moonslav59

Agreed, and I called for a fire sale, last July. I'm not sure it was Bloom's choice not to have one, but it's on him.

We also haven't made any trades for pitchers like Pedro, Schilling, Beckett or Sale since 2016. Our philosophy seemed to be to acknowledge we lacked the ability to add and develop young pitcher, but we did much better with everyday players and could trade them for aces, like HRam for Beckett and Moncada for Sale. There have been some fine young pitchers traded, recently. It doesn't seem like we are ever even mentioned as possible trade partners.

As well we should. This as bad a 4 game stretch of starting pitching I've seen in a long time. 12.91 ERA .371/.450/.843/1.293 Against The Pen: 3.48 ERA .273/.356/.377/.733 Against Other than Kelly, Ort and Brasier, our pen has been very good. Maybe when Whitlock, Bello and or paxton join the rotation, Houck and Wink will squeeze out a couple of those bad apples. OPSA .417 Wink .606 Martin .650 Jansen .708 Schreiber .778 Bleier

Only the Wacha/Hill signing year looked like a plus for the money. There wasn't much money in 2020 and 2021 to do much better. The 2022 and 2023 choices have been more towards everyday players, but when you just lost Betts and Bogey/JD and Devers was a must sign, it's hard to rob Peter to pay Paul. It's still early. Maybe the rotation will settle down, but we need to use (not overuse) the pen, when we need it. We have a few long men, once Whitlock and Bello/Paxton join the rotation, so maybe that will help.

The Whitlock pick was huge, but your point is still valid even with him added. Whitlock Pivetta Wink Kluber This is all we currently have as SP'ers from Bloom. He has boosted the pen, and we may need them to be top 5 to have any chance. Having a 13 man staff should help, especially with a few RP'ers who can go 80-110 innings (Houck, Schreiber, Wink, Crawford...)

That is a valid point, but one can also point to the fact that from the day DD took over, until the Bello call-up, the only real impactful pitcher to come up from the farm was Houck. The lasting effect of such a long drought is significant. In DD's defense, he did not trade away Houck, Bello, Crawford, Mata, Walter, Wikelman, Murphy and Perales. The vast majority of our best young pitchers are products of DD. Only Whitlock, Wink and some far-away prospects are on Bloom. He deserves much criticism for this.

It's mostly the pitcher, but the catcher can help or hurt.

I do think our young pitchers and pitching prospects are now better than they have been in a long time, but better than crappy need not be all that good. Whitlock Bello Houck Mata Walter Murphy Wikelman Drohan Fernandez (under 21) Perales E R-C Paez Guerrero We need to get better and better, here, for sure, but to me, we have been heading in the right direction. Drafting a few pitchers in the first 2 rounds may help.

Yes, it's been bleak for a long, long time. The Rule 5 pick of Whitlock might be the only SP'er bright spot since Lester and Buch, assuming Houck ends up in the pen. It's hard to sustain winning without some homegrown pitching.

There are slivers of hope with Crawford and Winckowski, but you are right. We have 6 SP'ers that need to fill 5 slots well or 4 slots very well. It's not impossible, looking at those 6, but it's hard to think it's probable after these first 4 starts. Mata might be our saving grace, or someone like Whitlock or Bello pitching like or near ace level, but it looks like our pen will need to carry more weight, this year, and it does look better than it has been since 2019 or maybe even 2018.

I don't disagree, and if you are not going to draft pitchers, you better sign and get right your pitcher signings. In terms of FA signings, Bloom has spent a pretty big percentage of his winter budgets on SP'ers. The problem was, in many cases, he needed 2-3 SP'ers and the budget was what it was. 2020: (We need 4 SP'ers added, since Sale & ERod were out all year.) We spent $6/13 on SP. $6M Perez $4.2 Pillar $2.9 Peraza 2021: (We needed 3 SP'ers) We spent $15/30 on SP. $10 Richards $7M x 2 Kike $5M Perez II $3.1 Renfroe $3.0 Marwin 1.8 D Santana (We spent about $8M on the Ottavino trade.) 2022: (We needed 2-3 SP'ers and 4-5 RP'ers.) We spent $18.5M/47M on SP & $25.5M on all pitch8ing.) $23.3 x 6 Story $7.0M Wacha $6.5M Paxton $5M R Hill $4 x 2 Diekman $3.0M Strahm $1.5M T Shaw (We spent some on the JBJ trade, after subtracting Renfroe's salary) 2023: $10M/$71M on SP and $35M/71 on pitching $18M x 5 Yoshida (plus posting fee) $16 x 2 Jansen $10.9 Turner $10M Kluber 7.0 Duvall $6.8 x 2 Martin $2M Rodriguez $2M Alfaro (minors) No doubt, Bloom could have spent more on SP'ing, especially instead of the Story & Yoshida signings, but I'm not sure, even using 20-20 hindsight we could have scored great pitching with those 2020 & 2021 winter budgets. Yes, it's Bloom's fault for not making better choices with his SP'er signings, and he could have chose to rob Peter to pay Paul and focused more on pitching. That's on him. He also chose the Devers extension over pitching. Maybe this was not fully "his choice."

Gotta start going to the pen a bit earlier.

Or Cora's. You don't need to be fast to steal, these days.

...or sign as IFAs. True nuff. At least he didn't trade away Houck, Bello, Mata ...

No need to defend. The budget is what it is. We still have Dugo, Pivetta, Kike, Arroyo, Schreiber, Refsnyder and Wong. Bloom extended Devers and Whitlock. He did not trade Bello, Houck, Casas and others.

I've always had hopes for Wink, but I also wondered, if it was just wishful thinking we'd get something of value from that Beni trade.

Do you still have Crawford ahead of Winck, as I believe you stated a few weeks ago? Maybe, tonight's start might make a difference?

McGuire gets a day off. Maybe Wong will be Crawford's caddy, if he sticks in the rotation. Today's line-up: 1. Verdugo RF 2. Devers 3B 3. Turner DH 4. Yoshida LF 5. Duvall CF 6. Casas 1B 7. Arroyo 2B 8. Kike SS 9. Wong C Does anyone think the line-up changes much, if we face a lefty? When we faced Cole, a lefty, Cora batted Ref first and Dugo 6th. Could Kike bat lead-off v lefties, going forward? I might move Duvall up, too. (Not like Turner deserves being moved down.) 1. Kike R (SS) 2. Devers L (3B) 3. Duvall R (CF) or Turner R (DH) 4. Yoshida L (LF) 5. Turner R (DH) or Duvall R (CF) 6. Verdugo L (RF) 7. Casas L (1B) 8. Arroyo R (2B) 9. McGuire L ©

I think the long snapper answered that Q.

Yes, so I'm not getting why people are saying runners can run when there is 1-2 seconds remaining. Unless the throws to 1B are used up, there should be no timing advantage.

I wouldn't say 1 per game is really "exploiting" the change, but yes, many teams are on pace for more SBs. The O's are way out in front.

Trade him while his stock is high.

The only two he should have "commited to," in hindsight, are Springs and maybe Perez. (Let's see how Perez does in 2023.)

Yes, the 2022 rotation was bad. I jst pointed out that Bloom's additions were not the major problem, but yes, the injuries to almost all our starters hurt, including the ones Bloom acquired. Per dollar, though, the SP signings were pretty good. BWAR Pitching 2022 3.3 Wacha 2.7 Schreiber 2.6 Pivetta 1.8 Whitlock 1.6 Houck 1.5 Nate 0.8 Hill 0.7 Sawamura 0.4 Bello 0.3 Bazardo 0.3 Strahm 0.3 Diekman 0.2 Kelly Red= non Bloom guys BOLD= recent additions fWAR 1.8 Hill 1.7 Schreiber 1.5 Wacha 1.5 Pivetta 1.4 Whitlock I'm just saying, Bloom's recent SP'er additions were pretty good, especially for the dollars spent. It wasn't enough to make a difference, and yes, the injuries to Wacha and Hill hurt.

Yes, but why were the O's the only team to see this coming and exploit it? I think we missed some opportunities over those first 3 games, but hey, we won 2, so maybe it didn't matter.