Not gonna lie: this team looks awful

[Sports Guy]

Thus why I said the OD roster means nothing.

This will be a better team in the second half of the season.

[Sports Guy]

Mountcastle, Mancini and Santander are struggling right now.  Stewart is hurt.  
 

We aren’t going to get a lot of offense from second, third and SS anyway.  
 

The offense is going to have to be from the OF/DH/1st and when 3-4 of those guys are struggling, the offense is going to look awful.

[eddie83]

17 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Mountcastle, Mancini and Santander are struggling right now.  Stewart is hurt.  
 

We aren’t going to get a lot of offense from second, third and SS anyway.  
 

The offense is going to have to be from the OF/DH/1st and when 3-4 of those guys are struggling, the offense is going to look awful.

This is true. They have to be productive.  
 

One more thing right now is Diaz. 11 K’s in 22 PA’s.

Mountcastle has zero walks in 20 PA’s. Santander has not hit much (2-10) but has 7 walks in only 17 PA’s. Severino is 1-16. Trey has zero XBH’s. 

[eddie83]

35 minutes ago, George Zuverink said:

By May I expect that I will be going to the Minors section  before Orioles Talk.

I’ve always been of the belief it’s easier to hide bad pitching in April than August. Many years we lost 90 plus games they were competitive in April. The lack of pitching depth adds up over the long season. Hope some guys in the pen early on can help out with soaking up some innings. Unlike those years this year we have some arms to add the second half of the season.   
 

The bats right now are bad. Just hope we show some signs in the next 2 weeks of improvement. 

[wildcard]

Means looks good.  Kremer should continue to improve.  Zimmermann is on a mission to show he belongs in the rotation.   Lopez has the stuff and Holt is trying to get his head straight.   Akin just throws too many pitches to get through five innings.

Scott, Armstrong, Fry, Lakins, Tate all probably make the pen based on last year and should be fine.   Valdez can play anywhere from starter to closer to anything in between.   Tyler Wells look like he has the stuff to be long reliever to me. Look out for Conner Greene. He could end up at the back end of the pen.

Mullins and Hays belongs is this outfield together.  Somebody told Santander that he has to improve his OBP and now all he is doing is drawing walks.  He can hit and play right field.  Mancini may not be what he was in 2019 but he should be a solid hitter.   Mountcastle's bat will keep him in the lineup.   He is faster then I thought but he is just very green in left.  Hyde is excited about watching Sanchez and Galvis up the middle.  They should be decent defensively but not a lot of help on offense.   Though Severino and Sisco start the year at catcher, Adley is going to be hard to keep in the minors.    3rd base is a black hole right now but Elias has his eye on the waiver wire.  Stewart will get his at bats.

How good or bad is this team?   Way too early to come to any conclusion.

[LocoChris]

Not doing well in ST actually concerns me. Usually teams with good minor league talent do well in ST. 

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Means looks good.  Kremer should continue to improve.  Zimmermann is on a mission to show he belongs in the rotation.   Lopez has the stuff and Holt is trying to get his head straight.   Akin just throws too many pitches to get through five innings.

Scott, Armstrong, Fry, Lakins, Tate all probably make the pen based on last year and should be fine.   Valdez can play anywhere from starter to closer to anything in between.   Tyler Wells look like he has the stuff to be long reliever to me. Look out for Conner Greene. He could end up at the back end of the pen.

Mullins and Hays belongs is this outfield together.  Somebody told Santander that he has to improve his OBP and now all he is doing is drawing walks.  He can hit and play right field.  Mancini may not be what he was in 2019 but he should be a solid hitter.   Mountcastle's bat will keep him in the lineup.   He is faster then I thought but he is just very green in left.  Hyde is excited about watching Sanchez and Galvis up the middle.  They should be decent defensively but not a lot of help on offense.   Though Severino and Sisco start the year at catcher, Adley is going to be hard to keep in the minors.    3rd base is a black hole right now but Elias has his eye on the waiver wire.  Stewart will get his at bats.

How good or bad is this team?   Way too early to come to any conclusion.

Well, we know they aren’t good.  That’s obvious.  
 

 

[ArtVanDelay]

11 hours ago, Philip said:

I have often said that defense is more important than offense. At least at this time. I want solid defenders in the field. That’s why I didn’t care about Nunez leaving, I don’t think a dedicated DH is a good idea, I’d rather have a good defensive 3B. Defense helps pitching, and pitching/defense are two sides of the triangle. 
instead, we’ve been prioritizing offense, and we don’t have ANY good defenders. We just have guys who are less terrible then the next. Our arguably two best defenders each plays center! Bad defense hurts the pitching more than offense can compensate for.

But really... wouldn’t you rather complain about bad baseball than complain about winter?

I don’t see how defense is more important than offense in the era of three true outcomes.  Seems like defense has never been less important since there are less balls in play. 

[eddie83]

25 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Means looks good.  Kremer should continue to improve.  Zimmermann is on a mission to show he belongs in the rotation.   Lopez has the stuff and Holt is trying to get his head straight.   Akin just throws too many pitches to get through five innings.

Scott, Armstrong, Fry, Lakins, Tate all probably make the pen based on last year and should be fine.   Valdez can play anywhere from starter to closer to anything in between.   Tyler Wells look like he has the stuff to be long reliever to me. Look out for Conner Greene. He could end up at the back end of the pen.

Mullins and Hays belongs is this outfield together.  Somebody told Santander that he has to improve his OBP and now all he is doing is drawing walks.  He can hit and play right field.  Mancini may not be what he was in 2019 but he should be a solid hitter.   Mountcastle's bat will keep him in the lineup.   He is faster then I thought but he is just very green in left.  Hyde is excited about watching Sanchez and Galvis up the middle.  They should be decent defensively but not a lot of help on offense.   Though Severino and Sisco start the year at catcher, Adley is going to be hard to keep in the minors.    3rd base is a black hole right now but Elias has his eye on the waiver wire.  Stewart will get his at bats.

How good or bad is this team?   Way too early to come to any conclusion.

I like Means a ton and I look forward to seeing Kremer pitch. The rest of the rotation right now has a chance to be historically bad. I do think they can mask that some early on. No doubt second half we will see different arms.  
 

The pen is already down Harvey. We have some good arms down there but also a lack of a track record. I thought before the year the pen could be solid and it still may be but it’s so hard to predict a pen as we all know. With this rotation even more pressure is on the pen.  
 

Lineup really comes down to middle of order. If they produce than what you get out of Hays, C and DH will be difference for where they rank. If they struggle at all it can get real ugly fast. 
 

Means, Kremer, Mountcastle and Hays are players right now who’s production matters the most. We don’t know about Santander’s future yet. The catchers and infield are placeholders. Same with much of rotation. Pen is young arms and sure we hope they pan out but pens change so much, so fast. Plus by time this team can contend who knows where some of those guys will be. 

[Morgan423]

So, here is another view of the Astros rebuild, which has been held up as somewhat of a mirror of what we are currently doing.  Yes, there are some differences in the situations the teams started in, so you can't expect us to be identical rebuild twins.  I simply post this as a perspective of how long this might actually take.  

2011    2011    MLB    NL    Central    6th    56    106
2012    2012    MLB    NL    Central    6th    55    107
2013    2013    MLB    AL    West    5th        51    111  <-- You are approximately here at the start of this season
2014    2014    MLB    AL    West    4th        70    92
2015    2015    MLB    AL    West    2nd       86    76
2016    2016    MLB    AL    West    3rd        84    78
2017    2017    MLB    AL    West    1st        101    61
2018    2018    MLB    AL    West     1st       103    59
2019    2019    MLB    AL    West     1st       107    55

[Can_of_corn]

So you are saying they are already a year behind?

[Morgan423]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

So you are saying they are already a year behind?

No.  This is will be the third season under Mike Elias. 

[wildcard]

13 minutes ago, Morgan423 said:

So, here is another view of the Astros rebuild, which has been held up as somewhat of a mirror of what we are currently doing.  Yes, there are some differences in the situations the teams started in, so you can't expect us to be identical rebuild twins.  I simply post this as a perspective of how long this might actually take.  

2011    2011    MLB    NL    Central    6th    56    106
2012    2012    MLB    NL    Central    6th    55    107
2013    2013    MLB    AL    West    5th        51    111  <-- You are approximately here at the start of this season
2014    2014    MLB    AL    West    4th        70    92
2015    2015    MLB    AL    West    2nd       86    76
2016    2016    MLB    AL    West    3rd        84    78
2017    2017    MLB    AL    West    1st        101    61
2018    2018    MLB    AL    West     1st       103    59
2019    2019    MLB    AL    West     1st       107    55

Luhnow was hired in Dec 2011 so the first season of the rebuild was 2012.

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Luhnow was hired in Dec 2011 so the first season of the rebuild was 2012.

So a year behind.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, ArtVanDelay said:

I don’t see how defense is more important than offense in the era of three true outcomes.  Seems like defense has never been less important since there are less balls in play. 

It’s still important.   Thing is, defense is always subpar in spring training with sporadic play, players shaking off rust, experimenting with players at different positions, and sun- and wind-related issues in the Florida environs.   As I said, the defense has looked pretty bad, but that’s one thing I think is sure to improve.    Honestly this should be a decent defensive team.