drjohnnyfeva

Whatever the future looks like in drafting and acquiring players internationally, I believe the idea/ practice described above is essential to our long term sustainability as year in and year out competitors. Excellent posts! We have to be willing not to keep every star we might create. There's sometimes value in dealing; early better than late or not at all.

Are you suggesting a package deal?

State media would never allow such a throuple, but if they pair Garceau with Jeremy Conn and "Dundalk" Jason LaCanfora like old Thursdays on The Fan, I'm in! Comedy hour! They could do pre, post, and the game broadcast- - - that would be a SHOW. "Dundalk" doesn't even have to talk baseball. He can just do color and tweet random Ravens info. Throw Ken Weinman in too. He could be the play-by-play.

I know Tom Davis is a sort of Master at this. He'll probably pop back up on MASN or WJZ. He'll just buy his own time from them as he's done with football and baseball shows on WJZ before. He'll get a sponsor to pay a certain amount for the desk to say "Weis" or "Eskay" or "Utz or all of them. It'll be enough to pay the on-air fee, plus more to pay himself. That's what those hilarious Mars fliers and picking your favorite snacks with Dave Johnson were all about that a poster above mentioned... sponsorships. Programming thru sponsorship using time on the local stations that would otherwise be devoted to infomercials.

The Angelosii would never do that, tho. Too much unfettered criticism of the club... It is pretty crappy that they are doing this now as Brittney Girolli pointed out. With the other furloughs through the system, this is beginning to feel like inheritance tax saving measures or outright sale...

I'm maybe the only person NOT on twitter, but when I read that it made me laugh. Bring back Brother Lowe!

Awful! I was going to mention him but you beat me to it. Was sort of glad when the O's told him, "SEE YOU Later!"

I'm gonna miss Thorne, Tom Davis, and Dempsey. Enjoyed their delivery and enthusiasm as much as anything. It's sad when the voices you get very used to are no longer there. Tom Davis cackling at every quip Dempsey threw always cracked me up. Would have rather done some creative accounting to defund and disembark Chris Davis instead of excising these more valuable pieces to the club.

Well, you're not wrong, Chewy. But you sort of show my point with your numbers... Each one of these guys has exactly one ring. That's a huge money commitment from a team for one ring. And if you look at the teams they won with, except maybe the Astros, despite injuries with all of them for parts of seasons, were with large market teams. Verlander's WS win came after being traded. So that could be seen as a Darvish-type salary dump... Scherzer, Price, Kershaw are each 200M players - Price 7yr/197M, Scherzer 7yr/210M, and Kershaw 3yr/93M (ext. 2018). Price would have had two if he hadn't opted out this year. But for me, this season will always be asterisked. It will be interesting to see if the Steven Strasburg and Patrick Corbin deals pay off. The Nats have devoted a whopping 75M to SP this year (Scherzer/Stras/Corbin) anything short of winning a WS with that kind of money devoted to 3 pitchers would be a failure, imo. I'm not against acquiring a salary-dump contract for a year or two. I just don't think the value of these contracts are ever truly realized.

I think this is accurate. Hopefully the day of overpaid oft-injured pitchers is a thing of the past, especially for us. I was so happy when the BoSux signed David Price. Crippled them to go after other players that could play important bit roles and even starting roles if injuries occurred. Yu Darivsh, Price, Clayton Kershaw and others will help to get you to the Playoffs IF they remain healthy, but will let you down in the end - as all of them have demonstrated. Even Verlander, Scherzer, and Smiley in the years when we were Playoff/WS contenders, 2011-2015 couldn't manage completely healthy seasons OR a WS Championship. So other teams can continue to pay guys crazy money to starters that simply don't pay off... Who thinks the short season helped Clayton Kershaw this year? Hand raised here... Another 30-40 games and Kershaw's arm would have been a noodle again. As a move to take a guy like these on a salary dump who could, might, maybe be nursed thru a year or two to help an already great club win, it could be a smart move. I don't know the value of the prospects SD gave up, but I would not really be inclined to give up much and I think a lottery ticket or two analogy is about right. Arms are made of glass and so are the personalities that possess those arms. Pitchers are the WR's of baseball... maybe that's a bit too far, but you get my drift.

I look at Merv as a slightly above average lunch-pail guy. Would that be accurate? I love those kinds of players in all sports. Like Patrick Ricard on the Ravens. Kelly Gregg, also... NT leverage master extraordinaire. These kinds of players, regardless of sport, are essential in teams. My friend and I dabbled with that game and a Pro Wrestling one like it in the late 70's and 80's.

Millar is a Red Sock... I like him. He was a goof on the team at a time when we needed a bit of a goof... actually, a pretty competitive goof. He was good for us. I like him best on TV, tho. Reynolds for similar reasons. I think he was a decent player, but he was a great clubhouse guy. If Davis continues to play, it would almost be laughable to put him in for as terrible as he has become. It would almost be like putting a spotlight on the suck.

Who makes the election and/or decision on scouts, executives, and non players, I wonder (...not really, as it doesn't bother me.) But the one thing that would suck is if these types of elections were like the Hollywood Walk of Fame where there are lobby groups that pay huge stipends to the owners/ administrators of the "Walk" who then select but a few each year based on some kind of vote. I have no clue whether that scenario exists with the individual club Halls, but whatever they're doing, player-wise, at least, it seems pretty accurate. Yet if there were players who didn't get in who are hurt, as you say, and able to "lobby" some election committee, they can create their own hype in an attempt to get in. I'd love to see Mark Reynolds and Kevin Millar in, just because they were "fun." I don't think there's anything objective to be measured there, tho. And I'd bet there'd be a lot of disagreement on that. Chris Davis is fighting against his cause...

I was remarking more on the "unheralded" aspect of the two players more than the numbers... Clearly from some of the players in the O's Hall, numbers are not the only consideration. Dauer, as you point out, is one of those examples. I think there's room for both, yet I remain impressed by what I've learned number-wise about Merv.

I don't disagree with any of this. I am right on board completely with the comparison to Rich Dauer, tho. He was the first guy I thought of on my teams who I thought Merv was probably like in that slightly earlier era. Dauer is in, btw. But when you have office people - not to diminish their role - but kinda the polar opposite of your Ellie Hendricks example of someone who everybody knows and loves, it seems like some Merv-ish types maybe deserve a little more consideration. I was kind of surprised Terry Crowley wasn't in there, if for no other reason than he was made eternally famous from Earl's famous Manager Corner segment. ?

It's funny that I was just looking thru my baseball cards back in the summer with my son. Merv was one of my first and most cherished because he was an Oriole; but I had never looked at his numbers like I did with the players I grew up with in the mid and later 70's. The numbers from the OP are pretty remarkable. In 1971, he was the #19 finisher in MVP voting. He was #6 of 9 Orioles to finish in the top 28 of MVP voting that year. Frank Robinson finished at #3 and Don Buford finished at #27. CRAZY! Merv is the only regular OF of that era left out of the O's Hall; while platoon players, who I love from my generation, Brother Lowe and Gary Roenicke basically combined to be Merv. They are ranked as the #34 Oriole on Camden Chat... Induct Merv.

...or catching the mop up pitcher... Play him in every ridiculous scenario. Pinch run him with man on first, two outs in the 9th, and down by 6 and comment on his speed on the base paths. Frankly, I think trotting him out there pretty regularly to show how he hasn't done any of the work, training, or adjustments he claims to have been doing over the off-season is his just desserts. But I think even that needs to come to an end eventually because there has to be someone (multiple players) behind him who legitimately deserve the time. Also, allowing the on-air staff to embark on Bordick-like criticisms of him on a more regular basis might begin to turn the tide of the "average fan" who still idolizes him and looks at these last few years as just a tough time for a struggling star. When Elias says he's under contract and we'll use him as need dictates, it makes me wonder whether ownership is in on the possible "humiliation" aspect of actually playing him simply because he's being paid or whether they are uncertain about the reaction of the average fan, and just paralyzed to act for fear of some kind of backlash or negative press about just dropping him. Pandemic or not, I can't imagine attendance would be very brisk anyway. So barring the whole, you're being paid, so we'll use you despite the futility of doing so, seems like the only reason to keep him around. Unless there is real belief/fear in the FO or ownership that him being released and signing on with another team would lead to some kind of renaissance and thus double the O's humiliation... CD's remarks are still baffling. Is he goading them? Is he really as dumb as those statements come across? And is there anywhere else in professional sports where something like this happens? It's comical and sad at the same time.

And who could have imagined he'd branch out into pottery??!! No time to hit the batting cage right now, got some glazing and firing to do. Onion and garlic jars... metaphorical isn't it... https://www.facebook.com/chrisdavispottery/photos/prepping-pots-for-glazing-waxing-onion-and-garlic-jars-before-washing-and-so-it-/292596211348467/

The Sun article... “I don’t want it to end the way that things have gone the last few years for me. I think there’s more of a story to be told but as far as my contract is concerned, it is what it is. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not giving up. I’m not throwing in the towel. I understand the club is in a position right now to where they’re trying to cut payroll, and I’m the one big lump that they’re kind of stuck with. But they knew what they were signing up for when they took the job.” Now, he’s spending every winter trying to figure out a way to be productive again, and doing so in a rebuild that he’s found himself questioning. “It’s tough to really know what to make of it right now,” Davis said. “I think there’s no doubt that we’re in a rebuilding phase and I just personally, I kind of wonder where that rebuild is headed. Are we talking a complete rebuild? Are we talking we’re going to try to start things over from scratch and only have younger players, players that this new regime has drafted, that they’ve brought in? I think that they’re trying to get the most out of the guys that we have now, and I think that means you’ve got to lose some of the guys that have been productive for you.” What a maroon! smh Time to flush...

I haven't seen anyone mention CD's bizarre comment about the rebuild that he made... "I wonder where that rebuild is headed. Are we talking a complete rebuild?" It was longer than this is the article I read - but I can't locate now... The guy is a mess. I understand the club not wanting to just flush money down the toilet, but if he's saying things like he's quoted as saying behind the scenes, "...they knew what they were going in for when they signed the contract..." to team mates and/or coaches or whoever who might be extending themselves in good will to rehabilitate him, he's exactly that negative influence I was fearful of infecting a young team. Shameless. It's not just a Showtime show! If he comes back and has not worked at it. He deserves to be trotted out there in the most ridiculous situations as each game dictates. Mop up duties on the mound. Catch for the mop up pitcher. Bordick had to have gotten the green light to throw some shade on this disaster.

Nicorette is available. How about we all chip in and send him a case... He can chew 10 at a time then. He'll back to his old self in no time!

Getting caught another time would put him out for a year... Wait, what did I just say?! Dose at will!

...this is a 76 year old guy, tho, who you'd think should know better by now. Maybe his liver is so decrepit a single glass of wine really does just knock him out. I'm dubious on that as there have been rumors of his partying for years. Old dog, same tricks...

As a kid of the 1970's, my hatred of the Yankees is well ingrained by now. I happily vote WS where the Skanks lost pretty high. Not higher than those our Orioles won, perhaps, but no Yankee win would occur before either of those two criteria are met. And then there is every other team in the league to consider ahead of any NY win. I don't think a Yankee win would even occur in my list... Sadly, it looks like Scott Van Pelt only had one measly vote.