Diner Question: Are you excited about the Orioles this season?

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• It’ll be fun to see the new era of orioles baseball, and how Elias handles the farm, and possibly mid season trades.

• We'll see a new brand of baseball/management which will be fun. They will try to do things differently, and it will be interesting to see i'm sure.

  We'll lose 100 games, probably 110. But hopefully, our expectations are low enough for that to not be too torturous. What will take a lot of getting used to is that we won't have any real connection with the players. This is now a shop window for 2 years. Anyone who plays half decent this season will be dealt by July. So the turnover of staff is going to be the hardest to deal with as a fan.

  • It’s not about W & L’s. It’s a rebuild

• is this a trick question?

  What has Elias given the fans to be excited about? About the only thing we had to look forward to, was watching some of the youngsters. And despite some pretty impressive Springtime results, even that's been taken away from us with their demotions to AAA.

  Should we be excited about watching a team that's about to collectively hit under .240? Could the ERA surpass 6.0?

  Tanking sucks, and although I'll be paying attention ... I'll be watching this team a good bit less this year. NO ... I am not excited about this team at all.

  • I could have written your post Boog. And I have been a fan since 1966.

    • Love all these Debbie Downers posting here. Unfortunately, they can't see the forest for the trees.

      Roch posted on his blog several reasons to watch this club and MLB.com, in it's "One bold prediction for each team", said that even though this club will likely lose 100 games, they team has a new direction and will not be afraid to try new things, and to throw things against the wall and see what sticks. They'll daring and experimental, and with the expected influx of a ton of new and young players later this summer and certainly next, why not come out to watch?

  • Perfect you took the words right out of my mouth

  • Totally agree, how can these guys not out your best players on the field & play to win....I’m bummed....

• Not only am I excited, I plan to go to more games this year than ever before. And yes - some of the best-performing players were sent down, but that can only make them, and the big club, better. The guys on the 25-man roster know they will have to perform to stay on the team, and the kids in Norfolk and Bowie, if they continue their stellar play, will be knocking down the doors to get in.

  Elias and Hyde have set us up for a very compelling, exciting, fun-to-watch season, and no matter how much we win or lose, I am all in. Let's Go, O's!!

  • Well, which of the catchers on the present 25 man roster performed so far? How about the first baseman with the thick wallet? For that matter, what about Mullins? He's been underwhelming and he was supposed to be one of the bright spots moving forward. He did very little in his debut last season and followed it up with a sub-par Spring. That's more than 60 games worth of data and it doesn't look great so far.
    I get the whole big picture thing, but the only thing that was going to be even remotely interesting was watching the younger talent develop while they were piling up losses. Now they'll be piling up losses with people who won't even be on the team in September-what is exciting about that?

  • Perfect Borg.

• Right now just about everything(minus a Rule 5 or two)we see is a conglomerate of Duquette leftovers. I'll put up with this season but bite my tongue/roll my eyes a lot. When Elias signs a key International talent and when I see Diaz/Hays or any young pitcher rise to stardom I will feel the "vibe". I'll watch(I live in NJ and get the MLB Package for the O's games)but wait for the years to come.

• I’m always excited for a new season. Am I optimistic we’ll see a ton of great baseball this season? No. But being a true fan is being there regardless of wins/losses.

  • I couldn't have said it any better than that!

  • Hey, we’re tied for first, what could be better....

  • Sorry, Orioles are not tied for first. They are already 2 games down in the loss column to the Oakland A’s in the race to earn the top draft pick of 2020.

  • Sorry, we’re tied for first in the east....

• Not exited at all.

• not excited at all anymore. I was very excited when Elias and Hyde were hired and I heard changes r coming. so I thought well both the Astros and cubs improved and became world champs when they went with young talent. So I thought maybe we would see that here and enough of DD waiver wire pick ups and bad trades. but nope I saw hays(who then got hurt playing in a minor game he shouldn't of been playing in) stewart,diaz,sisco(if he isn't ready def.then severing isn't ready offensively)mountcastle,Scott all sent down and realized nothing is different the roster is filled out with other teams unwanted rule 5 picks and waiver pick ups. We are gonna stink this year so why lose 100 games with Ruiz Nunez smith Martin Davis Trumbo why not lose 100 and see what the young kids could do. If u say well they will probably start coming up in 2 months or so what's the reason for that to give them time to get hurt like hays in playing in the minors.

  • Your so right MikePete73

• Far more excited than I'd expected. It will be good to see the young players develop at the appropriate level. It will be good to see a process that involves non-emotional decision making or simply throwing a ton of things against the wall and seeing what sticks. Far less frustrating to watch guys fighting to improve while losing than going through the motions to collect a paycheck while losing.

• Not at all excited. It's going to be a team that has difficulty competing. It's the same team we say in the last half of 2018. But I fully support what the leadership is doing. Don't bring guys up until they're ready. We want them to have success. And we want to build a winning culture.

  • I was watching a Braves game on MLB network yesterday. One of the Braves announcers said Bobby Cox and the Braves philosophy was to put the young prospects in and let them sink or swim. Certainly the opposite of Elias. But obviously the Young Genius knows more than Bobby Cox and the Braves.

• It's hard to be excited, as the level of talent on this team just isn't there. Not yet anyway. As long as the O's have to keep writing Chris Davis' name into the lineup this'll be the worst team in baseball hands down.

• To me, the most exciting thing for this season will be the draft when Elias and his crew get the real chance to do their “magic”. With what we’ve got right now I’m reminded of something my grandfather used to say... Take nothing from nothing... leaves nothing”... and that’s what we’ve got. This season will certainly be “trying” on a true fan’s psyche!

• I personally am excited that baseball is about to begin again.I have loved the Orioles since their inception in Baltimore and nothing will change that.I will be watching Ruiz,Nunez.Dwight Smith,Jackson and so forth to see if they can play up here.Granted the veterans will be trade bait if they show some moxy but many people talk about the whole team being traded before years end.I don't see it that way ,especially with the guys I mentioned as they could be a part of the plan if they can produce.The pitching may take the glow off my excitement this year but Oriole and baseball fans should always be excited (at least in the beginning).This year should be very transforming with the guys that are waiting to come up and people will be watching to see how Davis,Bundy,Trumbo,etc. fare this year with new management.Starting out with tough couple weeks too with playing Yankees more than I would like but lets gitter done!

• I think there are many things to be excited about:
  1) Excited to see the new manager implement new strategies.
  2) Excited to see more action along the basepaths, with more speed and less power in the lineup.
  3) Excited to see better defense especially up the middle.
  4) Excited to see which players can improve their value enough for decent mid-season trades.
  5) Excited to see performances and record in AAA and AA to see if talent is improving compared to other teams.
  6) Excited for some of the top prospects in the minors to graduate to the majors through the season.
  7) Excited to see if Cobb, Cashner, and Bundy can put up solid numbers.
  8) Excited to see if a good 4th or 5th starter can emerge.
  9) Excited to see how much top-end talent we can get from the draft.
  10) Excited to see what will happen with Chris Davis this year. (Any improvement, what will happen if he truly becomes a roadblock for other players)
  11) Excited for possible hires and setup of the new and modernized front office.
  12) Excited to see more competitive games, even if they turn into losses. (Actually won't mind losses this year if it improves draft status.)

  • Smartly and wisely written.

• In a word- NO.

• I think relieved is a better word than excited. The whole Machado malaise was tough to live through. It was like selling your house and not being able to close the deal because the buyer's realtor was on vacation in Tahiti. Yes, we have a million more questions than answers this season but, at least we seem to have a regime looking to develop instead of patching the roster with Colby Rasmus types.

  In short, I'm glad I renewed my MLB.tv subscription AND my MiLB.tv subscription as I suspect I'll be switching back and forth between the two quite a bit.

• No, no I am not and will begin looking towards football season and watching the real Browns after they were gutted, rebranded and started over. If we jettison all our performers...I am done as the year progresses. Keep quality personnel and character and any multi tool defenders, speed is nice and will be fun if it is used and provided we are really aggressive. I will stay tuned for that! But mix it up with full effort every night and reload the next game. Demand strikes, do not accept watching third strikes go by with men on base. Try for that extra base and push the limits. Take the pitchers out whe back to back walls occur and consider bullpen or opener roles for them no matter what their name or tenure is. Stupidity and base running erorrs, throwing to the wrong spot, not appreciating the number of out, not hustling...sit them a few games to re engage. I want to see accountability and effort. If pitchers are left in when or after the wheels are off, I’m tuning out. Folks give up, move them on or bench them for perhaps a hungrier player with some upside. But, at some point stop reloading with B.B.s or paper wads and play the hand we have aggressively and rebuild each year with longer term contracts for “moneyball” or system fit, character players. What I remember most of our early 70s winners was their character and comments after winning and the culture they had. Show Brooks and Jim you value the Oriole way and work for every win. Draft well and let them advance quickly from level to level!!
  Watching closely...for now...and still optimistic for a .500 season and certainly expect an effort at one!!

• No! Of course the Orioles Spring Training record is as good as the World Series Champions Boston Red Sox, so we should be ready for pennant fever. If Orioles want to promote the “rebuild” , then move the Bowie and Norfolk games to Camden Yards. Orioles don’t even have enough starting pitching to cover the first 2 games of the season . Come on , this season will be real bad!

  • You’ve said it all! I can guarantee that I’ll see more Bowie games than O’s games.

• Not excited, more curious. Disappointed that this squad doesn't feel any different than one DD put together. 3 rule 5 guys, players that other teams gave up on. Not much to be excited about.

• "Yes I know she cheats on me, belittles me in front of people, flirts with every guy in the bar when we go out and screams at me when I look at attractive women on TV. God, she looks as good in that dress as she did when we first met. I still love her"

  - Every Orioles Fan like me on Opening Day

  • Love it!

  • BanMo, you're my hero!

• Rich: It will be a difficult season to say the least. Given that the Orioles had the worst ERA in the majors last year; they had the worst offense in the majors last year, scoring only 622 runs all year and finally, they were dead last in defensive metrics last year there is only one place to go and that is up.
  I look forward to more aggressive base running, moving runners along, hitting behind runners and playing solid defense. Beyond that, we can't expect much more.

  • Spin... just who do you project will do the hitting with none of those on board right now can (or have) hit more than .250? There have to be baserunners to “move over”. I’m with Olney (above) and think we’d have more “excitement” with the “Tides” here to watch.

• Is this the kind of virtual diner that also sells liquor? If so, I’ll take an Old Fashioned. With Rye.

  It’s not just for breakfast anymore.

  Yes, I am excited to watch the O’s this year. Part of that is just the excitement of having baseball back. Part is because I’m very interested to see what happens with Hays, Mountcastle, Diaz, Harvey, and others.

  The team as configured right now is fairly boring and uninteresting, with the exception of Martin, Jackson, and possibly Mullins.

  Hopefully we’ll see better defense and improved energy levels compared to last season. Those guys appeared to be going through the motions most of the season, with but a few small exceptions.

• Interested and curious. Not exactly excited.

• Guys, let's get with the New Program. New Boss announces new slogan: Patience! Wait! Doesn't sound like excitement to me. I don't see anything new going on. International slot money is traded away. Players are assigned with the expectation that the Bowie-Norfolk-Baltimore RR will still run but on an expanded schedule. Players are coveted who can play many positions but none of them well enough to be a starter. And we start two or three of these every day. The manager says everybody's doing just fantastic and every move is "the right thing," while anticipating a 40-win season. The GM is promising to show his stuff --which none of us could possibly comprehend-- at the very next calendar mark (draft, international signing, trade deadline, etc.), so he doesn't have to justify what he's doing now. The media report nothing about the activities of shadow VP Anderson and then announce that he has been doing nothing, except helping on conditioning so that people can go on IR and open up roster space. Excitement? Not in a positive sense. But it's baseball and the Orioles, so I'll be following and hoping.

• my god, not another 17 year rebuild!!! but I will be listening.

• Yes. I'm Ready for this year . the snow is melting in Maine, birdland is warming. I will be down for the 4'th with the hope of each new opening day. the O's may suck this year , but it is a new begining. let's see what happens Go O's

• “Fans” who are not excited? Hmmmm....Well, I guess we’ll see you back with us in a few years. In the meantime, have fun with the Sox and the Yanks.

• Most fans are excited about Opening Day - the start of baseball. We are attending an get together to watch the Orioles first game. I have said this before, they are not an MLB caliber team. Collectively, there is more talent at the minor level but many are not ready at this point. I felt they should have signed a few free agents that could fill-in until some of those prospects are ready. However, Elias has taken a different route and has been successful with this approach. So its going to be a tough two or three years before we as fans see the success Elias envisions.

• I see 32 comments here. About the same number as will be sitting in Camden on a typical night come June 1.

  • Don’t forget to count the ushers... just sayin...

    • I stand corrected. 39

• Maybe not excited yet, but at least encouraged that we have moved on from the Peter/Dan/Buck regime in which the team seemed to lurch from season to season without any coherent plan. Only time will tell if Elias and Hyde can turn things around, but at least the organization now seems correctly focused on minor league player development, the international market, and improved scouting and analytics.

• Oh you Oriole fans. I am old enough to have been around for the O’s of 1960 to 1983.
  Remember what happened during those years?
  But even during that time there were more “negative nellies” than “positive Pete’s “

• Yes I am. We are better than we were last year.

• I do find myself getting excited as opening day gets closer, but I think that's just the baseball lover in me. I'm a little excited to watching some of the young guys improve everyday by playing everyday, but after Hayes and Sisco got demoed I lost a little of that excitement. I just don't understand the thinking in not bringing those young men north . If you are competing for a job and clearly outperform your competition, you should be awarded the job . Nothing against Smith or Sucre, but Hayes and Sisco played better this spring than Smith and Sucre and should have been on the opening day roster. Then we have the $161,000,000 man who stunk up spring training as bad as he stunk up 2018. I understand it's a lot of money, but .189 with 19 Ks in 44 ABs cleanly shows no improvement from the worst season in the history of baseball. CUT BAIT ALREADY!

• I am looking forward to seeing how Martin does at the major league level, can Mullins improve on his good showing last year, and what younger players make their debut, and stick, with the club in the new few months.

• Yes, very much so. As I posted a day or two ago, I’d rather watch hungry no-bodies than big names who should retire. Rebuilding is not doom and gloom. It’s a relief from seasons like 2018.

• I was for a moment in time and then the old Oriole mentality creeped in and all the talent that won spring training ball games was sent down to maintain their player status and with that they never one another game. Gone but not forgotten were the days when Earl played the hot player until he cooled off and remember some never cooled off. Here’s hoping!

• I’m excited about a fresh start. A new direction. The hope of good things to come. Nothing good comes without some challenges and struggles.

• Yes! I hope to see a rebuilding team playing hungry than what we got last year. And I bet they steal a few games early on before the league catches up to them.

• Well, I'm a baseball junkie who roots for the black and orange, so I'm a little excited. Also, my sports viewing options will start dwindling soon hockey is winding down (go caps back to back?), March madness is half over, and I'm finally starting to get tired of watching AAF football. Also, think of the fun [drinking?] games we can play. Name that Shortstop, Who's on Third (not first :Abott and Costello were wrong) and How Many Strikeouts can $161 Million Buy? will be cult classic games at OPACY and also be fun for viewers at home. Furthermore there can be scorecard bingo. The free space obviously would be the Davis strikeout. Other available spaces include "opener" allows 5 or more runs in an inning and O's manage to GIDP 5 times or more in a game (successfully errantly throwing the ball around the entire field will double the jackpot for Bird Bingo). All kidding aside, I look forward to the cheap ticket prices and a few giveaways (Brooksie Bobble, Fedora, Bird Nutcracker and a few other items). Also, I am kind of hoping a few players will be good enough to trade for a few good prospects, since last years haul of youngsters wasn't what it needed to be (e.g. Gausman). So, this will be a great year if we use puns, tongue in cheek references, and occasional references to baseball comedies when talking/posting about our beloved birds.

• Spring training up until two weeks ago was exciting. The players who played their way onto the team were sent down. The rule 5 guys underperformed the last two weeks. Having two catchers who cannot hit when Sisco hit 390 and played good defense makes no sense. No I am not existed. I do believe Elias has a master plan and is super intelligent. Hyde is a rookie. Maybe he should be sent down too. Lol

• A rebuild takes time. There will be lots of ups and down. Patience and continued support by fans is a must. I’m excited to see the beginning of the new O’s. Realistically a winning team is several years away and I urge O’s fans to read the book Astro Ball for what I hope will happen in Baltimore. GO BIRDS!!!

• Excited about the team? Nope. A bunch of no-name players who probably won't be here long term, or even be in the bigs long term doesn't really excite me. I'll still go to the games though since I love baseball and being at the ballpark and am happy that baseball is back in play. I'm more excited to see what Elias and Sig do over the next few years to bring the O's back to respectability. Elias is quite a breath of fresh air after 6 years of Duquette and his indirect way of answering questions. I'm also excited to see that the Angelos boys seem to be more committed to taking a modern approach to running a baseball team compared to their father, who really set this franchise back over the past 25 years.

• I am so excited I forgot this was opening day. Now it's almost midnight and I finally remembered to check the score. I'm even thinking of giving up MASN. I'm a huge O's fan. My license tag is HBTDMOS. Has been since the 80's. In case you are having trouble, it's "How 'Bout Dem Zeros!"

• A season ticket holder since 1984 - through all those awful years - I gave up the season tickets after last year's fiasco. Yesterday looked like deja vu all over again. Ineffective pitching and Davis striking out. If the man was really a "professional" he would give the ball club a reasonable way out of his contract. He's an embarrassment to himself and the organization. If he won't make a deal to leave gracefully - send him to Frederick. He might be able to hit Singe A pitching with that golf swing of his.

  So no Rich, I'm not excited - I'm not even all that interested. Or as Angela Showalter said to me last year in May - "They Suck"