Buy The Arms, The Astro Way!

[UMDTerrapins]

Do you think we take a look at Mike Foltynewicz? He was in the Houston system while Elias was there. Certainly not the kind of guy I want to go after, but Elias might look at him for depth on a minor league deal. 35 HR in 139 IP, and a drop in velocity in 2021. What's not to like!

[Il BuonO]

22 hours ago, UMDTerrapins said:

Do you think we take a look at Mike Foltynewicz? He was in the Houston system while Elias was there. Certainly not the kind of guy I want to go after, but Elias might look at him for depth on a minor league deal. 35 HR in 139 IP, and a drop in velocity in 2021. What's not to like!

Not a bad long shot play. 

[Yossarian]

The key part to "growing the arms" is having quality pitching coaches at all levels.  This has proven to be easier said than done.  If you can't teach a kid to pitch, you have to get a kid that someone else has taught to pitch and then not ruin him. 

[Ruzious]

On 10/9/2021 at 6:39 PM, UMDTerrapins said:

Do you think we take a look at Mike Foltynewicz? He was in the Houston system while Elias was there. Certainly not the kind of guy I want to go after, but Elias might look at him for depth on a minor league deal. 35 HR in 139 IP, and a drop in velocity in 2021. What's not to like!

He's actually kept his WHIP reasonably good after his fall from grace with Atl, but the homeruns have been a killer - he's not exactly made for Camden Yards.    

[UMDTerrapins]

32 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

He's actually kept his WHIP reasonably good after his fall from grace with Atl, but the homeruns have been a killer - he's not exactly made for Camden Yards.    

Yeah, he strikes me as a low risk gamble on a minor league contract, which is probably as good as he'll get anywhere. But unless he adds a few mph at age 30, it's hard to see his ceiling being much more than an innings eater. 

[Ohfan67]

I think they are drafting based on a statistical model that is focused on maximizing controllable WAR regardless of position. And I think that's a great way to do it. Why draft a pitcher if your model predicts that an available hitter/position player is significantly more likely to yield more WAR for the team than the pitchers that are available with that pick? Maximize wins regardless of position, perceived "needs" of the organization, etc. Fake arguments about the Astros "model", the Tampa "model", etc. are irrelevant IMO. 

[OriolesMagic83]

On 10/8/2021 at 8:11 PM, emmett16 said:

I think they need to identify Pitchers that would be willing to take a 1 year deal and sign them above value.  They need to find a way to keep offensive player's salary to a minimum and pay out the wazoo for SP.  Identify a mercenary that is willing to bet on himself with 1 year deals and pay 10-20% above market value.  

This ownership group isn't paying out the wazoo for anything except maybe lawyers to fight the MASN settlement.

[sportsfan8703]

I’ll give the astros credit for anayltics but I think luck, spider tack, and sacrificing some morals(Osuna), played a big part. 
 

Verlander - They really didn’t give up too much. They just absorbed a lot of salary. They’re were lots of people here that didn’t even want to trade Chance Sisco for him. 
 

Cole - Again pretty lucky. I mean Colin Moran. We laughed that off for Britton. Of course they got others. 
 

Their model was is that they basically bought a pitching staff until their work in the Dominican and the draft paid off. 
 

Bottomline is that the bats came first and were cheap. That allowed them to trade access bats and have the money to spend on pitching. 

[Tony-OH]

Unless both Rodriguez and Hall pan out to be #1 and #2 pitchers, the Orioles do not have the talent in the system to compete for a World Series pitching wise. 

There's a Huge drop off to the next level of pitching prospects and with the Elias reluctance to draft pitchers in the low rounds, they are going to have to trade or sign pitching Fee agents.

The good news? The Orioles have a lot of room to add salary IF ownership is willing to spend. That's something we just don't know yet with the Angelos brothers.

[Il BuonO]

3 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

The Orioles have a lot of room to add salary IF ownership is willing to spend. That's something we just don't know yet with the Angelos brothers.

Yup, the unknown-unknown.