belcome to walltimore (a 2023 orioles thread)

discussing adley rutschman, gunnar henderson and the other thrilling prospects in the orioles system...and big felix bautista, too.

anybody surprised to see jackson holliday as spring training nri?

Dillon Tate will spend April on the injured list with what Mike Elias said was a flexor/forearm strain he suffered in November. Félix Bautista, DL Hall and Nick Vespi will also have slow starts to spring training but remain candidates for opening day.

— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) February 16, 2023

That @RosenJordanBlum used Grayson Rodriguez's minor league Stuff+ from 2 starts, regressed them the proper amount for sample size, translated them to major leagues, park-adjusted them, & used them in a projection system, and it spit out a 3.00 ERA with a 29% k rate. WOW. pic.twitter.com/qeW1lCvmI8

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) February 17, 2023

Yay I didn't have to start it this year! Great thread title.

Orioles CEO and Chairman John Angelos: "I'm glad we were in a full rebuild because it was what was recommended and was the right thing. Also, we were fortunate that as the world hit a pandemic, we were stripped down to that [level]. That was just good luck, really."

— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) February 19, 2023

issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"

— wint (@dril) February 15, 2017

They could surprise, but I don't think this is a .500 team we're putting on the field. And I think it could have been if they wanted it to be.

do you think they didn't improve enough relative to the division or just not a believer in their depth?

I think depth is the main quality tbh, it's the lack of top end talent that worries me. Too much is riding on Adley and Gunnar and Grayson.

I think they had some good luck last year to finish with the record they did, and I don't think they got that much better -- Grayson and Means will pitch and Gunnar and Adley will play full seasons instead of 1/3 and 2/3 respectively, but -- it won't be THAT different of a team. If it happens to be the case that the group of starters they have right now contains 5 people who can be average to above-average through 2023, they'll be pretty good. And that's not impossible. But I can't honestly say it's likely.

kjerstad 303 w/ two bombs and holliday w/ a 2B in their grapefruit league debuts. cowser walked twice.

[that's 3-3...whoops]

Cade Povich pitching in 7th & 8th for Os. FB at 94 mph, touched 95 and throwing a slider change up and curveball. Finishes with a line of 2 IP 1 H 0 R 3 SOs.
All 3 Ks on swinging strikes - 2 on FB and 1 on slider. 30 pitches 17 strikes. Nice spring debut for Cade.

— Orioles Fan Therapy (@OsFanTherapy) February 26, 2023

No one can retire Heston Kjerstad

will be curious to see where kjerstad is ultimately assigned to start the season. cowser should be first call if a starter goes down.

This team has a ridiculous amount of young talent

every single time i see this thread i think of green day singing 'pelcome to waradise'

waradise what it good foradise?

Why? WHY? What does Grayson Rodriguez have left to learn in AAA? What does he have left to prove?

i think we all know the answer to that

he had a 7.04 ERA over the spring and was walking over 4.1 dudes per 9. i mean, in that context i kinda get it.

Noted slugger, Jorge Mateo pic.twitter.com/R6i0b8s4w4

— The Verge- An Orioles MiLB Podcast (@BSLOnTheVerge) April 4, 2023

...appropriately, o's are first in the league in steals and third in homers.

That dinger by Mateo was absolutely smashed, I have to say

...appropriately, o's are first in the league in steals and third in homers.

― j.q higgins, Tuesday, April 4, 2023 12:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Heck, Mateo and Mullins BY THEMSELVES are first in the league in steals (OK, tied with the Guardians)

That tweet is confusing me, maybe something's left out. I thought Stanton hit a 485 footer the other day.

just longest for yesterday's game, i believe

ah ok

grayson comin’

those four innings in norfolk made all the difference

i know they're pushing steals but maybe they shouldn't include their catcher, who is their star player and doesn't appear to be very good at stealing

don't know how useful it is, but rutschman rated very well in the fangraphs baserunning metric last season.

mountcastle has been breaching walltimore on the reg this season

Ryan Mountcastle vs Dany Jimenez#Birdland

Grand Slam (5) ⚾

Exit velo: 111 mph
Launch angle: 26 deg
Proj. distance: 456 ft

No doubt about that one 🔒
That's a dinger in all 30 MLB ballparks

OAK (7) @ BAL (12)
🔻 7th pic.twitter.com/svCR0Y5MS8

— Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) April 12, 2023

I know early-season WAR is meaningless but still find it funny that b-ref hates Hays's defense so much that it basically cancels out his 1.058 OPS

To be fair, the outfield defense in the early going *has* looked pretty suspect, and not just Hays.

if, say, there WERE juiced balls this season, that could have an effect on outfield play, no? i admit i haven't seen a whole lot of ball on tv outside of the wbc.

2023 AL Batting WAR Leaders

Jorge Mateo (1.2)
Matt Chapman (1.1)
Jarred Kelenic (1.0)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (0.9)

All Leaders: https://t.co/nMs6wrk5TP

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) April 17, 2023

Welcome to Aberdeen, @J_Holliday7!

Press Release: https://t.co/48LivGDUDb#TakeFlight pic.twitter.com/D0rgr0wJKS

— Aberdeen IronBirds (@IronBirds) April 24, 2023

I simply cannot get over how fourteen years old this dude consistently looks

baby-faced assassin

We have made the following roster moves: pic.twitter.com/9z45v16gH3

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 27, 2023

must be fun to be a team w/ playoff aspirations and have several top 100 prospects at/near mlb ready.

Yennier Cano, my goodness. 33 batters faced, no hits, no walks.

that change is so nasty looking.

Yennier Cano of the @Orioles has a WHIP of 0.16 in 14 appearances this year.

That's the lowest WHIP by any MLB pitcher over any span of 14 appearances in the modern era (minimum 50 outs recorded). pic.twitter.com/Sv003gqLz9

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 11, 2023

went to the game yesterday and while not approving of the result, you can do worse than seeing ohtani, trout and rutschman bombs in person.

Damn, a fireworks day of sort.

Still not buying this team yet lol

Gonna be a crazy trade deadline either way though

I don't know if you put any stock in J.P. Morosi, but they had him on the other day--before the sweep--and he said they have two or three more legitimate hitters on the way, and that they'll have lots of flexibility in getting more pitching later on. They've certainly got a bit of a cushion now.

Yeah there are 5 guys who are at least on the cusp right now, all of whom are good enough prospects for a full time tryout, and no open spots for any of them on the team. But the team is playing too well to make room for that adjustment period. And then there's Kjerstad and even Holliday (!) who could possibly make the jump this year.

Good problem to have but I don't know how I'd deal with it if I were GM. How much do you mess with a good thing?

Have to think there'll be at least one big prospect package trade for pitching, and at least one ML level trade to open up a spot.

not buying that there the second best team in baseball or not buying them as a playoff caliber team? definitely agree that roster management is the trick, but elias certainly has more cards to play than duquette ever had.

Can't find that poll we had recently about which franchises should re-locate...I see Baltimore's early attendance is still low (bottom half of MLB, just under 20,000/game). I said on that thread that the writer wasn't differentiating between a city like Tampa, which never supports their team, and Baltimore (or Pittsburgh, or Toronto), where attendance tracks with the team's success. (The Orioles routinely drew 3 million-plus in the late '90s.) If the Orioles are in a divisional race going into September, I bet tickets will hard to come by.

I definitely don't buy them as second-best team in baseball but the Fangraphs projection of .470 the rest of the way and finishing 85-77 does seem pretty negative --- I don't see how you look at the next four months of baseball from this team and say "from here on out they should be appreciably worse than the 2022 roster."

I simply cannot get over how fourteen years old this dude consistently looks

yeah, the way he's hitting he might end up being the most baby-faced major leaguer that i can remember, sooner rather than later.

his lines in the A and A+ levels this year are crazy

A: 65 PAs, .392/.523/.667, 225 wRC+
A+: 93 PAs, .395/.505/.724, 220 wRC+

there's no reason for him to be in A for a minute longer, he should be in AA or AAA this summer i'd guess

i wonder how his defense is progressing at SS

I'm always slow on these guys, but I looked up Holliday, and wow...If the Jays do fall out of this, I will have no problem wholeheartedly rooting for Baltimore in a way I couldn't with the other three teams in the division. Even the Rays, who I admire tremendously as a franchise, have been so rough on Toronto the past...forever, it's hard for me to root for them.

lot of chatter about holliday moving up after memorial day....anecdotally, defense seems solid. compares favorably to their other infield prospects, if not quite as absurd as his offensive stats.

re: current o's

i was at a day game last thursday that drew almost 28,000! management seems to be pulling more levers to try and get folks out this year, too, but as suggested above, winning is the ultimate incentive.

Gerrit Cole was lights out.... until the Orioles came to town

Bautista also lights out... until Judge showed him up.

bautista allowed seven homers last year, three of which were to yankees.

yeah i was thinking, "good job FB, you're up 0-2 on Judge, now all you have to do is throw something offspeed & inside" but nope he left that splitter right over the middle belt-high.

🪨 & ⛰️ pic.twitter.com/OZjkcHg1f1

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 26, 2023

Adley is best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9djX6EJyPc

not buying that there the second best team in baseball or not buying them as a playoff caliber team? definitely agree that roster management is the trick, but elias certainly has more cards to play than duquette ever had.

― j.q higgins, Monday, May 22, 2023 9:47 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

not buying the first, not sure what "playoff caliber" even means anymore with 12 teams.

maybe it's just muscle memory but i keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, or at least an injury or two to pop up. it's been a weird year. maybe i'd trust it more if the wins were coming from henderson and rodriguez rather than frazier and wells? the rotation is still a mess and the overreliance on relievers, especially bautista and cano, could really backfire in a couple months.

makes sense. especially w/ the news about means, i'd expect them maybe to pull the trigger on a deal for another starter before too long.

perhaps the win is not coming from rodriguez tonight

greyson back to triple a-son

This team has come back to earth a little bit, as was inevitable, but what's really pleasurable is seeing that this collection of players, performing at a level that doesn't seem over their heads, is still a sound team that seems to be competitive with everyone. Like, Cano isn't pitching 20 scoreless innings in a row anymore but... our bullpen is still quite good!

felix has been dominant after a bit of a rough patch and it's nice to see henderson start feeling his oats a bit, too. over that stretch from beginning of may to beginning of june where they played teams w/ .500 or better records, they went 17-12. not bad!

*text notification* The Gunnar Henderson you ordered has arrived

ok, people who are good at memes pic.twitter.com/v70OZPdU2N

— chirping bird (@ChrpngBrd) June 15, 2023

Cedric's back!

Julio Rodriguez robs a homer from the unreasonably hot-hitting Ryan O'Hearn.

Cano continues to look human.

Wow, even Felix Bautista looking human today.

You could have given me about a hundred guesses as to how that game would end and I would have fully whiffed

And let me say this -- if you had told me before the season John Means wouldn't be back by now and Grayson Rodriguez hasn't stuck in the majors yet, I would not have guessed we'd be over .500.

definitely wouldn't think they'd be .500 if you'd told me, "kyle gibson and tyler wells have been our best starters."

The Baltimore Orioles are calling up top infield prospect Jordan Westburg, a source told ESPN. The 24-year-old has hit .295/.372/.567 with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs at AAA this season and is the latest in the Orioles’ parade of prospects to arrive. He’ll be in the lineup tomorrow.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 25, 2023

Is there eventually going to be a Henderson-Westburg-Holliday infield or is one of these guys gonna get moved?

i have no idea what this team plans to do with its glut of major league ready top 100 prospects. every time you think there's a spot for one of them elias decides to give the spot to random trash heap players who suddenly turn their careers around and become indispensable

i feel like this just has to culminate in a blockbuster trade, because these prospects are too good to fetch anything less than a star.

we have nothing to go off of though. my only guess is that lefties/switch hitters are staying put and everyone else is on the table.

Pretty good first day in the bigs for Westburg so far!

coby mayo has 9 home runs and 8 doubles over his last 15 games, might be ready for AAA

Adley, Cano, Hays, and the Mountain are All-Stars! When was the last time we had four? I thought Cano might be overlooked and ASSUMED Hays would be overlooked so I'm pretty happy.

buck o's had at least three every season from 2012-2016...pretty lean years the previous decade, though.

Camera man struck in the head be errant throw from 2b. Both teams being pulled off the field. Very rough

Gunnar Henderson currently 4 for 4, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs in the 4th inning. If these trends continue…

i've officially decided that our slump is over and we're never losing again

Did not know Adley was a switch hitter!

🤔

Braxton Bragg has his name called by the @Orioles! pic.twitter.com/bUPd8VPmWs

— DBU Baseball (@DBU_Baseball) July 10, 2023

i've officially decided that our slump is over and we're never losing again

― ✖, Thursday, July 6, 2023 8:53 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

👍

8-0in the cowser era

just one game behind the rays! pretty incredible

oof, but your bullpen has to blink sometime

Anyway -- Grayson back up, looked pretty good. So what's the rotation when Means comes back? Wells and Bradish have clearly pitched themselves into the job, and I somehow don't see Veteran Leader Kyle Gibson getting demoted, so does Dean Kremer become a long reliever? And that's assuming we don't add an arm at the deadline!

In other news, True Oriole Rougned Odor DFAed by San Diego

Ladies and gentlemen your AL East leading Baltimore Orioles, really feels like Gunnar needs to get a pie in the face tonight

I love this team so damn much

The Orioles want first place for themselves pic.twitter.com/hH0lTpKjRF

— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) July 20, 2023

kind of a grim day offensively but god damn

Gunnar Henderson 🤯 pic.twitter.com/PnVTsKvnnn

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) July 22, 2023

Did randy beat that throw but not have his foot down?

3 more outs till the O’s take the lead again. I love Big Bad Bautista so much

This O’s Bullpen is unreal. This team is always so hot in the last few innings it is a joy to watch.
Leaders of the East again <3

Some good stuff on the Orioles and their bullpen here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/joeposnanski/p/friday-rewind-flying-high?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Thanks for the link. I did not check any stats about their wins post-6th inning so nice to know my eye test was not wrong.
It crazy to think the O’s (assuming they keep this division lead up) have the best chance in the AL to reach the World Series. Obviously they will be better than the AL Central leader, and I think I back them over Rangers/Astros right now. Wild-card’s lesser chances are obvious.
It’s a big call, but I’m willing to throw my hat in. O’s to the World Series!

I wouldn't be against them, especially if these imminent call-ups are on the way. The biggest thing going against them--they remind me of the '83 Jays, a young team on the cusp of a long run; I'm sure there are many other examples--is that things often go inexplicably wonky until you get some experience at being good.

"I wouldn't bet" that should read.

it's going to get hairy when the young starters start running up against their innings limits and bautista's arm falls off

I forgot that they had a bit of a run last year, so maybe they aren't doomed to buckle a bit down the stretch.

2 games ahead. Huge series for the O’s. Let’s keep the train rolling!

Our pythag luck has got to run out at some point, right?

Shun the non-believer

I take the pythag to reflect the quality of the bullpen. Much harder for teams without the best bullpen in the league to hold onto 1-run leads like the O’s do. O’s questionable Pythag vs. Tampa’s easy first half schedule? I take the O’s winning that battle. I believe in momentum too and the O’s have it in spades compared to the Tampa going into the end of the year.

I am also a hopeless optimist who believes good things will always happen to anything i support (symptom of following the dodgers for the past decade)

Not really being talked about but Ryan Mountcastle is back from a lengthy IL stay from some odd vertigo condition and could provide a huge boost in the cleanup spot. Preseason predictions forecasted him between 2.2-3.0 WAR for 2023.

welp... maybe it will be talked about more? that didn't take long.

We get Gerrit Cole on his best night and ... we win? Orioles magic.

Scooped up from bellow of the zone. Love watching dingers of balls, especially when they are walk-offs and especially especially against the Yanks

guys -- don't pitch to judge

We can send over Matt Chapman to chew out the Orioles' manager.

Mountcastle always goes on these tears and makes you think he's finally turning it around before crashing back to earth for 3 months, I'm ready to get off the ride

Sad the O’s don’t seem to be making any moves this deadline, if ever there was a season to go for it :\

Wouldn’t mind if this team didn’t kill Bautista before September:/

Do we think Verlander nixed a trade to Baltimore? Very hard to imagine we couldn't have offered the Mets a more appealing package than what they got from Houston.

Anyway, on "awe and mystique" grounds I'm a bit sad about Verlander and about potentially having to face him in a playoff series. But setting that aside, I think getting Jack Flaherty for not very much is.. OK? It doesn't really upgrade the rotation but it does provide flexibility and hedge against late-season injuries. If this was the KIND of move we were going to make I'd have rather had Jordan Montgomery I think.

getting picked off to end the game cannot be a good feeling

Didn’t this happen to another team yesterday too? Wonder the last time there were back to back days of a team losing from a pick off at first base.

Also, this was not a fun game to watch. Two hbp in a row to walk in a run was an ugly way to lose the lead

Jack Flaherty era starts tonight!

Guys, I have a nervous feeling. I don't know whether there was more Elias could have done at the deadline. But more and more I feel like, despite the young talent under control and the young talent still to come, 2023 is the best chance we have.

Starts in about 15 minutes--afternoon game.

oh man didn't realize that, I have Zoom meetings

Mountcastle 11 for 13 this series

I was going to post about him--I've don't think I've seen anything like it in all my years of watching the Jays. Brett used to kill us, Judge kills us, but Mountcastle has maybe eclipsed even those two. Career going into today (4-4 + SF): ~200 PA, .330/.394/.643, 15 HR.

Comparison:

Brett (725 PA): .321/.401/.551, 22 HR
Judge (433 PA): .290/.394/.589, 32 HR

He hits HR at Judge's rate, gets on base at Brett's rate, and overall is better than both.

only took two days to fix jack flaherty

And yet the orioles fly another win.

If it hasn’t been noted yet: the orioles have the longest streak of not being swept in mlb atm, going back to may 2022

Even though we live in Atlanta, my 12 year old son is a big Orioles fan. (Not a bandwagoner, he latched onto them before they got good. Although I'd like to think he has a good eye for young teams on the rise--he also spotted the Jacksonville Jaguars before they started winning games--I suspect the logo has at least as much to do with it.) Anyways, he's about to turn 13 next week, and so for his birthday I'm taking him up to see them play Houston on the 10th. I can't think of a better time to catch this team, and it'll definitely be a birthday to remember.

Not really being talked about but Ryan Mountcastle is back from a lengthy IL stay from some odd vertigo condition and could provide a huge boost in the cleanup spot. Preseason predictions forecasted him between 2.2-3.0 WAR for 2023.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Monday, July 24, 2023 4:48 PM (one week ago)

welp... maybe it will be talked about more? that didn't take long.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Monday, July 24, 2023 5:31 PM (one week ago)

I know: headlines are headlines, and mlb.com is mlb.com, and how can I even give a second thought to something so trivial? But today's game got this headline on mlb.com:

Flaherty's historic O's debut secures series win over Blue Jays

Why historic?

Flaherty became the first pitcher to go six or more innings with one earned run or fewer allowed in his Orioles debut since Jeremy Hellickson (seven scoreless vs. Royals on Aug. 2, 2017). Flaherty’s eight strikeouts were tied for the fourth most in a Baltimore debut (since 1954) and the most since Bud Norris fanned eight on Aug. 1, 2013, vs. the Astros.

That's a lot of history right there.

If Fujinami can pitch like that consistently.... wow.

smh

Kevin Brown is one of the most talented, thoughtful, curious, positive people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, working with and calling a friend.

He’s truly one of the best play-by-play announcers in the country.

If the Orioles don’t want him, another team’ll be elated. https://t.co/tIUcrIGjBm

— Jason Benetti (@jasonbenetti) August 7, 2023

Ah didn’t see this before I posted in the general thread. What a wet towel on the previously immaculate orioles vibes. Just a baffling decision

Boy, there's no way to make this look OK, is there? And as people are pointing out on Twitter it's kind of the same thing that happened all those years ago with GOAT radio announcer Jon Miller.

I wasn’t sure if this was about something else - but apparently this is as stupid and senseless as it sounds

I don’t tend to believe in cosmic punishment but…

Pobody's nerfect

tro sue

Good win against the Astros yesterday. It was a thrill to be there. I was afraid we would get rained out, but the rain mostly stopped before the game started. We were sweating the 9th inning. Bautista was probably fortunate that the last batter he faced was the team's worst hitter.

I guess I shouldn't worry when the team has to go ten innings against the A's. It's been a long road trip.

My god, I feel sorry for the A's.

They got a hit!

NY Times interview w/ John Angelos:

Because economics, Angelos “conceded that it might not be feasible for his popular young core to be career Orioles like Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Cal Ripken Jr.”

Hope the O’s figure out a way to pay Adley, Gunnar and Grayson #Birdland pic.twitter.com/rBvCkc0QdK

— Brent Harris 🎙️ (@BrentWBAL) August 21, 2023

Cheers Angelos 🥂

Tells me they're really good: after the Jays surprisingly took the first game of this series, they came out last night and shut that down pronto, even (or especially) with Gausman on the mound.

The Angelos thing is interesting. I wrote about this a little while ago, one of James's theories: that if the team is collectively angry at the owner and saying "We'll show him," that's a good jolt of motivational energy, but not if they're mad at the manager. But I might have that backwards.

Not a good week for UCLs. Bautista was one of the best pitchers in MLB this year and for the O's to lose such a critical piece of their success on their stretch run must be extra painful. RIP sweet prince, see you in 2025.

He's currently on the 15 day DL, let's see how it develops.

Gotta like the way the rest of the team stepped up tonight, with Cano saying his goal in the ninth was to do his best Bautista imitation.

something kind of bradish

Félix Bautista is on the field at Fenway Park. He had a glove in hand as he walked with head athletic trainer Brian Ebel and is now doing some running, seemingly having just completed a throwing session.

— Nathan Ruiz (@NathanSRuiz) September 8, 2023

:O

Isn’t Monday the first day they can activate him

Means pitching next week apparently! Funny how important I thought "when will John Means be ready" would be for the success of the 2023 team

I think they had some good luck last year to finish with the record they did, and I don't think they got that much better -- Grayson and Means will pitch and Gunnar and Adley will play full seasons instead of 1/3 and 2/3 respectively, but -- it won't be THAT different of a team. If it happens to be the case that the group of starters they have right now contains 5 people who can be average to above-average through 2023, they'll be pretty good. And that's not impossible. But I can't honestly say it's likely.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, February 20, 2023 4:22 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean this was me in February. I do think that we HAVE ended up having 5 legitimate starters in the rotation throughout the year and I don't think I was wrong to think of that as less than plausible in advance. I think the big thing I missed is that I was thinking "who has the potential to really shine?" and I wasn't thinking about the possibility (which I also think wasn't predictable in advance!) of how we would just not be giving at bats to people who were bad at hitting! Our 8 and 9 guys in the lineups are OK hitters just about every night! And that has a lot to do with Frazier and O'Hearn and Hicks all being OK to legitimately good, which I think it was fair not to see coming.

I love Gunnar Henderson

I follow the dodgers, who have been famously "good" at hitting the past decade or so through the order, and watching the 6-9 hitters of Dodgers vs. Orioles is night and day this year. I keep getting surprised when the 6-9 hitters in the Orioles do something because of what I am used to even though my brain knows that the Orioles can still mash in those spots. Frazier/O'Hearn/Hicks; all studs in my book

I also, would like to put on the record my love for Gunnar Henderson (what a name), Tony Taters, and the young, hot, star, Rustchdaddy

Hard to believe--because of their turnaround, not that they're not legitimate--but they're going to win 100 games, maybe as many as 105.

Fuji starting to hit his stride, let's hope he keeps it up.

Still can't adjust to Grayson, Adley, and Gunnar being names adult men have and not kids at the daycare

Grayson having a career night. This is the team I’ve watched all season.

Huge win, hugest of the year I'd say.

I’d rank the first time they took first place as the biggest! Absolutely shocking after the lead Tampa had. But it’s apples and oranges. Go O’s!

I’d rank the first time they took first place as the biggest! Absolutely shocking after the lead Tampa had. But it’s apples and oranges. Go O’s!

big win

I was at the Falcons game yesterday afternoon and following the O's on my phone. The way they pulled it out gave me a lot of encouragement for the postseason.

hard to overemphasize how great bradish and rodriguez have been in the second half.

https://media.tenor.com/KWgFWEKlKgYAAAAd/thats-cedric-mullins-again-its-cedric-mullins.gif

Three pitchers in the ninth inning last night :\

Putting Flaherty in relief is a good move, I think.

6-0 angels rays 2nd inning. Thank you very much

The great Jim Palmer celebrating his 60th anniversary with the club <3

One of my favourite '70s guys, knowing full well he's not as highly regarded today. His motion, his love/hate relationship with Weaver, his--horror!--knack for winning 20, love it all.

He and Kevin Brown are a good team on MASN.

I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme but I really really really want the boys to win 100

Nats and Sox? I’d put money on it

The Magic Number

man the nats lineup is dire

not to take anything away from bradish or gunnar "that oughtta do it" henderson

:)

also, 3 runs allowed in their last 5 games

100 wins? division champs? pretty neat!

As someone whose fandom began with the Robinson/Palmer/Boog/Weaver Orioles, the world feels a little bit more normal.

congrats o's fans <3

100 wins, but also the best in the AL confirmed (tied worst possible conclusion)

we did it guys!!!!

I'd forgotten that the Orioles clinching last night could conceivably help the Jays this weekend against Tampa. The games are meaningless to them now, so maybe we'll get a spot starter or two and some of their regulars rested (the ones that aren't injured already)...

Posnanski's six years younger than I am, but he captures well what I was posting about last night:

There’s something about the Orioles being back in the playoffs that connects deeply to my childhood, when the Orioles were ALWAYS good. It’s funny, when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, it seemed to me that there was a permanence to the world and a permanence in sports, and the Orioles would always be good, the Cowboys would always be good, the Raiders would always be good, Pittsburgh would always be the city of champions, etc. Then as you get older, you realize that nothing is permanent, and the Orioles fell into a deep hole, only to pop out their heads every now and again like they were checking the weather.

I didn't mean that the Orioles were my favourite team when I became a fan--the Reds were--but that they were the gold standard. Even more than the A's, who won the three World Series followed by chaos and then getting dismantled. The Orioles in the '70s were always good, and they were very businesslike about it.

felix is getting surgery

o's now at 101 wins, norfolk tides won the aaa championship. pretty cool.

Absolute misery.

man i wanted them to make a run. i guess one of the talking points is lack of SP upgrades at trade deadline (Flaherty not on playoff roster)

Flaherty was not a great pick. Fuji also seemed shaky, but did improve.

wonder who they'd target this offseason. there are some SPs with an ace level ceiling (but who aren't a lock to perform at that ceiling) like Nola and Snell. i would love to see them land Ohtani but that's a pipe dream and he's also not a guy you can rely on as a pitcher (his offense would obv be a dream.)

They arent going to spend

this would be the perfect year to actually make a real SP signing, even if it's just someone like jordan montgomery or ERod. that'd be huge compared to recent years. 3 rotation spots are secure (rodriguez, bradish, means).

wouldn't really make sense to sign a position player which is fine because there aren't any position players to sign this year.

this team is in a bizarre position. like almost everything i said a year ago here The Tanking Will Continue Until Morale Improves: the 2022 Baltimore Orioles is basically the same. there's too many guys and not enough spots. there are a lot of guys with higher ceilings than santander, mullins and hays, but i don't want to lose any of them. i'm starting to think they really are just going to do the rays thing where they keep AAA loaded instead of making big trades, and then platoon guys who are probably good enough to be full time players on most other teams.

you've got coby mayo looking like the second coming of david ortiz in AAA and he's like 4th in line for any of the positions he may be able to play in the majors

but gotta say i'm glad the rest of the internet seems to have caught onto the blinding whiteness of elias drafts

Congratulations to Gunnar Henderson

Gunnar Henderson named American League Rookie of the Year

Read more at: https://www.selmatimesjournal.com/2023/11/13/gunnar-henderson-named-al-rookie-of-the-year/

And to Brandon Hyde

Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde named AL Manager of the Year

https://www.wbal.com/orioles-skipper-brandon-hyde-named-al-manager-of-the-year/

This looks kind of fun

https://www.mlb.com/orioles/video/the-story-of-the-2023-orioles?partnerId=zh-20240104-1130664-BAL-1-A&qid=13&utm_id=zh-20240104-1130664-BAL-1-A&bt_ee=hqqTyiJAwOj1FEu6TfhkrwrZPzUBgblzlV0Lf86nOp%2BM%2Ba11ZdUL3prgG6SUQVj8&bt_ts=1704398151285