Orioles’ winning % before Rutschman was brought up: .413
Orioles’ winning % since Rutschman was brought up: .605

A lot of that has to do with how tough their schedule was to start the season. But Baltimore’s next ten games are against the Rays and Yankees, and if they go 5-5 or better then they really need to be taken seriously from here out.

The Orioles are 45-44, they were 45-94 at one point last season.

The Orioles payroll has, ahem, lots of flexibility. It will be egregious malpractice if they don't acquire some talent by also accepting some bad contract money. Right?

The sub-head should have read: "Buster Olney hardest hit."

If only this rebuilding team spent money like the Tigers!

Elias should just stick to the process. The team might be getting closer but starting pitching seems like an area of need…

The Orioles payroll has, ahem, lots of flexibility. It will be egregious malpractice if they don't acquire some talent by also accepting some bad contract money. Right?

In this 10-game win streak, the Os have had a lot of things going for them that seem to not bode well for the next 10 games:

--9 of the 10 games came against teams that had losing records
--7 of the 10 games came at home
--They didn't have to face the hottest pitcher in baseball when they played LAA
--The O's 5-0 in 1-run games — and, considering first three points, it's a bad sign that they *had* that many.

As #1 said, these next 10 games will tell us a lot. But I'd be stunned if they did better than .500 once the schedule starts getting tougher — they have yet to play Houston, for example.

But I guess, baseball being baseball, the hope of sneaking into the extended playoffs and then pulling off a short series upset is always tantalizing. (See: The current Reds/Yankees series). It might not be the best long-term strategy though

But I guess, baseball being baseball, the hope of sneaking into the extended playoffs and then pulling off a short series upset is always tantalizing. (See: The current Reds/Yankees series). It might not be the best long-term strategy though

Right, but I meant to imply that they don't give up future talent or otherwise affect the long-term strategy.

They are spending less than the A's. They are spending about half of what the Rays are.

As I noted in the chatter, this win also means that the entire ALE is over 500. The ALE is playing 600 ball against the rest of the AL and the NLC (plus "rivals.")

EDIT: Meanwhile the NLC is playing 413 ball against everybody else. The Cubs a shiny 4-12 in interleague.

Orioles were accused of tanking, often. The current team has some homegrown talent but the infield (Odor, Uriah and and Mateo) pitching staff(Lopez, Baker, Bautista, Krehbiel, Voth and Watkins) and Wells and Santander were rule 5 picks. All these guys were available to the other teams for money. No signing bonus or years of minor league coaching.

On the other hand, from last place the team got first claim at the waiver wire in 2020 also.
That team had Pedro Severino, rio Ruiz, Renato Nunez, Clay Carroll, Shawn Armstrong, David Hess, wade LeBlanc, etc.

The current Os have some sharp eyed scouts and Coaches, good sabermetics analysts. Bottom line: lots of smart people, good luck, some other reasons..




Watkins)https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/heres_who_shouldve_gone_1st_in_every_draft