ThisIsBirdland

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/occams-razor-and-jackson-hollidays-demotion/ I thought this was a very interesting analysis on the decision to keep Holliday down.

Urias acquitted himself well enough over the last two years and in ST to make the team. He's good enough defensively at all INF positions to have a role for a couple months this spring, and that shouldn't be discounted. He should probably be PH more in close games when the game is on the line. Holliday-Gunnar-Westburg should be your regular starters once Holliday is up, but I don't think they need to rush Mayo up when his defense clearly isn't ready. It doesn't sound like Norby is a legitimate INF candidate defensively. Kemp will definitely be DFA'd when they decide to bring Holliday up. We can be pissed off about service time manipulation but unless they were just waiting out these early LHP, I think he's going to be down until he can't earn the year back in ROY voting at this point. I guess I'd rather see Kjerstad/Stowers as a bench bat than Kemp, and disregard the LH 2B obsession Elias seemingly has, but then you're really not seeing enough at-bats as a 5th OF on a team. Mateo they're going to keep.

Ooph, maybe one more nail in the Marlins coffin.

If these guys spend most of summer down there, I think you're on to something. But ending the season at AAA, regardless of how much time was spent there, doesn't necessarily mean one is ready for MLB. Also, let's not act like we haven't seen some rough defense down there to go with the good offense. As has been said, Stowers/Norby have spent enough time there. But the O's aren't going to start dumping veterans for them after 6 regular season games, and those veterans pretty clearly block them right now.

With ST and the hot early season start for some of the O's non top-100 prospects (Stowers, Norby, Povich, McDermott), is it too early to speculate on whether their value is increasing enough to be major components in a trade for a high end SP later this season? Rosenthal has already speculated that the Marlins could become sellers sooner rather than later: Put another way, would you trade those four players for three seasons of Luzardo today? Would the Marlins entertain it or demand a top-5 player be included?

Phew. I’ll second guess stuff when things are bad in the moment but this is one wild screed right here.

Easter Sunday and three cold, rainy games in early April against KC. Can’t draw many conclusions yet.

Not sure the need to exaggerate both what Angelos pocketed and the apparent number of fans and the context with which they defended the Os progression while he was in charge, but do your thing. This isn’t groundbreaking information either. I just thought it was well organized in this tweet and worth sharing. Orioles high operating profit has been known for years, although it did continue to grow in 2023.

Each have had defensive miscues the first few games in Norfolk, especially Mayo. I'm pushing expectations to early summer for Holliday and Kjerstad (if there's a role for Kjerstad), and end of summer for Mayo if he gets the defense improved, or if there's a role for his bat only.

Walkoffs/thrillers for me. High stakes, late inning baseball where you’re glued to every pitch can’t be beat IMO.

Wait we still hate O’Hearn?

Ahem

Ugh, completely memory holed his pre LAD tenure. It has been a bit.

Hard for me to give Friedman, with an actual unlimited budget, too much credit I think

Not sure why it’s always the Mets, Pirates and Rangers listed as teams for us to draw positive or negative comps from. You don’t have to spend money the way those teams do in order to reach respectable payroll levels. Atlanta should be the model we most attempt to emulate IMO. I realize they’ve gotten well into the top 10 in payrolls and I don’t see that as likely, but I think the vast majority of our spending should/will be on retaining players as opposed to pursuing free agents. Rubenstein has now said multiple times that Elias is the best GM in the AL, maybe all of baseball. The fact that he keeps qualifying it that way makes me curious if he’s specifically impressed by an NL GM like Stearns or Anthopoulos.

Mensch.

Hays - LF Adley - C Gunnar - SS Santander - RF Mountcastle - 1B Westburg - 2B Mullins - CF McCann - DH Urias - 3B

The guy seems to live and breath baseball and is a scout by training. I won’t pretend to know what he wants long-term but I’d be doubtful if it was anything beyond baseball ops.

Interview with DR and Cal for anyone interested.

If you turn out to be right about this, I’ll meet you at a concession stand and buy you a beer if you’re at Opening Day. I still don’t see it happening but I respect the commitment to the idea!