Orioles try to come to grips with another playoff sweep and pending losses within clubhouse

[Roll Tide]

from Roch …..The aftermath 
 

 

 

 

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/orioles-try-to-come-to-grips-with-another-playoff-sweep-and-pending-losses-within-clubhouse

[Moose Milligan]

Awwww! Gunnar was crying! Adley was trying to hold back tears! They’re such a tight knit group! They all realize that Burnes and Tony probably won’t be back! My heart is breaking!!!!!!!

 

[allquixotic]

Edited Thursday at 10:51 by allquixotic

[allquixotic]

Seriously though, this article was depressing. Kind of a eulogy for the entire season and none of it positive. Makes it feel like all my time and money spent on this season, all those hours walking and slowly driving through the Hilton parking garage that smells like piss and pot, all those hours spent bumbling through crowds of fans on Eutaw St to get to my seats, were for nothing.

As someone else said in the Pollyanna thread, we are worse off at the end of this season than we were last season. We spent and traded a fair bit this year for no meaningful result. Our core players only get older and closer to FA, but none of them get any better at actually winning when it counts.

It would have felt like something if I could have at LEAST replaced my 2014 ALDS Champions hat with a new one. But nope. Those hats will never be stitched, or if they already made them in China, they’ll be recycled. My tired old hat has to endure at least another year of wear and tear.

Maybe I’ll buy a generic Maryland hat or something. Clearly this club of ball players care little for my 5-figure support over the season. Let them rot with $0.00 from me.

Edited Thursday at 11:00 by allquixotic

[waroriole]

It’s lines like this that make me despise Roch. Trained to suck at that Angelos teat and let fans know the team won’t be spending money on good players  

 He’s likely to leave for greener pastures – cash instead of grass - and the Orioles gave up DL Hall and Joey Ortiz for the rental.

 

[Can_of_corn]

39 minutes ago, allquixotic said:

Seriously though, this article was depressing. Kind of a eulogy for the entire season and none of it positive. Makes it feel like all my time and money spent on this season, all those hours walking and slowly driving through the Hilton parking garage that smells like piss and pot, all those hours spent bumbling through crowds of fans on Eutaw St to get to my seats, were for nothing.

As someone else said in the Pollyanna thread, we are worse off at the end of this season than we were last season. We spent and traded a fair bit this year for no meaningful result. Our core players only get older and closer to FA, but none of them get any better at actually winning when it counts.

It would have felt like something if I could have at LEAST replaced my 2014 ALDS Champions hat with a new one. But nope. Those hats will never be stitched, or if they already made them in China, they’ll be recycled. My tired old hat has to endure at least another year of wear and tear.

Maybe I’ll buy a generic Maryland hat or something. Clearly this club of ball players care little for my 5-figure support over the season. Let them rot with $0.00 from me.

That was me!

I'm still wearing the two Baysox hats I got in 2018.  One normal version, one ghost crab.  I get tons of comments on the ghost crab variant.

[Aristotelian]

7 minutes ago, waroriole said:

It’s lines like this that make me despise Roch. Trained to suck at that Angelos teat and let fans know the team won’t be spending money on good players  

 He’s likely to leave for greener pastures – cash instead of grass - and the Orioles gave up DL Hall and Joey Ortiz for the rental.

 

I mean it's objectively true. There will be 30 teams bidding, many with more resources than the O's. I think likely to leave is an understatement.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, Aristotelian said:

I mean it's objectively true. There will be 30 teams bidding, many with more resources than the O's. I think likely to leave is an understatement.

There will not be 30 teams bidding.

[Roll Tide]

11 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

I mean it's objectively true. There will be 30 teams bidding, many with more resources than the O's. I think likely to leave is an understatement.

And it’s hard to say anybody will have more available resources. We have a low payroll and a rich new owner. The Dodgers have more revenue but also a high payroll. The tax threshold will prevent interest from many.

[waroriole]

39 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

I mean it's objectively true. There will be 30 teams bidding, many with more resources than the O's. I think likely to leave is an understatement.

There won’t be 30 teams bidding. And the teams who are bidding do not have our payroll flexibility. Leaving aside whether it’s the smart decision, there’s no reason why the O’s shouldn’t be considered one of the favorites to sign him. 

[Aristotelian]

35 minutes ago, waroriole said:

There won’t be 30 teams bidding. And the teams who are bidding do not have our payroll flexibility. Leaving aside whether it’s the smart decision, there’s no reason why the O’s shouldn’t be considered one of the favorites to sign him. 

OK, there won't be 30 making actual bids but Burnes is free to sign with any team at the highest price. There is one very big reason he won't sign with us, which is money. We do have payroll flexibility but that evaporates if we put $40m/year in one player. I would love this if it happens but my expectations are very low. Even if we are "one of the favorites", say the final four, we only have a 25% chance. Probably lower if any of the others are in larger markets. So I have to agree with Roch's assessment. 

[wickedsolo]

3 hours ago, allquixotic said:

This. 

They haven't played well since the All-Star break. Own it. Get some R-n-R this off-season and come back in the spring ready to roll. 

[Fiver6565]

I am glad that I was able to vent my frustration in the game thread yesterday - I released enough negativity there to get me through the entire off season and then some, LOL. 

Perhaps that is why I reacted differently to this story than the other folks who have responded so far. There's a lot of cynicism here so far, and that's understandable - I'm not calling anyone out, to be clear.  I just have a different take this morning than I did/would have last night.  The only type of post I would call out is any post implying that these guys don't care.  Yes, they sucked the last two nights (and the 2nd half generally); but they absolutely care, more than any of us ever could.  Its easy to roll your eyes at a story of Gunnar crying at his locker if you're that cynical - but would you rather hear about him laughing and cutting up after such a gutting end to the season?  Imagine the vitriol here if that was the case, it would get quite ugly.

What I really, truly love about baseball is the day-to-day ride, following a group of people who themselves have gotten quite close.  Following them through the various ups and downs of a season.  They are in my living room night after night, through thick and thin, all season long.  And that, unfortunately, almost always includes an ignominious end like we've seen this week.  I for one find it a tiny bit comforting that these guys are hurting like this - not because I want them to hurt, but because this kind of thing SHOULD hurt them, way more than anyone like us.  They care about each other, and I care about them, to be truthful.  So yeah, this hurts - more than sports probably should really, but that's because this sport, baseball, is the best and most personal of them all.

In short, I like the human side of the game.  I like that a lot of these guys came up together.  I like that Anthony Santander means a lot to Gunnar Henderson.  That James McCann means a lot to all these guys.  That Corbin Burnes enjoyed his time in this clubhouse and is wistful about what's to come.  We all in our lives have people who were incredibly important to us for what turned out to be a relatively short period of time - then circumstances changed, people moved on with their lives in different directions, and that was that.  You stay in touch (maybe) but its never the same - its no one's fault, its just reality.  This situation, for these guys, is no different.  They're on our televisions every night and they are professional athletes - and yes, they are making gobs of money (and in some cases about to make a lot more) - but they're also human beings who have developed real camaraderie and friendships. 

Anyway, I won't go on any longer than that.  I just woke up this morning w/ some perspective and thought I'd share it.  I look forward to seeing what the team does to augment its core, and to improve the players who are still going to be around (which in the grand scheme of things, is most of them).  I am sure that Elias and Rubenstein have every intent to address what has ailed the team, and I will soon start counting down the days to next Spring Training, so we can start the ride all over again, headed towards another inevitably emotional ending.

Thanks for reading.  LETS GO BIRDS

[Uli2001]

10 hours ago, allquixotic said:

This. I think these guys are soft. They showed it on the field, and apparently, in the clubhouse, too.

[HowAboutThat]

12 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Awwww! Gunnar was crying! Adley was trying to hold back tears! They’re such a tight knit group! They all realize that Burnes and Tony probably won’t be back! My heart is breaking!!!!!!!

 

Dunno whether this is sarcasm or not, but aren’t you the same guy who chided me for being heartbroken by Raffy?