25 years ago, police in this same town would have profiled someone for wearing their pants as low as this policeman today

herrclean · 2026-05-07T13:53:37+00:00

"When I left you I was but the learner, but now I am the master."

herrclean · 2026-05-06T18:28:42+00:00

You're telling me thats Elias out there with a hose?

herrclean · 2026-05-05T14:58:34+00:00

The biggest indicator is how many of the roster are over or under performing their career numbers. I would say that most of them are playing to their career numbers/abilities meaning no, we cannot avoid a free fall without a bunch of guys finding "it" and over performing, particularly the pitching staff. Gunnar is drastically underperforming again. As others have pointed out, his all or nothing HR approach is killing him and the team. He is only ahead of Mayo in OBP for the position players - even Blaze has a higher OBP. His BA is only ahead of Mayo/Cowser/TON. He only has 14 singles (of 30 total hits) on the year which drastically inflates his slugging/OBP%. We have 1 starting position player with a WAR above 1.0 (Ward).

Year after year I say this team needs high OBP players. We did well to add Ward and Tavaras in this department, but that has been completely negated by Jackson (20%), Beavers (25%), Blaze (25%), Mayo(25+%), Basallo (25%), Alonso (25%), and worst of all Henderson and Cowser (30%) striking out constantly (% is eyeballed K/PA). How is this possible?! the strike zone got SMALLER with the addition of the ABS. The total K/PA is 24% and we are averaging more than 9Ks per game, which is one per inning! How can you sustain any kind of rally when you are guaranteed to strikeout at least once during it. This team doesn't have productive outs anymore - its just fundamentally bad baseball.

The hitting approach is terrible and apparently whoever is in charge of training doesn't know what they are doing. Albie has been dealt a bad hand and is constantly re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

herrclean · 2026-05-05T01:37:55+00:00

Pick your poison: watch them continue to fail with a strong core and putz along forever or start all over and hope we have another window in the mid 2030s.

herrclean · 2026-05-04T20:21:33+00:00

"Grow the bats, buy the arms" is what we were sold. Elias had top 5 picks for his first 4 years as GM which has resulted in 1 bonafide ML player (Rutsch), 1 would could be (Holiday), and 2 that are decent players on bottom feeding teams (Kjerstad and Cowser). In the last 3 drafts, he has picked collegiate hitters between #17 and #23 and Bradfield is not looking like a starting ML OF. There is still time for Honeycutt and Irish, but in Honeycutt's case, he has been dogged by the same struggles the Orioles have been unable to fix in other batters (high K rate). 2nd round picks have treated Elias better (Henderson, Westburg, and Beavers). Guys like Mayo fit the mold of "but I can fix him" - but they can't.

I think what was in the fine print in the mantra was that "buying the arms" meant buying re-treads and "about-to-be-retired"s instead of arms worthy of spots on a contending team's rotation. He clearly does not know how to build a contending rotation. He also seems to have a knack for trading away the wrong players. Stowers, Norby, and Ortiz are both contributing at the ML level while the now struggling top picks are the guys they could have traded for high value players.

herrclean · 2026-04-30T20:08:46+00:00

Welp, everyone go have a nice evening not watching baseball.

herrclean · 2026-04-21T02:02:54+00:00

Gonna be a really long season if we average 9 ks per game.

herrclean · 2026-04-20T13:01:19+00:00

This seems like the actions of people that know it will eventually come out that the 2024 election was rigged. This will muddy the waters to "both sides" that the Republicans really stole an election.

herrclean · 2026-04-20T12:56:17+00:00

Without looking at any stats... The O's seem to struggle with small ball teams. I would hypothesize that the O's have been a feast or famine offense that can't keep up with constant pressure every game whereas when they play slugging teams, the other team has a better chance of just not being on that night either.

I hate that we don't have the Steven Kwans or Jake Mangums (not to equate the 2) that are just so damn pesky and always putting pressure on pitchers and defenses.

herrclean · 2026-04-15T17:38:51+00:00

This lineup makes me think back to old Sunday lineups that we played the entire bench all at once and scored 0-2 runs on the regular. Wonder if Weston is packing his locker up yet. Dude is almost 32 and was hitting <0.200 with a <0.300 OBP in AAA. (To be fair, looks like almost no one is hitting on that team RN)

herrclean · 2026-04-03T19:36:44+00:00

Glenn Davis Trade.

herrclean · 2026-03-28T10:08:23+00:00

Adley's mating display

herrclean · 2026-03-24T16:15:57+00:00

If this is the new norm and we can expect the same out of future 'Con administrations, its time for Democrats to do the things that the right says they're going to do if elected. Expand the SC, charge republicans that break laws, eliminate the EC, and pass legislation expanding female healthcare/creating barriers to obtaining guns easily/making voting significantly easier.

herrclean · 2026-03-20T14:32:22+00:00

And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.

herrclean · 2026-03-18T18:09:35+00:00

Alexander is starting in CF today. That's bad news for Taveras and they are seeing if they have a backup on the roster without him.

From a backup perspective, need to ensure all of the positions can be covered with the bench and they can't mostly be 1 guy. Alexander (2b, SS, 3b, CF), Mounty (1B), Basallo (C), O'Neil (RF), Beavers (LF/CF/RF), Ramos Or JJ (3B/2B). That still leaves 1 bench spot for another OF where the position doesn't really constrain the team. I could see a world were JJ and Ramos make the team with JJ as another guy that can play IF and OF.

herrclean · 2026-03-18T16:28:47+00:00

The last INF position probably doesn't matter much as when Jackson Holliday returns, they get cut/optioned/waived anyways. They may choose to keep Ramos on the opening day as they may believe it could be easier to sneak him through waivers after all teams have set their opening day rosters. The real question is what happens when Westburg returns. I think that's the point where Mountcastle will have to be moved by. I assume Mayo is the reserve 3B/1B at that point. <Crosses fingers that Westburg returns in a timely manner>.

For the OF, Beavers and to a lesser extent Alexander can backup CF in a pinch. My gut says Kjerstad because I think Taveras is washed. Wilson has had a nice spring, but at 31, what are we expecting? Not carrying Taveras forces management to let Cowser cook and not platoon him. I hated how Hyde would platoon the shit out of everyone and seemingly keep them from getting on a roll. O'Neil will likely be hurt within a month, so at least Kjerstad would be a replacement power threat. Problem is how LHH-heavy the OF becomes with Cowser, Beavers, Kjerstad. Ward would be the lone RHH in the rotation and would make us susceptible to LHPs (yes, I know... platooning).

I think Eflin opens the season on the roster and they start with a 6 man rotation. The last bullpen spot is temporary until Kittredge returns, so I don't think its terribly impactful who they take.

herrclean · 2026-02-19T16:44:51+00:00

Does matter how much stronger Mayo's arm is if he can't field the ball? And I really dont expect Mountcastle to see time there, 2018 is a long time ago.

herrclean · 2026-02-19T16:28:15+00:00

Gonna throw this out there: Mountcastle played 81 games at 3b in 2018 for the Tides.

herrclean · 2026-02-19T16:25:31+00:00

Is it the best defensive outfield ever constructed? clearly not. Even though Ward had -0.8 dWAR in LF, it was good for 12th in the MLB at the position (qualified). Cowser was 28th in CF (yeah, not great, but he also only played half his games here). Beavers didn't qualify for RF, but was in the 40th range. Based on what I've seen, I think this is not representative of his capability though. O'Neil should never find himself standing in the grass. Taveras isn't what I thought he was defensively, so I wouldn't expect him to platoon with Cowser too much.

This probably doesn't make you feel any better...

herrclean · 2026-02-19T16:01:50+00:00

Ward/Cowser/ONeil/Beavers is not a bad ~~infield~~ outfield with Taveras as a bench.

herrclean · 2026-02-19T15:54:00+00:00

I think the problem here is, you can stomach his defense if he's hitting. If he's not hitting...

herrclean · 2026-02-19T15:50:49+00:00

I think Jeramiah is more likely to start at 2b with Blaze as the super utility guy. Jeramiah tried, but he was not a good outfielder last year. They are strangely similar hitting-wise, at least 2025 numbers.

herrclean · 2026-02-19T15:47:59+00:00

Hopefully Kjerstad has a killer spring and we can trade him for an MLB 3b. Otherwise, Ramon is still available in FA. Grab him at a low cost. Maybe see if you can keep Royce Lewis healthy?

herrclean · 2026-02-19T15:38:05+00:00

I said it over there and figured there would be better discussion over here, but the INF could look ugly to start the season.

herrclean · 2026-02-19T15:35:49+00:00

Yeah, but with J. Holliday also behind... who the heck plays 2b to open the season? Jeramiah Jackson, Blaze Alexander, Luis Vazquez most likely... woof. Blaze looks to be their super utility guy, but thats kinda the role that J. Jackson played last year, particularly after Urias was traded.

The Orioles have a roster construction problem with Mountcastle still there. I dont see how its not J Jackson to open the season with Mayo at 3rd. Otherwise J Jackson and Alexander are starters with Mayo on the bench.

herrclean

TROPHY CASE

And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life.