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A Sparse Crowd Watches A Sparse Offense


cboemmeljr

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    • How do you Know that? And how does the BP keep him healthy? The only other pitcher i'm aware of for the O's that had a lat problem, was Richard Bleier, 2018 grade 3 strain required surgery> missed almost one year, went the next 4plus years injury free.
    • I have good news about the sound system at OPACY.
    • I don't think there is any way we trade Adley. Also doubt Seattle is interested. However, regarding DH, his DH/C splits mirror his platoon splits and he mostly DH's as RHB when McCann plays C. Be careful not to confuse correlation with causation. This will be interesting to test if/when we have a lefty C option, i.e. Basallo.  Holliday or Mayo might interest them though. 
    • Are the Orioles shortcomings mostly about the position player acquisition and development?    Pitching injuries were significant this year as even those pitching at the end were out for periods of time - Kremer, Eflin, Webb, Perez and obviously Danny Coulombe.  We could continue to argue that the O's internal pipeline needs to be more robust, but they do seem to have a knack for acquiring pitchers and improving them - Soto and Dominguez were better than they were with the Phillies along with the previously acquired relief core, Irvin did not pan out and Rogers remains a TBD but Bradish, GROD, Cano, Povich all seem to have benefitted from the approach of the pitching staff- one that included new coaches prior to this season.   Again Elias likes to dumpster dive (as do all GM's) but did pay up for Burns, Eflin, Dominguez and Rogers and spent/gambled perhaps unwisely on Kimbrel.   Could have spent more in terms of prosepct value for other trade deadline acquisitions, but would that have made a difference at the end given the offense/RISP issues?  Maybe the O's win a few more games 1-0? The primary issues seems to be the position players/hitting.  1) There has never been any major investment in PP acquisition other by trade FA signing.  Elias has moved most of his PP chips to the draft and internal development and only O'Hearn who was a waiver wire claim and designated for assignment (at least once after being acquired) saw any real offensive improvement.      2) If the equivalent of Slater,  Rivera and Jimenez, Soto, Pache, McCann etc had been pitcher acquisitions, the pitching staff would be horrific.  One would think if there is any method to offloading Cook, Hays, Norby, Cowser, Ortiz there would be at least 1 or 2 upside hitters that they O's could pick up.    Will agree that Urias and Mateo who came on board in 2022 were good acquisitions but the approach then was different - there were no internal options and they both played everyday primarily because of GG defense.   They were also given plenty of time to be both bad and good at hitting with no consquence or pressure.    3) 2024 Minor League PP promotions have not panned out so far.   Newly promoted players do not appear ready to field or hit, seem to regress.  HK, Jackson, Mayo - are all major investments together with Basallo and are huge future chips that frankly need to pan out and be developed correctly.    How much confidence do we have in this coaching staff to enable this group to reach their potential?  Gunnar and Westburg are exceptional players but were not rushed, had very few setbacks and suspect they would be good on any team - nothing special was done by O/s ML staff to make them better other than very early on with Gunnar who was drafted out of HS.  Both also got to play with slightly lower team expectations - 2022/early 2023.  4) Vet core players -  Mountcastle, Mullins, Santander are all streaky and most of their good stats are driven by bursts of productivity.    Santander seems on his own and HR's were a nice bonus this year but other parts of his games Walks, RISP have regressed.   Mullins is battling a chronic illness and remains an elite CF who needs a platoon partner for most LHP.       Mountcastle would appear to be a classic change of scenery player - will get better with a new team either because something clicks or a trade serves as a wake up call and everyone will complain about letting him go, but that's baseball. 5) Adley and Cowser - these two are probably the tipping point for me - What's up with Adley's full half season regression?    Cowser has improved but is miserable with RISP and inconsistent, but will he get better?  How the O's handle these two plus Jackson, HK, Mayo and Basallo will determine the future run of success.    Overall, what are the key factors for developing players into hitters that come through under pressure and when the games really matter?  Player readiness, coaching process, player familarity or loyalty to the O's system, innovative approach?   Seems like the O's hitting process remains a WIP and one that has not paid off to date.  Do we believe success is on the player or the coaching staff?  Do they need to be surrounded by a better veteran group/1-2 players that have won, take away some of the pressure, help to manage the clubhouse.    
    • Next year? Last year's playoff hurt. It was our first in a while and we didn't get any pitching. This year's playoff was downright embarrassing. We got great pitching and looked terrible at the plate. If this year's performance doesn't motivate those that return to improve all aspects of their game, I will be very surprised and disappointed. We were told last year was experience. Well this year was humiliation at all staffing levels. So, if that's part of "the process," learn and grow from it. Anxious to see what changes happen for 2025.
    • Burnes? He does not play for us anymore. Why would you put Kremer in the Pen ?
    • Ah I thought you were talking about the O's
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