Matt Bennett

Yeah Tate could be optioned. He hasn’t been impressive. But I don’t think we have to try too hard to protect Mike Baumann either. He really hasn’t shown anything in his 4 years in the MLB that warrants protection. I have a hard time seeing his survival if/when Wells, Perez, Bradish, Means return.

Nice having the backup C not be a complete nothing at the plate. We have a very good bench in general.

There's a line drive!

I recall. Wouldn't call it a pop-up. Not quite a line drive, too much hang time. That site called it a flyout, which is what I'd call it. Not sure if they use the term "lineout".

which can of corn are you referring to?

He'll be in the race for MVP

Still haven't seen Holliday hit one line drive

Machado (207 games) vs. Henderson (202 games) 1. 7.5 bWAR vs. 8.0 bWAR 2. 912 PA vs. 835 PA 3. 239 hits vs. 194 hits 4. 21 HR vs. 38 HR 5. 97 RBI vs. 115 RBI 6. 8 SB's vs. 15 SB's 7. .279 BA vs. 259 BA 8. .309 OBP vs. 331 OBP 9. .435 SLG vs. .493 SLG 10. .744 OPS vs. .823 OPS 11. 101 OPS+ vs. 130 OPS+ 12. All-Star + Gold Glove + MVP-9 vs. ROY + Silver Slugger + MVP-8 Henderson was clearly more advanced offensively upon debuting, but he was 13 months older. Machado was the more fluid defender I'd say. It's super close in my opinion.

Akin with a 5.00 ERA now.

Holliday is lost

We can just say impact = well above replacement level. Kremer is a great guy to have as our #5 as he would have been on Opening Day if not for the aforementioned starter injuries. I'm sure no one really thought Bradish would be AL Cy Young-4 in his second year in the MLB. That's a fantastic hit by Elias. That and getting Gunnar in the 2nd may be the most impressive things Elias has done? To answer your question, no I probably didn't think much of Bradish when we got him as an A Ball pitcher. Would I have bet he individually would be elite? No. But would I bet there'd be an elite pitcher in all the pitching prospects we got back for Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, Dylan Bundy, Jonathan Villar, Miguel Castro, Jose Iglesias, Cole Susler, Tanner Scott? Well I'd hope so. Out of them we got Bradish, Kremer, and Tate (1 elite SP, 1 decent SP, 1 reliever and a bunch of names we've forgotten). I'll take it. We'll see what we get any SP's out of the Trey Mancini and Jorge Lopez hauls. Now we're in a different position where we aren't selling off assets to get back dart throws. At this point, our conversation will get circular but it will take value in prospects or value in dollars or some combination of both to get more elite talent in the rotation. Don't expect to give middle tier contracts out and get back elite level performance. And I don't think we'll be able to maintain this ridiculous level our farm system is at forever. And we won't be able to have the luxury of sending off 12 years of Joey Ortiz and DL Hall type players for 1 year rentals every year.

Based on the current state of the organization, I'm curious to see what this homegrown rotation looks like. What are the odds there's an impact SP in Seth Johnson, Chayce McDermott, and Cade Povich? Pretty low. What are the odds all 3 are busts? Pretty low. A likely median scenario is you have 1 serviceable SP, a reliever, and a bust. Or something along those lines. I for one am much happier Burnes is in the rotation rather than Bassit, Eovaldi, or someone of that caliber. My preference would have been both once we learned about the Bradish + Means injuries. This time, we paid for the Burnes type front of the rotation pitcher in years of prospect control. I don't think that will always be a luxury we can afford. Almost an entirely homegrown lineup and a GM who has shown the ability to piece together a productive bullpen. The rotation is where you strike. But it takes investments. No reason the Nationals can sign Scherzer and go win themselves a World Series and that avenue of success building is cut off to our collection of billionaire owners running a bottom 5 payroll currently.

Exactly. What is the point of an almost entirely homegrown lineup if you skimp on pitching? Put simply, I don't see a way the O's can field an elite rotation during these golden years of almost an entirely homegrown lineup without a significant investment in capital to that rotation. We have Bradish (we'll see + big Tommy John risk?), Grayson, and Kremer (middle/back end guy) locked up for awhile. That's 3 and you need more than 5. We are already on our SP8 and it's April. Continually repeating the strategy of giving up years of control of very good prospects for a 1 year ace rental doesn't seem like the best way to preserve "long term health" of the organization, as Elias is always referencing. At some point, you get your guy, and you pay him American dollars to continue being your guy. Burnes is that guy for me. Maybe others have someone else in mind for that role. But it will cost.

Sorry. I’m treating John Means rehab assignment like Spring Training, which it is for him. And I ignore those numbers. There’s a chance Means shows no ability to get minor league hitters out like Dillon Tate last year and management has to make a decision. His AAA Era will not be good. But if he followed up this performance with a couple good ones, I won’t really care that his overall ERA is 10.00+ on his rehab assignment. the reference to 2017-2018 Tillman = good pitcher that didn’t have it anymore.

I think this is a little presumptuous. Means has only ever been effective at the big league level. So he had a couple duds on his rehab assignment. I never watch spring training games or peek at spring training stats and that has been a useful allocation of my time over the course of my fandom. Let's at least let his rehab play out before declaring him 2017-2018 Chris Tillman.