Transcript of Mike Elias' in-game interview during today's Tides game with Peter Michaud

[86this]

I missed a few words because the audio feed went low.  But here's the gist of it.

Peter Michaud - (PM)
Mike Elias - (ME)
Part I
PM: Well our pleasure to be joined here in the broadcast booth live by the general manager of the Baltimore Orioles Mike Elias.  And Mike, how are you?
ME: Very good, thanks. Love visiting this place. I’m happy to be here and it’s nice catching a couple of games. 
PM: So Mike let's talk a little bit about the Tides and the Orioles as well and let me take it back to the beginning of the year I know in listening to anybody that knew anything about baseball they were saying based on what the O’s did to finish last year it would be a successful campaign just to make the playoffs this season so would it be fair to say that to this point the club has exceeded all expectations?
ME: Well I think to be fair you know we haven't made the playoffs yet so we'll see what happens. Obviously, our odds are really high at the moment and we're focused on winning a division at the moment which is not something frankly that anyone including us internally were talking a ton about over the off-season but I told the group of players including the group that’s here you know when you're young and talented which we are things kind of tend to float in a good direction and it seems like it's been the case so far and you know I think a big part of the team success so far this season has been what you see here with the Tides we've got a lot of players that provide depth they can go up, come back down we've used the entirety of our 40-man roster and we plan to continue doing that so it's really been a full 40-man roster effort between AAA in the majors to get what we got in this point.
PM: Mike I'm sure that everybody in every AAA clubhouse knows that we're only a week away from rosters expanding on the 1st of September and I'm sure you're not gonna tip your hand and tell us who you're thinking about bringing up but can you at least give us a little insight into maybe the areas where you feel like the ball club might can look be looking for a little bit of shoring up perhaps some needs to improve?
ME: Yeah, we really don't know yet who's going to get to the initial call and these September roster expansions are not what they used to be it used to be that you could call up basically anyone that you wanted on your 40-man or as many players as you wanted you could called everybody if you want to know you couldn't and there was no AAA baseball in September too so now there's AAA plays through September and they've limited every team to calling up one additional pitcher and one additional hitter or you can call up two hitters if you want but you only caught one pitcher so you know it's certainly limits the options we can change it in the middle of September we can cycle through different guys but we're definitely going to be bringing up one extra player to contribute out of the bullpen and you know we've seen some candidates for that last night with Tyler Wells, DL Hall, John Means is here now with Norfolk so we've got some guys of already pitched and pitched well for the Orioles they could be candidates but on the position player side we're just going to wait and see when we get to that date because I don't have a clear idea what that's gonna look like right now.
PM: You mentioned DL Hall, give me your thoughts on a guy who seemed to really have lost his velocity early in the year but he goes down to Florida for about six weeks, gets back on a training regimen and he looks like the old DL Hall now.
ME: He sure does. He came into spring training with a back injury and he missed the early part of spring training and his ability to lift weights and just exercise was very limited for a while and he is a sensational athlete probably one of the better athletes in our entire organization and he just kind of lost a lot of his explosiveness, his body wasn't as chiseled as it normally is his velocity was down, he was frustrated by it here early in the season and we made a joint decision to send them kind of off the grid to Florida where he can focus on his physical conditioning and not having to perform in AAA and now he's back and he's been excellent working out of the bullpen I think for the last several weeks here and you know we've got a very close eye on him in terms of coming up down the stretch.
PM: Mike you talked about how you have utilized the AAA roster here to help bolster the big league club.  I look at all the prospects that the Tides had throughout the year and really only one guy at least from day one has not yet had that opportunity that is Connor Norby. Is there a reason why he's not been able to go up and get that chance that the likes of Ortiz, and Cowser, and Westberg and others have had?
ME: I think there are a few reasons probably one of the primary factors has been he's not on the 40-man roster yet and it's always a consideration with any player the second one is he started kind of slow here and he since picked it up and we're seeing Connor Norby levels of production from him now which is good and then third is our infield is pretty crowded in a majors you know we've got three right-handed hitting infielders with Ramon Urias, Jorge Mateo and Jordan Westburg and then Joey Ortiz is already on the 40-man so he kind of had some people to leapfrog this season.
PM: How much does it hurt that he's primarily just one position guy?
ME: I think long-term it's not an issue because he is a great hitter and he hits more than enough to be a starting second baseman and he will but as we're currently comprise all the infield on our team have a lot of flexibility and that there wasn't as much of a demand for just somebody who is mainly a second baseman so that's been a factor this year, he’s still got development going on in AAA as we've seen this season so I'm his way, way ahead of schedule for a kid that was drafted in 2021 and he knows that so even though he hasn't been called yet this season he still way ahead of the curve and has a very bright future.

Part II
PM: Mike we've sort of alluded to the upcoming September 1 callups, a guy like Heston Kierstead for all of the talent that he has only been playing professionally a little bit over a year now and only has not even a half season in AAA would he be someone you would seriously consider for September callup or does he not yet have enough time?
ME: I definitely think he's a consideration. I think anytime you are hitting well in AAA or pitching well AAA the major league staff and the major league front office starts to talk about you pretty [could not transcribe] and he’s at that point so we will see, I mean you know he is not yet on the 40-man roster so that is somewhat of a factor but he does need to be added this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 draft which we’ll obviously be doing and you know I think that he got off to a blazing hot start here in Norfolk he's been a little cooler the last week or two and that's part of a healthy adjustment that we want in terms of minor league experience so he still going through some important repetitions as you mentioned he's catching up for a lot of lost time with the heart condition that he went through a couple years ago but he's been absolutely amazing to see him get back to form and beyond and this is the guy that we took with a #2 overall pick him and so we're very proud of what he's doing it he has a enormous part of our plans.
PM: Heston Kierstead sitting well here, what about a guy hitting well at AA would you even consider the idea of Jackson Holliday completely skipping AAA and making his major league debut as early as this season?
ME: It's obviously, it has been exhilarating to see what he's done it's historic I can't remember a 18-year old high school kid, regardless whether the #1 pick or not, sign and then a calendar year later hitting .350 and AA or whatever it's very hard to find examples of that in baseball history so it's certainly eye-opening what he's doing he seems like a very special talent and a polished player. I never rule anything out so I wouldn't rule this out but that said he's so early in his curve and I am generally speaking not a big fan of skipping levels so you know we're just kind of taking it as we go and obviously the needs of the major league team in the fit on a major league team have to kind of be there so we'll just see what happens.
 

[higgybaby]

So Heston and Jackson probably aren’t coming up. 
which really isn’t new but all but confirmed in my mind by reading between the lines of Elias’ remarks. 

[Frobby]

I’d rep this twice if I could.  That’s a lot to transcribe!

[25 Nuggets]

Very clearly going to be bringing up two players from the 40 man, which makes sense.

Pitcher:  Wells, Means, Hall, Baumann, Baker, Vespi, Zimmerman, Krehbiel, Gillaspie all available.

Position:  Ortiz, Cowser, Stowers or Vavra.  Or Hicks depending on his IL stint.

[TopGunnar]

Thanks to OP for the transcript. I didn’t for one second ever think Holliday was going to be called up. I’ve also said I don’t think we see him until late in the season next year. 
 

Kjersted intrigues me. I’d love to see him on this club, but there isn’t really room for him. 
 

 

[Malike]

18 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’d rep this twice if I could.  That’s a lot to transcribe!

You're too nice, he missed a word!

[Malike]

2 minutes ago, 25 Nuggets said:

Very clearly going to be bringing up two players from the 40 man, which makes sense.

Pitcher:  Wells, Means, Hall, Baumann, Baker, Vespi, Zimmerman, Krehbiel, Gillaspie all available.

Position:  Ortiz, Cowser, Stowers or Vavra.  Or Hicks depending on his IL stint.

He made it sound like the IF is too RHB heavy, I wouldn't be shocked to see Cowser or Stowers, though Vavra wouldn't be out of the question, I suppose. I'd think they'll look for an OF type.

[25 Nuggets]

12 minutes ago, Malike said:

He made it sound like the IF is too RHB heavy, I wouldn't be shocked to see Cowser or Stowers, though Vavra wouldn't be out of the question, I suppose. I'd think they'll look for an OF type.

I agree - I think it'll be Hicks back, McKenna down, then Cowser or McKenna back up.

[OakOrioles]

39 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’d rep this twice if I could.  That’s a lot to transcribe!

Parrot.ai free transcriber.

[Malike]

12 minutes ago, 25 Nuggets said:

I agree - I think it'll be Hicks back, McKenna down, then Cowser or McKenna back up.

Sounds about right, yep.

[Roll Tide]

1 hour ago, 25 Nuggets said:

Very clearly going to be bringing up two players from the 40 man, which makes sense.

Pitcher:  Wells, Means, Hall, Baumann, Baker, Vespi, Zimmerman, Krehbiel, Gillaspie all available.

Position:  Ortiz, Cowser, Stowers or Vavra.  Or Hicks depending on his IL stint.

My guess is Wells and Hicks but I expect another move or two from the roster