Mr. Chewbacca Jr.

It's marketing. It seems like they intend to use the athletes as local celebrities in promotions. Basically the same as if the O's signed the Towson Tigers QB to make appearances at games and produce some social media videos about how fun a night at Camden Yards is. In the article, it says they're paying the student athletes with a $500 stipend, free tickets, and merch. Pretty cheap marketing if you ask me. Not sure that would really move the needle much in a city like Baltimore that doesn't really have a big athletics school - but I could see this approach working well in the South where high school football and college sports are a big deal.

You bring up good points - but I don't think the concern is that the O's are in last place. They were certainly expected to be a bad team. The issue is that Elias & Co. haven't really shown any ability to find talent outside of marquee draft picks. Add that to a MLB team that is struggling with basic fundamentals, young pitchers universally showing no progress or success under Chris Holt, and a farm system that quite frankly isn't a deep or good as the #2 Ranking suggests. The results of this rebuild so far do not justify the tanking Elias has put the team, the franchise, and what's left of the fanbase through. This team is absolutely terrible, and the last few years have been historically terrible - which is saying something for a team that had fourteen losing seasons in a row. The "plan" may be the "plan," but ultimately - the O's can't suck forever, they will need to draw fans again. Elias will need to figure out a way to show improvement in 2022 - otherwise he's going to be out of the job.

I agree. He makes consistent mistakes on easy plays. Today - a grounder is hit hard right at him, he hesitates, and can't turn a double-play. That's just basic, fundamentals baseball.

Kjerstad still hasn't played his first professional game. Diaz needs to be able to hit above his weight at AA. Mullins could be having a Schoop-like, one-year-wonder season for all we know. Hays has struggled to stay healthy and produce. DJ Stewart is DJ Stewart. If anything, they need more.

I don't think that's fair to say. Villar isn't the greatest player in the world - but he's versatile, has speed, decent with the bat, and doesn't break the bank. He moves around so much because teams are interested in him. The Jays traded for him last year during their playoff push. The Mets signed him this year and had every intention of being contenders.

I don't really understand this take. There is a middle ground between trying to "win" and being a historically awful team. Building a player development pipeline or having a decent MLB team don't need to be exclusive. Nobody is suggesting they sign Jay Paytons and Kevin Millars in hopes of putting together a few extra wins. They should be trying to find young, affordable MLB-capable talent that helps them win now and later. There's no reason to keep rolling Cesar Valdez, Maikel Franco, and the like every night.

I couldn't agree more. Adley and GrayRod look great, but as you mentioned, there are lots of question-marks and there is a serious lack of depth on the pitching side. I don't really see how they compete without adding lots of talent via free agency. I think this speaks to what the national writers are arguing - are this many 100+ loss seasons really necessary to accomplish the results thus far?

I don't really take a lot of stock in Farm System rankings. They're pretty arbitrary and depend a lot on the methodology of the publication. The O's moved up because other teams promoted their guys - the Rays would probably still be #1 if Wander Franco, Arozarena, Luis Patiño, etc still counted as prospects. The O's will drop when GrayRod and Adley are promoted. It's all kind of silly. Personally, I still think the O's Farm System is pretty top-heavy and isn't nearly as deep as it needs to be.

The NFL is a totally different animal. Teams that constantly lose do have difficulty pulling in fans, for example Jacksonville. But, two crappy teams playing on MNF in a meaningless game will draw more viewers than the World Series, NBA Finals, etc. The NFL and College Football is just a magical beast. I agree with you though - I'm not sure a salary floor fixes the problem, either. Teams still need to be well run and it doesn't really stop teams from stinking in sports that have salary floors. I think a comparison between MLB and English Soccer might provide an answer. I'd argue that the Premier League has a bigger problem with mega-rich teams dominating the standings than MLB. But with Premier League - they also have so many other side-competitions that you can be in last place and your team still has something to play for. They have two knock-out tournament cups, relegation, Champions League, Europa League. Perhaps what MLB's problem is they only have one competition and one trophy. Obviously, relegation will never happen - but I think more creative ideas could help. I think the Field of Dreams game and the national interest that came with it really shows that fans out there are interested in new and different things. Just for starters, what if there was a single-game, knock-out tournament that happened throughout the season? And, rosters could expand for this tournament to include a team's top prospects and maybe recently-retired veterans, so that the regular 26-roster doesn't have to be used up?

Where are you getting the information about money being put into escrow every year? I searched online, on Twitter - and the highest results are actually your posts on the Hangout. I know you know your stuff - so legit curious to learn more. Either way, we're talking about less than $6m in both 2021 and 2022, $3.5m from 2023-2032, or a combination of the two. That's relatively little for a major league team and quite frankly, should be a non-factor in free agency. We don't factor the $500k they pay to Bobby Bonilla every year, either. To my original point, the Orioles can certainly pay free agents this offseason. The contract terms for Davis, Cobb, and all the other deferred contracts are already set in stone. The O's can structure free agent contracts accordingly. They don't need to wait for Davis' contract to expire to suddenly be freed of some financial restraints that are holding them back from spending money.

They don't need to wait to be clear of Chris Davis' contract. The terms are already agreed upon. They have $0 committed to 2023. They could absolutely sign someone this offseason and structure the deal as needed. Keep in mind that Chris Davis is only being paid approximately $17m per year, with much of it deferred. That is not an earth-shattering number for a major league club in 2021. Also - I don't think Olney is saying the this process won't work. He's arguing that it is completely unnecessary. Other teams with smaller resources are having far better and more consistent results without consecutive 100+ loss seasons.

I think it's a lot more complicated than that, Frobby. You're assuming that revenue, cash flow, taxes, and profit are the same in both scenarios. Take away the Angelos-Scrooge-McDuck conspiracies -- I think it is pretty naive to think that money is being saved in some vault for later.

For good reason. Baseball teams are ultimately an entertainment product and at a certain point - they need to sell entertainment. You could maybe argue a team could balance poor play from the team with other entertaining experiences for fans at the ballpark. But, the O's have banned outside food and haven't really added anything to the Camden Yards experience. The stadium gets louder during the dang hot dog race than the actual game.

He's been consistent enough in his poor play since 2018 that it's pretty clear what he is. He's only getting playtime because he's on a terrible team.

I don't think the O's have a true SS in the system. Jordan Westburg has been better at SS than I expected, but I think he ultimately ends up at 3B. It's a loaded SS FA Class this year - it makes sense to add someone there. As for pitching - they need lots of it. I don't expect them to drop big money on a 30-something pitcher, but I would hope they try to cast a wider net to get a few Taijuan Walkers of the world to see what sticks. This season they went with Matt Harvey and Felix Hernandez - just completely ridiculous.