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***Official 2018 Baltimore Orioles Thread*** Pitching Can’t Get Any Worse (1 Viewer)

Since not getting traded at the 7/31 deadeline, Manny has 12 HRs and 36 RBI in August with an OPS over 1.000. He has to be AL Player of the Month.

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make.

Buck has a real dilemma with Tillman now. The extra day rest that the 6-man rotation provides really helps Bundy and I think Gausman too - but not sure how many more times you can run Tillman out there. He just can't compete.

After all the lean years, it's still so great to have meaningful September baseball. 

 
Since not getting traded at the 7/31 deadeline, Manny has 12 HRs and 36 RBI in August with an OPS over 1.000. He has to be AL Player of the Month.

Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make.

Buck has a real dilemma with Tillman now. The extra day rest that the 6-man rotation provides really helps Bundy and I think Gausman too - but not sure how many more times you can run Tillman out there. He just can't compete.

After all the lean years, it's still so great to have meaningful September baseball. 
I don't think you can continue to trot Tillman out there. Not with them right back in the thick of this race.

 
@humpback where has this team been all year?!?!
We've been over this lol. This Jekyll version of the team has shown up a few times this year, but it's always been followed up with the Hyde version. Round and round we go, and eventually they end up right around .500. Maybe this time it'll be different, but it doesn't seem likely, this is who they are.

 
We've been over this lol. This Jekyll version of the team has shown up a few times this year, but it's always been followed up with the Hyde version. Round and round we go, and eventually they end up right around .500. Maybe this time it'll be different, but it doesn't seem likely, this is who they are.
I'm trying not to get sucked back in, but they're trying really hard to get me to believe.

 
I'm trying not to get sucked back in, but they're trying really hard to get me to believe.
Lol. I've been following along the whole time, will continue to do so until they're completely out of it, but my expectations haven't changed. They've always remained "in the hunt" because they face a lot of the teams they are competing with for the wild card, but I just don't expect them to catch them. The sweep in Boston was  :loco: .

 
Minnesota just has such an easy schedule. I'm actually harboring more of a secret hope of catching the Yankees...

Watching this team, I think they would actually be a serious threat if Davis or Trumbo would heat up. 

Also wondering if they will bring Pedro Alvarez up from Norfolk on Sept. 1. He has been raking down there all year. Would love him as LH power threat, but he's not on the 40-man roster, so somebody would have to get bumped. I doubt they'll bring up Catcher of the Future Chance Sisco, but I imagine they'd want 3 catchers on the expanded roster and it would be fun to have him. I wonder if Hardy will ease back into the lineup as a late-inning defensive specialist? Awfully hard to take Beckham out of the lineup now, but I get nervous every time a ball is hit his way.

 
It was a hard season to follow the Orioles.  After April, they just never felt like a playoff contender.

The Orioles have had a revolving door at pitching coach since Buck has arrived.  Mike Maddox was the Nationals' pitching coach and it looked like he did a really good job.  I thought maybe the Orioles would take a look at him. 

 
Man, are things feeling bleak right now. I think the O's would be crazy to trade Manny now. First, try to re-sign him -- though we know that's not happening, because Duquette hasn't talked to Manny's agent about an extension in 2 years. Which I can't comprehend. How is that not managerial negligence? Not that he would have signed anyway.

But why give him away now? See if you're competitive, then trade him at the deadline if it's not happening. This seems like a concession that they're not going to compete. Which is not exactly a news flash, considering the dumpster fire of a starting rotation they had last year, which looks to be worse this year.

Also, I have no faith at all in Duquette to make a good deal when he trades Manny. This is as bleak as things have looked since Stan the Fan chased Eddie out of Baltimore in return for Juan Bell. 

 
Machado's trade value goes down once the season begins because under the new CBA, his new team isn't able to make a qualifying offer or get a compensation pick.

This looks like the final year of the current run.  Britton and Adam Jones are also 2019 free agents.

 
"The #Orioles are moving aggressively on Manny Machado trade talks and now believe they can move him by the end of the week with the strength of their offers" -Bob Nightengale

the Orioles have 12 offers on the table! 12. If they can't get a nice haul of prospects with so much interest, Dan Duquette is as bad as I always thought. Before I fell asleep, the Phillies and Cardinals had the strongest offers. This morning, I'm reading its CHW, with SF and NY also involved. 

It will be sad to see him go, but another year of him isn't worth watching him walk away for nothing. 

 
Going to be very hard for me to take if/when this trade happens. Rumor this morning is that Angelos will nix any Yankees deal - but there is a possibility that a team like the White Sox would trade for Manny, then flip him to the Yankees. Would be so angry if that happened and they end up getting a better package than the Orioles do.

 
So now we know why the Orioles had only 36 men on their 40-man roster. So they could take 3 guys in the Rule V draft. 

What a joke Duquette is. Might as well tear it all down now, since you obviously have no intention of competing vs. NY and Boston this year with 3 minor-league castoffs (plus 1 they're still carrying from last year) on your big league roster.

Manny: Gone
Britton and/or Brach: Gone
Adam Jones: Might as well trade him now too

 
Well, if you're going to rebuild...rebuild. Stop with these yearly Band-aids. Besides lack of pitching, the Orioles biggest problem is the Davis contract. 

 
Chris Davis is a sunk cost.  The O's are stuck with five more years with him because his contract is pretty much untradable.  At this point, the best you can hope for is a return to something like 2016 form.  For the worst case, see Albert Pujols.

I think every team can absorb one bad contract.  Davis is a convenient scapegoat but he's not the difference between contending and 90 losses.

 
Chris Davis is a sunk cost.  The O's are stuck with five more years with him because his contract is pretty much untradable.  At this point, the best you can hope for is a return to something like 2016 form.  For the worst case, see Albert Pujols.

I think every team can absorb one bad contract.  Davis is a convenient scapegoat but he's not the difference between contending and 90 losses.
Baltimore doesn't have the margin of error of many teams, in a division with two teams with as large a margin as it gets.

Sucks.

 
First inning of the season:

Chris Davis (batting leadoff - I'm not kidding) strikes out

Machado doubles with 1 out

Schoop takes the count to 3-0, then strikes out on 3 pitches

Adam Jones strikes out.

The Orioles are back!

 
The Orioles have looked really bad this year. 

The Nationals have designated AJ Cole for assignment.  The Orioles should seriously look at getting him.  He can't be worse than Tillman and Wright.  And he is only 26.  He has some upside.

 
The Orioles have looked really bad this year. 

The Nationals have designated AJ Cole for assignment.  The Orioles should seriously look at getting him.  He can't be worse than Tillman and Wright.  And he is only 26.  He has some upside.
Cole was traded to the Yankees.

Thinking over the DFA process, teams have I think 10 days to trade or cut the player.  The Nationals and Orioles have never agreed on a trade before, so it is unlikely they would start now.

 
I knew the Orioles weren't going to contend, but thought they'd be around .500 after signing Cobb and the other starting pitcher whose name I can't even remember. I just don't understand what happened during that first month of the season - finally showing signs of life. Far too little, far too late, but at least they're not historically awful at this point. 

 
If they would have sold off at the deadline last year, at least you could have had some reason to be optimistic about the future. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like things are going to get better anytime soon.

 
If they would have sold off at the deadline last year, at least you could have had some reason to be optimistic about the future. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like things are going to get better anytime soon.
The Orioles were 2 1/2 back in the wild card race at last year's deadline.  I think it was a defensible decision to try to make one last run at the playoffs with their current core. 

They still should get some return if they trade Machado this year and can hit reboot in 2019 with a lot of payroll coming off the books.  The Davis and Trumbo deals are terrible of course but a lot of teams have a couple of bad contracts.

Their farm system is short on high impact prospects in large part because they've been picking late for the past few years.

 
The Orioles were 2 1/2 back in the wild card race at last year's deadline.  I think it was a defensible decision to try to make one last run at the playoffs with their current core. 

They still should get some return if they trade Machado this year and can hit reboot in 2019 with a lot of payroll coming off the books.  The Davis and Trumbo deals are terrible of course but a lot of teams have a couple of bad contracts.

Their farm system is short on high impact prospects in large part because they've been picking late for the past few years.
I'm pretty sure they were more like ~5 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot, and would have had to pass ~6 other teams to make it. It was an extreme long shot.

It wasn't just Manny, but guys like Britton, Brach, etc. as well. Sure, they'll still get something for Manny, but very likely much less than they could have gotten last year (same for the other guys).

Drafting late hasn't kept some of the better organizations from having at least a decent farm system- IMO the fact that they completely disregard the international market, and become buyers instead of sellers at trade deadlines, has a lot more to do with it. Right now they are one of the worst teams in baseball and have one of the worst farm systems, which doesn't exactly exude confidence.

 
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I'm pretty sure they were more like ~5 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot, and would have had to pass ~6 other teams to make it. It was an extreme long shot.

It wasn't just Manny, but guys like Britton, Brach, etc. as well. Sure, they'll still get something for Manny, but very likely much less than they could have gotten last year (same for the other guys).

Drafting late hasn't kept some of the better organizations from having at least a decent farm system- IMO the fact that they completely disregard the international market, and become buyers instead of sellers at trade deadlines, has a lot more to do with it. Right now they are one of the worst teams in baseball and have one of the worst farm systems, which doesn't exactly exude confidence.
I agree whole heartedly here.  Drafting late does not keep good teams from drafting and developing prospects.  The Orioles have a major deficit here.

The whole unwillingness to scout and sign international talent is also mind boggling as we see other teams continually find international players.

My other big complaint:  early on, Buck continually said how important defense is.  Yet, the Orioles continually sign DH/1st base type players.  So you have a roster full of Chris Davis, Mark Trumbo, Pedro Alvarez, and Danny Valencia.  And Trey Mancini is one player you actually bring up through the farm system.  But they have been doing this for years.

 
What a quite thread.  The Orioles were playing so bad, so they traded away Manny, Zach, Guasman, and Schoop.  And now they are truly terrible. They were swept by Kansas City last week.  They are now 7 games behind (ahead) of Kansas City for the worst record in baseball with 19 to play.  They have virtually clinched the top draft pick in next years draft.

The only hope is that some of the prospects from the trades become decent players.   And the Orioles can start developing players, especially starting pitching.

 
What a quite thread.  The Orioles were playing so bad, so they traded away Manny, Zach, Guasman, and Schoop.  And now they are truly terrible. They were swept by Kansas City last week.  They are now 7 games behind (ahead) of Kansas City for the worst record in baseball with 19 to play.  They have virtually clinched the top draft pick in next years draft.

The only hope is that some of the prospects from the trades become decent players.   And the Orioles can start developing players, especially starting pitching.
The problem is they do such a poor job of developing talent, didn’t get a ton back for what they traded, and won’t spend on international players...they could be bad for a really long time. They have two good, not great hitting prospects in Y Diaz and Mountcastle, no pitching prospects, and some really bad contracts for a small market team. 

They might lose 100+ for a few years. 

 
Here is an article on how the players the Orioles got in the Gausman trade are doing.

https://www.camdenchat.com/2018/9/14/17852216/orioles-prospects-kevin-gausman-trade

At the time, the return for Gausman looked really light.  This artlcle doesn't make it look any better.

A quick note on using talent:  Last year the Orioles gave Jeremy Helickson a try and he looked terrible.  This year, the Nationals found a way to make him a quite effective, but inning limited pitcher.  

Last year the Orioles gave Edwin Jackson a shot and he looked terrible.  He went to the Nationals and was  a decent fill in starter.  He did not make the post season roster.

The Orioles routinely come up short in all sorts of player development and usage.

 
The Orioles are now 9 games behind the Royals for worst record in baseball, with 13 to play.  The Orioles will clinch worst team with over a week to go.  Of course, it is all but guaranteed at this point.

 
Wow, what a dumpster fire of a season. And franchise.

Loved the sendoff for Adam - one that was player/manager and fan-driven, and had nothing to do with the front office. One of the Top 5 position players in franchise history, along with the HOF 4 of Cal, Brooks, Eddie and Frank.

 
And I'm not even mad about how incredible Hader is for Milwaukee after the O's let him go, because if he had stayed in the Baltimore system, he never would have become incredible. No surprise at all when Gausman immediately became much better when he left town, and I am 100% sure Bundy is going to be outstanding once he gets into an organization that knows how to develop pitchers.

 
Wow, what a dumpster fire of a season. And franchise.

Loved the sendoff for Adam - one that was player/manager and fan-driven, and had nothing to do with the front office. One of the Top 5 position players in franchise history, along with the HOF 4 of Cal, Brooks, Eddie and Frank.
I missed it - what did they do to send Jones off?

I agree with Adam's standing in club history, though I'd include Machado in there too - he was around as long as Frank and was the most talented of them all. 

Jones was a fine player, obviously. But what he brought to the team was accountability that the other players bought into. Markakis and Roberts were the closest thing the Orioles had to stars, but neither was a leader. Jones was, and he was just a kid!

Buck did a great job, but Jones was at least as important to their (apparently) short-lived resurgence.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
I missed it - what did they do to send Jones off?
The front office didn't do anything. But Buck penciled him in for CF for the first inning, so he would lead the team out on the field for the national anthem. Then every other player hung back and so Adam ran out there and was left standing behind 2B by himself as everyone stood and cheered, including the Astros. Umpiring crew also tipped their hats to him.

Then standing ovations for every at-bat. Ending with the top of the 9th, everyone took their positions (AJ switched to RF after the 1st inning), then Buck sent in a replacement and Adam left the field one last time as an Oriole to a huge ovation.

 
Baltimore Orioles‏Verified account @Orioles 54m54 minutes ago

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It’s official: Mike Elias has been named Executive Vice President and General Manager. Welcome to #Birdland, Mike!

 
Early results are looking good. The Elias hire has gotten rave reviews.  The Orioles are going all in on analytics.

They have the best grapefruit league record.  They are getting great results from people competing for roster spots, including both rule 5 picks, Richie Martin and Drew Jackson.  Of course, everything is spring training has to be caveated due to small sample sizes and at lot of playtime is not against major league players.

Let's hope all the young guys keep developing and maybe, the Orioles lose less than 100 games.

 
The Orioles really have a scrap heap of a team while having most of their prospects playing in the minors.  Most aren't even in triple A yet. 

Dwight Smith has been a pleasant surprise.  Villar is doing well.  Nunez is hitting, which is good for the DH.  Davis is starting to hit.  Mancini is hitting really well.

The whole pitch staff is pretty bad.  Cobb can stay off the IL.

The team is decent defensively, but lacks major league bats at many positions, including C, 3B, SS, CF.

Most of the players on the team are place holders until the Orioles can get more talent and develop them in the minors.

 
The Athletic had an interesting story about the Orioles 2009 first-round draft pick (the one where Trout went at #25) Matt Hobgood. 

He never made it to the majors. His arm strength never developed beyond high school. He now works installing doors out in Arizona. He was not bitter about what happened, and doesn't blame anyone 

 

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