richard - who I loved hearing about on TWIB with Mel Allen, respectfully was a SO, fireballer who was damn exciting to watch and contributed to his pen winning games. It was horrifying to see his career cut short. His Topps card is still one I won't let go of. The Astros might have been the model that the O's followed under Buck. No 20 game winners, but a bull pen that held and won. Flanny deserved his Cy!

The beer vendor serving sections 306-312.

Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And yep. The announcing is the same shtick that we heard from about 1999 thru 2011. "They really look like a team that could make some noise this year." Home town cheerleaders. Baloney. They still stink. I jokingly said when this rebuild started that my oldest would be graduating HS before we saw any progress. She starts HS this year. Seems like we're on track. Orioles in 2026, baby! First season to break .500, seems more likely.

When we first started going down there, just up at the end of that street with No Way Jose was a non-descript set of doors. Opening them led you to what used to be a wonderful theatre; really ornate and pitched to the stage. It had been converted to a batting cage... It had about 8-10 zones/ cages. There were a few slow pitch, maybe even a softball, and then a few others ranging from 40-90 mph cages. Tons of fun, especially after a few Stockade Amber Ales at Sissons.

Sisson's is what got me started down there in the early 90's. First brewpub in the city. Hugh Sisson, now of Heavy Seas, brewed some wonderful house beers that I still lament him not doing in his new digs as a revolving flashback tap. I was lucky enough to take my oldest to the Sushi place in the market before the whole thing closed down. Maybe 2015?? Could have been a little before that. Anyway, good luck with the book, that was a great area to hang out in back then. We were always there in '97 pre-gaming for the O's. Hope it's the same for the newer gen that's down there now.

Yes, he sealed his fate with his refusal to be traded!

Mussina never seemed into any of the idolization he had here. To me, he was never a Robinson-esque or Ripken-esque figure. I think some tried to make him that. But Mussina never embraced it and always seemed aloof to me. His signing with the Yankees turned a lot of fans against him, but evidently he succeeded in alienating the guys who decide the retired numbers even more convincingly.

I get offering the contract of 3/13M. It's not terribly costly and altho possibly hyperbole that it wouldn't hurt them and have no downside, what it does is kick the can of whether to deal the guy, if they can - if he recovers, down the road. Which is, sadly, the more telling thing to me if the club does offer such a contract. It signals we aren't close to competing. Which to me is even more ammunition to the conclusion that any reasonable offers on players of ours that are good now should be taken for draft picks and prospects. If he was traded or really on the blocks at all, he would/ should be some other team's concern at this point. He's now useless - potentially - forever to us.