belcome to walltimore (a 2023 orioles thread)

Yay I didn't have to start it this year! Great thread title.

Orioles CEO and Chairman John Angelos: "I'm glad we were in a full rebuild because it was what was recommended and was the right thing. Also, we were fortunate that as the world hit a pandemic, we were stripped down to that [level]. That was just good luck, really."

— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) February 19, 2023

issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"

— wint (@dril) February 15, 2017

They could surprise, but I don't think this is a .500 team we're putting on the field. And I think it could have been if they wanted it to be.

do you think they didn't improve enough relative to the division or just not a believer in their depth?

I think depth is the main quality tbh, it's the lack of top end talent that worries me. Too much is riding on Adley and Gunnar and Grayson.

I think they had some good luck last year to finish with the record they did, and I don't think they got that much better -- Grayson and Means will pitch and Gunnar and Adley will play full seasons instead of 1/3 and 2/3 respectively, but -- it won't be THAT different of a team. If it happens to be the case that the group of starters they have right now contains 5 people who can be average to above-average through 2023, they'll be pretty good. And that's not impossible. But I can't honestly say it's likely.

kjerstad 303 w/ two bombs and holliday w/ a 2B in their grapefruit league debuts. cowser walked twice.

[that's 3-3...whoops]

Cade Povich pitching in 7th & 8th for Os. FB at 94 mph, touched 95 and throwing a slider change up and curveball. Finishes with a line of 2 IP 1 H 0 R 3 SOs.
All 3 Ks on swinging strikes - 2 on FB and 1 on slider. 30 pitches 17 strikes. Nice spring debut for Cade.

— Orioles Fan Therapy (@OsFanTherapy) February 26, 2023

No one can retire Heston Kjerstad

will be curious to see where kjerstad is ultimately assigned to start the season. cowser should be first call if a starter goes down.

This team has a ridiculous amount of young talent

every single time i see this thread i think of green day singing 'pelcome to waradise'

waradise what it good foradise?

Why? WHY? What does Grayson Rodriguez have left to learn in AAA? What does he have left to prove?

i think we all know the answer to that

he had a 7.04 ERA over the spring and was walking over 4.1 dudes per 9. i mean, in that context i kinda get it.

Noted slugger, Jorge Mateo pic.twitter.com/R6i0b8s4w4

— The Verge- An Orioles MiLB Podcast (@BSLOnTheVerge) April 4, 2023

...appropriately, o's are first in the league in steals and third in homers.

That dinger by Mateo was absolutely smashed, I have to say

...appropriately, o's are first in the league in steals and third in homers.

― j.q higgins, Tuesday, April 4, 2023 12:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Heck, Mateo and Mullins BY THEMSELVES are first in the league in steals (OK, tied with the Guardians)

That tweet is confusing me, maybe something's left out. I thought Stanton hit a 485 footer the other day.

just longest for yesterday's game, i believe

ah ok

grayson comin’

those four innings in norfolk made all the difference

i know they're pushing steals but maybe they shouldn't include their catcher, who is their star player and doesn't appear to be very good at stealing

don't know how useful it is, but rutschman rated very well in the fangraphs baserunning metric last season.

mountcastle has been breaching walltimore on the reg this season

Ryan Mountcastle vs Dany Jimenez#Birdland

Grand Slam (5) ⚾

Exit velo: 111 mph
Launch angle: 26 deg
Proj. distance: 456 ft

No doubt about that one 🔒
That's a dinger in all 30 MLB ballparks

OAK (7) @ BAL (12)
🔻 7th pic.twitter.com/svCR0Y5MS8

— Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) April 12, 2023

I know early-season WAR is meaningless but still find it funny that b-ref hates Hays's defense so much that it basically cancels out his 1.058 OPS

To be fair, the outfield defense in the early going *has* looked pretty suspect, and not just Hays.

if, say, there WERE juiced balls this season, that could have an effect on outfield play, no? i admit i haven't seen a whole lot of ball on tv outside of the wbc.

2023 AL Batting WAR Leaders

Jorge Mateo (1.2)
Matt Chapman (1.1)
Jarred Kelenic (1.0)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (0.9)

All Leaders: https://t.co/nMs6wrk5TP

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) April 17, 2023

Welcome to Aberdeen, @J_Holliday7!

Press Release: https://t.co/48LivGDUDb#TakeFlight pic.twitter.com/D0rgr0wJKS

— Aberdeen IronBirds (@IronBirds) April 24, 2023

I simply cannot get over how fourteen years old this dude consistently looks

baby-faced assassin

We have made the following roster moves: pic.twitter.com/9z45v16gH3

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 27, 2023

must be fun to be a team w/ playoff aspirations and have several top 100 prospects at/near mlb ready.

Yennier Cano, my goodness. 33 batters faced, no hits, no walks.

that change is so nasty looking.

Yennier Cano of the @Orioles has a WHIP of 0.16 in 14 appearances this year.

That's the lowest WHIP by any MLB pitcher over any span of 14 appearances in the modern era (minimum 50 outs recorded). pic.twitter.com/Sv003gqLz9

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 11, 2023

went to the game yesterday and while not approving of the result, you can do worse than seeing ohtani, trout and rutschman bombs in person.

Damn, a fireworks day of sort.

Still not buying this team yet lol

Gonna be a crazy trade deadline either way though

I don't know if you put any stock in J.P. Morosi, but they had him on the other day--before the sweep--and he said they have two or three more legitimate hitters on the way, and that they'll have lots of flexibility in getting more pitching later on. They've certainly got a bit of a cushion now.

Yeah there are 5 guys who are at least on the cusp right now, all of whom are good enough prospects for a full time tryout, and no open spots for any of them on the team. But the team is playing too well to make room for that adjustment period. And then there's Kjerstad and even Holliday (!) who could possibly make the jump this year.

Good problem to have but I don't know how I'd deal with it if I were GM. How much do you mess with a good thing?

Have to think there'll be at least one big prospect package trade for pitching, and at least one ML level trade to open up a spot.

not buying that there the second best team in baseball or not buying them as a playoff caliber team? definitely agree that roster management is the trick, but elias certainly has more cards to play than duquette ever had.

Can't find that poll we had recently about which franchises should re-locate...I see Baltimore's early attendance is still low (bottom half of MLB, just under 20,000/game). I said on that thread that the writer wasn't differentiating between a city like Tampa, which never supports their team, and Baltimore (or Pittsburgh, or Toronto), where attendance tracks with the team's success. (The Orioles routinely drew 3 million-plus in the late '90s.) If the Orioles are in a divisional race going into September, I bet tickets will hard to come by.

I definitely don't buy them as second-best team in baseball but the Fangraphs projection of .470 the rest of the way and finishing 85-77 does seem pretty negative --- I don't see how you look at the next four months of baseball from this team and say "from here on out they should be appreciably worse than the 2022 roster."

I simply cannot get over how fourteen years old this dude consistently looks

yeah, the way he's hitting he might end up being the most baby-faced major leaguer that i can remember, sooner rather than later.

his lines in the A and A+ levels this year are crazy

A: 65 PAs, .392/.523/.667, 225 wRC+
A+: 93 PAs, .395/.505/.724, 220 wRC+

there's no reason for him to be in A for a minute longer, he should be in AA or AAA this summer i'd guess

i wonder how his defense is progressing at SS

Means pitching next week apparently! Funny how important I thought "when will John Means be ready" would be for the success of the 2023 team

I think they had some good luck last year to finish with the record they did, and I don't think they got that much better -- Grayson and Means will pitch and Gunnar and Adley will play full seasons instead of 1/3 and 2/3 respectively, but -- it won't be THAT different of a team. If it happens to be the case that the group of starters they have right now contains 5 people who can be average to above-average through 2023, they'll be pretty good. And that's not impossible. But I can't honestly say it's likely.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, February 20, 2023 4:22 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean this was me in February. I do think that we HAVE ended up having 5 legitimate starters in the rotation throughout the year and I don't think I was wrong to think of that as less than plausible in advance. I think the big thing I missed is that I was thinking "who has the potential to really shine?" and I wasn't thinking about the possibility (which I also think wasn't predictable in advance!) of how we would just not be giving at bats to people who were bad at hitting! Our 8 and 9 guys in the lineups are OK hitters just about every night! And that has a lot to do with Frazier and O'Hearn and Hicks all being OK to legitimately good, which I think it was fair not to see coming.

I love Gunnar Henderson

I follow the dodgers, who have been famously "good" at hitting the past decade or so through the order, and watching the 6-9 hitters of Dodgers vs. Orioles is night and day this year. I keep getting surprised when the 6-9 hitters in the Orioles do something because of what I am used to even though my brain knows that the Orioles can still mash in those spots. Frazier/O'Hearn/Hicks; all studs in my book

I also, would like to put on the record my love for Gunnar Henderson (what a name), Tony Taters, and the young, hot, star, Rustchdaddy

Hard to believe--because of their turnaround, not that they're not legitimate--but they're going to win 100 games, maybe as many as 105.

Fuji starting to hit his stride, let's hope he keeps it up.

Still can't adjust to Grayson, Adley, and Gunnar being names adult men have and not kids at the daycare

Grayson having a career night. This is the team I’ve watched all season.

Huge win, hugest of the year I'd say.

I’d rank the first time they took first place as the biggest! Absolutely shocking after the lead Tampa had. But it’s apples and oranges. Go O’s!

I’d rank the first time they took first place as the biggest! Absolutely shocking after the lead Tampa had. But it’s apples and oranges. Go O’s!

big win

I was at the Falcons game yesterday afternoon and following the O's on my phone. The way they pulled it out gave me a lot of encouragement for the postseason.

hard to overemphasize how great bradish and rodriguez have been in the second half.

https://media.tenor.com/KWgFWEKlKgYAAAAd/thats-cedric-mullins-again-its-cedric-mullins.gif

Three pitchers in the ninth inning last night :\

Putting Flaherty in relief is a good move, I think.

6-0 angels rays 2nd inning. Thank you very much

The great Jim Palmer celebrating his 60th anniversary with the club <3

One of my favourite '70s guys, knowing full well he's not as highly regarded today. His motion, his love/hate relationship with Weaver, his--horror!--knack for winning 20, love it all.

He and Kevin Brown are a good team on MASN.

I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme but I really really really want the boys to win 100

Nats and Sox? I’d put money on it

The Magic Number

man the nats lineup is dire

not to take anything away from bradish or gunnar "that oughtta do it" henderson

:)

also, 3 runs allowed in their last 5 games

100 wins? division champs? pretty neat!

As someone whose fandom began with the Robinson/Palmer/Boog/Weaver Orioles, the world feels a little bit more normal.

congrats o's fans <3

100 wins, but also the best in the AL confirmed (tied worst possible conclusion)

we did it guys!!!!

I'd forgotten that the Orioles clinching last night could conceivably help the Jays this weekend against Tampa. The games are meaningless to them now, so maybe we'll get a spot starter or two and some of their regulars rested (the ones that aren't injured already)...

Posnanski's six years younger than I am, but he captures well what I was posting about last night:

There’s something about the Orioles being back in the playoffs that connects deeply to my childhood, when the Orioles were ALWAYS good. It’s funny, when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, it seemed to me that there was a permanence to the world and a permanence in sports, and the Orioles would always be good, the Cowboys would always be good, the Raiders would always be good, Pittsburgh would always be the city of champions, etc. Then as you get older, you realize that nothing is permanent, and the Orioles fell into a deep hole, only to pop out their heads every now and again like they were checking the weather.

I didn't mean that the Orioles were my favourite team when I became a fan--the Reds were--but that they were the gold standard. Even more than the A's, who won the three World Series followed by chaos and then getting dismantled. The Orioles in the '70s were always good, and they were very businesslike about it.

felix is getting surgery

o's now at 101 wins, norfolk tides won the aaa championship. pretty cool.

Absolute misery.

man i wanted them to make a run. i guess one of the talking points is lack of SP upgrades at trade deadline (Flaherty not on playoff roster)

Flaherty was not a great pick. Fuji also seemed shaky, but did improve.

wonder who they'd target this offseason. there are some SPs with an ace level ceiling (but who aren't a lock to perform at that ceiling) like Nola and Snell. i would love to see them land Ohtani but that's a pipe dream and he's also not a guy you can rely on as a pitcher (his offense would obv be a dream.)

They arent going to spend

this would be the perfect year to actually make a real SP signing, even if it's just someone like jordan montgomery or ERod. that'd be huge compared to recent years. 3 rotation spots are secure (rodriguez, bradish, means).

wouldn't really make sense to sign a position player which is fine because there aren't any position players to sign this year.

this team is in a bizarre position. like almost everything i said a year ago here The Tanking Will Continue Until Morale Improves: the 2022 Baltimore Orioles is basically the same. there's too many guys and not enough spots. there are a lot of guys with higher ceilings than santander, mullins and hays, but i don't want to lose any of them. i'm starting to think they really are just going to do the rays thing where they keep AAA loaded instead of making big trades, and then platoon guys who are probably good enough to be full time players on most other teams.

you've got coby mayo looking like the second coming of david ortiz in AAA and he's like 4th in line for any of the positions he may be able to play in the majors

but gotta say i'm glad the rest of the internet seems to have caught onto the blinding whiteness of elias drafts

Congratulations to Gunnar Henderson

Gunnar Henderson named American League Rookie of the Year

Read more at: https://www.selmatimesjournal.com/2023/11/13/gunnar-henderson-named-al-rookie-of-the-year/

And to Brandon Hyde

Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde named AL Manager of the Year

https://www.wbal.com/orioles-skipper-brandon-hyde-named-al-manager-of-the-year/

This looks kind of fun

https://www.mlb.com/orioles/video/the-story-of-the-2023-orioles?partnerId=zh-20240104-1130664-BAL-1-A&qid=13&utm_id=zh-20240104-1130664-BAL-1-A&bt_ee=hqqTyiJAwOj1FEu6TfhkrwrZPzUBgblzlV0Lf86nOp%2BM%2Ba11ZdUL3prgG6SUQVj8&bt_ts=1704398151285