McCann: “I’ve never seen more talent”

[Frobby]

The Washington Post has an extremely laudatory article about the Orioles today, “For the Orioles, anything is possible,” leading with this from James McCann:

“The Baltimore Orioles 2023 camp is the most talented spring training, from top to bottom, of all the camps I’ve been in,” McCann said Wednesday morning at Camden Yards. “From the first guy in camp to the last guy, I’ve never seen more talent.”

* * *

“I wanted to be on a team that was going to be competitive and win and have a chance to make a run in the playoffs,” said veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson, a free agent signee who didn’t endure all the losing but is here for the winning. “Not just make the playoffs. I think this is a playoff team. But how far can we go with these young guys and the combination of veterans?

“It’s a situation everyone wants to be in.”

[Sports Guy]

Shame that so much of that talent is in the minors, wasting at bats down there.

That said, when you consider that you had the MiLers, including guys like Holliday down there, I can see this being an actual possibility and not just some recentism that a new player is saying.

The reason I would push back on this is that there isn’t enough pitching..but the positional prospect group is absolutely loaded, not to mention the talent on the ML roster.

[Just Regular]

The funnest litmus test is if all the guys make Elias think about whether he should use Holliday this October, as I feel the Rays should have with Wander in 2020.

I scribbled a lineup with Ohtani and Holliday in it, and felt at least fair to middlin about its chances against Pablo Lopez.

Holliday of course has 200 PA each of A+ and AA data to provide and must continue to show rare excellence.

Being Raysian, of course you can use Shane McClanahan in the World Series and hold him to 158 days of service the following year.    Honestly, you're wasting value if you don't.

[btdart20]

16-8!!!  About 15% of the season is in the books.  A long way to go, but maybe...  just maybe...  Let's go!!!

[Spy Fox]

“So between last June 1 and Wednesday, only three American League teams — Houston, Cleveland and Seattle — had won a higher percentage of their games than the Orioles.“

So, this team has the best record in the AL East over ~4 months of play. 

[Pickles]

1 minute ago, Spy Fox said:

“So between last June 1 and Wednesday, only three American League teams — Houston, Cleveland and Seattle — had won a higher percentage of their games than the Orioles.“

So, this team has the best record in the AL East over ~4 months of play. 

That's five months.

There's no reason this team can't win the division this year.  The Rays are beastly, but they won't win 120 games.

[Tony-OH]

Everyone including the players are high from the early winning, and that's ok. I want the players to feel that way and I want them to believe they are the better team going into every game.

Obviously it's hard to be down on the team and I'm certainly not, but Elias can't rest on his laurels because this team just happened to get hot pitching wise just as the hitting got cold. Now maybe that the mark of a good team, but as we discussed in the Time to bring up Cowser thread, there are moves that make this team stronger. 

The really good news is the Orioles are 16-8 with no one really over achieving offensively outside of Mateo. The Orioles are running out out machines like Mountcastle (.255 OBP), Santander (.274 OBP) and Frazier (.288 OBP) almost everyday and are still winning. That's a 3rd of their regular lineup that is underperforming.

Now I expect Mountcastle and Santander to do better, and I even doubt Frazier is as bad he's been since the Boston series (.156/.239/.203/.443 in 71 PAs) though I still believe the team is better with him in a bench role vs a starter's role (I'd really like to see him of the team but I know that's not happening anytime soon due to his salary). 

Pitching wise, 2 of their 5 starters have ERA's over 6 (Kremer - 6.20 and Bradish - 6.30), but Bradish's ERA is most driven from his last bad start and his 4.64 FIP is better indicator. Gibson, Wells and Rodriguez have been solid more times than not. Wells has been the best overall so far and he showed the ability to hold his stuff to 100 pitches in his last start, something he's never done at the big league level.

The bullpen has gotten absolute huge infusion with Cano and Coulumbe becoming go to high leverage guys while Baker and Baumann have been very good as well. The only relief pitchers that have struggled at times this year is Perez (4.66) and Voth (6.39) but Voth has settled down and has a 2.70 ERA over his last 4 appearances covering 6.2 IP. Neither of those guys have options so I doubt the Orioles will risk losing them on waivers. 

That begs the question what do the Orioles do when Tate and Givens come back soon? 

It probably means that Elias needs to be on the phone prepared to move a reliever (Voth most likely) but either way, the talent in the bullpen is pretty deep. So that brings as back to the talent on the roster. It's a good problem to have when you don't need to bring up the Gillaspie's of the world but may have to send a Baumann to the minors or risk losing Voth or Perez (a certainty so he's not going anywhere).

 

[Sanfran327]

3 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Shame that so much of that talent is in the minors, wasting at bats down there.

That said, when you consider that you had the MiLers, including guys like Holliday down there, I can see this being an actual possibility and not just some recentism that a new player is saying.

The reason I would push back on this is that there isn’t enough pitching..but the positional prospect group is absolutely loaded, not to mention the talent on the ML roster.

I think that's why he was so intentional in mentioning "from the first guy to the last" when he qualified his statement. Middle and lower MiLB guys that are big-time, legit prospects, not just necessarily the 26 man or even the 40 man roster.

I'll feel better about the pitching when we have Means, Tate, and Givens back in the fold. And as we've discussed, another bat or 2 could well be in the works by mid-summer. I think this team looks pretty different and even further improved by July.

[SilentJames]

So guys, 

Did I miss anything? 

[wildcard]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Everyone including the players are high from the early winning, and that's ok. I want the players to feel that way and I want them to believe they are the better team going into every game.

Obviously it's hard to be down on the team and I'm certainly not, but Elias can't rest on his laurels because this team just happened to get hot pitching wise just as the hitting got cold. Now maybe that the mark of a good team, but as we discussed in the Time to bring up Cowser thread, there are moves that make this team stronger. 

The really good news is the Orioles are 16-8 with no one really over achieving offensively outside of Mateo. The Orioles are running out out machines like Mountcastle (.255 OBP), Santander (.274 OBP) and Frazier (.288 OBP) almost everyday and are still winning. That's a 3rd of their regular lineup that is underperforming.

Now I expect Mountcastle and Santander to do better, and I even doubt Frazier is as bad he's been since the Boston series (.156/.239/.203/.443 in 71 PAs) though I still believe the team is better with him in a bench role vs a starter's role (I'd really like to see him of the team but I know that's not happening anytime soon due to his salary). 

Pitching wise, 2 of their 5 starters have ERA's over 6 (Kremer - 6.20 and Bradish - 6.30), but Bradish's ERA is most driven from his last bad start and his 4.64 FIP is better indicator. Gibson, Wells and Rodriguez have been solid more times than not. Wells has been the best overall so far and he showed the ability to hold his stuff to 100 pitches in his last start, something he's never done at the big league level.

The bullpen has gotten absolute huge infusion with Cano and Coulumbe becoming go to high leverage guys while Baker and Baumann have been very good as well. The only relief pitchers that have struggled at times this year is Perez (4.66) and Voth (6.39) but Voth has settled down and has a 2.70 ERA over his last 4 appearances covering 6.2 IP. Neither of those guys have options so I doubt the Orioles will risk losing them on waivers. 

That begs the question what do the Orioles do when Tate and Givens come back soon? 

It probably means that Elias needs to be on the phone prepared to move a reliever (Voth most likely) but either way, the talent in the bullpen is pretty deep. So that brings as back to the talent on the roster. It's a good problem to have when you don't need to bring up the Gillaspie's of the world but may have to send a Baumann to the minors or risk losing Voth or Perez (a certainty so he's not going anywhere).

 

Could be long rehabs for Tate and Givens waiting for someone to get injured or faulter.   They have a month in rehab if needed.

[Yossarian]

It would sure be nice to see what guys like Cowser, Westburg, and even Kjerstad can do in a big league squad early in the season so you know whether you can start moving pieces in front of them by the trade deadline. 

And what do you do with Hall?  Stowers?

[glenn__davis]

2 hours ago, SilentJames said:

So guys, 

Did I miss anything? 

Dang man...it's been a minute!

[Alasdaire]

Reminds me of an article from the Sun earlier this year where Norby said that after Darell Hernaiz was traded to Oakland, he said to Norby:

Quote

“He’s like, ‘It’s completely different there,’” Norby said. “We were just talking about how loaded we are.

One thing is professional evaluators hyping up the system, but for the players themselves to be awestruck by it is very exciting for us as fans. Might never see this much talent coming up again.

[Billy F-Face3]

8 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Shame that so much of that talent is in the minors, wasting at bats down there.

That said, when you consider that you had the MiLers, including guys like Holliday down there, I can see this being an actual possibility and not just some recentism that a new player is saying.

The reason I would push back on this is that there isn’t enough pitching..but the positional prospect group is absolutely loaded, not to mention the talent on the ML roster.

Imagine if the Orioles were to trade for a prospect like Andrew Painter. Or better yet, a Major League Ace. They have an abundance of position players they can use as leverage to make such a deal, and if they are all around the same age it makes no sense to clog it all up and block them from the field. Might as well as flip that into a spot that can be put on the Big League field right away, like excellent pitching. They have so much that they should still have pkenty of talent in the younger ranks to keep the franchise healthy long term. 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Billy F-Face3

[NCRaven]

5 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

Everyone including the players are high from the early winning, and that's ok. I want the players to feel that way and I want them to believe they are the better team going into every game.

Obviously it's hard to be down on the team and I'm certainly not, but Elias can't rest on his laurels because this team just happened to get hot pitching wise just as the hitting got cold.

Hopefully, the Ortiz promotion is one indication that Elias is not content with the current roster.  On the position side, I can't wait for Cowser and Westburg to join him.  I hope to see DL Hall sooner rather than later and Means is on the pitching horizon.  I think all of these guys will be on Elias's radar at some point this season.  By the deadline, Elias will have a clear idea of what we have and what we'll need for a playoff run, assuming that we're still in contention - as I expect we will be.