I kind of love this year’s team

[wildcard]

16 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

Dead weight still on the teams pitching staff = Wojo, Eshelman, Phillips, Valdez and Sulser

None of these guys are part of the next winning team.

 

Phillips has a major league arm he just has not figured it out yet.

Don't sell Valdez short.  Colon pitched until he was over 40.  He is cheap and so far very effective.  Give the guy some time to see  if he keeps going through these playoff rosters like a knife through butter.

Hyde loves Sulser.  He is going through a rough time right now.  But he could be a mid reliever.  He too in cheap and has pretty good stuff if he can learn to control it.

I agree that Wojo and Eshelman are just filling spots until Elias decides he wants to promote prospects.   They will not make it through the off season on the 40 man roster

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Phillips has a major league arm he just has not figured it out yet.

Don't sell Valdez short.  Colon pitched until he was over 40.  He is cheap and so far very effective.  Give the guy some time to see  if he keeps going through these playoff rosters like a knife through butter.

Hyde loves Sulser.  He is going through a rough time right now.  But he could be a mid reliever.  He too in cheap and has pretty good stuff if he can learn to control it.

I agree that Wojo and Eshelman are just filling spots until Elias decides he wants to promote prospects.   They will not make it through the off season on the 40 man roster

Colon got caught using PEDs.  You know something about Valdez I don't?

[HowAboutThat]

1 hour ago, SteveA said:

You keep saying, over and over again, that they are "ready".   Not saying you are wrong, but how do you know?

Kremer has 19.1 innings at AAA and an 8.84 ERA there.

Zimmerman has 38 innings at AAA and a 4.89 ERA there.

Baumann has never pitched at AAA and didn't get a full season at AA yet.

Lowther has never pitched at AAA.

 

I'm not saying these guys aren't ready.   I've never seen them pitch and am not qualified to judge.   But you seem absolutely certain that they are.   What information are you basing that opinion on?

 

I don’t pay enough attention to the minor leagues, but I do read Prospect reports, and all of them say that these guys are pegged for a 2020 debut, The most recent one I read was published in July, so it takes into account all the Covid stuff, and it said that Baumann was more ready than the others. Also discussions here. 
Also, I haven’t heard anyone say they’re not ready. What happened with Akin reinforces my frustration. Even though Hess, Carroll and Phillips were awful, it took forever to call him up, and then he sat for a while, got I think two innings and went back down, and then came back up, got another couple innings( all good innings, BTW) and eventually was given a long overdue start and did well. He’s getting another start today, so finally.

It is much like what happened with Smith and Mountcastle. Why wait so long when a guy is ready? Especially when the guy in front of him is dreadful?

He may be bad, but he needs to get his chances and he sure deserves a longer look then we gave to Hess for instance.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, SteveA said:

You keep saying, over and over again, that they are "ready".   Not saying you are wrong, but how do you know?

Kremer has 19.1 innings at AAA and an 8.84 ERA there.

Zimmerman has 38 innings at AAA and a 4.89 ERA there.

Baumann has never pitched at AAA and didn't get a full season at AA yet.

Lowther has never pitched at AAA.

 

I'm not saying these guys aren't ready.   I've never seen them pitch and am not qualified to judge.   But you seem absolutely certain that they are.   What information are you basing that opinion on?

 

It’s very frustrating that the MiL season wasn’t played this year.   Lots of guys who might have been fully baked and ready, and now either they’re not, or we don’t know if they are.    For me this is the worst thing about the 2020 season, much more than losing 102 major league games off the season.   

[Roll Tide]

4 hours ago, Philip said:

I understand that Pop is still recovering from TJ surgery, so I wasn’t referring to him. But as I understand the rostering this season, anyone can be added to the forty-man and called up, so not being on that roster is no impediment. I wanted/want to see Lowther, Baumann, Kremer and Akin. 

I’m hoping Pop comes back as I’m projecting him as a future closer....but at very least a set up man

[HowAboutThat]

37 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

I’m hoping Pop comes back as I’m projecting him as a future closer....but at very least a set up man

All of the guys we got in those trades in 2018, well, so far we released one, we’ve let a couple show themselves very badly on the mound in Phillips and Carroll, and Rodgers and Pop went down with TJ. I can be forgiven for not having a great deal of hope for the eventual success of the others,But I would love to be wrong, and I hope that Kremer proves me wrong in the next week or so.

[Three Run Homer]

This team reminds me of an essay Bill James once wrote about the Ken Phelps All-Stars--a dream team built entirely from overlooked players, castoffs, cheap available players with talent who never got a fair chance.  The O's deviate from this formula a bit because they have a few home-grown prospects like Mountcastle and Akin, but most of the team is guys like Ruiz, Alberto, Nunez, Santander, Severino, Valaika, Valdez, Wojciechowski, and Eshelman--castoffs who the O's got for cheap and who are getting their first real chance in the majors.  

If you aren't going to contend for a World Series, the next best thing as a fan is to watch a team filled with young men fighting to establish themselves, and in some cases succeeding.  Aside from Alex Cobb and Chris Davis, nobody on this team has ever gotten a big contract, and that includes guys who are over 30, like Cesar Valdez.  

 

[yark14]

This isn't a bad team.  Not elite, but respectable.  The folks calling this team bad are Negative Nancies.

The biggest thing I'm impressed with is that they play hard. I see much fewer mistakes out of laziness that I did the last couple years.  Also, the better scouting and analytics is very evident.  No matter the hitter, you can't help but notice that they are better prepared at the plate than in previous years. 

You can see it with the relief pitching as well with the development of Scott, Fry, Armstrong, and Tate.  I think the biggest reason for their success is that Hyde is putting them in situations that fit their strengths.  I love Showalter, but sometimes it felt like he threw guys out to the wolves in situations that didn't match their skillset.  With this regime we have the beginnings of a truly elite bullpen.

Be positive. We have the foundations of a damn good team.

[now]

Momentum makes me think of playoffs on a day like this. Stewart's breakout replacing Santander and against Cole to team with Akin's gem. Breaking the MFY losing streak. Plus Toronto and Detroit both losing in walkoffs. O's 3 back with 3 weeks to play. Say what you want, we're in a playoffs race. (I didn't say Series or Pennant, but so what? One game at a time.)

[HowAboutThat]

20 hours ago, SteveA said:

You keep saying, over and over again, that they are "ready".   Not saying you are wrong, but how do you know?

Kremer has 19.1 innings at AAA and an 8.84 ERA there.

Zimmerman has 38 innings at AAA and a 4.89 ERA there.

Baumann has never pitched at AAA and didn't get a full season at AA yet.

Lowther has never pitched at AAA.

 

I'm not saying these guys aren't ready.   I've never seen them pitch and am not qualified to judge.   But you seem absolutely certain that they are.   What information are you basing that opinion on?

 

And… Case in point. He’s certainly considered ready now, and dollars to donuts they considered him ready long ago but for their own reasons refused to call him up.

And now that Akin Has broken the ice, we can hopefully expect to see Zimmerman and Baumann as well.

[HowAboutThat]

And bear in mind that Baumann Is considered, at least according to the prospect report, to be the most MLB ready of the bunch, so even if Kremer does poorly today it doesn’t put the kibosh on calling up the others.

[joelala]

Similar to what others have said, these guys remind a bit of an Oakland A’s team from the last 5 or 6 years or so. They have some talent but it always seems to be kind of piecemeal and none of it was super highly regarded coming through the minors (aside from Luzardo.) I would love if we had those kinds of teams for the next 5 years or so (hopefully much longer) where the sum is always greater than the parts. The quintessential small market ingredient for success.