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 (one year ago) link
There’s literally a 2023 Orioles thread.
― Everybody's gonna get what they got coming (gyac), Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:13 (one year ago) link
Polite as ever, but thanks, didn't know.
― clemenza, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:18 (one year 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 (one year ago) link
lol not really
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 21 May 2023 21:26 (one year ago) link