How do we choose a team?

[Philip]

If question has already been discussed, I missed it.  I have been busy staying home from work today, because rehearsals have been canceled. When you play opera, a lot of your personnel come from Europe… Especially Italy… Oh well.

Anyway, given that there’s no more spring training, how are they going to narrow down the team to the remaining 26 spots?

I’m pretty sure they’ve got a good idea of who goes where and does what, but How are they going to make those final decisions that were going to be determined by the last couple of weeks?

And who has some guesses as to who would be the 26-man if we started tomorrow?

Not Eshelman, I don’t think...

[accinfo]

When and if they get to start the season I suspect they will have expanded rosters for a couple weeks. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Alex Cobb will be generous to one of the pitchers vying for a spot on the roster by being on the injured list with blisters yet again. 

[Enjoy Terror]

I can’t tell you how quickly I’ve gone to being uninterested in baseball now that it’s just on pause indefinitely. No spring battles to assess and nothing to look forward to.

[interloper]

I wonder if they'll play any exhibition games in the run-up to a new Opening Day. It's so hard to predict how this will play out.

I like the idea of temporarily expanded rosters. This ensures player safety without a full spring training. 

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

It's far too early to make any assessment. This is truly an unprecedented situation.

I think that everyone will be very anxious to return to normal as quickly as possible. For MLB, that might be playing games in empty stadiums for a few weeks before fans can return to stadiums. 

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

It's far too early to make any assessment. This is truly an unprecedented situation.

I think that everyone will be very anxious to return to normal as quickly as possible. For MLB, that might be playing games in empty stadiums for a few weeks before fans can return to stadiums. 

I'd gladly take this over a significant delay. At the end of the day, I just want to watch/listen to baseball. And a long delay could hurt player development, front office evaluations, etc. 

[Frobby]

I find it interesting to see who is getting the playing time.    Here’s a list of plate appearances  by position:

1B: Mountcastle 34, Davis 24

2B: Herrera 31, Alberto 29

3B: Nunez 33, Ruiz 25

SS: Martin 30, Iglesias 20

UTI: Valaika 29, Wilkerson 28, Rondon 22, Velasquez 22, Urena 11, Urias 11.

C - Severino 24, Holaday 18, Sisco 18, Wynns 15, Davis 15

OF: Hays 32, Smith 32, Santander 31, Williams 29, Diaz 24, Mullins 21

I don’t think you can draw any firm conclusions from this information, as we were just getting to the more serious part of spring straining.    However, I think the lack of playing time for Urena means he’s not likely to be in serious consideration for the utility spot.   Urias has been hampered by shin splints, but I don’t like his chances either.    

[wildcard]

17 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I find it interesting to see who is getting the playing time.    Here’s a list of plate appearances  by position:

1B: Mountcastle 34, Davis 24

2B: Herrera 31, Alberto 29

3B: Nunez 33, Ruiz 25

SS: Martin 30, Iglesias 20

UTI: Valaika 29, Wilkerson 28, Rondon 22, Velasquez 22, Urena 11, Urias 11.

C - Severino 24, Holaday 18, Sisco 18, Wynns 15, Davis 15

OF: Hays 32, Smith 32, Santander 31, Williams 29, Diaz 24, Mullins 21

I don’t think you can draw any firm conclusions from this information, as we were just getting to the more serious part of spring straining.    However, I think the lack of playing time for Urena means he’s not likely to be in serious consideration for the utility spot.   Urias has been hampered by shin splints, but I don’t like his chances either.    

Plate appearance in ST don't mean much because the away games are staffed with non veterans. 

[Redskins Rick]

Sure looks like this is a variation of who makes the 26 man roster. We sure need multiple threads to discuss the same topic.

[DrungoHazewood]

10 hours ago, Philip said:

If question has already been discussed, I missed it.  I have been busy staying home from work today, because rehearsals have been canceled. When you play opera, a lot of your personnel come from Europe… Especially Italy… Oh well.

Anyway, given that there’s no more spring training, how are they going to narrow down the team to the remaining 26 spots?

I’m pretty sure they’ve got a good idea of who goes where and does what, but How are they going to make those final decisions that were going to be determined by the last couple of weeks?

And who has some guesses as to who would be the 26-man if we started tomorrow?

Not Eshelman, I don’t think...

Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock.

[Philip]

3 hours ago, Enjoy Terror said:

I can’t tell you how quickly I’ve gone to being uninterested in baseball now that it’s just on pause indefinitely. No spring battles to assess and nothing to look forward to.

I know. I feel the same. For me, baseball isn’t just the here and now. Every year it somehow brings closer memories of my childhood, and makes it easier to relive those times. I don’t want to lose that. So I bring up things that seem pretty insignificant at this time. Who cares who the roster will be? Who knows? Does it matter? Not really. But I do care. And I don’t want to stop caring.

[TommyPickles]

Wonder if there's any chance they would just cancel the first two weeks of the season and then not make those games up.

We do start the year with 13 straight games against teams that were above .500 last year.  It certainly would make our overall schedule easier to just skip those... (not that it really matter this year for the O's)

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

18 minutes ago, Philip said:

I know. I feel the same. For me, baseball isn’t just the here and now. Every year it somehow brings closer memories of my childhood, and makes it easier to relive those times. I don’t want to lose that. So I bring up things that seem pretty insignificant at this time. Who cares who the roster will be? Who knows? Does it matter? Not really. But I do care. And I don’t want to stop caring.

Baseball will be back. Sooner than later.

If you need something to warm your heart, the entire world is uniting right now to fight a disease. People are selflessly sacrificing and doing all they can to stop the virus. It's scary right now, as it should be. But, the entire world is unified right now - and we're going to beat it.

Baseball matters. It's like that quote from Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society - "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But, poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."

For a lot of us, baseball goes in there with poetry and romance. It's one of the joyful things we're battling for in this fight against the coronavirus. Right now, all our efforts need to go toward the task at hand. But, baseball hasn't suddenly become unimportant. Collectively, with everything else that makes life wonderful, it's the entire point.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Mr. Chewbacca Jr.
typo

[Mr. Chewbacca Jr.]

5 minutes ago, TommyPickles said:

Wonder if there's any chance they would just cancel the first two weeks of the season and then not make those games up.

We do start the year with 13 straight games against teams that were above .500 last year.  It certainly would make our overall schedule easier to just skip those... (not that it really matter this year for the O's)

I think that's probably what happens. Sometime in April, they'll start with a period of empty-stadium games. The players will be rusty, but it is what it is. Season ends as scheduled in September.