holliday...it would be so nice (a 2024 orioles)

He did ok in ST I think. No way he’s in AAA for more than a month or two.
Otoh with such an insane amount of prospects anyone could step up and get promoted ahead of him.

O's are logjam city unless they follow the Reds' path of injuries/PEDs or start trading pieces away.

This is the year to win every game you can, it's gonna be a strong division, it's time to put the best guys on the field and Kolten Wong is not the best guys

my guess is up by memorial day. guys get hurt (and mateo and urias seem sort of prone, anyways), schedule will allow for some roster fandango...

oh...wong's opting out, i think.

...and then they signed tony kemp. masterful troll.

anyways, happy opening day. i can't believe the o's have corbin burnes.

liking what I'm seeing guys

I think these O's might be for real

Corbin Burnes, 10th and 11th Ks.

Thru 6.

Making a Statement. pic.twitter.com/ryPzYib1KQ

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 28, 2024

rodriguez nearly punch for punch w/ burnes today. god, this offense, though...

. . . yeah, this offense

I am already seeing that Craig Kimbrel is not gonna be good for my heart

Unfathomable pick up by the O's. Incredibly funny he gets the win for this game.

They were obviously hoping to plug a Bautista-sized hole.

Tbf, the tying run came as a result of two stolen bases.

Let's actually go O's

Wasn't sure about the bunt move, but cooler heads prevail!

sooooo nice...

This box score from the Norfolk Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Orioles, is insane 😲

The team features three @MLBPipeline Top 35 prospects, including No. 1 prospect Jackson Holliday. pic.twitter.com/WVu0KfFtpD

— MLB (@MLB) April 4, 2024

But seriously, what are we gonna do? "Too many players you want to see on the field" is a good problem to have, but -- eventually somebody's got to get traded or released, right? But who? And when?

or hurt

Accidents will happen…

I was just looking at that AAA lineup and it’s basically the 1927 Yankees. I figure by mid summer they are going to have to deal someone from that backlog for pitching.

Norfolk Tides game free to watch on mlb.tv right now

Norfolk up 10-2 in the first inning

The thing about this team is there are a lot of games Burnes and Rodriguez aren't pitching

I will relax a little bit once Bradish and Means are back

PS the Tides won that game 11-10 in extras after being up 10-0!

I miss Bautista

UGHHHHHHH

bats gotta wake the fuck up, though.

I miss Bautista

I was just talking to my son about this last night. When he came out to close a game last season, there was a high level of confidence that he was going to get it done. The O's really lack that this year, and it may be a difference maker in too many close games.

Baumann was an embarrassment on Saturday.

bradish is starting his rehab assignment. means has looked...meh.

Means may in retrospect be the defining pitcher of the Spidertack Era

Thread namesake getting called up!

i try not to complain about bad calls too much but this is pretty egregious, like at least 3 runs are down to this umpire in the last inning.

Curious as to when all this generational-player hysteria began. I remember a lot of hype for David Clyde's first start in 1973--cover of Sports Illustrated--because he came out of high school. (Hype then not being what hype is today.) After that, I really don't remember anybody until Griffey Jr. came along.

And the SI cover came after his first start, not before.

I feel like there might have been extra hype when the baseball card market started to take off, I just remember everybody getting kinda hyped the same year Griffey was coming up about other guys like Gregg jefferies, Steve Avery, Ty Griffin (lol), etc. Before griffey, there was definitely hype around Bo Jackson but that obviously was of a different nature entirely. Post-griffey, you had other guys but they were a bit less hyped, they had to start to prove themselves in the majors before people fully committed to it. Even someone like Frank Thomas who in retrospect was definitely a can't miss kind of guy.

But I do feel like once you hit 1989, every several years you started to see one or two guys everyone would start to flip out over. Now it's multiple guys per year.

Yeah, of course--rookie-card mania, timed perfectly with Upper Deck's launch and Griffey's arrival.

You can't forget Todd Van poppel or Brien Taylor, I mean the donruss rated rookie cards are probably a good place to look for guys you forgot existed 2 years after their hype was at its peak.

You could have made a fortune on the baseball card stock market investing in and then 3 months later selling off all your jefferies cards.

To state the obvious, it really does put a lot of pressure on someone. Mike Schmidt hit .200 for two seasons without, I'm guessing, drawing a lot of attention. Robin Yount was pretty ordinary for three or four seasons. (As someone who's all over Vlad all the time, I'm being hypocritical.)

I see a parallel between that and the pressure for new-release films to make huge amounts of money immediately.

In more recent times, Joe Mauer was touted as THE REAL DEAL (USA Today HS-POY for both football and baseball but NOT for basketball), iirc he only struck out in one AB in his 4 year HS career, was drafted straight out of HS as #1 pick 2001 and is heading to Cooperstown.

Mauer averaged more than 20 points a game as a point guard for Cretin-Derham Hall.[9] He was also named to the All-State team during his final two years on Cretin-Derham's basketball team.[12]

What an utter disappointment... sheesh.

I honestly think Matt Wieters mania was bigger, at least in Orioles world, than the pre-debut hype around Holliday, Grayson Rodriguez, or Gunnar, with only Rutschman maybe comparable

i was working for milb dot com when wieters came up and it was (insofar as anything involving minor league baseball can be) huge

in my memory, only harper was a bigger deal

could have been you, joey bart

Orioles thread, I know--last mention I'll make of this. I vaguely recall that Bob Horner arrived with a lot of fanfare too:

Horner was drafted by Atlanta with the first overall pick in the 1978 amateur draft, and he made his Major League Baseball debut the same year. He is one of only a handful of players to go directly from college to the starting lineup in the majors without spending a day in the minor leagues. In his first game, he belted a home run off future Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven of the Pirates.

I went to tuesday and wednesday's sox/orioles games, and yesterday I was seated next to a big orioles fan who flew from baltimore on a moment's notice when he learned jackson holliday had been called up. was pretty cool to be able to see his first game -- hopefully he'll end up being a legend and I can say I was there

Connor Norby has struck out in every plate appearance of his major league career

Connor Norby has struck out in every plate appearance of his major league career

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, June 3, 2024 6:38 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Connor Norby has still struck out in every plate appearance of his major league career

Gotta feel good for Austin Hays!

you do!

The Jays broadcasters pointed out something about Rutschman tonight: his K/BB ration last season was 101/92 (really good), this year it's 42/13. That's weird...I'm pretty sure that ratio tends to remain relatively stable in most cases. Obvious there's fluctuation, as players concentrate on power or plate discipline or contact or whatever, but that's drastic. Even weirder--it suggests he's more concerned with power this year--his batting average is up 25 points.

Connor Norby has had a plate appearance in which he has not struck out

xp to clemenza -- the whole team has taken a much more aggressive approach at the plate, they're last in the AL in walks

I checked that--they're 9th with 512 (one below league average). So not last, but on the aggressive side, yes.

Oops--maybe I should check 2024, not 2023...

You're right: 4th in runs, 2nd-last in walks. Whatever works, I guess.

norby's first hit is a homer!

Conor Norby has had a major league plate appearance that was most definitely not a strikeout!

Love to see a little middle infielder hitting the ball that hard, gives Brian Roberts

Vibes?!

roberts was more of a speedy spray hitter in the minors, though. norby's power is legit.

roberts hid a billion doubles though and really smacked them off the wall, at least that's how I recall him

I'd forgotten about him--geez, 50+ doubles three times.

re: roberts

for sure. he was a doubles machine! he grew into that, though. i'm just saying norby has shown good power in college and the minors.

Love me some Craig Kimbrel drama

Ugh

We don't deserve Albert Suarez

Anyway I love watching this rendition of this team, delighted that Hays is hitting again (after an insanely godawful start he was normal-bad in May and has OPS 1.471 in 21 PA in June) but y'know it kind of seems like the Yankees are never gonna lose again

bradish. ucl. nuts.

...but last night was one of the craziest games i've watched in a while. definite playoff feel.

god, perez, though. just not a guy i trust in high leverage situations.

you know who’s good is gunnar henderson

I’ve begun to suspect as much