Another one from the rumor mill - Stephenson

[emmett16]

19 minutes ago, bpilktree said:

I would love to know where you going to find 4 guaranteed guys to have ERA’s under 4 at.  They all had ERA’s in mid 3’s last year.  They might not all pitch as good as last year but just thinking there are 4 guys laying around in free agency cheap to replace them is insane.  

Who said anything about 4 cheap guys laying around in FA?  I just said I’d like to upgrade those 4.  Starting with Webb & Baker.  Now that they have no options, they are not appealing at all.  I imagine a thrifty waiver wire pick up could replace those two.  DL Hall can replace another, potentially Wells replaces another.  Sign 1 maybe 2 impact BP arms et voila  

 

After Bautista, Cano & Coulombe the BP was pretty bad last year.  Bautista is gone, and Cano & DC both had their issues.  To me, it’s a major issue that needs to be addressed.  

Edited January 9 by emmett16

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

Who said anything about 4 cheap guys laying around in FA?  I just said I’d like to upgrade those 4.  Starting with Webb & Baker.  Now that they have no options, they are not appealing at all.  

Baker has an option remaining.  

[Just Regular]

After the 2023 of Danny Coulombe and Yennier Cano, I have good confidence in the Club's ability to extract decent performance from modest free agents like whatever 2023 Mychal Givens was supposed to be, or even waiver wire guys like Jacob Webb.    Some of that is merely the knowhow difference these days between organizations like the Orioles and Angels.

But the Rays and Dodgers can make Shawn Armstrong and Evan Phillips good too and it is kind of a "smart club replacement level" table stakes.

Its an open question if the level Robert Stephenson found in late 2023 elevates him above the Givens-Tate-Brasier fray, but the money will give a clue.     It would be nice to see the Baltimore org deploy the tool of money more to win baseball games coming up on the halfway point it is blessed with Adley.

Elias will always say "sustainable pipeline" and if Braylin Tavera is Samuel Basallo this time next year, it'll be another step closer to it, but I don't expect even in strong Sigbot futures for the team to get to put Adley-Holliday centerpieces out there like it will these four years (or ~3.5 if MLB and the MLBPA screw up 2027).

[Sports Guy]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

Tend to agree here. Elias' comments about him + tendering the contract + video evidence at Driveline (or wherever it was) = I think we're in for a nice surprise. 

Tate wasn’t that good prior to 2022.  He was good in 2022 because he threw a lot more strikes than he ever had before. 
 

Was that a one year anomaly or did change things?  Well now, we have him a year removed from that where he was trying to recover from an elbow injury. The velo seems to be back according to the driveline stuff we have seen, so that’s good. The tendering of the contract was minimal, so I don’t read much into that.

Im not sure how much we can truly count on him for 2024, not to just be good but to also provide the amount of innings we will likely need from him.

The bullpen is a huge question mark In my opinion.

[Billy F-Face3]

7 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Tate wasn’t that good prior to 2022.  He was good in 2022 because he threw a lot more strikes than he ever had before. 
 

Was that a one year anomaly or did change things?  Well now, we have him a year removed from that where he was trying to recover from an elbow injury. The velo seems to be back according to the driveline stuff we have seen, so that’s good. The tendering of the contract was minimal, so I don’t read much into that.

Im not sure how much we can truly count on him for 2024, not to just be good but to also provide the amount of innings we will likely need from him.

The bullpen is a huge question mark In my opinion.

Yeah that's why I would be happy if we went out and got another reliably consistent bullpen arm. There are still plenty of options to choose from. At the same time, they found a gem like Danny Coulombe just because they saw him on the Twins in Spring Training and the Twins were going to send him to the minors, so the Orioles traded for him. I doubt they knew they would get as great of a year from him as they did. So maybe they just like to keep their eyes peeled for under-the-radar flier players that can have breakout seasons.