LTO's

Don't you think that's maybe what you're doing with what is a 50-55FV prospect with very real questions about whether he can handle LHP/be a plus defender at the big league level? Santander is at 119 wRC+ right now and was at 120 last year. He's essentially top 50 in all of baseball at that mark which I think is totally reasonable to expect throughout the rest of the season. Sure he's not a good outfielder but his bat plays and is important to this team. Despite the condescending manner in which you phrased the question, I think most scouts would actually disagree with you with regards to Cowser coming up and outplaying him. Maybe if they platooned him and picked his spots carefully but even then I doubt it. Would love to be wrong though. This FO obviously saw something in Hays which is why they tendered him a contract this year when they could've easily not. Is he going to end up as a 5 fWAR guy? Not sure. But he's flashed numerous times before and this year he's hit the ball hard and his defense has improved from the first month of the season. Honestly, as unlikely as it might be, I'd rather see Kjerstad get the chance first as I think he's underrated defensively, has more pop, is older and has significantly less platoon risk imo.

Hyperbole aside, the Nationals do not have a great fanbase. They are a relatively new team which should is a factor but we don't need to be giving credit to them that they don't deserve. Having lived there briefly and been around there my entire life I know that the Nationals are nowhere near the favorite team in a city that is already known for being a pretty crappy sports city. Every team besides the Capitals is in the bottom half of attendance in their leagues with some at or near the very bottom. The Nats have a new stadium in a great location in a highly populated/rich area of the country. They will always have a decently high floor for attendance in the near team because of that. But people don't really follow the team all that well. Their TV ratings are never good and frequently lagged behind the Orioles during the stretch in the early-mid 2010s when both teams were very good. In my experience, a decent pct of fans in that stadium at a given time are opposing fans, tourists or DC transplants who bought Harper of Soto shirshey and very loosely follow the team.

I remember Keith Law saying Fabian was undraftable for him because he "can't hit a breaking ball."

1. Holliday 2. Mayo 3. Kjerstad 4. Cowser Mayo is reaching untouchable status for me in a trade. They'd have to really get a haul of players with some years of control left for me to move him at this point. Kjerstad is another that I'd have to be blown away to move. I'd be ok with anyone else being traded this deadline.

Frazier's season so far has been incredibly weird but kind of awesome to watch. 1.084 OPS vs Boston 1.333 OPS vs Toronto .833 OPS vs New York Against everyone else, he's been boderline unplayable.

The only damper on such an amazing start is the fact that they are still somehow 5 games out of first. They would be in first place in any other division and in some of them would have a pretty decent lead. Silver lining is I suppose this kind of demanding, pressure filled experience will only help the young guys on the roster going forward.

Bellinger and Stroman would be a splash move. Bellinger is still a great fielder and baserunner and has changed up his approach at the plate although that has come at the expense of some power. Even still, he'd be second to only Mullins in OPS. I don't trust O'Hearn to be a contributor as this season goes along and I'm not sure what the plan is with Cowser. Either of those guys solidifying themselves as reliable players might make it redundant but Elias has shown a preference for raising the floor of the team with veterans instead of relying on rookies.

I highly doubt the Orioles were looking at the stats you cite when deciding to pull the trigger on that trade. They aren't looking at statcast bubbles or ERA or EV numbers over a 10 appearance sample. They surely have a more sophisticated evluation tool to couple with traditional scouting inputs from their coaches/scouts. They determined that it was unlikely Jorge Lopez was going to be the pitcher that he was in the first half going forward, or at the very least they determined his subsequent 2 years were likely to be less valuable than what Cano and Povich and the young guys could provide in the near to long term future. That appears to have been a good bet. You are trying to diminish Cano's effect on this trade by referring to him as a throw in. Sure, he may have been considered a throw in by the Twins but there is undeniably a reason the O's chose him to be the "throw in" over the probably dozens of other players they could've chosen. What you are arguing makes no sense now.

Feels like the big fish this year that will dominate the headlines leading up to the deadline will be Stroman.

I doubt the Tigers would trade Skubal with 3.5 years of team control left

Kjerstad is coming

Yes there are people saying that. And what's funny is that the OP you're responding to in no way shape or form said that the prospects should be kept in the minors "indefinitely". It is true that most prospects of the Westburg, Norby, Ortiz level do eventually lose value when they make the big leagues because the majority of the prospects at their consensus ranking aren't above average big leaguers when they make it up. The overall point is this isn't a concern for the FO right now. There is no harm in Cowser and Westburg continuing to play in AAA as the big league team continues to play at a 95+ win pace. They will get their chance or they'll be traded. It's not even June yet.

Eventually is that ever changing time where the Orioles are apparently going to lose all of the minor leaguers for nothing.

Yeah, if dumpster diving is signing a 2B who is top 10 in wRC+ in all of baseball for that position and a SP with a 2.52 ERA against the AL East, I'll live with that. If these guys falter down the stretch there are high level minor league guys to give some ABs to try and solve that issue. One of the more bizarre things on this board is people still insinuating the O's are in a tough spot with all of these minor league guys busting down the door when the exact opposite is true.

Finish that thought.....

You are right to a certain extent. When it comes down to it, they only won one playoff series and didn't win a single ALCS game in that time frame. The 15 years before that stretch makes it look better than it ultimately was though. If that's all this era produces, I'd consider myself pretty disappointed.

Adam Frazier and Kyle Gibson being the stars of this road trip has Elias feeling pretty good I'd imagine. Both have been great signings so far and integral parts of this early success. With Frazier in particular, it's hard to imagine any of the Norfolk bunch would've been an upgrade to this point. Plenty of baseball left.

Following the prompt.....late 90's Sammy Sosa. If it's what they did on the Orioles, give me Mussina.

This is a bit at this point, right? It's quite annoying to peruse the threads on here and seeing this practically exact same comment on every one.

Urias, Frazier and Mateo are not going to "cost" them any good players. I don't know why people keep saying this.

It's not an exact science, you're right. So the idea that there will only be a short acclimation period for these guys is FAR from a sure thing. They could bring up Cowser tomorrow and he could suck for months or even an entire year. Same for Westburg. If that happens, and you don't have the ML depth to weather that storm, you are screwed. There is nothing wrong with letting these guys play every day for a while in AAA, bring them up in the summer and pick their spots to maximize their value and then see where you stand at the end of the year.

Working wonders for Henderson. Who btw is way better of a prospect than anyone in Norfolk.

Does he? Frazier is top 5 in WAR on a team that's 24-13 and just outscored the two best teams in baseball. Highly unlikely any of the Norfolk infielders would outperform Mateo and Urias to date. Highly unlikely Cowser outperforms Santander, Mullins or Hays to date. Grayrod and Gunnar are far better prospects than anyone in Norfolk right now and have both struggled so far this season. It was smart of Elias to start the season how we have. It's impossible to argue otherwise.

Longest winded way of saying "I was totally wrong." Very impressive