Questions the Press Needs to Ask Elias

[Roll Tide]

14 hours ago, Bahama O's Fan said:

So he can have the payroll for what he wants to do. No one knows what he wants to do. If he wants to trade vets and acquire young talent, then obviously the payroll is there. Asking how much it will expectedly increase tells us how active they intend to be in the FA market 

If you expect them to be active in free agency you obviously have been paying attention. The Orioles business is done in the bargain bin. Don’t expect anything to chain. I don’t expect them to try to win this coming season. 

[Roll Tide]

8 hours ago, Philip said:

Yes they give us nothing, but giving us something is their job. It is the reason for existence. Why do we have stenographers when every trial in the world is videotaped anyway? Because stenographers are tradition. I’m sure that somewhere in the New York subway you can find a phone book.

Why do we have beat writers? You pointed out that they are an anachronism, and my response is yes that may be true, but if they’re not an anachronism then they have to serve a purpose and they are not serving any purpose. Does that make sense?

Your response is to go with the flow, and my response is for them to do their job. Yes Roch is a shill so he doesn’t count. And none of the other guys is a good writer. But they gotta work with what they got, and atm, they ain’t.

FWIW….Roch will swear he is not told what he can and can’t say. I’ve never believed it of course … But, he has acted downright insulted by the implication.

[Sports Guy]

8 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

But they are doing their job.  It also bears mentioning that these guys most likely exist for the casual fan.  

As I said, if you don't like how they're doing their job, step up and show them how it's done.  Start a blog, gain a following and you can grill Elias in the manner you see fit.

Yea I don’t know what is so hard to understand.

Most of the baseball watching community doesn’t belong to a message board or social media page or whatever for their favorite team.

Roch’s value is to the average, casual fan who needs those daily updates.  MASN would have him on the air on Fridays.  He would provide updates and the announcers would ask him questions like he was THE expert on all of it.  That’s how the casual fan sees him.  Most fans fall into that category.  Most fans don’t want to hear a statistical analysis of stuff.  They either don’t care or don’t understand it.

Of course we can get better analysis on here but to the casual fan, most of them would think we have no idea what we are talking about.

Imagine getting into a discussion with someone why player X is the ROY over RM even though Mountcastle has more homers and RBIs.   They hear Hyde saying he should be ROY and they see those numbers and they think you are stupid for suggesting otherwise.  They just don’t understand everything else going into the decision.  THAT is the fan Roch caters to and he’s good at it.  
 

He doesn’t cater to us outside of the occasional rumor he hears and just a general keeping you up to date on day to day things, like roster call ups and things like that.

[HowAboutThat]

3 hours ago, Roll Tide said:

FWIW….Roch will swear he is not told what he can and can’t say. I’ve never believed it of course … But, he has acted downright insulted by the implication.

Yeah he is definitely a party man. I’ve often wondered how he got the job, and then kept it so long.

[Frobby]

25 minutes ago, Philip said:

Yeah he is definitely a party man. I’ve often wondered how he got the job, and then kept it so long.

He was the beat reporter for the Sun before he got the MASN gig.   His blog actually started at the Sun back when blogs were a new phenomenon.   I still remember his blog reports of Nick Markakis’ batting practice sessions during 2006 spring training.   I think that’s right when the blog started, and it was very novel getting several real-time reports every day from spring training.   The blog got very popular very quickly, as it had no real competition at the time.  

[Jammer7]

@Moose Milligan really explained the situation well. Several great posts, Moose. Exactly my thoughts. Roch and Meoli are the only guys I really enjoy reading anymore. Maybe Melewski on occasion. But I do not expect much insight or analysis. Twitter has become my main source from accounts like On The Verge, Orioles Statistics, Matt Kremnitzer, and so on. 

As far as what questions we want, nothing realistic comes to mind. Elias is not going to answer any difficult question and give away any information that might take away some negotiating advantages. Things are just done that way these days. And any GM who gives away answers to these things any clearer than Elias provides, is usually out of a job soon after.

Many here post their speculative thoughts based on the factors they perceive coming together. And that, is about the best we can get, until it actually happens. Speculation and opinion, along with some very good analysis, well that is why I am here. 

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

Yeah he is definitely a party man. I’ve often wondered how he got the job, and then kept it so long.

Because he does his job well.

[webbrick2010]

What grad/med school outfielder are we targeting with the 1-1 pick?

[Aristotelian]

Who does your hair? Where do you get your orange ties? I would not expect actual answers to baseball questions. 

[spiritof66]

2 hours ago, webbrick2010 said:

What grad/med school outfielder are we targeting with the 1-1 pick?

It depends on how little those candidates are willing to sign for (presumably including payback of any med school loans).

And I'm sure we'll get a guy who also can play 1B and DH -- can't have too many of them!

[osfan83]

At what point does the team start to worry. After opening day if the average April attendance is 5,000 do they become concerned? How low can TV ratings get before they can no longer sell advertising during the games? At some point, to keep the business going, they are going to have to compete at some level. 

[Can_of_corn]

39 minutes ago, osfan83 said:

At what point does the team start to worry. After opening day if the average April attendance is 5,000 do they become concerned? How low can TV ratings get before they can no longer sell advertising during the games? At some point, to keep the business going, they are going to have to compete at some level. 

Honestly they can turn a profit off of MASN and revenue sharing, as long as they keep payroll low.

[Frobby]

9 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Honestly they can turn a profit off of MASN and revenue sharing, as long as they keep payroll low.

They are probably very profitable right now.  After the 2019 season, Forbes estimated the Orioles had net operating income of $57 mm, with gate receipts of $35 mm (out of $256 mm in revenue) and player expenses of $103 mm (of which about $83 mm was payroll and the rest benefits, I estimate).    This year, gate receipts are probably down roughly $14 mm, but payroll is down $40 mm from 2019.    So, net operating income could be as high as $83 mm or so.    Countering that, I expect that revenue sharing payments by the rich teams are probably down because major league attendance generally is down about 33%.   I’d guess there are some other areas where revenue has taken a hit.   So, finger to the wind, I’ll guess the O’s have NOI in the $65-70 mm range this year.   

Here’s an article on how revenue sharing was altered this year due to effects of the pandemic.   https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/03/mlb-to-adopt-modified-loan-based-revenue-sharing-plan-for-2021-season.html

[Pushmonkey]

Lol. Roch’s latest post of mailbag. Keep the roster how it is, don’t spend money, and don’t question Hyde. Lol. What a joke. 

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, Pushmonkey said:

Lol. Roch’s latest post of mailbag. Keep the roster how it is, don’t spend money, and don’t question Hyde. Lol. What a joke. 

I think he is saying that’s what the Os will be doing.  Every post like that from Roch has some form of inside info behind it.   He is telling you what they are likely to do.