By many accounts, this team has the #1 all-around prospect in baseball in Adley Rutschman and the #1 pitching prospect in Grayson Rodriguez. They have Cedric Mullins, who last year learned to stop worrying about switch hitting and love hitting bombs, and John Means, who pitched a no-hitter and a bunch of many-hitters, and... well, that's about it. Is this the year Birdland starts on the long road back to respectability? Or the Shed Long road to continued mediocrity?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 17 February 2022 01:46 (two years ago) link
i did not realize how much Grayson jumped in the rankings! and what a solid 2021 he had!
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 17 February 2022 02:44 (two years ago) link
i love cedric mullins and worry that they will somehow ruin him before he can cash in
the other two will obviously make it, but not before the o's are literally compelled to bring them up
― mookieproof, Thursday, 17 February 2022 03:22 (two years ago) link
I mean, there's also the lovably stone-gloved and baby-faced slugger Ryan Mountcastle, there's intermittently exciting Austin Hays, there's speedster Jorge Mateo... it's not like there's nothing to watch here! But objectively it's hard not to think this team is going to lose a lot of games.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 17 February 2022 03:41 (two years ago) link
xp surely there's no question Rutschman and Rodriguez play in MLB in 2022??
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 17 February 2022 03:44 (two years ago) link
Rutschman seems like such a can't miss but obviously I can't help thinking of Matt Wieters, who did have a lot of great moments as an Oriole but let's face it never came close to his promise.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 17 February 2022 03:45 (two years ago) link
joey bart is a cautionary tale
(tbf on almost any other team he'd have long since been in the majors)
― mookieproof, Thursday, 17 February 2022 04:44 (two years ago) link
anyway still pissed about how mountcastle was literally the IL MVP in 2019 and the orioles didn't call him up in september
― mookieproof, Thursday, 17 February 2022 04:49 (two years ago) link
i mean they are among the shittiest organizations in a thoroughly bullshit league, hard to give them the benefit of anything
― mookieproof, Thursday, 17 February 2022 04:54 (two years ago) link
Every year I tell myself it's silly to hope for anything, and yet here I am saying to myself "What if Yusniel Diaz is actually good?"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 25 March 2022 20:38 (two years ago) link
Then again I did keep saying that about Cedric Mullins until it came true.
really awesome how they're taking the cancer survivor to arbitration and will end up trading him either way
― mookieproof, Friday, 25 March 2022 21:41 (two years ago) link
It's inexplicable, he doesn't get paid very much and he's not going to bring anything in trade, why do this
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 25 March 2022 22:21 (two years ago) link
He should have a decent trade value, no?!
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 26 March 2022 00:06 (two years ago) link
he's a bit better than league-average hitter playing corner outfield relatively poorly. and he's 30. so no
but apparently it's more important to the orioles to keep their payroll under $40m than give their fans anything at all to root for
― mookieproof, Saturday, 26 March 2022 02:17 (two years ago) link
I mean he's the absolute paradigm of a player who's worth more to the Orioles than he is to any of the other 29 teams, unless you take the view, which Orioles management often seems to, that by definition no player has any value to the Orioles because the winning of games and the happiness of fans are themselves of zero value. So sure, trade Mancini for the next Zach Pop.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 29 March 2022 21:43 (two years ago) link
o's and mancini settle and add a mutual option for 2023...honestly, i like mancini, but was okay w/ whatever outcome. more anxious about means.
― j.q higgins, Sunday, 3 April 2022 00:44 (two years ago) link
i want to know the history of mutual options and whether they've ever actually been exercised
― mookieproof, Sunday, 3 April 2022 01:27 (two years ago) link
I read something once a while back that it hardly ever barely happens. Like a step up from never.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Sunday, 3 April 2022 04:29 (two years ago) link
lol okay
Mike Elias said of the Orioles' current group of young starters — Akin, Baumann, Kremer, Lowther, Zimmermann — "Some of those guys need to step up.""That's why we're struggling right now is because we haven't gotten a real cemented breakout from one of those guys."— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) April 4, 2022
― mookieproof, Monday, 4 April 2022 15:40 (two years ago) link
Should be noted that none of those guys were acquired by Elias. He seems to have a pretty pissy attitude towards the previous regime's moves in general, outside of Hall and Rodriguez
― ✖, Monday, 4 April 2022 19:19 (two years ago) link
I feel like we just saw a little of what we're gonna see a lot of.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 9 April 2022 00:39 (two years ago) link
adley rutschman is now 24yo. he hit .285/.397/.502 in the minors last year. the guy drafted first overall a year later made his big league debut tonight
garbage organization in a garbage sport
― mookieproof, Saturday, 9 April 2022 01:30 (two years ago) link
big felix, big mike...nice to see some big arms in the pen.
― j.q higgins, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 14:34 (two years ago) link
rutschman is injured tho, no?
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 17:01 (two years ago) link
he is, and it's been radio silence for a while unfortunately
xp seeing felix make wander franco look silly was heartening. i'm really not too worried about the bullpen going forward, which is why i liked the sulser/scott trade. the pitcher we got back for them looks like he might be in the rotation by july.
― ✖, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 17:17 (two years ago) link
Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt Adley's the Opening Day starter if he's not hurt (whether he should have been up last year is a question one can discuss)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 18:18 (two years ago) link
i'm really not too worried about the bullpen going forward
I admire your optimism but I look at the bullpen and I'm not seeing the 4-5 decent innings a day we're gonna need with this rotation
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 12 April 2022 18:19 (two years ago) link
i think the innings are somewhere in the system, but we may be subjected to a lot of alexander wells, zac lowther and keegan akin before we land on the right mix.
― j.q higgins, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 19:47 (two years ago) link
yeah, i don't mean the current bullpen arms, more that a bunch of our mid-tier starters will end up as decent relievers in the next year or two. i have faith that out of "keegan akin tier" we'll get a handful of good relievers. jorge lopez didn't look bad closing. i think guys like rom and even bradish will end up there and could shine. and fangraphs seems to think hall will end up there and turn into josh hader
it's the rotation i'm worried about
― ✖, Tuesday, 12 April 2022 22:31 (two years ago) link
bradish definitely has filthier stuff than the akin tier...boy, those rodriguez highlights from the night, though. mercy.
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 13 April 2022 00:59 (two years ago) link
left forearm tightness for our only good starter
― ✖, Thursday, 14 April 2022 01:05 (two years ago) link
would love for the rotation to get a little more bradish, but i fear this means the imminent return of matt harvey.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 14 April 2022 12:58 (two years ago) link
kill me. if this doesn't mean bradish and grayson soon.........
Hyde said Means getting second opinions on elbow. Gonna be awhile - to get results and for him to pitch again. Hyde doesn’t know if Means will pitch again in 2022. Said doesn’t expect him back anytime soon #orioles— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) April 16, 2022
― ✖, Saturday, 16 April 2022 21:14 (two years ago) link
On the whole, "everybody in the AL East beats up on us every year, except the Yankees whose season we keep ruining" is about as good as we can hope for right now, so let's keep it coming
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 17 April 2022 20:52 (two years ago) link
will grudgingly accept this outcome. for now...
― j.q higgins, Monday, 18 April 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link
I support it.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 18 April 2022 14:58 (two years ago) link
3 out of four wins have been shutouts.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 21 April 2022 13:51 (two years ago) link
I mean this is about as good as a team scoring under 2 runs a game can be
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 21 April 2022 15:14 (two years ago) link
means is getting tommy john : /
― mookieproof, Saturday, 23 April 2022 16:23 (two years ago) link
bad news for everyone in the world except matt harvey
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 23 April 2022 17:08 (two years ago) link
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/introducing-the-new-orioles-bullpen/
i am a bit amazed at this team coming into the season with an original plan (setting up middle middle) and implementing it... thought that kind of thing was just for the rays and dodgers and giants
bautista is so fun to watch
― ✖, Tuesday, 26 April 2022 23:27 (one year ago) link
it was noted on twitter today that every oriole to play so far this season is at least 25 years old
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 26 April 2022 23:32 (one year ago) link
keeping rodriguez down this long is bullshit but aside from him and adley, who will be up within a few weeks, there is no one in the organization under 25 who is ready to be called up right now. and aside from rodriguez who should've pitched at AAA last year, you can't point to any other prospects and say they were held at any level too long.
― ✖, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 00:08 (one year ago) link
and i have no idea what scocca's problem with bruce zimmermann is? am i supposed to be angry at the orioles for tanking for young prospects or angry at them for not giving up on 27 year old former prospects? should i be angry that they stuck with non-prospect cedric mullins while he was experimenting with a new approach and then developed into a player who could star on a playoff team? am i supposed to just be angry at everything the orioles do all the time even when there are positive developments on the 26-man roster that have nothing to do with tanking?
― ✖, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 00:37 (one year ago) link
there is no one in the organization under 25 who is ready to be called up right now
The exact point is that that itself is the problem for an organization that has supposedly been rebuilding since 2018.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 00:55 (one year ago) link
And nobody has anything against Bruce Zimmerman, Bruce Zimmerman rules, he represents the kind of "find unexpectedly useful guys off the scrap heap" philosophy that the Orioles have always been decently good at (Rodrigo Lopez, Nate McLouth) -- but the idea was meant to be to use those guys in combination with players you could actually expect to be good.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 00:57 (one year ago) link
i don't really see how that's the case if the prospects are still there? it's just ignoring every bit of context to make a provocative tweet. the covid year didn't help, nor did major injuries/illnesses to hall and kjerstad. i will 100% say that adley should've been up last year (he still would've been injured this year so he still wouldn't be on the team) and rodriguez should've made it to AAA and started this year in the majors. i am currently pretty furious that bradish isn't starting in the majors, though he struggled at AAA last year so i can see why they started him there again. but the rest of the prospects are still there, they're playing at the levels expected of them and being promoted pretty liberally after they come to succeed at said levels.
and santander or hays or mancini should be traded asap to make room for stowers, but then the scoccas of the world would just tweet about the bad tanking team recommitting to an endless death spiral by trading away actual major leaguers in their arb years.
everyone knows where this team started when elias actually came in. zero analytics, zero international signings, one of the worst farms in the league, an expensive go-nowhere major league team that was 2 years past any hope of being a couple FA signings away from competing again. prospective GM brady anderson. this was never going to be a rebuild like the jays or braves or tigers or white sox or padres who all started light years ahead of where this team was. there was never any sensible reason to think this team would be able to follow that sort of a timeline.
― ✖, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 01:52 (one year ago) link
>when elias actually came in. zero analytics, zero international signings,
did not realize it was this bad. i remember about 8 years ago they were so good for a team that looked just okay-ish on paper. i just assumed they knew what they were doing behind the scenes
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 27 April 2022 04:19 (one year ago) link
it was a team that combined a group of great players amassed by the previous regime with a GM that was almost supernaturally good at supplementing those players with random guys he found. there were almost never any holes on the roster.
it was also a team that sacrificed its 2016 first round draft pick for yovani gallardo
― ✖, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 04:49 (one year ago) link
re: baby birds
would love to see stowers up sooner rather than later, dl hall will probably debut this year...a lot of people like drew rom and i'm also curious how quickly they'll move prieto and cowser.
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 18:33 (one year ago) link
...also think they'll give akin, wells, lowther and kremer (once healthy) a few chances to sink or swim. don't know what the leash is like for gutierrez. owings probably not long for this world.
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 27 April 2022 18:35 (one year ago) link
psyched bradish is getting the call tonight. hope he gets an extended look.
― j.q higgins, Friday, 29 April 2022 21:27 (one year ago) link
Bradish certainly earned the extended look.
Walk-off unearned run on a terrible bunt!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 1 May 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
Enjoying the Orioles playing like an ordinary bad team instead of a historically bad team!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 12:51 (one year ago) link
orioles hitters in may (admittedly only eight games all at home and mostly against mediocre teams, but still): .293/.343/.448
that's v. good!
pitching is also above average but they're not getting a lot of strikeouts (relatively speaking)
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 21:19 (one year ago) link
Kyle Bradish is!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 02:08 (one year ago) link
honestly whenever i encounter his name i start imagining (you know, if he were a yankee, or a hitter) what kind of home run call john sterling would give him
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 02:14 (one year ago) link
yesterday i went to opacy for the first time since the pandemic. nice to see big felix in action and a walkoff earl weaver special in the much ballyhooed left field extension.
― j.q higgins, Friday, 20 May 2022 14:06 (one year ago) link
Dang lucky you being at that game -- how was turnout?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 20 May 2022 15:42 (one year ago) link
Sounds like no Adley today, booooooooo
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 20 May 2022 16:06 (one year ago) link
turn out was good! 23K paid.
― j.q higgins, Friday, 20 May 2022 16:50 (one year ago) link
happy adley day, friends.
― j.q higgins, Saturday, 21 May 2022 12:13 (one year ago) link
much excited
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 21 May 2022 12:47 (one year ago) link
i like the new era
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 22 May 2022 23:02 (one year ago) link
Nice comeback tonight, down 6 in the 7th at Fenway, end up winning by 4.
― Michael F Gill, Saturday, 28 May 2022 02:59 (one year ago) link
Heck of a night for Tyler Wells!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 31 May 2022 01:34 (one year ago) link
This game is going well but that moment where it's up to McKenna and Owings to get the runs in is kinda hard to take
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 31 May 2022 01:44 (one year ago) link
Grayson Rodriguez has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 right lat strain, Mike Elias said this morning, which likely won't pin him to a return to action until September.Elias wouldn't rule anything out, but focus is on Opening Day 2023. There's a chance Rodriguez is done for '22.— Zachary Silver (@zachsilver) June 5, 2022
― mookieproof, Sunday, 5 June 2022 17:13 (one year ago) link
Not feeling the morale improve tbh
― ✖, Sunday, 5 June 2022 17:37 (one year ago) link
should probably tank for a bit longer
― Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Sunday, 5 June 2022 17:49 (one year ago) link
This sucks but I don't see any reason this would have been any less likely to happen if he were in Baltimore.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 5 June 2022 19:20 (one year ago) link
Anyway, I definitely think morale is improving!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 5 June 2022 19:26 (one year ago) link
xp true, but he’d be getting paid and accruing service time
elias is no doubt secretly thrilled
― mookieproof, Sunday, 5 June 2022 20:13 (one year ago) link
Yes, good point, I was thinking about "to what extent does this timing suck for the Orioles" but the extent to which it sucks for GR himself is much greater
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 6 June 2022 02:10 (one year ago) link
Maybe the DL Hall call-up comes earlier now, I dunno
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 6 June 2022 02:11 (one year ago) link
beginning to wonder if gunnar henderson isn't up before the end of the year.
― j.q higgins, Monday, 6 June 2022 16:58 (one year ago) link
Holy moly, I did not expect a promotion this early for him (and Westburg too)
― ✖, Monday, 6 June 2022 19:24 (one year ago) link
interesting to compare him this year to witt last year...witt's almost exactly a year older.
― j.q higgins, Tuesday, 7 June 2022 13:30 (one year ago) link
Gunnar homered in his first game in Norfolk
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 9 June 2022 14:29 (one year ago) link
pic.twitter.com/bfwdzkbmeY— Matthew Sprague (@MSprague518) June 9, 2022
― mookieproof, Friday, 10 June 2022 05:49 (one year ago) link
stowers finally debuting! as a vax replacement lol
― ✖, Monday, 13 June 2022 20:56 (one year ago) link
adley bomb off of berrios. guys, he may be adjusting.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 16 June 2022 00:21 (one year ago) link
If the Orioles (12-9 in June) win 2 of their next 5 games, they will claim their first full winning month since August 2017. It's been almost 5 years!!!!— Matt Kremnitzer (@mattkremnitzer) June 25, 2022
also:
have allowed one run on 13 hits in their last 27 innings
have the same number of wins as the white sox
― mookieproof, Saturday, 25 June 2022 16:13 (one year ago) link
better record over the last 10 games than the yankees
― ✖, Sunday, 26 June 2022 00:35 (one year ago) link
not allowing myself to get excited. it still feels like a lot of the reasons we're doing better this year are going to get traded at the deadline... bullpen guys, mancini, santander. and i wonder if players like mullins and hays are going to still be around by the time the younger guys are settled. right now the only big 'post-tank' pieces are adley, mountcastle and bradish, still a lot of holes to fill.
― ✖, Sunday, 26 June 2022 00:40 (one year ago) link
they broke the glass on stowers. definitely curious to see when he next comes up. definitely seem to be avoiding trial by fire for the sexier mi prospects, but w/ jones out of the picture, maybe vavra's next man up? pretty amazing what westburg and henderson are doing at nrofolk, though.
― j.q higgins, Monday, 27 June 2022 14:22 (one year ago) link
don't think stowers is up full time until santander is traded, or maybe mancini but they probably want him in the outfield. i'm not pinning a lot of hope on stowers though.
cowser, mayo and norby all promoted to AA despite not blowing the competition away at aberdeen. wouldn't be surprised to see any of them hit the ground running simply because ripken park is a cavern and bowie is a bandbox.
― ✖, Monday, 27 June 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link
btw, rutschman above 100 ops+/wrc+
― j.q higgins, Tuesday, 28 June 2022 11:56 (one year ago) link
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-orioles-arent-good-but-they-are-interesting
― mookieproof, Thursday, 30 June 2022 01:00 (one year ago) link
Orioles are winning a lot of fun games lately.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 7 July 2022 02:57 (one year ago) link
so...morale's pretty good!
― j.q higgins, Tuesday, 12 July 2022 00:50 (one year ago) link
.500 BABY
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 13 July 2022 03:09 (one year ago) link
The orioles may be good *and* interestingCertainly makes the wild card race more fun
― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, 13 July 2022 03:25 (one year ago) link
They are not, in any objective sense, a good team, but there is a lot of fun stuff going on. I think my pre-season picks of Mullins, Rutschman, Rodriguez, Hays, Mountcastle and Mateo to be interesting things about the 2022 O's was not THAT far off, and would be closer if not for injuries to Means/Rodriguez, but I totally missed the coming together of the bullpen and the Tyler Wells Experience and Mancini coming back this strong and of course Rougned Odor just kind of being fun as hell despite not being that good at baseball per se.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 13 July 2022 03:38 (one year ago) link
Ten in a row, my goodness.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 14 July 2022 04:41 (one year ago) link
i mean, MAYBE i could have seen dean kremer stepping up like he has, but the efforts of tyler wells and spenser watkins have been astonishing.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 14 July 2022 19:32 (one year ago) link
Looks like morale has improved!!
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 14 July 2022 20:51 (one year ago) link
Second straight winning month! Even dropping two of three to the Yankees last week they never really seemed outmatched by the Yankees the way they sometimes have in recent years.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 26 July 2022 02:36 (one year ago) link
Also, can we all agree tha, despite not really being able to hit, Jorge Mateo is the most fun Oriole in a while?
I also want to say that my description of Austin Hays at the top of the thread as "intermittently exciting" has held up quite well
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 26 July 2022 02:38 (one year ago) link
it's a very fun team. energy to spare. team speed fer crissakes!
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 27 July 2022 11:38 (one year ago) link
fourth place!
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 27 July 2022 13:01 (one year ago) link
To be fair this team has actually FINISHED a season in fourth place ahead of the cellar-dwelling Red Sox in recent memory, it's the winning record I'm more excited about
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 27 July 2022 14:18 (one year ago) link
It’s crazy that the O’s were the butt of jokes for the last couple years about how bad they are (I remember fangraphs a year or two ago “adjusting” their pre season projections to closer align with fan feedback, and every team was bumped up to 162 wins, except the O’s who were at zero) and then watching a talented team like the BoSox tank below them has been nothing short of amazing.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 27 July 2022 15:34 (one year ago) link
The Jays announcers--even Schulman, I think--were so condescending to Baltimore early in the year that I would wince. As they speculated on where the Jays stood in relation to the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox, they treated the Orioles like a Triple-A team.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 27 July 2022 20:49 (one year ago) link
Everyone did!
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 28 July 2022 03:24 (one year ago) link
adley: 23 singles, 20 doubles
― ✖, Tuesday, 2 August 2022 03:04 (one year ago) link
23 singles, 22 doubles
― ✖, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 03:11 (one year ago) link
how do you guys feel about these trades
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 03:18 (one year ago) link
i'm okay w/ them, personally. povich and johnson are supposedly future mid-rotation guys and am curious if they can work whatever hoodoo they threw on bautista w/ cano.
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 15:50 (one year ago) link
wondering why we didn't trade santander of all people but i guess the market wasn't going to be kind to a corner OF with a sub-.800 OPS
i'm annoyed that we have legitimate prospects who are either wasting away in AAA (stowers) or called up and barely starting (vavra) in favor of non-prospects. i don't get it - if you're going to sell at the deadline, that's an obvious indication you should be using the remaining 2 months to get ML experience for those players and see what you have before the bigger and better prospects (henderson, westburg, cowser) force their way up and take their spots.
― ✖, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 23:19 (one year ago) link
anyway no movement on adley doubles vs singles watch but he did walk 3 times today
― ✖, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 23:21 (one year ago) link
He's hitting better than Mancini, he's younger, and has more team control. I thought it was more likely they'd trade Santander and not Mancini because Mancini has a longer history with the Orioles and two months of Mancini was not gonna bring back much (well I was right about that at any rate.)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 4 August 2022 00:24 (one year ago) link
so it does not bother you that, 1.5 games out of a playoff spot, the o's sold?
i am familiar with this scenario in that circa 10 years ago the pirates, who didn't quite feel ready to compete, at least gestured at the possibility by acquiring, say, derek bell or justin morneau for little to nothing
i guess my question is at what point will the o's -- as we've been wondering about oakland for years, but they have at least on occasion stepped up -- commit to winning now rather than in some nebulous future? what will that take?
― mookieproof, Thursday, 4 August 2022 01:23 (one year ago) link
(also very familiar with claiming a wild card and being immediately bounced by red-asses fwiw)
― mookieproof, Thursday, 4 August 2022 01:26 (one year ago) link
Oh it totally bothers me! I think what we got back is pretty worthless relative to the diminishment in enjoyment of the 2022 team, wild card or not.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 4 August 2022 01:53 (one year ago) link
i'm not really bothered by it at all. i don't think this run is really sustainable, especially the starting pitching. i think there are a some young pitchers who are gonna wear out. and i'll die before i recognize the third wild card so if we just barely sneak into it with a middling record i will pretend the season is over.
we're also still technically rebuilding, in that there are at least 4 position player prospects in the high minors and a couple more who may be there soon who are all projected to be major league regulars and they need to be promoted and given time to work out their kinks. not even talking about stowers and vavra there. i'm sure some prospects will be traded but you shouldn't really do that before any of them have been promoted aside from the big one, right?
and at the same time we have two players (urias and mateo) who have sort of broken out recently and need to be given time to really see if they're future full timers. and neither of the two major pitching prospects have come up and worked through their obligatory 6.00 ERA rookie seasons.
everything about this roster just feels too transitory to start filling in with permanent pieces from other teams.
― ✖, Thursday, 4 August 2022 06:18 (one year ago) link
I'm not bothered by them not going out and acquiring players for prospects! I just would have been very happy to see them stand pat. A team is a weird alchemy and they've lucked into something that works. I would have been happy to see this group play their way to 75-87, not get a WC, whatever -- I've just been having a good time and want to keep it going!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 4 August 2022 14:06 (one year ago) link
adley rutschman has stolen his second base of the season
it was part of a double steal, but still
according to fangraphs he has added 2.9 runs via his baserunning, which is second on the orioles, just ahead of cedric mullins
― ✖, Saturday, 6 August 2022 01:22 (one year ago) link
should point out that i don't even think that's fluky, he looks genuinely fast out there (for now) and makes good baserunning decisions, after all the prospect reports gave him the standard "he's got catcher speed, what do you expect"
when matt wieters came up he ran like albert pujols runs now
― ✖, Saturday, 6 August 2022 01:42 (one year ago) link
just a very good athlete. haven't seen data on pop times, but he looks very agile behind the plate.
― j.q higgins, Saturday, 6 August 2022 13:03 (one year ago) link
2 singles and 2 walks today. no doubles :(
doing this for every game of his career btw
― ✖, Sunday, 7 August 2022 00:48 (one year ago) link
Five in a row now, admittedly at the expense of the Pirates and Reds. Loving this.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 7 August 2022 01:03 (one year ago) link
this is going to be a fun series.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 8 August 2022 17:13 (one year ago) link
manny machado debuted 10 years ago today
2-for-4 with a triple in an 8-2 loss to the royals
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 18:17 (one year ago) link
I think Gunnar will be up this year but not long enough to kill his rookie status and prevent him from netting a draft pick next year
― ✖, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 19:39 (one year ago) link
So when is that?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 9 August 2022 20:03 (one year ago) link
I've read the 23rd
I'll put my money on the 29th or 30th in case we're still in the hunt for the easy wild card
― ✖, Tuesday, 9 August 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link
still waiting to see what they do w/ that extra 40 man roster spot. have to imagine it goes to stowers or henderson, but...who knows?
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 10 August 2022 18:06 (one year ago) link
stowers is just twiddling his thumbs hitting grand slams in Norfolk, he's 24, what does he have to learn at this point?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 19:11 (one year ago) link
it's nuts w/o even getting into what guys like cowser and norby at bowie.
― j.q higgins, Wednesday, 10 August 2022 19:56 (one year ago) link
Officially half owners of the mickey mouse wild card
― ✖, Wednesday, 10 August 2022 23:57 (one year ago) link
DL Hall reportedly joining the big team!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 12 August 2022 19:45 (one year ago) link
DL Hall is expected to start tomorrow night for the Orioles, a source tells The Baltimore Sun https://t.co/NX7bjVGGKG— Andy Kostka (@afkostka) August 12, 2022
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 12 August 2022 19:57 (one year ago) link
yay!
...but please promote stowers and gunnar henderson, next!
― j.q higgins, Friday, 12 August 2022 20:37 (one year ago) link
third place
― mookieproof, Saturday, 13 August 2022 02:45 (one year ago) link
stowers incoming. adios, brett phillips.
― j.q higgins, Friday, 19 August 2022 18:52 (one year ago) link
But.... the third reboot of The Richie Martin Show instead of Henderson????
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 19 August 2022 19:34 (one year ago) link
Wild game going on--Orioles up 15-10 in the 6th. (I've had it on in the next room--no Jays broadcast tonight--nothing but frantic yelling from the broadcasters.)
― clemenza, Saturday, 20 August 2022 01:58 (one year ago) link
Even more surprising than the Orioles going on a 10-game winning streak is the Orioles following that up by just.... consistently playing like a normal and marginally contending baseball team, week after week?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 24 August 2022 03:37 (one year ago) link
i was just thinking that. there was some panic on twitter, but they've seemed to still chug along and win more games than they lose. bor-ing, right?
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 25 August 2022 00:34 (one year ago) link
I really do feel like you notice the absence of Mancini and Lopez when you watch the games though.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 25 August 2022 00:35 (one year ago) link
had pretty good seats for the cubs game last week and i have to say, i don't think i had appreciated how easy cedric mullins makes center field look and how inadequate tv is conveying the jorge mateo experience.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 25 August 2022 00:40 (one year ago) link
re: mancini, lopez
bullpen definitely has not regained the spring in its step. sorta thought they were gonna push hall as a multi inning for the rest of the year...would a made sense.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 25 August 2022 00:41 (one year ago) link
he is being "converted to a reliever" in AAA to be called up again apparently. probably could've just done that process in the majors but this way he conveniently stays a rookie
― ✖, Thursday, 25 August 2022 01:34 (one year ago) link
kyle stowers contributing, ilx gets results, you're welcome baltimore
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 26 August 2022 03:23 (one year ago) link
ho hum...another series win in the bag.
― j.q higgins, Monday, 29 August 2022 13:46 (one year ago) link
today hurt - o's lose, rays jays and M's all win - but at least this is finally happening
Gunnar Henderson and DL Hall are flying to Cleveland tomorrow to join the taxi squad, per source #orioles— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) August 31, 2022
― ✖, Wednesday, 31 August 2022 03:07 (one year ago) link
Happy Gunnar Day everybody! (Batting 6th and playing 3B against the Guardians today.)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 31 August 2022 20:06 (one year ago) link
Well that went well!
https://www.mlb.com/orioles/video/triston-mckenzie-in-play-run-s-to-gunnar-henderson?t=moonblasts
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 1 September 2022 07:09 (one year ago) link
it was glorious.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 1 September 2022 23:57 (one year ago) link
ho hum...
― j.q higgins, Friday, 2 September 2022 00:55 (one year ago) link
Can't say that having Baltimore at your heels is not comforting. They've got to be playing so loose right now; the Jays, meanwhile, have all these expectations.
― clemenza, Friday, 2 September 2022 01:31 (one year ago) link
Double negative...it's not comfortable, is what I meant.
― clemenza, Friday, 2 September 2022 01:32 (one year ago) link
I was surprised to read that the orioles and jays still play each other 10 more times this season. Could be interesting!
― Michael F Gill, Friday, 2 September 2022 02:00 (one year ago) link
Nine Jays-Rays games, too.
― clemenza, Friday, 2 September 2022 02:52 (one year ago) link
toss in the yankees and it's really looking like a dogfight down the stretch.
― j.q higgins, Sunday, 4 September 2022 01:24 (one year ago) link
the way the jays rays and mariners are playing i'm thinking the yankees falling out completely is the only way we make it in
― ✖, Sunday, 4 September 2022 02:54 (one year ago) link
I know Gunnar's not THIS good but I sure am enjoying this (and the hair)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 4 September 2022 12:39 (one year ago) link
situation w/ the jays will resolve itself head to head, i think.
― j.q higgins, Sunday, 4 September 2022 14:20 (one year ago) link
1982 redux. sort of.
― j.q higgins, Sunday, 4 September 2022 14:23 (one year ago) link
'89 for these two teams--Jays won the division by 2.0 over the Orioles, with the final three games in Baltimore. The Orioles had to sweep to win, two Baltimore wins would have left them in a tie. (I don't know if they went by head-to-head records then or a tiebreaker.)
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 September 2022 15:07 (one year ago) link
right down to the "this team sucked real bad last year what happened???" factor
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 4 September 2022 16:09 (one year ago) link
I'd forgotten all about that! That was the team lost their first 21. I have a very clear memory of the clinching win in '89: Henke struck out somebody and pumped his fists. It was a big deal after blowing it in '87.
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 September 2022 16:28 (one year ago) link
Larry Sheets (who had one big year, if I remember correctly).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8ztJxMpVt8
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 September 2022 16:29 (one year ago) link
team is absolutely screwed if they have to play a single day game in the playoffs
― ✖, Sunday, 4 September 2022 20:54 (one year ago) link
7 sunday losses in a row! why has this been a thing for so long? feel like we'd go on these streaks back in the dave trembley days
― ✖, Sunday, 4 September 2022 20:55 (one year ago) link
this team will never win a day game
― ✖, Monday, 5 September 2022 20:28 (one year ago) link
Does a 5pm start count as a day or night game??
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 5 September 2022 20:40 (one year ago) link
gonna say day for this one
― ✖, Monday, 5 September 2022 22:43 (one year ago) link
i'd like to be able to blame today on needing to rely on 2 AAA pitchers for both games of a doubleheader but the offense has felt inert for a while.
feels like it might be the end :|
― ✖, Monday, 5 September 2022 22:53 (one year ago) link
I woke up this morning feeling "this is the day that makes or breaks the season" and sadly I still agree with myself
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 5 September 2022 23:24 (one year ago) link
Very necessary win. Rougned being Rougned to nearly the greatest extent physically possible.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 7 September 2022 14:50 (one year ago) link
well, that sucked.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 8 September 2022 09:37 (one year ago) link
i don't think we're gonna come back from that series. there's always a chance but.... no
― ✖, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:31 (one year ago) link
Have you met the 2022 Blue Jays? We're a tad streaky.
― clemenza, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:33 (one year ago) link
yeah but this series really just felt like the clock struck midnight. and i think the bullpen just has to be too taxed to get through the like 20 straight games left to play.
this offseason is going to be very interesting. i'm not really sure how elias is going to handle it, and i don't envy him. this team is in such a weird position relative to the normal tank/rebuild cycle, because so much of the value this year has come from young, cost-controlled guys that weren't major prospects and don't have all-star ceilings. hays, santander, urias, mateo... and probably mullins and mountcastle at this point. all solid players who deserve full-time major league spots (and there's no obvious platoon splits either aside from maybe mullins), only one older than 27 (urias, 28)
this team's main quality is its depth. adley's the only guy you can confidently project to be a 4 win player going forward, but nearly every position has contributed solid value, even the starters. the only real hole has been 2B. and backup catcher i guess. there'd be a lot more room for improvement if those wins were distributed more unevenly.
and this is an organization that still has a lot of good hitting prospects in AA and AAA - guys with higher ceilings than a lot of the big contributors this year. cowser, westburg, norby, ortiz, mayo are all potential impact guys who could be up by the ASB. stowers and vavra are already in the majors struggling to find ABs. gunnar doesn't even have a set position.
obviously some guys are going to get traded, but how often do you see full-tank teams start to trade top-100 minor league talent (i do think those AA/AAA guys are all top 100 except westburg, maybe mayo who still wouldn't be far off) when only 2 major prospects have been promoted? you have to give other prospects a chance to figure it out, there's too much potential there.
i think there's a very good chance next year's team is worse than this year's team as the solid 1.5-3 win players are replaced with struggling rookies. and even if we get a full year of rodriguez, the return of means, and trade for/sign better starters, there's still less room for improvement after voth/kremer/wells all came out of nowhere to pitch well.
anyway, i'm sure some major leaguers and minor leaguers are going to be traded. it's just going to be nutso to see how it all shakes out. there's so much depth and not a lot of room. looking at the 14-17 astros, not an easy comparison - those offenses were deep, but the solid non-prospect contributors were older soon-to-be FAs, not difficult guys to cut bait on.
also a lot of the improvement this year came from the bullpen and defense, which aren't very reliable year to year. idk, i really don't have much hope in next season i guess.
also i'll say this here because i can't say it anywhere else, but if elias does trade santander, mateo and urias to bring up prospects this team will be blindingly white. he drafts like marge schott.
― ✖, Thursday, 8 September 2022 19:30 (one year ago) link
it's possible i'm just not used to having this much talent in the high minors at once
― ✖, Thursday, 8 September 2022 19:34 (one year ago) link
A smalll step back next year wouldn’t surprise me. Let the young guys calibrate to the majors and focus on plugging holes with low-risk free agents in 2023 - then spend in earnest for 2024 on free agents and maybe dealing away some of the prospects in the lower minors for major league talent.
― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 8 September 2022 22:50 (one year ago) link
I get you from a tactical perspective but boy I would be sad to see santander and especially mateo go
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 9 September 2022 01:17 (one year ago) link
that'll do it
― ✖, Sunday, 11 September 2022 00:32 (one year ago) link
just a real crap time for the bats to go frio.
― j.q higgins, Monday, 12 September 2022 19:45 (one year ago) link
almost back to back CGs. so close to a maddux for bradish! granted he was working with the world's biggest strike zone
― ✖, Friday, 23 September 2022 01:41 (one year ago) link
who needs bats, let's just have complete game shutouts and an occasional hit by Rougned Odor
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 23 September 2022 01:46 (one year ago) link
bradish notched a 90 game score last night, fwiw.
― j.q higgins, Friday, 23 September 2022 13:09 (one year ago) link
what in the world
― ✖, Saturday, 24 September 2022 01:54 (one year ago) link
does mike elias have something on astros hitters? are our pitchers doing some sort of reverse trash can magic to throw the right pitch every time?
― ✖, Saturday, 24 September 2022 01:55 (one year ago) link
The Jays are doing their hapless thing, so do not abandon hope.
― clemenza, Saturday, 24 September 2022 02:10 (one year ago) link
imagine if we didn't lose 2 to the tigers lol
― ✖, Saturday, 24 September 2022 02:18 (one year ago) link
xp seems more likely that the Mariners manage to collapse despite their incredibly easy schedule and extend the playoff drought
― JoeStork, Saturday, 24 September 2022 03:32 (one year ago) link
ugh, that game might have been the death blow, but what can you do, you can't count on sweeping the astros
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 25 September 2022 16:11 (one year ago) link
Bradish is absolutely baffling to me.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 28 September 2022 00:35 (one year ago) link
This game.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 28 September 2022 01:04 (one year ago) link
so, after that crazy summer push, feels like a bit of a let down to not nab the third wc spot, but locking in at least .500 season and hanging in the playoff race through september is a huge achievement for a team that hasn't had a winning record in five seasons and has lost well over 100 games in three of those seasons. rutschman and henderson look like the real deal.
― j.q higgins, Sunday, 2 October 2022 14:43 (one year ago) link
ramon urias winning a gold glove and jorge mateo winning a fielding bible award were not things i expected out of 2022.
― j.q higgins, Thursday, 3 November 2022 16:32 (one year ago) link
An Orioles fan should start a new thread without "tanking" in the title...If Baltimore goes on to win the World Series, remember to thank the Blue Jays for letting them know once and for all they're really for real (which I'm sure they knew anyway).
― clemenza, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:10 (eleven months ago) link
There’s literally a 2023 Orioles thread.
― Everybody's gonna get what they got coming (gyac), Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:13 (eleven months ago) link
Polite as ever, but thanks, didn't know.
― clemenza, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:18 (eleven months ago) link
And just to set your troubled mind at ease, I did search "Baltimore," but not Orioles. I tried, I really tried.
― clemenza, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:20 (eleven months ago) link
lol not really
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:26 (eleven months ago) link