Connolly/Elias interview: Dominican facility upgrades, etc

[Luke-OH]

2 minutes ago, atomic said:

If Sanchez is worth 1.75 million he is worth 2.5 million.  Really if you think he can contribute at the major league level you give him the 2.5 million.   He is 21.  This isn't a 16 or 18 year old player you are talking about.  

Player valuation is all about risk assessment,  I’m sure he’s not a MLB contributor day 1, so you have to assess how he’d profile if he does develop and what’s the likelihood of him failing to develop and hedge the valuation appropriately.

[eddie83]

Just now, LookinUp said:

The gist of atomic's position is yes, the O's should waste money on FAs. He doesn't have any opinion on the marginal value of a $ spent by the Orioles. It matters not if our $ have the financial value of a Venezuelan bolivar, we should spend whatever it takes on whoever will take it, right now. 

Ok.... We should spend money repainting in the interior of the eroding house knowing we are going to gut it a year later. 

At least we can enjoy the the aesthetics while rain drips on everyone because the roof is leaking.  

[foxfield]

1 hour ago, atomic said:

They are looking at signing Sanchez most likely and they have already signed the Mesa brothers after the completely picked over market.  I am not sure why you are defending the Orioles without any thought.  

The Orioles have changed leadership of the ownership group, the front office, the manager and the staff almost entirely cleaning house and starting fresh in about a 2 to 3 month timeframe.  I don't know why you keep bashing the Orioles without any thought.  More importantly, I do not understand why you bash primarily with facts tied to decision makers that are gone.

If you were to say, for example, that given the Angelos quarter century or so of ineptitude, you were highly skeptical that any real changes were going to result in any significant improvement.  I'd get that.  I think most of us remain skeptical, even as we support the effort of rebuild.

And while you seem to think any support constitutes blind following...I will say this.  The task of rebuilding the Orioles will be massive and it will take literally hundreds maybe thousands of things to go just right.  That task required the hiring of one of the most forward thinking folks in the game.  If the Orioles were following their actions of the past, why even hire Elias?  Wouldn't Ned Colleti have been a more likely choice?  Saying the rebuild will fail is a great contrarian position given the enormity of the task.  But ignoring the actual choices that have been made already, and the long term potential of what that could look like should mean something to fans...even skeptical ones.

I'd really like to see you post a lengthy piece of all you would do...from today forward, if you were in charge.  Mostly you just seem to be against whatever the Orioles do or do not do.  Again, that is fine, but continuing to do so looking backwards seems to try and paint the new regime with the sins of the old.  At the very least, the new guys deserve a shot for at least 90 days or so...no?

 

[atomic]

11 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Ok.... We should spend money repainting in the interior of the eroding house knowing we are going to gut it a year later. 

At least we can enjoy the the aesthetics while rain drips on everyone because the roof is leaking.  

This has nothing to do with what I said. But I have no idea what the Orioles facility looks like but even if you were using the building for a year of course you would paint the interior of a building if it needed painting. I am not sure your point.  

My response was about Elias saying they might not use their international money.  And that they haven't spent much money on the facility anyway. Not that I expect them to have a new facility today. Just that there is plenty of money to build a new facility and sign guys like Sanchez.  

Probably a high priority in building a new building though looking at some of the other teams facilities.  Probably not an insignificant factor in signing players when you have a small dilapidated facility and other teams have brand new modern facilities.

[TonySoprano]

33 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

It was a very good interview. 

I think reading Elias’ comments they made an offer to Sanchez.  

Not my read. 

Since we are on the Dominican, what is the latest with the Orioles’ pursuit of Yolbert Sanchez, the Cuban shortstop playing in the Dominican who is now free to sign with any MLB team?

All I can say is that we are in a position where we are on top of everything. So, Koby and the staff that we have and me, we’re looking at every avenue. We are sitting on a large pile of international (slot) pool money. As I’ve said, I don’t expect us to spend it all or even close to all of it (by June), but we are looking for every opportunity to do so and do so in a wise way. So, I think it goes without saying that as high-profile Cuban free agents or other international free agents suddenly become available after (last year’s) July 2 signing period, we are gonna be all over it in terms of vetting it.

[eddie83]

Just now, atomic said:

This has nothing to do with what I said. But I have no idea what the Orioles facility looks like but even if you were using the building for a year of course you would paint the interior of a building if it needed painting. I am not sure your point.  

My response was about Elias saying they might not use their international money.  And that they haven't spent much money on the facility anyway. Not that I expect them to have a new facility today. Just that there is plenty of money to build a new facility and sign guys like Sanchez.  

Probably a high priority in building a new building though looking at some of the other teams facilities.  Probably not an insignificant factor in signing players when you have a small dilapidated facility and other teams have brand new modern facilities.

It was a general metaphor. Why waste money? That is the point. You build from the ground up. 

The Orioles should not spend money for the sake of spending it, not like they can’t reuse it elsewhere or later. You don’t pay $30 for a fast food combo meal just because you can afford it   

You act like 4 years has passed since he was hired. No one is arguing they don’t need to do more. Your time frame is completely unrealistic. 

[WalkWithElias]

14 minutes ago, atomic said:

If Sanchez is worth 1.75 million he is worth 2.5 million.  Really if you think he can contribute at the major league level you give him the 2.5 million.   He is 21.  This isn't a 16 or 18 year old player you are talking about.  

If he's worth 1.75... he's worth 1.75. The Angelos brothers giving Elias the freedom to spend money internationally does not mean there is a bottomless budget. And additional $750,000 could be used on facilities, staff, basically everything that LookinUp listed. 

And your point about him being 21 years old actually detracts from your argument. Sanchez has been written up as the equivalent to a 2-3 round college draft pick. That is not a ML level contributor in 2019. We've already established that we aren't spending money to win in 2019 or 2020. I'd be far more interested in dropping money on a 16 or 18 year old with higher upside because they may be coming into their own in a few years. 

Drungo has already taken you apart on this a few times here, so you probably want to walk away from your losing argument. 

[eddie83]

4 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

Not my read. 

 

 

“All I can say is we are on top of everything.”

Unless the agent was lying about an offer I think the Orioles made one. I may be wrong but I think he is saying that we are looking to improve the team Internationally without spending all of our money.  

[TonySoprano]

1 hour ago, eddie83 said:

“All I can say is we are on top of everything.”

Unless the agent was lying about an offer I think the Orioles made one. I may be wrong but I think he is saying that we are looking to improve the team Internationally without spending all of our money.  

I wouldn't get my hopes up....

 

Quote

Is it your sense that Sanchez will sign before the next period opens in July (and slot bonuses reset)?

I don’t know. I don’t have any insight into any particular player’s situation.

And nothing further on Sanchez and the Orioles at this point? There’s been a report saying at least one team has already made an offer for him.

There are a lot of rumors coming out nationally. Suffice it to say, we are on top of any situation like this.

 

 

[atomic]

13 minutes ago, WalkWithElias said:

If he's worth 1.75... he's worth 1.75. The Angelos brothers giving Elias the freedom to spend money internationally does not mean there is a bottomless budget. And additional $750,000 could be used on facilities, staff, basically everything that LookinUp listed. 

And your point about him being 21 years old actually detracts from your argument. Sanchez has been written up as the equivalent to a 2-3 round college draft pick. That is not a ML level contributor in 2019. We've already established that we aren't spending money to win in 2019 or 2020. I'd be far more interested in dropping money on a 16 or 18 year old with higher upside because they may be coming into their own in a few years. 

 Drungo has already taken you apart on this a few times here, so you probably want to walk away from your losing argument. 

LOL. I am losing the argument?  Good one when you have nothing valid in an argue you just tell the other person they are losing the argument.  So other teams are so stupid they want to sign him for $2 million.  Marlins are acquiring more money to sign him.  I haven't seen the guy play but all you guys do is make up excuses for everything the Orioles are not doing to improve the club.  Neither one of us has seen Sanchez play but my point is valid.  If a guy is worth $1.75 million at 21 that means you expect him to contribute at the major league level.  If he can contribute at the major league level even if it is 1 WAR he is worth 2.5 million. 

[eddie83]

1 minute ago, TonySoprano said:

 

 

Look I may be wrong. I don’t read it the way you do. He is saying he has no idea whether Sanchez will wait or not. 

He didn’t exactly deny an offer did he? The Orioles have the most money and he is decent prospect. I would be very surprised if they said no thanks but once again just my opinion. 

[jerios55]

49 minutes ago, atomic said:

I can't even find a photo of the Orioles facility. The Yankees facility looks nice.

The Phillies and Twins just opened a joint facility that cost $18 million:

https://www.mlb.com/phillies/news/phillies-open-baseball-academy-in-dominican/c-213691822

 

Last year, the Phillies and Minnesota Twins partnered to purchase 45 acres of land in Boca Chica and construction of a new, semi-shared, multi-million dollar facility is well underway. The complex is scheduled to open sometime in September.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/philadelphia-phillies/phillies-open-new-development-academy-dominican-republic (article dated Feb 2016)

So the Twins and Phillies working together took near 2 years to get this set up (give or take based on your artcile Jan 2017 and what "last year" means in the other article).

So even if the O's are working on something bigger, they can't just wait 2 years to get started. 

 

[webbrick2010]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

Sounds like he may have found a role for Brady. That is, his original and best role.

Why wouldn't you hire a nutritionist with a degree in nutrition, or someone with a degree in anatomy and physical therapy to be head of strength and conditioning?

I have no idea what Brady has learned in the school of hard knocks or whether any of it has any basis in facts or science.

Recently met the head nutritionist at the Naval Academy, very impressive. Someone from that staff would make an excellent MLB team head nutritionist

[weams]

3 hours ago, atomic said:

From MLB.com article from 2015:

According to Rafael Pérez, MLB director of Dominican operations, in the past 10 years 15 academies have been built at an average cost of $4 million each. The more modern and luxurious academies have cost $6 million to $8.5 million, a large sum compared to the $785,000 it cost to build Campo Las Palmas.

I think 20 million a year is a lot to spend on international youth players, staff, and facilities. Let alone just in the DR. 

[Tx Oriole]

3 hours ago, interloper said:

Yes. A thousand times yes. Lol. 

That's good Mike E. is in Baltimore.?