Official Orioles Fan Thread

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by panthers59

Time to cut our losses with Kimbrel

Yep… if he’s pitching it’s a loss, so what’s the point?

[finfangfan]

Granted the umpires strike zone was huge and it was against the White Sox, but hopefully Povich can gain some confidence from today’s 10 strikeout performance and settle into being a solid starter this last month.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Granted the umpires strike zone was huge and it was against the White Sox, but hopefully Povich can gain some confidence from today’s 10 strikeout performance and settle into being a solid starter this last month.

I don't really think anyone can read into anything from these games against the White Sox. It's like playing against a high school team.

Unfortunately, Brandon Hyde is definitely reading into it, trotting out the same lineup as the first game, with Emmanuel Rivera playing 3B. It's absolutely disgraceful that Mike Elias and Hyde are screwing over Coby Mayo - a top 10 prospect in all of baseball - in favor of Rivera, who was just released by the worst team in the NL. Mayo needs to be getting playing time to get acclimated and hopefully be in a better position to help the team in the playoffs. It's insane that he's planted on the bench as if he's some sort of scrub.

What Elias and Hyde have done to Westburg, Cowser, Ortiz, Kjerstad, Norby, and Mayo - platooning all of them with trash veterans - is some of the worst player development I've ever seen by any organization in decades of watching baseball. It's frustrating and infuriating to see as a die-hard Orioles fan, since this team has a chance to make a deep playoff run, but is shooting itself in the foot. Even dealing with lots of injuries.

Quietly, Elias has been squandering one of the best minor league systems of the past 30 years by screwing over several the prospects he drafted himself, and trading away 2 quality prospects for Trevor Rogers. Which will go down as the worst trade he's made as the O's GM.

[panthers59]

That may go down as a bad trade but every single move isn't going to be a home run. The Eflin trade was the best move of the deadline. He's hit on all of our top draft picks.

That said - Mayo should be getting more ABs especially against the White Sox. Rivera has had some big hits in his time here though

[finfangfan]

Yeah… I like Eflin a lot and it was a A+ deadline trade that also provides us with a solid starter for next year.

Stowers probably is a 4A guy that was just crowded out in Baltimore and likely will never take off with another team. Norby could go either way.

Right now I would love to see Mayo take off but he has seemed lost at both the plate and the field. I don’t really fault Hyde playing the hotter bat against the Sox.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Yeah… I like Eflin a lot and it was a A+ deadline trade that also provides us with a solid starter for next year.

Stowers probably is a 4A guy that was just crowded out in Baltimore and likely will never take off with another team. Norby could go either way.

Right now I would love to see Mayo take off but he has seemed lost at both the plate and the field. I don’t really fault Hyde playing the hotter bat against the Sox.

Playing the "hotter bat" when that bat is a career .239 hitter with a career .659 OPS (82 OPS+) instead of an elite prospect that can make a difference in the stretch run and playoffs is terrible roster management.

Almost every single great prospect struggles at first, they need to be given time to acclimate, not benched. How the Orioles have handled all their prospects outside of Adley, Gunnar, and Holliday has been an abomination. And Holliday was called up too early at a completely haphazard time for his first callup.

This team should be 5+ games up on the Yankees with a better manager and playing their prospects (Norby, Kjerstad, Mayo) instead of veteran scrubs like Mateo, Urias, Mullins, Jimenez, Rivera, McKenna, etc.

[finfangfan]

I’m not too critical of Hyde. Injuries pretty much have the Orioles scrambling this year and when all is said and done we are still in 1st place with a month of ball to go (albeit by a slim margin).

And we did win both of the games against the White Sox so far so it’s hard to be too critical of the lineups Hyde put out there.

Ultimately, the Orioles have had a rougher year than any of us hoped for but a ton of fans of other teams would love to be in the position we are in early-September.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by panthers59

That may go down as a bad trade but every single move isn't going to be a home run. The Eflin trade was the best move of the deadline. He's hit on all of our top draft picks.

That said - Mayo should be getting more ABs especially against the White Sox. Rivera has had some big hits in his time here though

The Eflin and Hays trades were good, but Elias failed to upgrade the team's most pressing need - the bullpen. Allocating prospect capital towards Trevor Rogers was incredibly stupid. Elias should have traded Stowers (and lesser prospects if needed) for a reliever and kept Norby for depth.

Stowers and a lesser prospect or two could easily have gotten the Orioles Lucas Erceg, since the Royals acquired him for 3 trash prospects.

Elias should have stood pat after trading for Eflin and dumping Hays if he wasn't going to address the team's most glaring need. All of his trades on actual deadline day were bad, and he gave away too many prospects for mediocre players.

Seth Johnson could be helping this team in the bullpen or even in the rotation, instead he was packaged with Moises Chace for another Phillies bullpen reject in Gregory Soto. Both Johnson and Chace have been great in the Phillies system, and Johnson could make an impact in the bullpen for the Phillies this season if they feel so inclined to promote him. It was an unnecessary overpay.

This is the second straight season that Elias did nowhere near enough at the trade deadline. He's shown he doesn't know how to manage an actual major league roster.

Elias has hit one all of his early round hitting prospects, but what's the point of drafting them if they're all going to be platooned instead of developed to help the team in that current season's playoff run? Elias and Hyde platooned Cowser and Westburg for grabage players like Adam Frazier, Mateo, Urias, and Aaron Hicks, and the team was worse off for it by the time the O's got swept by the Rangers in the playoffs.

Something similar will happen this season because Elias and Hyde have lowered the team's ceiling by relying on veterans like Eloy, Mullins, Rivera, and even O'Hearn, who's nothing special and has blocked the DH spot for multiple elite prospects this season alone. And if Mateo and Urias hadn't gotten hurt, they would have kept giving those waiver wire bums too much playing time as well.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

I’m not too critical of Hyde. Injuries pretty much have the Orioles scrambling this year and when all is said and done we are still in 1st place with a month of ball to go (albeit by a slim margin).

And we did win both of the games against the White Sox so far so it’s hard to be too critical of the lineups Hyde put out there.

Ultimately, the Orioles have had a rougher year than any of us hoped for but a ton of fans of other teams would love to be in the position we are in early-September.

Injuries are a lame excuse. This organization always had incredible depth going into this season because of the farm system. The loaded farm system was a credit to Elias, but then Elias completely refused to leverage his advantage of unprecedented deep talent at multiple positions by not playing those players at all - specifically Kjerstad, Norby, and now Mayo.

You can't excuse Hyde and Elias with injuries when many teams have also lost lots of players to the IL. Look at the Astros - they lost most of a good rotation for the season losing Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy, Cristian Javier, and Lance McCullers to injuries. They've lost Kyle Tucker for a vast majority of the season. They lost Ryan Pressly for stint recently too. Yet they overcame a terrible start and are now one of the playoff favorites. The Dodgers always have a full rotation on the DL and lost an MVP contender (at the time) in Mookie Betts for 2 months to a broken hand.

I'm not buying the injury excuse whatsoever. The Orioles still have more talent than most teams even with several impact players lost to injury and should have a better record than they do.

And don't even get me started on beating the White Sox - it's absolutely meaningless. The White Sox are essentially a good college team.

If anything, Mayo should have been starting over Rivera precisely because it was an ideal soft opponent. But nope, crappy Rivera and washed up Eloy are both blocking him. It's pathetic roster management.

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by Oriole Way

Injuries are a lame excuse. This organization always had incredible depth because of the farm system. The loaded farm system was a credit to Elias, but then Elias completely refused to leverage his advantage of incredible talent at multiple positions by not playing those players at all - specifically Kjerstad, Norby, and now Mayo.

You can't excuse Hyde and Elias with injuries when many teams have also lost lots of players to the IL. Look at the Astros - they lost most of a good rotation for the season losing Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy, Cristian Javier, and Lance McCullers to injuries. They've lost Kyle Tucker for a vast majority of the season. They lost Ryan Pressly for stint recently too. Yet they overcame a terrible start and are now one of the playoff favorites. The Dodgers always have a full rotation on the DL and lost an MVP contender (at the time) in Mookie Betts for 2 months to a broken hand.

I'm not buying the injury excuse whatsoever. The Orioles still have more talent than most teams even with several impact players lost to injury and should have a better record than they do.

With that said, they are in 1st place in their Division…,.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by cardsin47

With that said, they are in 1st place in their Division…,.

And they should be 5 games up on the Yankees, who've been a sub .500 team for over 2 months.

It's amazing that people will excuse a team because the results are good enough, but don't want to consider that the results could be even better.

If I told you that you could pick between being half a game up in the division, or 5 games up in the division, which would you choose? And if I told you that having a better manager making better roster decisions would lead to the 5 games up scenario, who would ever not prefer that?

[finfangfan]

I think it’s fun to be a fan of a winning team. When we were tanking, I could see being grouchy. But at end of day we are in first place. Life has too much horrible in it for me to feel miserable that my team is in first place.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by cardsin47

With that said, they are in 1st place in their Division…,.

Furthermore, I'm sure you were happy when the Orioles won the East and won 103 games. But were you happy when they were swept in the playoffs? Because the playoffs is my main concern, and the poor decision-making by Elias and Hyde will lead to another early playoff exit. THAT'S why I'm so critical of both of them. They've both been really poor this season. It's possible for them to both be performing poorly and for the team to be in first place.

The Orioles have won DESPITE Brandon Hyde being a bad manager. Most O's fans can't - or refuse to - admit that as a possibility.

Most casual fans will point to him winning Manager of the Year last season, but Buck Showalter won Manager of the Year 4 times and was fired from all 4 teams within a couple years each time. Because he was also a bad manager - Buck just happened to mostly manage talented rosters. Hyde has just been a lucky beneficiary of taking over a rebuilding team despite him lacking any managerial experience whatsoever.

[Oriole Way]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

I think it’s fun to be a fan of a winning team. When we were tanking, I could see being grouchy. But at end of day we are in first place. Life has too much horrible in it for me to feel miserable that my team is in first place.

I remember all the decades of losing and don't want to see my team squander this level of talent.

I don't feel miserable, I'm just calling out bad management.

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by Oriole Way

Furthermore, I'm sure you were happy when the Orioles won the East and won 103 games. But were you happy when they were swept in the playoffs? Because the playoffs is my main concern, and the poor decision-making by Elias and Hyde will lead to another early playoff exit. THAT'S why I'm so critical of both of them. They've both been really poor this season. It's possible for them to both be performing poorly and for the team to be in first place.

The Orioles have won DESPITE Brandon Hyde being a bad manager. Most O's fans can't - or refuse to - admit that as a possibility.

Most casual fans will point to him winning Manager of the Year last season, but Buck Showalter won Manager of the Year 4 times and was fired from all 4 teams within a couple years each time. Because he was also a bad manager - Buck just happened to mostly manage talented rosters. Hyde has just been a lucky beneficiary of taking over a rebuilding team despite him lacking any managerial experience whatsoever.

Not a perfect Team, making all great choices, that’s for sure. However, after years of misery at the bottom of the Division, I’m enjoying this moment very much - warts and all.

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by cardsin47

enjoying this moment very much - warts and all.

Term of the Day: ( even though it’s mine )

warts and all

“idiom informal
describing or including all the bad qualities in a person's character, with no attempt to hide them:
He tried to paint the president as he really was, warts and all.”

[finfangfan]

Originally Posted by cardsin47

Term of the Day: ( even though it’s mine )

warts and all

“idiom informal
describing or including all the bad qualities in a person's character, with no attempt to hide them:
He tried to paint the president as he really was, warts and all.”

[bavariancream]

Originally Posted by finfangfan

Losing to the White Sox smarts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[finfangfan]

Will be going to the final game in my 13 game Sunday plan today. Burnes is pitching so hopefully we can close out the series with a win.

[BoSoxFan1999]

What is wrong with Rutschman? If he's not playing hurt, probably time to sound the red alert.

[excel_b]

Originally Posted by BoSoxFan1999

What is wrong with Rutschman? If he's not playing hurt, probably time to sound the red alert.

From the Baltimore Sun's today edition (9/9/2024):

Adley Rutschman is playing frustrated, as is much of the Orioles lineup. He stepped to the plate Sunday with a chance to momentarily reverse that feeling as the potential go-ahead run in the late innings.

After Rutschman swung through strike three, he trudged back to the dugout. It’s become a common sight this season. Nobody has an answer to the question: Why is the All-Star struggling?

The catcher entered Sunday hitting .178 with a .544 OPS over his last 53 contests. His issues coincide with his team’s, which has a losing record since the start of July and is similarly desperate for solutions. When Rutschman was steady, so were the Orioles. With him searching for himself, so is his team.

Nobody can identify exactly what’s wrong with Rutschman. Time is running out to find the answer.

“He’s playing really frustrated,” manager Brandon Hyde said after Sunday’s 2-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in which Rutschman went 0-for-3 with a walk. “He’s trying to find it. He’s working hard every single day, doing everything he can to try to get the feeling and find his rhythm and timing at the plate. Just having a tough time right now.”

Rutschman’s problems are a continuation of what’s gone from a slump to an underwhelming third season. On June 30, he was hitting .294 with 15 home runs, and the rest of his totals were in line with what he posted as a rookie and sophomore. His average has since dropped to .253. He’s been worth negative wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, since the start of July and has two home runs in his past 192 plate appearances.

Rutschman’s average launch angle of 19.1 degrees is the highest of his career, according to Baseball Savant. So is his 31.9% flyball rate. He’s pulling the ball more, working the opposite field less, and has the worst barrel rate of his career.

When asked about his slump after Sunday’s loss, the two-time All-Star chose to look forward to the road ahead for Baltimore rather than discuss his difficulties at the plate.

“I think focusing on this playoff run and what we’re trying to do here is the most important thing right now,” he said. “I think right now we’re focused on the team and focused on our playoff push.”

Rutschman plays a demanding position, a reality the Orioles recognize and offer frequent days off accordingly. Rutschman surely has nagging ailments — every catcher does this time of year. But he said he feels good. No physical limitations are to blame for his struggles.
“I feel good,” he said. “Excited for these last couple games before playoffs.”

Rutschman has hit second in the lineup 113 times this season. Anthony Santander has the second most games logged there at 19. Rutschman has hit fifth or lower only nine times as Hyde has stuck with his catcher in one of the batting order’s most important spots.

The Orioles lineup has featured Rutschman in the No. 2 spot in 13 of their past 15 contests. He’s 9-for-50 over that stretch, and Baltimore is 8-7 in those games.

“I think I’ve done all those things,” the manager said.

The Orioles have 18 games remaining in the regular season. They’re on the verge of cementing a playoff spot, but they aren’t gaining ground in the race for the American League East crown.

Rutschman finding his swing would go a long way in achieving that goal.

“Baseball is a tough game,” Rutschman said. “You’re going to have ups and downs. Our guys are going to be ready to go for tomorrow.”

[finfangfan]

That one almost got away from us!

[finfangfan]

Kjerstad and Webb back up.

[finfangfan]

Clutch HR by Adley… first home run since August 18. Hopefully this starts a power surge for him!

[finfangfan]

My Orioles ticket plan allows me to purchase post season tickets starting today at noon. I can purchase 2 tix to up to 3 games.

I think I will likely skip Wild Card entirely and go for ALCS and ALDS home game 1s. And then maybe circle back to what’s available. I went to ALDS home game 1 last year (same day as Billy Joel concert).

The fan vibe at the moment seems a lot more down on the birds this year than it was last year at this time. But that can change on a dime if the Orioles start winning some games.