Improving perfomance of players at Major League level

[Pat Kelly]

Are the Orioles shortcomings mostly about position player acquisition and development?   

Pitching injuries were significant this year as even those pitching at the end were out for periods of time - Kremer, Eflin, Webb, Perez and obviously Danny Coulombe.  We could continue to argue that the O's internal pipeline needs to be more robust, but they do seem to have a knack for acquiring pitchers and improving them - Soto and Dominguez were better than they were with the Phillies along with the previously acquired relief core, Irvin did not pan out and Rogers remains a TBD but Bradish, GROD, Cano, Povich all seem to have benefitted from the approach of the pitching staff- one that included new coaches prior to this season.   Again Elias likes to dumpster dive (as do all GM's) but did pay up for Burns, Eflin, Dominguez and Rogers and spent/gambled perhaps unwisely on Kimbrel.   Could have spent more in terms of prosepct value for other trade deadline acquisitions, but would that have made a difference at the end given the offense/RISP issues?  Maybe the O's win a few more games 1-0?

The primary issues seems to be the position players/hitting. 

1) There has never been any major investment in PP acquisition either by trade or FA signing.  Elias has moved most of his PP chips to the draft and internal development and only O'Hearn who was a waiver claim and designated for assignment (at least once after being acquired) saw any real offensive improvement.     

2) If the equivalent of Slater,  Rivera and Jimenez, Soto, Pache, McCann etc had been pitcher acquisitions, the pitching staff would be horrific.  One would think if there is any method to offloading Cook, Hays, Norby, Cowser, Ortiz there would be at least 1 or 2 upside hitters that they O's could pick up.    Will agree that Urias and Mateo who came on board in 2022 were good acquisitions but the approach then was different - there were no internal options and they both played everyday primarily because of GG defense.   They were also given plenty of time with no consquence or pressure.   

3) 2024 Minor League PP promotions have not panned out so far.   Newly promoted players do not appear ready to field or hit, seem to regress.  HK, Jackson, Mayo - are all major investments together with Basallo and are huge future chips that frankly need to pan out and be developed correctly.    How much confidence do we have in this coaching staff to enable this group to reach their potential?  Gunnar and Westburg are exceptional players but were not rushed, had very few setbacks and suspect they would be good on any team - nothing special was done by O/s ML staff to make them better other than very early on with Gunnar who was drafted out of HS.  Both also got to play with slightly lower team expectations - 2022/early 2023. 

4) Vet core players -  Mountcastle, Mullins, Santander are all streaky and most of their good stats are driven by bursts of productivity.    Santander seems on his own and HR's were a nice bonus this year but other parts of his games Walks, RISP have regressed.   Mullins is battling a chronic illness and remains an elite CF who needs a platoon partner for most LHP.       Mountcastle would appear to be a classic change of scenery player - will get better with a new team either because something clicks or a trade serves as a wake up call and everyone will complain about letting him go, but that's baseball.

5) Adley and Cowser - these two are probably the tipping point for me - What's up with Adley's full half season regression?    Cowser has improved but is miserable with RISP and inconsistent, but will he get better?  How the O's handle these two plus Jackson, HK, Mayo and Basallo will determine the future run of success.   

Overall, what are the key factors for developing players into hitters that come through under pressure and when the games really matter?  Player readiness, coaching process, player familarity or loyalty to the O's system, innovative approach?   Seems like the O's hitting process remains a WIP and one that has not paid off to date. 

Do we believe success is on the player or the coaching staff?  Do they need to be surrounded by a better veteran group/1-2 players that have won, take away some of the pressure, help to manage the clubhouse?   

Edited 2 hours ago by Pat Kelly

[Bahama O's Fan]

Across the majors, are AAA hitters coming up and doing well or struggling at first? I wonder if the hitting is due to robo umps in AAA so they clearly know what the strike zone is and in the majors is flavor of the day with whichever that ump decides. 

[eddie83]

I would argue the biggest part of the Orioles success is their player development for hitters. 

Gunnar

Adley

Westburg

Cowser 

Have more possibilities with other young players. The lack of clutch in October os a reality until they change it but those players put this team in position to be in postseason. 

[Pat Kelly]

7 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

I would argue the biggest part of the Orioles success is their player development for hitters. 

Gunnar

Adley

Westburg

Cowser 

Have more possibilities with other young players. The lack of clutch in October os a reality until they change it but those players put this team in position to be in postseason. 

RISP and poor offense was not really about the playoffs but the entire 2nd half as Elias indicated in his media interviews. 

“As I try to look this offseason about what we can adjust in many different ways -- whether that’s staffing, all the stuff I just mentioned, processes, information, all the things that we do around here -- I need to find the appropriate balance with all the positivity that we’ve achieved with this bad taste in our mouths and bad outcome in the playoffs and a disappointing sort of second half overall,” Elias said.