Tony-OH on Scott and Jeremy 105.7 at 5 PM today

[weams]

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/station/1057-the-fan/

Listen Live

[weams]

Rep for Transcription or Paraphrasing.

[OFFNY]

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/station/1057-the-fan/

Listen Live

Thanks, Weams.

[oriole]

Oh man, bad timing. Now I'll have to choose between Tony and the 5 o clock shadow on my drive home. I can't believe this is happening to me!

[OFFNY]

Rep for Transcription or Paraphrasing.

OFFNY's Spring Training/Practice:

o

FEBRUARY 19th, 2015

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105.7, THE FAN: ooo TONY:

o

[weams]

OK. Now.

[TonySoprano]

Key battles? Fill out the rotation with 5th starter. Is Ubaldo gonna step up? Who goes to the pen? Also, competition for RF/DH Young-Lough-DeAza.

Snyder great low cost typical Dan Duquette move.

Cabrera will put pressure on Schoop at 2B. Perhaps competition for Flaherty.

Late innings situations? Look at Brad Brach, power arm. Put Gausman in BP as the "Andrew Miller."

Mike Wright looks to be a 5th starter type. Don't forget about Zach Davies, pitches way above his age, could be a factor with O's this year.

Pearce an everyday player, may be in mix with DeAza for leadoff.

Most competition in East? Red Sox retooled well, and Yankees always there.

[OFFNY]

o

FEBRUARY 19th, 2015

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Key Battles in Spring Training: ooo TONY: The key battles that I see is, who is going to fill out the starting rotation with 6 starters that we have ??? Wil Ubaldo Jimenez step up ??? If he does, then who goes to the bullpen ???

The guys that are in the Orioles starting rotation have a history of being fairly healthy, so that should not be a big issue. Also, I see the right-field and DH positions as potentially being interesting, with Snider, Pearce, Young all battling for playing time..

New Acquisitions: ooo TONY: Even though there was no big splash this offseason, I like what the Orioles have done, particularly bringing in Travis Snider. For the money that they are spending for him, I think that was a great, low-cost, typical Dan Duquette type of move. Snider is just entering his prime. If you recall, he was at one-time one of the top-ten prospects in all of professional baseball. Hopefully, things will start to click for him now. People also often forget that both Wieters and Machado are coming back (both of whom missed almost the entire 2014 season), so I'm not too alarmed at the front office not having made a huge signing this off-season. I don't think that off-season was as bad as people think.

Cabrera: ooo TONY: Like Snider, Cabrera is a very interesting acquisition. He puts a little pressure on Schoop at 2nd base. The Orioles are high on Schoop, as they should be, BUT, at the end of the day, he put in a sub-600 OPS last year. The team has very little speed, so Carbrera has a great opportunity to get himself some serious playing time.

Flaherty: ooo TONY: Flaherty is the only guy on roster who can play every position except for pitcher and catcher. I believe that he is VERY valuable,. You can throw him at SS, and he isn't going to kill you. You can throw him in at 3B, and he isn't going to kill you.

Bullpen: ooo TONY: In late inning situations, who do I see as a 3rd big gun in addition to Britton, O'Day ??? Brad Brach was starting to look like a shutdown reliever for a good portion of last season. He wasn't Andrew Miller, but then again, Andrew Miller wasn't Andrew Miller last year.

Also, the bullpen goes back goes back to the rotation. If they take one guy out of our current (6-starter) rotation, I think that you take Gausman out, and make him this year's Andrew Miller. I know that I'll get a lot of flak for that because so many Oriole fans are very high on Gausman as a starter, but he has always dominated in that short-relief situation. He can become that 3rd shutdown reliever (or even the 4th shutdown reliever if Brach continues to pitch as well as he has been) IF they need him to do so. If everyone else (the other 5 starters) is pitching well, then Gausman could become a great addition to that bullpen.

Mike Wright was lights out at AAA for the final month of the seaosn after a VERY TOUGH season in the first 4 months. I think that he will probably a reliever in the majors, although being a 5th starter if the Orioles ever needed him there is also a possibility.

Tyler Wilson should be a guy that will pick up some innings in long relief.

Zach Davies, pitches way ahead of his age (last year, he was a 21 year-old pitching well at AA-Bowie.) I think he'll be a factor for the Orioles at some point this year.

Steve Pearce: ooo TONY: Pearce is a guy that everyone waited for the other shoe to drop last year ...... and it never did. In the minors, they questioned his power, his bat speed, and his versatility. He has and continues to prove folks wrong. Pearce deserves every chance in the world to do it again until he proves that he is not capable. Pearce had an OPB of .373 last year. :eektf: Subsequently, he could be a guy that the Orioles use at the top (or near the top) of the order this upcoming season.

A.L. East Competition: ooo TONY: The Orioles won by 12 games last season. That is a lot of ground for other teams to make up. The Yankees have Andrew Miller. Losing him hurts, especially with him going to an intra-division rival. The Yankees are aging at the position players, though.

The Red Sox have really re-tooled very well. They could be dangerous. I know that it sounds like a broken record, but I see the Yankees and the Red Sox as our biggest obstacles this season for repeating as division champions.

Tampa Bay is likely the 5th place team, especially considering that they lost their manager.

At the end of the day, the Orioles won the division big last year (12 games.) The pitching was strong, and they are young. The guys (at-large) are in their prime. They are set up to have a long run this season.

o

[Frobby]

Great job by Tony, as always.

Before I get into the substance of it: In order to "listen live," I first had to choose between two video advertisements. One was a 3-minute long ad for how to make a pony tail using certain hair products, and the other one was for Clorox (equally long, I assume). What marketing genius decided that a sports radio station listener was a likely target for these advertisements?

Since I agreed with almost all of what Tony said, I'll just highlight those things I disagreed with:

- Tony said he expects Boston and NY to be our main competition, and mentioned how the addition of Miller strengthened the Yankee bullpen. I'm more worried about Toronto. I think Russell Martin will make their pitching staff better and add offense, and they already had a winning team last year despite Encarnacion getting hurt for a considerable period and not being at full strength when he returned. As to the Yankees, it's true they added Miller, but they subtracted Robertson so I don't think that's a huge net gain. They've outperformed their Pythag by a lot each of the last two years and they have to come back to earth eventually.

- Tony said that after Britton and O'Day, he looks to Brach to be the other late-inning guy. I really liked how Hunter looked in the last four months of the season, and thought Brach faded a bit towards the end. I'm not that sold on him. Tony mentioned we could go to Gausman in the 'pen, and while I have no doubt be could dominate in that role, I still want to give him a shot as a starter.

[Can_of_corn]

Andrew Miller was in the bullpen because he couldn't hack it as a stater.

It is a near complete waste of a year of team control to use Gausman for 60 innings out of the pen and not 180 innings in the rotation.

[weams]

Andrew Miller was in the bullpen because he couldn't hack it as a stater.

It is a near complete waste of a year of team control to use Gausman for 60 innings out of the pen and not 180 innings in the rotation.

It's why you don't pay Andrew 36 million. It's about a third of a reasonable starter.

[Bmorefan24]

Off topic... But does anyone know what happened to Glenn Younes on 105.7? He is no longer on the Sports Rehab show and I haven't heard him at all in quite a while now that I think of it.

[Tony-OH]

Andrew Miller was in the bullpen because he couldn't hack it as a stater.

It is a near complete waste of a year of team control to use Gausman for 60 innings out of the pen and not 180 innings in the rotation.

I guess I disagree. Do you think the Orioles go as far as they went last year without adding Miller? The only way I would consider Gausman for the pen instead of the rotation is if the other five starters pitch well and someone needs to go. Gausman has the stuff to be dominant against righties and lefties and when he's pitching in relief, hitters have only put up a .560 OPS against him in their 1st PA against him.

The wild card in this is Ubaldo. With his contract, he's going to be given an opportunity to start and if his career is any indication, he'll bounce back a bit this year. If he's in the rotation, why not take the guy out who already had success as a reliever? If the Orioles win the World Series, is anyone going to consider this a waste of a control year?

Now I would totally let Gausman prepare like he's going to be in the rotation and I would not be upset at all if he wins a rotation spot, but if all six starters pitch well, I would move Gausman to the pen rather than send him back to Norfolk or move another starter to the pen.

[Can_of_corn]

I guess I disagree. Do you think the Orioles go as far as they went last year without adding Miller? The only way I would consider Gausman for the pen instead of the rotation is if the other five starters pitch well and someone needs to go. Gausman has the stuff to be dominant against righties and lefties and when he's pitching in relief, hitters have only put up a .560 OPS against him in their 1st PA against him.

The wild card in this is Ubaldo. With his contract, he's going to be given an opportunity to start and if his career is any indication, he'll bounce back a bit this year. If he's in the rotation, why not take the guy out who already had success as a reliever? If the Orioles win the World Series, is anyone going to consider this a waste of a control year?

Now I would totally let Gausman prepare like he's going to be in the rotation and I would not be upset at all if he wins a rotation spot, but if all six starters pitch well, I would move Gausman to the pen rather than send him back to Norfolk or move another starter to the pen.

I think Miller being on the O's and not being on the Tigers made a big difference in that series.

I do not think Miller was the difference in the O's winning the AL East.

Bullpen help is always available at the trade deadline.

I also don't think Gausman's sliders improves as much as it needs to if he is in the pen. Why throw a boarderline pitch when you have two plus pitches in hand?

I think Gausman could be the O's best starter by the all star break. I don't want to see that guy pitching in the seventh inning of a three run game.

[weams]

The wild card in this is Ubaldo. With his contract, he's going to be given an opportunity to start and if his career is any indication, he'll bounce back a bit this year.

And the opportunity is not just going to be Spring Training.

A lot of people don't believe this is fact. I do.