Mother's Day vs the Red Sox- what could go wrong?

[Gurgi]

Mountcastle is heating up.....this is a wonderful sign.  It would mean we can bat him behind Mancini and give him some protection in the line up if it keeps up.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

3 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Really?

We had a .290 winning percentage in 2018.

We had a .333 winning percentage in 2019.

We had a .417 winning percentage in 2020 despite playing an extremely difficult schedule that basically only included one team (Boston) that wasn't in contention for the playoffs with a week left in the season.

Even if we lose today, we will have a .441 winnning percentage in which we have played 9 games vs the first place Red Sox, 6 games vs the Yankees, 6 games vs the first place A's, and 7 games vs the second place Mariners, accounting for 28 out of our 34 games.

Also in that time we've gone from being an old team to being one of the younger teams in MLB.

For me your last point is the key one, and this isn't like the last rebuild where the Orioles acquired expensive veteran players and hoping something good would happen.

I wished the rebuild was going faster, but the farm system was severely lacking when Elias took over. Given the budget Elias has been given to work with, I'd rather invest in player development and bite the bullet on some some losing years.

If the Orioles can emulate the Rays and consistently develop talent then I'll consider the Elias' regime a success. With one key difference that the O's hold onto more of their talent than the Rays. 

[SteveA]

Franco for Valaika?

[O's84]

No doubles defense.

[spiritof66]

Orioles swinging away like they're in a hurry to get home.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Just now, spiritof66 said:

Orioles swinging away like they're in a hurry to get home.

I stepped away for two minutes and it was already two outs in the bottom of the ninth. 

[Robh21223]

Why wouldn't you pinch hit for your worst hitters Ruiz and Valaika in the 9th?

Sisco has power and was on the bench.

Hyde just sits there and does nothing. Is he really trying to win every game??

[Robh21223]

6 straight Red Sox wins over the O's at OPACY. Outscored 48-27.

Only 4 hits today.

I hate the Red Sox more than the MFY.

[spiritof66]

38 minutes ago, Robh21223 said:

Why wouldn't you pinch hit for your worst hitters Ruiz and Valaika in the 9th?

Sisco has power and was on the bench.

Hyde just sits there and does nothing. Is he really trying to win every game??

I wish I new the answer to that question. I have become very reluctant to criticize Hyde's decision because I don't know whether his assignment is to try to win as many games as possible with the crappy roster he has or to try to win, while at the same time putting players in situations where their performance will help inform him (Elias, really) as to how helpful they will be to a future team. If it's the latter, that would help explain his leaving young starters in for too long, putting Mountcastle in left field, and some other stuff.

It's hard to say that Sisco would be a better, or worse, option than Ruiz to hit in the 9th. They've both been terrible hitters so far. I'd take Valaika over Sisco. But this one wasn't on the manager, other than the more general appearance that he and his staff don't seem to have this team prepared to play smart baseball.

[ORIOLE33]

VERY disappointing series. Didn’t see a 4 game sweep coming.