BrendanPlutschak

I completely agree with this. Elias has not hinted like literally at all about him starting the year in AAA. Every single time that the topic has come up, he has said that the plan is for him to make the Opening Day roster. As much as the "wheels up" comments kind of backfired on him, I can't imagine him going from that, to saying that that's the plan with Grayson, just for him to start the year in AAA anyway.

So there are 2 things that I really dislike about the pitch clock. Number 1, and easily the biggest problem that I have with it, is that I do not like that I'm going to most likely spend more total time in my drive to the stadium and home from the stadium, then I'm going to spend at the actual stadium. Living on the Eastern Shore, driving a little over an hour each way, I actually want to spend 3 hours in the stadium. Now on the flip side, I don't want to spend 4 and not get home until 1 AM, but I want to spend more then 2 hours there also. Number 2, I don't want the game to feel "rushed". And part of that is just getting used to it which will eventually happen, but even after getting used to it, I still feel like 15 seconds just is quite an extremely fast number for a pitcher to catch the ball, get on the rubber, choose which pitch he wants to throw (especially at the end of a game in a crucial situation), and throw the ball. I'm not opposed to speeding the game up and preventing the 4 hour baseball games. I just think they could have done a 30 second pitch clock which most likely would have prevented the 4 hour games, while also preventing the two biggest concerns that I have with it above.

I COMPLETELY agree with this. Elias has done an INCREDIBLE job building this organization up from where we were when he took over, to where we are now. But that is within the draft and trading for prospects and "building the foundation" for this rebuild. However, this team is not going to win a world series with our current 40 man roster. There are other moves that are going to need to be made to get finishing pieces. It's yet to be seen how Elias is going to do that and how well he will succeed in doing it. I also completely question the Frazier signing. Maybe he absolutely rakes and it'll answer itself. But signing an average 2nd baseman when we already have Mateo, Henderson, Urias, Westburg, Ortiz, Vavra, etc etc etc to be able to play that position is very puzzling to me.

So I absolutely hate the shift and was so happy that they got rid of it this offseason. However, I'm okay with this risk if teams want to take it. With the old shift, the argument was just bunt, or hit it opposite field where there was no left fielder so it turned into a double. Power hitters didn't want to bunt for a single, so they took the risk against the shift. With this new shift, a ball into left field could legitimately be an inside the park homerun, or a triple at worse, so if teams want to take this risk against pull hitters, I'm okay with it.

If it's simply a patch on the arm, doesn't bother me at all. Obviously, the advertisements on these jerseys can't get really out of hand, but if it stays as a patch on the arm, completely irrelevant to me.

Yes but the payrolls haven't been as bad as everyone has alluded to. In the late 1990's when they were AL contenders, they had the #2 payroll in 1997 and the #1 payroll in 1998. Then in the early 2000's, that run of 15 straight seasons below .500 began. The team was just a trainwreck, and honestly weren't close to competing. And still at the early stages of that they signed former MVP Miguel Tejada to a contract. And from 2003-2006 had the #13, #20, #14, and #15 payrolls in baseball, So in years where they were averaging around 70-75 wins a year, they were still middle of the pack in payroll. They just weren't run well and were signing old guys way past their prime. Then as discussed above, they start competing again with Buck in 2012, and boom right back into the top 10 in payroll. Have they had times, especially over the last 5 years of this "strip it down to the bolts" rebuild where they've been at the bottom of the pack? Absolutely. But the notion that is out there that Angelos has just had a bottom 5 payroll throughout his ownership is just completely false. Again, I need to see what John is willing to do.

Completely agree. There was a period of time where we thought and hoped it could be Mountcastle. Again, I think Mountcastle has breakout potential, but I'm not sure if he's ever going to be that 40 HR guy. He's a number 5 or 6 hitter on a World Series team. Mayo's bat has the potential where you don't care about defense. You find a spot for him somewhere if the bat turns into that middle of the order potential.

So I have always defended the Angelos' family when fans say that they aren't willing to spend money. In 2016, when the Orioles were in the middle of their winning stretch, they had the 10th highest payroll in baseball. They were willing to extend contracts and pay guys like Adam Jones, Chris Davis, JJ Hardy, Darren O'Day, Ubaldo Jimenez. Now whether they were smart deals or not is a COMPLTELY different question, but they spent the money. Having said all of that, that was all before John Angelos' had control of the reigns like he does now, so there is a small part of me that has questions over how high of a payroll he is willing to have. Time will tell. We don't need top 5, but history shows you need to be around the top 10 to win a World Series.

So excited to watch Mayo this year. As great as our system is, the one thing that we've been missing throughout the entire process in my opinion is a legit "middle of the order bat". A 40 HR guy. Adley is not a cleanup hitter. There's a chance Gunnar is, but I don't think Gunnar is that 40 homerun cleanup hitter. The 2 guys who have that best opportunity in my opinion are Mayo and Kjerstad. So very excited to see how Mayo's bat progresses this year.

In a nut shell, Wells should be in the mix. He was incredible in the bullpen as a rookie. Last year his numbers were very good as a starter except his strikeout numbers. But there have been multiple reports and stories about how his strikeout numbers were low on purpose, because he was trying to get outs early in counts to preserve his pitch count. My concern with putting the best 5 guys in the rotation, and then putting Wells, Hall, and Voth in the bullpen, is who's coming up when there are injuries? Because we know that there's going to be some. If there's enough "long man" opportunities to keep all 3 of these guys stretched out in the bullpen, then we are in BIG trouble as a team.

That's 150% the more fair reasonable argument. Give me Bassitt and Irvin and don't sign Gibson. That's probably the icing on the cake for sure.

The Bassitt signing was probably the only one I would've offered, but I think I would've rather done the Irvin trade then the Bassitt signing, which is the only reason I'm okay not doing it. Before the Irvin trade, Bassitt easily would've been my answer.

Does he have options? He's an extreme longshot when the bullpen is completely healthy, but being someone who can go up and down through the season could be a very valuable guy.

That makes sense if you're trading Santander. If we keep Mountcastle, Santander, Stowers I don't think there was enough time to give to either of those 2. But for sure a trade would've opened it up for them. I think I prefer Santander over those guys.

Agreed. She's not terrible on radio, but her niche is pre and post game.