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Elias pre-game interview 9/30/21


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6 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

And if you think they are going to be in the 70-75M range they have a lot less.

Yea but I don’t think that number will be true in 2-3 years.  Probably pretty accurate for 2022 but you can still fit that contract on your budget for next year and 2023, when the budget figures to be the second cheapest of the next 5+ years.

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56 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

If there was one thing that I have an issue about with the local media is their inability to ask suitable follow up questions.

I know Elias won’t answer them because he thinks he is holding secrets of national security but I would still like to see them asked.

I complain about that constantly. Never is there any pushback to a non-answer.

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Joe Trezza's take:

Yada yada yada, as others have said.

On Kjerstad:

“I think we're all definitely -- including him -- concerned about it. He missed a year and a half of plate appearances. There are some mitigating factors there, hopefully. A lot of players missed plate appearances in 2020. He was a pretty polished college hitter from a big conference, and he's got a great head on his shoulders. He's kind of jumped back into the mix of things and is a real natural hitter. It’s not a cage-crafted swing. So hopefully all that allows him to catch up eventually, but I'm sure there's going to be some curve to that and we're obviously going to be patient with him and supportive.”

Grayson and Adley need more "service-timing" ?

"Grayson has not pitched in Triple-A yet. I don't think it's 100 percent necessary to pitch in Triple-A. So it doesn't preclude anything, but that's going to be a consideration. Adley has spent a short amount of time there as well, and played really well there. We're just going to kind of consider all factors.”

On current flop - er - flock of young 'uns and old, washed up veteran "reinforcements:

This group, by and large, is still part of our future plans … But we need to get more talented in a lot of areas, and pitching is certainly at the top of the list. So we're going to be looking at external reinforcements for sure.”

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Here's the longer quote from Roch's blog update, the part I think of as "the Noah Syndergaard pitch":

Are the ballpark, rebuild and playing in the American League East deterrents for free agent pitchers?
“Yeah, I think players want to be on good teams. This is historically an offensive park. There’s no secret to that or running from that. I think it is a factor, depending on the type of contract, that player, what they’re looking to do. It can be a factor and it’s just something each club has to navigate different. But we have a lot of advantages here, too. We have opportunities. We’re going to have opportunities to be really guaranteed rotation spots and being a leader on the staff and things like that to sell and we’ll see where it goes.”

Of course, good teams will want him too, but I don't think he is in the right spot to sell his whole future, and the 2022 Orioles are a unique platform for him.   

Want to start Opening Day?

Want to throw 100 pitches every 6th day regardless of what happens?

Want to see which 2022 aspirants are actually good in July?     Sure, you can have some No Trade clauses.

Want lots of chances to slay some Yankees/Red Sox going towards your "real" FA?

We have some money.

All moot if Mets QO him, but I feel like 1/19 is a fair bit too high for where he is this offseason.

2021 xwOBA YTD for AL East run production juggernauts: Jays 1st, Red Sox 3rd, Yankees 6th, Rays 16th (aka 8th in AL, near Royals/Guardians).  #DefenseBaserunning$$$/WAR

The Rays have also translated xwOBA 16 into the most runs in baseball, and the Yankees xwOBA 6 into an average-ish amount, illustrating the mobility difference in Brett Phillips and Giancarlo Stanton, and who knows whatever else they know that others don't?

 

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7 minutes ago, bobmc said:

is a real natural hitter. It’s not a cage-crafted swing.

I noted those opposites Elias volunteered.    

I suppose cage-craft can occasionally make Jose Bautista, Justin Turner, etc, but imagine it is better not to need it.

Now if anyone could repeatedly do that...  Does the luxury tax count them and how much are the Dodgers allocating for that intellectual capital.

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3 hours ago, wildcard said:

Good  interview.

Does Elias think the club has enough starting pitching?

Mike: “I think it would be very overly optimistic of us to assume that we have enough pitching 

Would the club consider free agent pitchers on major league deals and perhaps multi-year contracts?

Mike: I think if it’s the right player.

Are the ballpark, rebuild and playing in the American League East deterrents for free agent pitchers?

Mike: “Yeah, I think players want to be on good teams. This is historically an offensive park. I think it is a factor.

Does Elias expect to have the financial support of the club’s partnership group?

Mike: free agent investments that we want because they’re strategic, that will be there.”

Does Elias expect to be in the bidding for the top free agent shortstops on the market?

Mike: This has historically been a ballpark that some hitters like to come to on shorter-term deals.  I do think that the time for the Orioles of making the largest splash at the Winter Meetings is now right now. 


 

 

 

Most of these are stupid questions. Actually all of these are stupid questions. We can certainly blame Mike for non-answers, but it is the responsibility of the riders to ask meaningful questions. “does the club have enough starting pitching?” I mean, seriously. How stupid a question is that. I don’t know which of the beat writers posed that question, but it does no credit to whoever did, And it is telling that I can imagine any of them asking it.

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Elias can't give the answers we want, and the media knows not to ask questions he can't answer. Not sure what anyone expects. As far as evasive GM-speak goes I thought it was pretty good. To me the most interesting quote was:

We think that this team will continuously get better from this point forward. That’s what I think. We have a lot of young talent here. Young talent tends to get better. 

Seems like he is calling out the bottom here so if we don't get better from here out he can be held accountable for that. 

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13 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Elias can't give the answers we want, and the media knows not to ask questions he can't answer. Not sure what anyone expects. As far as evasive GM-speak goes I thought it was pretty good. To me the most interesting quote was:

We think that this team will continuously get better from this point forward. That’s what I think. We have a lot of young talent here. Young talent tends to get better. 

Seems like he is calling out the bottom here so if we don't get better from here out he can be held accountable for that. 

I actually wish that @Just Regular AKA Oriole Dog could provide answers.  We would be swept up in a nether land of wonderment and confusion and then finally, "Did he just say what?"  When you have to glean the wheat from the chaff, where there is no wheat, what does one do?  ? @Philip

btw - love what you bring here JR!  I just need @Frobby to provide the "Ramon Alarcon" every now and then!  ?

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22 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Elias can't give the answers we want, and the media knows not to ask questions he can't answer. Not sure what anyone expects. As far as evasive GM-speak goes I thought it was pretty good. To me the most interesting quote was:

We think that this team will continuously get better from this point forward. That’s what I think. We have a lot of young talent here. Young talent tends to get better. 

Seems like he is calling out the bottom here so if we don't get better from here out he can be held accountable for that. 

I think he’s right that the upswing should start happening next year.   How big of an upswing remains to be seen.   Sounds to me like we will be more active on the FA market than in recent years, but we will still be more opportunistic/lower end than proactive/higher end.   So I’m setting my expectations accordingly.   I won’t be hanging on every report at the Winter Meetings.    More likely, I’ll wake up a few times in February and see that we signed some player who had a disappointing market and settled for the Orioles.   

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48 minutes ago, bobmc said:

I actually wish that @Just Regular AKA Oriole Dog could provide answers.  We would be swept up in a nether land of wonderment and confusion and then finally, "Did he just say what?"  When you have to glean the wheat from the chaff, where there is no wheat, what does one do?  ? @Philip

btw - love what you bring here JR!  I just need @Frobby to provide the "Ramon Alarcon" every now and then!  ?

Very well said! If Mike could express his non-answers as poetically as many of the comments here do so regularly, I would be a little bit less annoyed. But only a little…

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