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3:52; agree. To me, don’t buy Henderson as long term answer at SS in Baltimore. Holliday seems logical answer there.
So him at SS, Gunnar 3b and Westburg 2b. Mateo gets a lot of action back at SS until Jackson is up to speed with the speed of the game.
But what I’d really go for is this. Orioles need a RH big boy bat in that line up. Get Bregman. He’s at 3rd, Holliday SS, Westburg 2b and Henderson to 1st. That’s 4 positions filled that would not require platooning with 3 of thermal ready proven league level hitters and the 4th will get there. Urias and Mateo back ups.
I have a bad feeling Mateo is AA’s fallback target at SS to replace Arcia. Or could be the Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme.
Ay dios mio!
Jeff;
LOL
You keep trying.
I believe the FO is going to give youngsters chances and ultimately the players that sparkle get the brunt of the playing time.
We had troll on here the other day that said their farm system had peaked and that their top prospects are washouts. ? The O’s have one of the best farm systems in MLB, and rumors about losing a scout don’t make much sense as the organization is built on drafting, which is done primarily by Sig Mejdal and his staff.
The biggest problem with the O’s is that they competed a year too early (2023). Now it’s speed-up time which isn’t what they wanted to do. They wanted to sift through the youngsters to see which ones came to the top. Not to worry, they’re doing that now.
As for Holliday playing SS – I haven’t seen him do that. I will say that while I’ve seen him make a few very good plays at 2B, at this time he doesn’t strike me as a superior infielder. As the moderator noted: He’s still not 21 years-old yet. However, as for Henderson being moved to 1B – he has a very strong arm and speed, so at this point I don’t think the FO wants to waste it. Who knows, maybe he winds up in the big LF at Camden or even in CF (providing Bradfield Jr. can’t cut it).
An amazing organization. And…..
I still say: In the next few years pitching will become their strong point. A lot like the Braves…..their pitching slowly snuck up on people and became the driver for that team while fans and media were fixated on the drama with the position players.
Great stuff as always Samuel. Thanks for that.
Jackson. #1 overall pick. Geez. Gotta at least give him a look at SS.
Gunnar. Stud athlete who plays with 100% effort. Glad he’s on my team. Scared to death he’s gonna hurt himself because of that effort thing. He’s no good to us on the IL. Dial him back. Big boy. 1st base. To me, his position is hitter. Gotta keep him in the lineup if we wanna have a legit shot at reaching the promised land.
Agree. Orioles got good earlier than FO anticipated. Nice problem to have. Looking forward to how they go about constructing the 2025 team for sure.
Pitching. I do hope they can keep Burnes. Looks comfortable as a TOR … and getting that big pay day won’t pysch him out. The rest of the staff, when healthy, is legit. Fingers crossed.
Oh and if Bregman is too pricey. maybe a Gleyber Torres to 2nd, Westburg 3rd, Holliday SS and Gunnar 1b.
Regardless, Birds need a seasoned RH bat in that line up.
People complaining about their question never being answered and it being “Who do you think the Pirates will hire to be their next hitting coach?”
Can’t imagine why it gets passed on
Ez – Well, the squeaky wheel got the oil now didn’t it?
What I take issue with is him demanding his questions be answered because he’s a subscriber. Paid subscribers get their own private chats, they shouldn’t expect preferential treatment in the general chats.
Those two Yankees fans in rightfield were total aholes. I hope they got banned from the park and charged with assault.
Brave – When bad fans do bad things and get escorted out, the cameras usually show them leaving as a deterrent. They didn’t here, so I think they were allowed to stay because they tried to help the Yankees. Remember Jeffrey Maier not only stayed but was treated like a freakin’ hero.
They got walked out, according to videos on X. I don’t think the Network wanted to show it, but a fan caught it on video.
Brave – Seeing several reports that only one was ejected. Hopefully both were, they were both guilty.
So they were both ejected BUT they claim they will be back for tonight’s game. Yankees have refused to respond to inquiries about it.
They are a couple tools, saying what they did would have helped their team win. Trying to catch a ball that’s over the wall is fine, but one guy holding a player’s wrist while another guy uses two hands trying to pull the player’s glove off? If they aren’t permanently banned the Yankees will get a lot of heat for that decision. Mookie could have gotten an injured wrist from it too.
Apparently they’d talked before about what they’d do in that situation, so it was premeditated. The guy who grabbed the glove said it was basically his job to “patrol the wall”, like they’re members of the team or something. They need to lose their season passes and be banned for life. Mookie is too classy to press charges. If they’re ever allowed back in, it should only be in the nosebleed seats, not by the field.
brave – Yeah I saw that, they are either total idiots or they were highly intoxicated. I’ve sat in similar front row seats many times and yeah you think about making sure the opposing player doesn’t reach over the wall to catch a fly ball.
But that’s NOT what happened last night. You simply can’t rough up the player, grabbing one wrist and prying the glove open on the other hand. Not to mention he caught the ball BEFORE the glove went over the wall.
Mookie had possession, when you’ve got possession it’s an out.
This reminds me of ARod intentionally slapping the ball out of Arroyo’s glove ….. ridiculous tactics.
Robert Fick did that in Atlanta once. He got benched.
Can Steve make it so questions are asked using our usernames? I know- they can be changed. But the added layer of anonymity lets people say the stupidest things.
Yeah okay Yazstremski has a long name, but that doesn’t mean he will get traded, necessarily.
“Andrew Stoeten, great Blue Jays blogger,”
–
I watched one of his videos. Had to stop it about 60% through. He blathers on about analytics, randomness, and what the game has turned into as he states that Shapiro and Atkins are – in so many words – getting a bum rap because know-nothing posters (which MLBTR has tons of) rag on them.
–
Look, no MLB FO puts together a team that wins every year, even if they’re constantly in the top 3 in player payroll. There has to be a plan. Sometimes that means taking a step back or even a reset. But billion dollar organizations that are successful (and there are many that are not) have plans of more than one year and see them through.
For years I’ve watched the Jays throw money at veterans either in FA or by taking on salary in trade to “plug holes”. Those players former teams that are letting them go to get a higher salary elsewhere clearly know something most of the time. Anyone that’s followed MLB for years has seen teams that spend year-after-year slowly hit a wall. Ultimately finding themselves with a roster primarily made up of players that are getting worse while getting larger and large paychecks (ex. the Jays). MLB is – and has always been – a young mans’ sport.
The analytics (that Mr. Stoeten embraces) show that most (not all) ML players peak around age 29. A team owns a players rights for 6 years. Players coming up to the majors at age 23 fit right in.
Branch Rickey – a baseball lifer with no computers but an analytical mind – famously said maybe 80 years ago: “It’s better to trade a player a year too soon than a year too late”. The Tampa Bay Rays understood that when the current owner Stuart Sternberg bought in almost 20 years ago. Their philosophy is actually quite simple: Buy Low, Sell High (Mr. Sternberg made his money in the market). The Rays are influencing more and more ML franchises. There has been a hiring run on their former FO people and coaches for years now.
Under Mark Shapiro the Jays excel in PR and glad-handling. Unfortunately, when other teams are selling their veterans at their peak, the Jays are one of the main teams that will buy them. It’s a losing philosophy. In the market those people are referred to as “bagholders”.
I spent my career generating and looking at numbers. Working with people to make sense of them in how to best run our business. But there still has to be an underlining business philosophy and the discipline to follow it through. That philosophy comes from knowing the business inside-and-out – e.g. experience. Mr. Stoeten ignores that talking about how there are a wealth of statistics and that’s somehow what drives everything in MLB today. Perhaps in some cases. But what I’ve seen in my life is that if the people hiding behind the numbers don’t understand the fundamentals of the business they’re in and don’t have a plan that they stick to, blathering about numbers may keep them in power for a while but sooner or later it catches up with them.
MLB is competitive…..some win, more lose. People that continually lose……
Not sure what Samuel is blathering on about. The only bad free agent contract Shapiro/Atkins handed out was for George Springer. We all knew that contract would not age well the minute it was signed. Shapiro/Atkins other free agent signings like Gausman and Bassitt have been plus signings. To my knowledge the Blue Jays have not traded for anybody’s bad contracts. (they’ve made bad trades, but it wasn’t the contracts they got back that made them bad.) Nothing of what Samuel pontificates on here applies to the current BJ front office. They have failed for entirely different reasons. Samuel just likes to hear himself talk. Imagine being married to the guy or to have him as your Dad. Oy Vey.
Ignorant – Yeah he doesn’t want interaction from other commenters no matter how respectful they are to him. So I’ve been ignoring him for years.
He muted me a while back. Not sure why.
brave – Probably because you disagreed with him on something, which is a ridiculous reason.
I would never even consider muting anyone as long as they don’t get personal with insults.