Roch guesses OD lineup…Urias at SS

[Pickles]

As one who defended the Odor signing, and am still highly puzzled to the objections to it, I will be disappointed if he is starting OD.

[Can_of_corn]

10 hours ago, luismatos4prez said:

I'm holding out hope that the Lyles signing indicates a willingness to spend a bit and put out a less embarrassing team in 2022.

I really think Mullins, Hays, Adley, Mountcastle, Santander, Mancini, Urias, Simmons, Odor isn't a bad lineup. It's not good, but it's ML caliber. Replacing Severino, Valaika, and Franco with Adley, Simmons, and Odor is a 5 win upgrade imo.

The starting pitching will still be terrible though.

Not sure that signing Lyles makes the team less terrible.

It might but I don't think it's a sure thing.

[AnythingO's]

3 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Not sure that signing Lyles makes the team less terrible.

Would Straily be expected to be more effective than Lyles? Could Straily sign a minors contract now with a Major League salary?

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, AnythingO's said:

Would Straily be expected to be more effective than Lyles? Could Straily sign a minors contract now with a Major League salary?

I wasn't being serious about Straily, I had just seen the news that he was on the market and he's a former Oriole.

I have no idea what he looked like in Korea.

As for Lyles, I just think the lower end of a projection for Lyles isn't an improvement over what we already had available (as poor as those options looked in 2021).  I don't think he's likely to even be serviceable and the signing makes little sense to me.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, LA2 said:

Granted, but I wonder what Roch's excuse is for slapping together such a casual piece (no research, analysis, or even intriguing speculation) on a potentially fascinating topic.

He's not good at that sort of thing.

[sportsfan8703]

I don’t understand why a one is upset?  All Roch did was evaluate the roster as to where it stands and make an easy call. He also admits he thinks that AR will begin the season in the minors. 
 

To me, this was an article that nobody that reads this site should be shocked by. If you want to have another thread to argue who should play over who between the infielders, well it’s already been discussed here several times. 
 

Nothing to see here. Merry Christmas!!!!!

[Jammer7]

If, at the end of Spring Training, that is the best lineup, so be it. I would rather see Mateo over Odor on an everyday basis, just from the evaluation of Mateo standpoint. To me, I like Odor as a guy to start 3-4 times a week, based on match ups to get rest for Urias, Mateo and Gutierrez. Maybe a late inning PH role for any of the above as well. Odor is not an everyday guy for me.

[Ripken]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:18 PM, Pickles said:

As one who defended the Odor signing, and am still highly puzzled to the objections to it, I will be disappointed if he is starting OD.

For me, that was the fear; that he'd be handed that 2nd base job and I don't want that.  

[Pickles]

2 hours ago, Ripken said:

For me, that was the fear; that he'd be handed that 2nd base job and I don't want that.  

I don't either, but I don't think that's going to happen.  Nobody owes Odor anything here, and I think all parties would agree with that.  He's more likely to be cut in ST than be handed a starting spot.

[OriolesMagic83]

On 12/27/2021 at 3:54 PM, Jammer7 said:

If, at the end of Spring Training, that is the best lineup, so be it. I would rather see Mateo over Odor on an everyday basis, just from the evaluation of Mateo standpoint. To me, I like Odor as a guy to start 3-4 times a week, based on match ups to get rest for Urias, Mateo and Gutierrez. Maybe a late inning PH role for any of the above as well. Odor is not an everyday guy for me.

I think the upside for Odor is a low .200 batting average, sub .300 OBP and 30 HRs.  The O's might as well bring back Ruiz.  How is his fielding.  I'm guessing it's below average. 

[LA2]

1 hour ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I think the upside for Odor is a low .200 batting average, sub .300 OBP and 30 HRs.  The O's might as well bring back Ruiz.  How is his fielding.  I'm guessing it's below average. 

He's also the guy you can afford to lose to the penalty box (or a red card) when getting even with the most obnoxious player on the other team.

[Jammer7]

14 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I think the upside for Odor is a low .200 batting average, sub .300 OBP and 30 HRs.  The O's might as well bring back Ruiz.  How is his fielding.  I'm guessing it's below average. 

The only thing I can come up with is they see an opportunity for him to make some moderate changes in approach or maybe mechanics. Perhaps they think the data shows the numbers will improve if he works on his swing decisions, or whatever they see. The defense is probably average at 2B and 3B. Rio is playing in Japan, I believe that was the rumor, but I get your point.

For the minimum salary it would cost them if he is kept, it’s worth a shot to see what is there at 27 years old. I would have him in a role that gets him 350-400 plate appearances, ideally. I look at it as an improvement over what they had before he signed. But he does not excite me much. 

[wildcard]

41 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

The only thing I can come up with is they see an opportunity for him to make some moderate changes in approach or maybe mechanics. Perhaps they think the data shows the numbers will improve if he works on his swing decisions, or whatever they see. The defense is probably average at 2B and 3B. Rio is playing in Japan, I believe that was the rumor, but I get your point.

For the minimum salary it would cost them if he is kept, it’s worth a shot to see what is there at 27 years old. I would have him in a role that gets him 350-400 plate appearances, ideally. I look at it as an improvement over what they had before he signed. But he does not excite me much. 

All that is probably true.   I see Odor as a placeholder until the O's see if they can get someone better that meets their performance and financial needs. He will be in ST to see what he can offer and in case there is an injury.

[Sports Guy]

The problem with Odor is simple..he’s going to take away at bats from players that he shouldn’t be taking at bats from.

He will hit for power.  I don’t doubt that but who cares.  Ok defense, no walks and awful bat to ball skills tell his story.

I get..you can move him around and we have other pieces that are versatile as well.  I also get that no one is a sure thing and that he can be somewhat of an insurance policy at no money.

But what he also represents is laziness.  He represents an unwillingness to make real moves to make the team better.  He represents them being cheap.

I don’t buy for a second that they just see this as some great bargain play.  They see as a warm body to put there that doesn’t cost anything and someone who can hit homers.  That’s it.  
 

No matter the cost or the low risk involved, it doesn’t make much sense baseball wise and it’s further evidence of them not caring about the on field product.

[Jammer7]

9 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

The problem with Odor is simple..he’s going to take away at bats from players that he shouldn’t be taking at bats from.

He will hit for power.  I don’t doubt that but who cares.  Ok defense, no walks and awful bat to ball skills tell his story.

I get..you can move him around and we have other pieces that are versatile as well.  I also get that no one is a sure thing and that he can be somewhat of an insurance policy at no money.

But what he also represents is laziness.  He represents an unwillingness to make real moves to make the team better.  He represents them being cheap.

I don’t buy for a second that they just see this as some great bargain play.  They see as a warm body to put there that doesn’t cost anything and someone who can hit homers.  That’s it.  
 

No matter the cost or the low risk involved, it doesn’t make much sense baseball wise and it’s further evidence of them not caring about the on field product.

Urias, Mateo and Gutierrez should get a day off every week. Maybe against certain pitching match ups, or maybe one of the three above are banged up. That would be my plan anyway. If he is a starting infielder over the three above consistently, then he had better have a career year.

He’s a flier, a placeholder, a penny stock. He is an improvement over any of the other depth pieces and parts we had available, unless you would rather have Richie Martin, Jahmai Jones or Rylan Bannon? And only Martin offers any real versatility of that group. Odor adds a LH bat that Hyde talked about the Orioles needing repeatedly last year. 

As far as calling Elias lazy or whatever the rest of your morning rant is, I can’t follow you there. Judging an off season at this time is impossible, although I will admit I do not expect us to go sign Correa or any other star FA when the lockout concludes. We have not been competing, true. You are getting impatient, got it. It is a process he laid out, and it is working like he said it would. The long term health of this team is to build it right. This isn’t a normal “rebuild.” It is building something that was not here before in many instances, i.e. the analytics department and international scouting.

Elias seems to have passed along some of his initial responsibilities to others as he has hired them. He was patient to make the “right” hires, according to him. He has not proven himself capable of building a winning major league team as a GM. Not yet. That much is true. It is difficult to judge the trades, but they appear to be mostly very good. Maybe not the Yaz trade, but the rest have been favorable so far. I will remain positive, for now. Elias has done a tremendous job to this point. He has two years to show me he can build a playoff caliber team. If not, pitchforks come out.