Long Elias Interview Today (1/25)

[Brooks The Great]

6 hours ago, NCRaven said:

If the Rays can be better by staying healthy, the Orioles can be better since their young players have another year of experience.

Plus more full time at bats and more at bats in general from your young players who showed offensive impact in the minors.

Westburg alone playing every day and not losing at bats to Adam Frazier, who was a complete black hole at the plate the final 2+ months of the season (0 home runs and garbage OPS+), will improve both the offense and the defense. Cowser and Kjerstad will provide superior depth in case Santander or Hays get hurt, and I like Kjerstad's chances to provide similar or better production to what O'Hearn provided in O'Hearn's DH/1B platoon at bats last season.

Then there are Jackson Holliday and Coby Mayo, who should both debut in 2024. And that's not considering Joey Ortiz, who quite possibly has a better bat than either Ramon Urias or Jorge Mateo (and is also likely the best defender of the three, especially since Mateo's defense regressed last season).

As long as Hyde doesn't give too many at bats to Mateo, Urias, or O'Hearn, the O's offense should easily be significantly better than it was in 2023. And the defense will be quite good, especially in the infield.

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, NCRaven said:

If the Rays can be better by staying healthy, the Orioles can be better since their young players have another year of experience.

This absolutely can happen.  

[Orioles0615]

1 hour ago, Brooks The Great said:

 

As long as Hyde doesn't give too many at bats to Mateo, Urias, or O'Hearn, the O's offense should easily be significantly better than it was in 2023. And the defense will be quite good, especially in the infield.

But we all know he will, that is the problem I have.  If they dont get a pitcher the least they should do is free up space, but they are still too attached to some of these vets, 

I think a group on opening day of Holliday, Westburg, Ortiz, Cowser, and Heston will perforn better than a group of Mateo, Urias, Ohearn. Of course you will need to move in from an outfielder as well to get Cowser in there 

Edited January 26 by Orioles0615

[wildbillhiccup]

10 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Tampa should get better just by being healthier.

Maybe, but losing Franco is going to sting (no pun intended). And maybe one of Baz / Pepiot breaks out and replaces Glasnow's production, but it's far from a given. 

[wildbillhiccup]

2 hours ago, Brooks The Great said:

As long as Hyde doesn't give too many at bats to Mateo, Urias, or O'Hearn, the O's offense should easily be significantly better than it was in 2023. And the defense will be quite good, especially in the infield.

Hyde seems to have an affinity for Mateo so he's the only one who worries me. It's part of the reason I think the Orioles should trade him, so Hyde isn't even tempted to run him out there too much. 

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Maybe, but losing Franco is going to sting (no pun intended). And maybe one of Baz / Pepiot breaks out and replaces Glasnow's production, but it's far from a given. 

I didn't say it was a lock to happen.

Heck they might end up with even more injuries this season.

 

[wildcard]

54 minutes ago, Orioles0615 said:

But we all know he will, that is the problem I have.  If they dont get a pitcher the least they should do is free up space, but they are still too attached to some of these vets, 

I think a group on opening day of Holliday, Westburg, Ortiz, Cowser, and Heston will perforn better than a group of Mateo, Urias, Ohearn. Of course you will need to move in from an outfielder as well to get Cowser in there 

Holliday, Ortiz, Cowser, Heston still have their rookies adjustment period to go through.  Westburg may or may not be through his.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, wildcard said:

Holliday, Ortiz, Cowser, Heston still have their rookies adjustment period to go through.  Westburg may or may not be through his.

Yep..and yet you don’t want to improve despite this.  

[wildcard]

3 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Hyde seems to have an affinity for Mateo so he's the only one who worries me. It's part of the reason I think the Orioles should trade him, so Hyde isn't even tempted to run him out there too much. 

Mateo speed is a weapon and running him out there is the best way to use him.

[wildcard]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yep..and yet you don’t want to improve despite this.  

Apparently you don't have a clue what I want.

[wildbillhiccup]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Yep..and yet you don’t want to improve despite this.  

I struggle with this sentiment too. I get not wanting to overpay for pitching via a trade or free agency, but I have a hard time understanding how a rational person can say they're perfectly content going into the season with our current starting rotation. Or even our bullpen to a lesser extent, because not signing or trading for a another starting pitching is going inevitiably push Wells and/or Hall into the rotaiton at some point and make our bullpen weaker. 

[Sports Guy]

9 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Apparently you don't have a clue what I want.

I think we all know what you want and improvement isn’t it. I mean, you hope the team is good but you don’t want to do anything that is a real improvement from outside the org. You think the whole team will and should come from within.

[wildcard]

6 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

I struggle with this sentiment too. I get not wanting to overpay for pitching via a trade or free agency, but I have a hard time understanding how a rational person can say they're perfectly content going into the season with our current starting rotation. Or even our bullpen to a lesser extent, because not signing or trading for a another starting pitching is going inevitiably push Wells and/or Hall into the rotaiton at some point and make our bullpen weaker. 

Elias says he is still looking for pitching.  Sounds to me that he wants to showcase players in ST.   I think he would rather trade for pitcher with a lot of team control if he's going to give up 6 years of a prospect.

[wildcard]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

I think we all know what you want and improvement isn’t it. I mean, you hope the team is good but you don’t want to do anything that is a real improvement from outside the org. You think the whole team will and should come from within.

Wrong.  You should give up your mind reading.  You are terrible at it.

[Sports Guy]

25 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

I struggle with this sentiment too. I get not wanting to overpay for pitching via a trade or free agency, but I have a hard time understanding how a rational person can say they're perfectly content going into the season with our current starting rotation. Or even our bullpen to a lesser extent, because not signing or trading for an another starting pitching is going inevitiably push Wells and/or Hall into the rotaiton at some point and make our bullpen weaker. 

This team is loaded with talent and there is a lot more talent coming. No one can deny that.

However, there are legit concerns amongst the entire pitching staff and there is a lot of downside throughout the offense imo.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t talented and very good players there but there will be some growing pains offensively, you have some oft injured guys and a few aging guys.

In other words, there is a lot of downside that exists on this team. Yes, there is also a lot of upside and I love so much about this team but the idea of not raising the level of talent and increasing the margin for error makes no sense to me.

I know Elias says what he says but if he actually believes in the “we won 101 games last year, we good” thought process, that is really horrible.

The bullpen has the potential to not be good at all. Is anyone going to be surprised if Coloumbe sucks this year?  Are we going to be surprised if Tate reverts back to where he was pre 2022? There are a lot of maybes out there, as you can see with bullpens overall. 
 

Peripheral stats call for Kremer to be worse. We don’t know what Means is going to give us. We feel really good about GRod and Bradish, assuming health but beyond those 2, it’s a question mark on some level.

And no, before someone quotes this and says it,  Dylan Cease doesn’t mean everything will be fine. But Cease (or another high level starter) does increase our margin for error. Cease increases your chances in October (that’s the biggest thing). The Os need a guy like that…and they should be adding another BP arm but admittingly, Wells And Hall could be difference makers.