475 replies to this topic

[You Play to Win the Game]

Wells wasn’t that great this spring. And the BP is starting the year in a bad spot. Would’ve helped the major league product right now if Grayson were up, and Wells were in the pen.

But it’s also the message it sends. Guys have bad camps all the time. How convenient though that it’s a rookie with service time to manipulate. Maybe do a better job getting your top prospect ready since you’re saying he isn’t?

Can’t wait for Thursday. But have a feeling it’s going to be a rough April.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Can’t wait for all the quotes in mid-April that are something to the effect of, “Yeah, not the start we wanted from Adam, but he’s a vet. Right thing to do to keep running him out there then we’ll know what we have with him the rest of the way.” This while Vavra barely sniffs time and Westburg chills with Grayson in AAA.

No big deal though guys. Eventually their little model will be able to chart a path towards winning the division, then maybe we’ll finally start caring.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

GRod is mostly about manipulation but he got hurt last year and it has worked out for the Os that yeah they can likely now get another year by waiting til late April to call him up. They have 5 legit starters. Wells has been stretched out to start all spring. So being like well you just move him to the pen. Yeah, sure but hes not gonna be a high leverage guy throwing 2 nights in a row or prob not 2 of 3. Hes gonna be Akin '22 until he would get back into a shorter stint role. You had 4 guys in Gibson, Irvin, Bradish, and Kremer who had already earned starting the year in the rotation. The fact that there was legit competition for that 5th spot is a good thing. And Wells is legit competition. GRod couldve done more and absolutely forced his way onto the roster. He didnt.


As far as Westburg, its hilarious we are already bashing Frazier. Regardless, even if Frazier werent here it would likely be Urias at 2nd base. We got a GGer from last year, a guy who put up over 3 WAR, who will likely be on the bench OD but we out here bitching about Westburg. If Urias were the 2b instead youd still prefer Westburg on the Os bench vs reg time in AAA? Cuz I wouldnt. I want him playing every day knowing I will need him up here playing every day before the year isnout.

[BSLSteveBirrer]

Extra year trumps all for me.

[Mike B]

GRod is mostly about manipulation but he got hurt last year and it has worked out for the Os that yeah they can likely now get another year by waiting til late April to call him up. They have 5 legit starters. Wells has been stretched out to start all spring. So being like well you just move him to the pen. Yeah, sure but hes not gonna be a high leverage guy throwing 2 nights in a row or prob not 2 of 3. Hes gonna be Akin '22 until he would get back into a shorter stint role. You had 4 guys in Gibson, Irvin, Bradish, and Kremer who had already earned starting the year in the rotation. The fact that there was legit competition for that 5th spot is a good thing. And Wells is legit competition. GRod couldve done more and absolutely forced his way onto the roster. He didnt.


As far as Westburg, its hilarious we are already bashing Frazier. Regardless, even if Frazier werent here it would likely be Urias at 2nd base. We got a GGer from last year, a guy who put up over 3 WAR, who will likely be on the bench OD but we out here bitching about Westburg. If Urias were the 2b instead youd still prefer Westburg on the Os bench vs reg time in AAA? Cuz I wouldnt. I want him playing every day knowing I will need him up here playing every day before the year isnout.

I really do not have much issue with GRod going down.  He will be up in May..

 

As for Frazier, I hope he does well.  He is an Oriole and I hope he has his best year, but IMO, your hero screwed up spending 8 M on him, when resources were limited.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

I really do not have much issue with GRod going down. He will be up in May..

As for Frazier, I hope he does well. He is an Oriole and I hope he has his best year, but IMO, your hero screwed up spending 8 M on him, when resources were limited.

As Mack would say, resources that werent going to be spent or werent accepted by SPs anyway. 2b was and may still be a bigger need than you guys think. Easy after both Westburg and Norby have solid springs to bash the signing further. Neither may be able to play 2b defensively well enough and neither should be breaking their cherry starting on OD. Nor sitting on the bench behind Urias on OD. Nothing would be better than for someone better than Frazier to snatch the role at some point. Thats not a given.

[BSLSteveBirrer]

As Mack would say, resources that werent going to be spent or werent accepted by SPs anyway. 2b was and may still be a bigger need than you guys think. Easy after both Westburg and Norby have solid springs to bash the signing further. Neither may be able to play 2b defensively well enough and neither should be breaking their cherry starting on OD. Nor sitting on the bench behind Urias on OD. Nothing would be better than for someone better than Frazier to snatch the role at some point. Thats not a given.

Nice deflection.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Extra year trumps all for me.

At what point do we actually try to win games as our first and foremost goal? If you've got a young stud let him help us win now and extend him early. Nickel and dimeing all of your best players is cheapskate stuff that will ultimately damage our reputation in the eyes of young players who we'd want to come here.

[BSLMikeLowe]

This is a rare occasion where I think Elias is actually being somewhat genuine when he says service time was not among the primary motivations for sending Rodriguez down. At most it was a tertiary consideration that tipped the scale because they were evenly torn on what to do with him otherwise. If he had a good showing in ST, he'd be on the team. I think in the case of pitchers the service time thing is overemphasized. Who was the last Orioles pitcher where the service time thing mattered, one way or the other?

[TwentyThirtyFive]

I think if GRod had a good spring he would have broke camp but I also think if they didnt have 5 legit starters right now he also wouldve broke camp. Absolutely the service time played some role but again we are in a place where we have 5 legit rotation arms breaking camp over him. That doesnt mean Kremer,Bradish, and Wells in particular are proven and couldnt struggle and lose a spot but they did enough in '22 to earn spots in April of '23. Its a good problem to have.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

BP looks set with the addition of Coulombe yesterday. A lefty vet who has been solid enough in the bigs.


Bautista
Perez
Baker
Khrebiel
Coulombe
Akin
Baumann
Voth


Last 3 guys can all piggy back off of the SPs going short to start the year. The other 5 should be available more often in shorter stints.


I think in general its good to keep in mind we have some bullets to fire as the season progresses and how thats encouraging. There is depth. Guys like Tate and Givens will be back at some point. GRod and Hall will be up at some point. Means is more of a wildcard but could make help in Aug and Sept. Thats just on the pitching side

[Ravens2006]

The whole Rodriguez situation in becoming less "long term" exciting by the month.  He's 23 1/3 basically already, still hasn't thrown a major league pitch, and his minor league season total inning peak is 103.  He's done nothing but dominate (by all rational analysis).  15 spring innings are enough for Elias to determine he's not ready for major league innings.  292 dominating, 0.993 WHIP minor league innings not enough to determine he's not going to get much out of the minors apparently. 

 

Whenever he comes up, he'll probably be at least 23.5... and they'll "manage his innings" for a couple years no matter how good he is.  So he'll probably be 26 before they ever treat him like a "wire to wire" number one pitcher.

 

It's about service time.  They can spin it however they want, but his 15 spring innings are a perfect excuse to play service time games again.  And I'd say they're just building ill will for future contract negotiations, but no need to fool ourselves that anyone who actually becomes a top tier player (especially pitcher) will ever get a top tier contract from this franchise.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

To speak to that depth is the DFA of the R5 guy in Politi. I thought he had a real chance to make it. Had 1 really bad outing in ST but otherwise was solid.

[CantonJester]

So the O’s released Franchy Cordero despite hitting for video game numbers this Spring Training. That tells me he was there for insurance only in the event they suffered a significant injury to a corner OF. 

[makoman]

So the O’s released Franchy Cordero despite hitting for video game numbers this Spring Training. That tells me he was there for insurance only in the event they suffered a significant injury to a corner OF.

Signed with Yankees, expected to be on OD roster.

https://mobile.twitt...115732514684952

[CantonJester]

Who in fact suffered at least one injury (Bader). Man. Florial can’t hit his way out of a paper bag.