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The Orioles regularly took the Blue Jays lunch money in the head to head matchups, it's a lot more than luck. I won't argue that the Orioles have massively outperformed their expected record based on run differential but they are still a very solid team. I believe if the Blue Jays play up to their capabilities they have a team that should be able to take out the Orioles in the playoffs but this is far from a given.

The positional bump alone won't be a massive change to his defensive value, but the accumulated value of his defensive contributions (at least FWAR wise) are likely going to see a massive bump. A large part of why his defensive FWAR is so low is due to the fact that Fangraphs uses Statcast OAA for their range factor, and Varsho has posted rather ordinary numbers in left field according to this metric. Shift him full time to center field and the range value is almost certain to receive a massive increase on top of the positional adjustment.

I recall Varsho mentioning how he found left field was the hardest outfield position for him to play based on the way the ball comes off of the bat. This seems to be corroborated with how his UZR/OAA numbers look pretty ordinary in left field compared to center and right field where he's graded as elite by both metrics. I fully expect Varsho to receive a massive bump in defensive value by moving to center field full time. He's actually improved his center field metrics in 2023 compared to the already stellar numbers from 2022, with massive bumps to his DRS and UZR numbers and a repeat of the stellar OAA numbers as well. I see nothing that indicates he isn't already an elite defender at the position. He accumulated as many DRS and nearly as many OAA in center field as Kiermaier in only approximately half of the innings, if that doesn't give you confidence in Varsho's standing as an elite defender at the position I really don't know what would.

It's amazing how much of an impact a bad month had on the Jays divisional record. They had a really bad month of May, where they struggled in particular against divisional opponents during the month to the tune of a 2-13 record. Outside of that month their divisional record is actually a solid 15-12, with most of these losses coming against the Orioles who really have the Jays number in head to head matchups this season.

Yeah I've learned from Olerud that the Orioles are the perfect organization that can do no wrong so having Fujinami throw away winnable games is some sort of 8 dimensional chess.

I have a hard time seeing how any of this would fly in the days of modern sports. Think about how powerful player unions are and how much control players have in sports in general and then ask yourself if any of these suggestions are even remotely possible.

I recall it was mentioned on one of the recent broadcasts that Merrifield was dealing with a bit of hip tightness. His bat has vanished for the last 6 weeks though so it's no huge loss either way.

I keep hearing this mantra of "holding players accountable". Is the team supposed to demote their prospective #1 starter and a silver slugger catcher to AAA or something if they show up to spring training heavier than the season before or something?

He was obviously bulking up for the last few winters.

I saw that actually. I have a ceasefire, albeit maybe temporary with Jaysblue so I can see his side of the argument.

There's no need to be so angry about this. It's perfectly defensible to prefer either of these guys as the team's best starter last season. They each produced xERA values within a few points of each other, with Gausman running a lower FIP due to lack of walks/homeruns and piling up strikeouts and higher ERA due to high BABIP. Manoah run a higher FIP due to fewer strikeouts but lower ERA as he generated more soft contact with a lower BABIP. I felt Manoah was more likely to see his numbers regress due the incoming shift ban as this would presumably lead to fewer batted balls turning into outs, whereas Gausman seemed to actually be hurt by the shift a good chunk of the time due to the unpredictable nature of the contact he gave up at times.

Combine that with an ankle that's so shredded that multiple teams passed on signing him long term.

I take catcher DRS with a bit of a grain of salt as it has a catcher ERA component which I have a hard time trusting as it's one metric that seems like literal voodoo. Moreno is credited for 11 of his 19 DRS based on this adjusted catcher ERA. Take away the cERA component of this metric and his overall DRS is slashed from 19 DRS all the way to 8 DRS. Moreno is a great example of the massive discrepancy between the various advanced defensive metrics. Baseball Prospectus abhors his framing and rates him at 0.3 WAR, with his defensive contributions a surprisingly low -7.5 DRP. Statcast rates his overall defensive contributions as well above average with 5 fielding runs (Kirk has 7 for comparison).

The major issue with this year's offense has largely been the lack of performance by key members of the team who were retained and not the players who were sent out/acquired. Both of Teoscar and Gurriel are each sitting at 109 WRC+ values respectively so the lack of their presence on the roster hasn't been the key factor holding the offense back this season. Two of the three major additions have hit up to or even beyond expectations as well so the new roster additions largely did their part offensively. There was the weird 4 month stretch where the team floundered with runners on base that's reversed itself since August, but the lack of home run power has largely continued despite the amount of power contained on the roster. If you had a crystal ball to look ahead and know that nearly the entire team would stop hitting home runs to their capabilities you would have the chance to either adjust the hitting approach or tweak the roster as acquired. I'd like to know what bats were available at the trade deadline as there weren't too many notable names that actually moved this year. I've seen Tommy Pham floated as a possibility but it seems unlikely that his 110 WRC+ since being traded would have been a massive difference maker.

Term is Craig Biggio's son's biggest fan and he'll be vigorously waving his pompoms each time Cavan comes to the plate.

It seems like a majority of the fanbase actually believes that is true. Maybe they could be one of the more frustrating 83-67 teams based on the inability to score but the record isn't necessarily a fluke.

That study does absolutely nothing to exonerate Colabello. That study had the anabolic steroid dissolved into DMSO, a well known absorption enhancer which facilitates the absorption of substances through the skin which wouldn't otherwise pass through the skin barrier on their own. Unless Colabello is inferring that he accidentally touched an anabolic steroid that just so happened to be dissolved in a penetration enhancing solvent this doesn't seem like it's much of a possible explanation for how he tested positive.

Does the team retain control over White for next season? I know he's at least out of options but it sounds like he might be a legitimate swing man option again if he's improved his stuff to this degree.

Apparently Josh Johnson failed his pre-trade physical and he had a really checkered injury history before that as well. It's not hugely surprising that he completely washed out of baseball soon afterwards.

Not falling for anything, just playing along.

There very well could be elite prospects knocking on the door by the end of 2025. I can't read the future any better than you can to definitively state what is going to happen. Bo could be retained as well, it's far from a given that he's leaving in free agency. Most of the expensive contracts expire around 2025-2026 so there will be available dollars to sign more players if that's desired as well.

Aging expensive team with a 1-2 year window at best. One of MLB's worst farm systems with no MLB ready reinforcements to replace the aging veterans either.

Yeah Clement absolutely has 5+ win years in his future. Bo should be sent to AAA in his place.

Maybe you somehow missed the fact that Belt and Chapman are on the injured list right now and Bo is being eased back into action after multiple leg related injuries.

The team is missing Belt, Bo, Chapman and Jansen right now and is 50% made up of AAA players. 6-3 isn't at all bad given how many key regulars are out of commission at the moment.