The Orioles Winning The World Series Would be Unprecedented In Modern Baseball History

[sportsfan8703]

Do we have the best lineup in the AL for the playoffs?

1. Mullins L CF

2. Adley S C

3. Gunnar L 3B

4. Santa S RF

5. Mountcastle R DH

6. O’Hearn L 1B

7. Hays R LF

8. Frazier L 2B

9. Holliday L SS

Hicks, McCann, Westburg, Urias, Mateo

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Do we have the best lineup in the AL for the playoffs?

9. Holliday 

Go ahead, keep indulging your Holliday fantasy.   

The Rangers (5.73 runs/game) and the Rays (5.15) have a better lineup than we do (4.93).   We might catch the Rays, who did most of their damage in the first month of the season.  On the other hand, Houston might catch us now that they’re healthy.  Nobody’s catching Texas.  
 

[brucewayne]

43 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Do we have the best lineup in the AL for the playoffs?

1. Mullins L CF

2. Adley S C

3. Gunnar L 3B

4. Santa S RF

5. Mountcastle R DH

6. O’Hearn L 1B

7. Hays R LF

8. Frazier L 2B

9. Holliday L SS

Hicks, McCann, Westburg, Urias, Mateo

Missing a 40HR big bopper, but other than that I see almost weakness with this lineup. I will stack our lineup against anybody. 

[brucewayne]

37 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Go ahead, keep indulging your Holliday fantasy.   

The Rangers (5.73 runs/game) and the Rays (5.15) have a better lineup than we do (4.93).   We might catch the Rays, who did most of their damage in the first month of the season.  On the other hand, Houston might catch us now that they’re healthy.  Nobody’s catching Texas.  
 

Funny how Rangers went all in on veteran Free Agents. They bought that lineup. If they win the World Series the title was won in the offseason.

[Sports Guy]

8 minutes ago, brucewayne said:

Funny how Rangers went all in on veteran Free Agents. They bought that lineup. If they win the World Series the title was won in the offseason.

Yep and in year 1 of doing that it was an epic failure and this year they lost their big offseason prize early on.

They better have it pay off in a title soon because if not, they will find themselves being a third place at best club for a while.

[Frobby]

9 minutes ago, brucewayne said:

Funny how Rangers went all in on veteran Free Agents. They bought that lineup. If they win the World Series the title was won in the offseason.

Well, as far as the offense goes, they bought Seager and Semien in the 2021-22 offseason.  Nobody else is making more than $4.05 mm.  So really, their improvement from 2022 to 2023 offensively is just internal improvement from carryover players (including Seager and Semien who are having much better seasons in 2023 compared to 2022).   

A lot of their pitching, on the other hand, was acquired in the offseason.  Of course, the $30 mm on deGrom was largely wasted, and Eovaldi is on the IL now after a strong first half.  
 

[deward]

4 hours ago, brucewayne said:

Of course they are going to say they want to stay in Baltimore. What kind of guy says to his employer I hate this place, you all suck, I want to leave. Who says that while currently under contract for multiple years? Again, the signal has been sent every since Boras was hired. You hire Boras for 1 reason and 1 reason only and that is to maximize compensation. 

Most players are looking to maximize compensation, regardless of who their agent is. And some Boras clients have been happy to sign extensions to stay in situations they're happy with, even if they could have maybe gotten more on the open market. That said, Boras is adamantly opposed to very early contract extensions for young players, so that option is presumably off the table for Henderson and Holliday. Any extensions for them would have to come later on. That said, Jose Altuve is a Boras client and he's never left Houston. It can happen, if you're willing to pay fairly.

[7Mo]

15 hours ago, brucewayne said:

Adley is a catcher and you have to be skeptical about giving large contracts to catchers in their 30s. The body can only take so much abuse. Gunnar is a Boras client and Boras clients are Patrick Bateman corporatists. They don't take anything less than full market value. For what it's worth Holliday is a Boras client as well. What would you have the Os do here? Players hire agents who best represent their interests. If money is your overwhelming #1 priority you get the best ambulance chaser you can find. 

Do you believe a lot of agents other than Boras look for less than full market value? 

Boras is the best and loudest at what he does but there's not an agent interested in agreeing to anything less than full market value.

And, it's still up to the player. Believe it or not, it's still the player saying yes or no.

[wildcard]

I am not really concerned about Adley, Gunnar and Holliday leaving after 5 or 6 years.    Will Gunnar be worth 10/300 at 27 years old.  Maybe.  Do I the expect mid market O's to pay him that. No.  A big market team probably will.  This is the system that MLB  and the union has put in place.   The Elias and the O's need to deal with it.

What happens with Santander this off season will be an indicator of what the O's may do with players getting close to FA

Elias has put together the scouting, drafting and analytic teams to find replacements for these players.   They can identify amateur, minor league and major players the O's may want to acquire.   He has put together the pitching and hitting development teams to improve players.   

These teams have developed GRod and Bradish who could be #1 and #2 for the O's rotation in 2024.  That keeps the O's from needing to spend big on pitching in the  FA market.   And in what world did anyone see O'Hearn who was picked up for 1.4m and DFA'd being a key part of the O's lineup.  Mostly because the hitting coaches changed his  swing mechanics.

I think Elias team can replace players as they get close to FA.   

What concerns me is that Elias may not be with the O's in four years to make that happen.

Edited August 11, 2023 by wildcard

[DrungoHazewood]

16 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

The “Orioles will never win anything until they spend money” horse has been beaten into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp. 

I just hope they sign Teixeira.  Someone told me he's the last first basemen who'll be available for years and years and he grew up around here and loves the Orioles so he'll sign at a hometown discount. It'll be awesome.

[brucewayne]

33 minutes ago, deward said:

Most players are looking to maximize compensation, regardless of who their agent is. And some Boras clients have been happy to sign extensions to stay in situations they're happy with, even if they could have maybe gotten more on the open market. That said, Boras is adamantly opposed to very early contract extensions for young players, so that option is presumably off the table for Henderson and Holliday. Any extensions for them would have to come later on. That said, Jose Altuve is a Boras client and he's never left Houston. It can happen, if you're willing to pay fairly.

Houston is the 4th largest market in the country.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, brucewayne said:

Houston is the 4th largest market in the country.

And yet they are smart enough to realize you don’t spend much on free agents.

[brucewayne]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

And yet they are smart enough to realize you don’t spend much on free agents.

Keeping your own stars is as good as signing a star free agent. Thing is keeping your own stars take money. Do you think we could afford to give judge 40 million?

[deward]

1 minute ago, brucewayne said:

Houston is the 4th largest market in the country.

If the O's aren't willing to pay anything resembling fair market values, then who cares who the agent is? 

[Sports Guy]

6 minutes ago, brucewayne said:

Keeping your own stars is as good as signing a star free agent. Thing is keeping your own stars take money. Do you think we could afford to give judge 40 million?

Every team could afford to do it. 
 

And yes, keeping your own is important in some cases but right now, the Os don’t need to worry about keeping their own because they are all signed cheaply for several years.