IPlayGM

It made me chuckle that the thread topic was a question, and your post was the answer…guess there is nothing else to talk about…. ……..btw I agree with you.

My list would be: Westburg Gunnar Holliday Mountcastle Ohearn Mateo Mayo Cowser Hays Mullins Santander Adley MCCann This is with the caveat that they are okay with Mateo in CF at times. It would also mean than for this year, Holliday and Mayo were more part time players.

Yeah, definitely took care of business, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t see any data, but by my eye test he didn’t miss a ton of bats. It might just be that my hopes for him are a little too elevated. We will see.

With the Fangraphs article about running out of roster spots, as well as @Frobby posting about the potential of this being a better team this year than last, it got me thinking about what is the optimal roster for the Orioles. I thought there might be some variances so a good discussion topic. I know it has been discussed before, but now that we are into the season, what is your optimal 13 position players that you would expect to give the Os the best chance to win a World Series? I plan to do a separate thread on the pitchers.

Thinking the same thing. Almost looked in pain after a few pitches there.

This is important to me in discussing. Assuming health, which is a big assumption, this team in August should be better offensively and in the bullpen.

Only Roy is allowed to start reverse jinx threads…

To your bolded point, I had not really thought about this but it is certainly true. And while we will never truly know the answer, my guess is the biggest difference is talent. They are just better players. Definitely character and environment matter, but being more talented than the guy you’re going up against is probably #1.

Yeah I thought he pitched very well, just got kinda ambushed on that one cutter. I don’t even think it was a strike.

Exactly my thought, spoiled. When you graduate Adley, Gunnar, Grayson, Westburg, Cowser over a 2 year period, I guess you can get to thinking they should just keep coming. Also, remember Gunnar wasn’t Gunnar until all of a sudden he was.

Well at least Irvin stays in the rotation

It’s impossible not to love this team…

A month ago I would have called you crazy for the idea Mayo gets the Gunnar treatment…now I think I agree with you. As someone else said though, a lot can happen between now and then.

It’s Akin and it’s not even close for me. Baumann doesn’t trust his stuff, can’t have him pitching anytime it matters.

I am really interested to see if Fabian can be that super utility OF who can play all 3 positions plus…would be a real value to this team as currently constructed.

Playing baseball in the mid-Atlantic in March/April is not that fun.

It is one thing to predict a call-up/debut, but you kind of have to also predict the corresponding move. So if you say Mayo will debut in 4 weeks, are you saying that they will dump Urias at that point? If/When you say that, it doesn’t seem as plausible. O’s are in a tricky spot here where you have very talented guys that are close to ready to make their debut for a team that is a World Series contender. Certainly not impossible to accomplish, but tricky to navigate. Especially when there are multiple guys we are talking about.

I would be surprised if the answer is anything but activating Means. The bigger question is who goes, and besides DFA Ramirez I am not sure. I agree the logical choice for me at least is DFA Baumann, but I just don’t think they are ready to pull the plug on that yet, so optioning Akin could happen, although it certainly makes us weaker. I guess they could move Irvin into his bullpen slot for the time being.

I guess I mean if they don’t feel more comfortable playing him in RF than O’Hearn then there is an issue. I know it is more than just defense considered, but still.

If the answer isn’t Heston then they need to get rid of him.

It is a tough decision because Irvin has shown he can also do well out of the pen, where as Means hasn’t. I think it will work itself out even if the initial decision doesn’t end up being the best one.

And it certainly helps when McCann looks dangerous at the plate like he is right now.

Well to be fair to Sears he had to face our offense, Irvin didn’t. But man I really like what Cole has done, I thought once Means and Bradish came back it would be a pretty easy decision, but Cole is doing his thing. Going to be interesting what they do, not sure they will put Means in the bullpen. But adding Suarez, Perez and Wells to our bullpen and taking out Ramirez, Tate and ? should make it better.

I think some folks are correlating velocity with arm health.

Still a lot of things to shake out this year that IMO affects this decision. 1. Is Silent J the heir apparent to RF? 2. Is Beavers taking the next step and showing as a viable starting OF? 3. Is Fabian taking the next step to be a legit 4th OF who can play all 3 positions? I will be very surprised if Taters is on the team next year. Honestly I think that if he is it will be due to failure of the young guys to show out. Good thing for us is we have enough of them that I don’t think that will happen.