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Fan mailbag, your questions answered, on today's show! · Birdland Territory

0:07
Speaker 1: Welcome in latest edition Berdland Territory with Steve, Tim and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brad and it's a mail bag edition. We're taping this
0:15
Speaker 1: the morning after the other's lost at Minnesota. So this
0:17
Speaker 1: road trip is not going the way they want. They're
0:20
Speaker 1: falling out of this race a little bit. And we'll
0:23
Speaker 1: be getting more into that in some future shows. But
0:26
Speaker 1: we want to hear from our viewers today. Two guys
0:29
Speaker 1: sent in a bunch of questions, and if I can
0:32
Speaker 1: scroll through this or find the order, I want, good
0:35
Speaker 1: luck with me on that pop a few out here,
0:38
Speaker 1: and the first one comes from Steven. I think it's
0:43
Speaker 1: this here we go. What are the chances Elias actually
0:48
Speaker 1: hires a GM this offseason? He needs someone that is
0:51
Speaker 1: opposite of his tendencies to always look to the future.
0:54
Speaker 1: Now this is interesting because when Elias was promoted and
0:58
Speaker 1: we eventually found out about it to President of Baseball Operations,
1:02
Speaker 1: there was talk he could hire beneath them and the
1:05
Speaker 1: food chain a general manager. A lot of teams have
1:08
Speaker 1: that President Baseball Ops GM. What are your guys' thoughts
1:14
Speaker 1: on this one?
1:15
Speaker 2: A really good question. First of all, I don't know
1:17
Speaker 2: if we have the answer. We could kind of speculate
1:20
Speaker 2: and take guesses at it, But my guess is that
1:22
Speaker 2: he's not gonna That would just be my guess if
1:24
Speaker 2: I had to take a shot at it. But he's
1:27
Speaker 2: the head. He's been running this organization now for seven
1:31
Speaker 2: eight years, and I think he kind of knows the
1:33
Speaker 2: direction they're going. I think hiring a GM maybe at
1:35
Speaker 2: this point, maybe to give them a different perspective, would
1:38
Speaker 2: be the only way I'd see him hiring one. But
1:40
Speaker 2: you guys have a little bit better understanding of the
1:42
Speaker 2: dynamic and everything that he's got there in Baltimore. But
1:45
Speaker 2: my guess is that he's probably gonna stick it as
1:48
Speaker 2: is right now.
1:52
Speaker 3: I don't want to say that it's sort of a
1:54
Speaker 3: non story, but it kind of is to me, just
1:58
Speaker 3: because even if Mike did hire a GM, Mike's pulling
2:03
Speaker 3: all the strings. He's the president of Baseball Ops, So
2:06
Speaker 3: I just wonder how much juice a GM would have
2:09
Speaker 3: even coming in now. The flip side of this, guys,
2:13
Speaker 3: if the Orioles end up not making the playoffs and
2:16
Speaker 3: ownership does give Mike another crack at this, I wonder
2:20
Speaker 3: if they are going to set any guard roll guardrails
2:23
Speaker 3: or parameters on Mike, like, Okay, it's been eight years
2:26
Speaker 3: without a playoff win at this point, like we need
2:28
Speaker 3: to do something different. But barring that, I just don't
2:32
Speaker 3: know how much a general manager would really affect the
2:36
Speaker 3: operations of this in the front office for Mike.
2:41
Speaker 1: So I don't see that happening either. But let's say
2:44
Speaker 1: that this scenario play nowt Rubinstein goes to Mike after
2:48
Speaker 1: the season, says, we still believe in you. You're still
2:50
Speaker 1: our guy, but we do want you to bring in
2:52
Speaker 1: a GM who does have some different thoughts than you,
2:55
Speaker 1: who's not just your friend, who's not just going to
2:58
Speaker 1: sign off on everything you say, who's going to disagree
3:00
Speaker 1: with you, and Mike we want to hear from him too.
3:04
Speaker 1: And the trade deadline, it's Rubes, his ownership group, Mike
3:07
Speaker 1: and this new person. And if the new person has
3:10
Speaker 1: an idea that ownership likes better than Mike, maybe they say, Mike,
3:14
Speaker 1: we think we got to Jim. Jim over here had
3:16
Speaker 1: the call. So I mean, I doubt we see that
3:19
Speaker 1: had happen, But there might be some organizations in baseball
3:24
Speaker 1: where that is similar, and sometimes dissenting opinions are welcome,
3:29
Speaker 1: and maybe the ools are reaching that time. B Man
3:33
Speaker 1: has a question here, who's going to lead the next
3:35
Speaker 1: wave of pitching With the likes of Faret de Leone, Herman, Wells, Gibson,
3:40
Speaker 1: Wats Brown, I Ands and Jurwa Riley, Quinn, Bragg, Witherspoon,
3:44
Speaker 1: that's the great list of pitching prospects. And I'll say this,
3:49
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who's going to lead it, but I'm
3:51
Speaker 1: just glad they have it because some of those guys
3:54
Speaker 1: are going to break through. Some might be parts of
3:57
Speaker 1: trades that bring other pieces that help them win. And
4:01
Speaker 1: this load of pitchers, and we haven't even named them
4:04
Speaker 1: all here will be good long term for the Orioles,
4:08
Speaker 1: whether it's for them for trades that help them. You know,
4:12
Speaker 1: some are not going to work out. Andy McPhail used
4:14
Speaker 1: to tell me, Steve, if you have twelve pitching prospects,
4:16
Speaker 1: you probably have four. That's just the way it goes.
4:20
Speaker 1: But it's a good list right here. Yeah.
4:23
Speaker 2: And I was even gonna before we even say that, Steve,
4:25
Speaker 2: I was going to say, if you get two or
4:26
Speaker 2: three out of that list, you'd be thrilled. If you
4:28
Speaker 2: have three pieces in your starting rotation or one of
4:30
Speaker 2: these guys is the high end leverage guy like you
4:33
Speaker 2: would take that in a heartbeat. So the fact that
4:35
Speaker 2: you have this many names on this list here is
4:38
Speaker 2: a great starting point to me. And we're not talking
4:39
Speaker 2: about guys that are at the lowest level. We're talking
4:41
Speaker 2: about some guys knocking on double AAA big league level here.
4:45
Speaker 2: So that's where I feel like the biggest difference is
4:47
Speaker 2: it's not a lot of low level prospects that we
4:49
Speaker 2: have on this list. There's a lot of guys that
4:51
Speaker 2: have a shot to maybe even be in Baltimore by
4:53
Speaker 2: the end of the season. And I think that's an
4:54
Speaker 2: awesome thing to have, and it's something I feel like
4:56
Speaker 2: Baltimore hasn't had a very long time. So, like you
4:59
Speaker 2: were saying, I don't know if I can take one
5:00
Speaker 2: of these, you would hope iinsin after that trade is
5:03
Speaker 2: a guy that can really be maybe a number one,
5:05
Speaker 2: number two starter. But if you can get two, three,
5:07
Speaker 2: four guys out of this, you'd be completely thrilled to
5:10
Speaker 2: have that many pitchers that go up to Baltimore and
5:12
Speaker 2: contribute to the big league team.
5:14
Speaker 3: And I think it's really important to point out that
5:17
Speaker 3: you already have Kyle Bradish and Shane Bobs locked up
5:19
Speaker 3: long term. They're both on five year deals, which is
5:23
Speaker 3: really really exciting. And we know that this organization hasn't
5:26
Speaker 3: typically paid for starting pitching, but you got two guys
5:30
Speaker 3: locked up long term. Brandon Young's under club control for
5:33
Speaker 3: the next four years. But sure, you know you'd immediately
5:37
Speaker 3: think of Ianson just because he's the hot, sexy name
5:40
Speaker 3: coming over from the Adlee Rutchman trade. But jerwas getting
5:44
Speaker 3: a lot of play. Heck, even J. T.
5:45
Speaker 4: Quinn.
5:46
Speaker 3: I remember Keith low was on my show on the
5:48
Speaker 3: Fan probably a couple months ago, really talking up JG.
5:52
Speaker 3: Quinn and his potential as a nice one two punch
5:55
Speaker 3: with Jerwah. At that point, obviously Ianson wasn't in the organization.
5:59
Speaker 4: But this is a big development for this org.
6:03
Speaker 3: And Steve you said it where not all of these
6:05
Speaker 3: guys are going to pan out, but pitching and pitching
6:09
Speaker 3: prospects carry a lot of value, and if you end
6:14
Speaker 3: up packaging one or multiple of these guys, you could
6:18
Speaker 3: end up getting a proven major leaguer in return.
6:22
Speaker 1: How did the Red Sox get Rutchmen. They traded two
6:24
Speaker 1: of the best pitching prospects, So I mean I'm not
6:27
Speaker 1: Sayings are going to go back and reacquire Rutchman, but
6:30
Speaker 1: maybe a player of that talent level they would trade
6:34
Speaker 1: four in a year or two by trading some of
6:36
Speaker 1: this list. Not mentioned here is the pitcher who leads
6:40
Speaker 1: the oil organization and strikeout percentage. Left hander Caden Hunter
6:45
Speaker 1: might be having the best year of all of them.
6:47
Speaker 1: Has moved three levels. He's now at double A, is
6:50
Speaker 1: striking everybody out, sixth round left out of USC who's
6:54
Speaker 1: had a phenomenal year, Who's getting swing and miss on
6:57
Speaker 1: his fastball in the strikes. That's when it's telling scouts
7:02
Speaker 1: he's beating good hitters and not chasing. He's throwing a
7:05
Speaker 1: pitch they should be able to hit. They can't hit it.
7:08
Speaker 1: So this kid's been pretty amazing. It's just a long
7:11
Speaker 1: list which has been good for Birdland, I think, and
7:14
Speaker 1: fun to follow, especially from Major league club is having
7:17
Speaker 1: a tough year. Let's hear from Old Bay Sports. I
7:21
Speaker 1: love that he says. Do you think Hyde was the
7:23
Speaker 1: fall guy for Elias last season? Personally he was a
7:26
Speaker 1: huge fan. I feel awful he was let go and
7:29
Speaker 1: thanks and Brad was one of my all time favorite os.
7:32
Speaker 1: There you go, well, that's very nice.
7:35
Speaker 2: That's nice of you to say.
7:36
Speaker 1: Yes.
7:37
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I mean, I just I think when
7:42
Speaker 2: teams struggle, someone's going to pay the price, and a
7:44
Speaker 2: lot of times it's not necessarily the GM, it's going
7:47
Speaker 2: to be the manager's I feel like he's next in line,
7:50
Speaker 2: and I think Brandon Hyde did an unbelievable job taking
7:52
Speaker 2: this team to the next level and out of the rebuild,
7:56
Speaker 2: and he deserves a lot of that credit. I think
7:58
Speaker 2: also to just kind of navigate through losing one hundred
8:01
Speaker 2: plus games, was it two or three years in a
8:03
Speaker 2: row getting them back to winning one hundred plus games. Yeah,
8:07
Speaker 2: I think from there it's you know, things just kind
8:09
Speaker 2: of happened and it just didn't develop the way they
8:11
Speaker 2: Like we've talked about in the show multiple times, it
8:13
Speaker 2: just the development at the big league level just didn't continue.
8:16
Speaker 2: The guys got up there, they had success, weren't able
8:19
Speaker 2: to sustain it, or they weren't able to get to
8:21
Speaker 2: the next level of their success. And I think a
8:23
Speaker 2: lot of times that just ends up falling on the
8:25
Speaker 2: manager and the coaches on the coaching staff. But yeah,
8:28
Speaker 2: it's it's an unfortunate situation when you have to get
8:30
Speaker 2: rid of the manager like that. But at the time
8:32
Speaker 2: that's what Elias thought. And when he's running, you know,
8:35
Speaker 2: kind of the way the rosters put together and everything,
8:38
Speaker 2: I just think Kid's going to be the guy. And
8:40
Speaker 2: unfortunate the managers usually are when it comes to that point.
8:42
Speaker 2: You can't fire the players, so it's usually the manager
8:46
Speaker 2: guys on the coaching staff that kind of take the
8:49
Speaker 2: take the loss when it happens.
8:51
Speaker 3: I think Brandon Hyde was the perfect hire that the
8:55
Speaker 3: O's could have made at that point in twenty nineteen,
8:58
Speaker 3: when you know, you gouted everything and he built it
9:01
Speaker 3: up from the ground up. And I'm also glad that
9:04
Speaker 3: they gave Brandon Hyde the opportunity to lead this team
9:08
Speaker 3: when they were done losing and a big reason why
9:11
Speaker 3: this team was at a schedule in twenty twenty two,
9:14
Speaker 3: they had a winning record when they thought that they
9:16
Speaker 3: were going to lose one hundred games, a lot of
9:18
Speaker 3: people thought that again, and then twenty three winning one
9:20
Speaker 3: hundred games. He was manager of the Year in twenty
9:23
Speaker 3: twenty three, and he barely lasted a full season plus
9:28
Speaker 3: after winning Manager of the Year. So a lot of
9:31
Speaker 3: these things in sports, it's not for long, and it's
9:34
Speaker 3: what have you done for me lately? And I don't
9:36
Speaker 3: think it was Brandon Hyde's fault in twenty twenty five,
9:39
Speaker 3: and heck, and I want to just say this is
9:42
Speaker 3: pure speculation on my part, but I can distinctly remember
9:46
Speaker 3: Michaelias going around to several different platforms, whether it's one
9:51
Speaker 3: of five seven or Ryan Ripkin MLB network emphasizing in
9:55
Speaker 3: the midst of that spiral, this is not Brandon Heide's fault.
9:58
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't have the best off season. He
10:01
Speaker 3: was owning some of it, and then within a couple
10:03
Speaker 3: of weeks he was fired. So I do wonder how
10:06
Speaker 3: much of it was possibly ownership as opposed to just Mike, but.
10:11
Speaker 4: Sure, you know that's kind of first order of operation.
10:14
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, the manager goes and then the GM is under
10:18
Speaker 3: the microscope, and make no mistake about it, Michael Oas
10:21
Speaker 3: has been under the microscope since that point.
10:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, Brandon is very very well regarded and has a
10:30
Speaker 1: heavy role with the Rays. He is with their major
10:34
Speaker 1: League team every day when they're home, almost like a coach.
10:37
Speaker 1: He's not officially on a coaching staff and works with
10:41
Speaker 1: their team and when the major League team is on
10:43
Speaker 1: the road. He works with the minor league guys, and
10:46
Speaker 1: Kevin Cash and Brandon Hyde are very close. They respect
10:49
Speaker 1: each other greatly. Wouldn't shock me if there's an opening
10:52
Speaker 1: on that staff next year that he becomes a major
10:55
Speaker 1: league coach. That could be the next move for Brandon
10:57
Speaker 1: unless somebody wants to give him a job as a manager.
11:01
Speaker 1: And as you said to him, a team that's where
11:03
Speaker 1: the Oriols were losing the hundred games, he might be
11:07
Speaker 1: the perfect guys player development background. He did it once.
11:10
Speaker 1: We forget people say the Oriols, we all that losing
11:13
Speaker 1: and we barely won. They won for three years. Oh
11:15
Speaker 1: by the way, twenty twenty two they gained how many wins,
11:18
Speaker 1: forty or fifty wins and they had a winning record,
11:22
Speaker 1: but they didn't make a playoffs. But that was a
11:24
Speaker 1: dramatic turnaround year. Then they won the East. Then they
11:27
Speaker 1: fell off finally, but they've made the playoffs again, so
11:30
Speaker 1: it was a pretty good three year run. I don't
11:33
Speaker 1: think we should forget that. It is Berdland Territory a
11:37
Speaker 1: mail bag edition. Thanks to our viewers for first of all,
11:40
Speaker 1: we're on the cusp of a thousand subscribers can you
11:43
Speaker 1: believe that man as a slog boy. We didn't think
11:45
Speaker 1: we'd ever get there, but we're just like twenty away.
11:47
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11:51
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11:59
Speaker 1: The audio version of the show three times a week,
12:01
Speaker 1: times thirty minutes. We're coming at you on Birdland Territory.
12:05
Speaker 1: We got more next.
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13:09
Speaker 1: Hey, we also love all the great comments you guys
13:11
Speaker 1: put on our YouTube channel. We see great discussion in there.
13:15
Speaker 1: Sometimes we jump in and respond to your questions, but
13:18
Speaker 1: we just like to hear from the people watching the show,
13:21
Speaker 1: and so many of tolds they like the show. When
13:24
Speaker 1: I go to the ballpark, I hear it in person,
13:26
Speaker 1: when I go out somewhere, I hear it. So thanks
13:28
Speaker 1: for that, and let's roll on with this mail bag edition.
13:31
Speaker 1: Here's a question from BAM. This is a good one,
13:35
Speaker 1: and this is one a lot of things speaks for
13:37
Speaker 1: a lot of fans here. How much longer can the
13:39
Speaker 1: Oils rely on waiting for the major league talent to click?
13:42
Speaker 1: Is there a point where you can't keep waiting?
13:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's I don't know. I don't know the answers
13:50
Speaker 2: to that. It's kind of I feel like the bulk
13:54
Speaker 2: of this roster right now is the guys that are
13:57
Speaker 2: going to be there, and it's kind of the guys
14:00
Speaker 2: to have success in order for this team to be successful.
14:02
Speaker 2: So it's really I don't know how much longer you
14:06
Speaker 2: can wait if you're a fan. It's kind of one
14:08
Speaker 2: of those things that's got to be frustrating disappointing, just
14:10
Speaker 2: kind of all the things, especially with all the emotions
14:13
Speaker 2: of the last week, just going from what you might
14:16
Speaker 2: think is going to be a buying team to clearly
14:19
Speaker 2: a selling team, and now it's just kind of seeing
14:21
Speaker 2: what's left after everybody, you know, the trades were done.
14:24
Speaker 2: So I don't know, it's a very good question. It's
14:27
Speaker 2: kind of you just got to hope that they're able
14:29
Speaker 2: to turn it around. And I think even if they
14:32
Speaker 2: don't make the playoffs this year, you just want to
14:33
Speaker 2: see a trending in an upward progression come September, and
14:36
Speaker 2: I think a lot of teams can springboard off of
14:39
Speaker 2: that moving into the next season. I can think of
14:41
Speaker 2: the Oils back in twenty eleven. I remember the guys
14:43
Speaker 2: talking about how they finish that season doing well. Same thing.
14:46
Speaker 2: It sounds like in twenty two they finished the season
14:49
Speaker 2: really well, with a lot of momentum heading into the
14:50
Speaker 2: next year, and it's springboard them into division championship the
14:54
Speaker 2: first time being in the playoffs in a long time.
14:56
Speaker 2: So I think those are the kind of things you
14:57
Speaker 2: want to look at this team moving forward. Yes, not
15:00
Speaker 2: that far out of the wild card, but I think
15:02
Speaker 2: it's just you want to see this major league talent
15:04
Speaker 2: kind of find an identity because I feel like we
15:07
Speaker 2: haven't seen that yet this year, and it's I want
15:09
Speaker 2: to see that identity come in September when these teams
15:12
Speaker 2: are in the playoff race and maybe they're the team
15:14
Speaker 2: that plays spoiler. They're not the ones getting in the playoffs,
15:16
Speaker 2: but they have a chance to knock teams out. And
15:18
Speaker 2: that's that's really what you want to see from this
15:19
Speaker 2: roster for the rest of the year in my opinion.
15:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the billion dollar question. And Steve, you kind
15:25
Speaker 3: of made the great point. It kind of already said
15:29
Speaker 3: that they're not going to keep waiting right in trading
15:32
Speaker 3: Adley Rutchman. I think that was kind of an acknowledgment that,
15:36
Speaker 3: all right, we need to tinker with this core and
15:39
Speaker 3: that this hasn't worked this past couple of years, But
15:42
Speaker 3: looking at the immediacy and looking at the guys on
15:45
Speaker 3: the twenty six man roster, I think this is why
15:48
Speaker 3: I've been advocating ever since the trade deadline.
15:50
Speaker 1: Guys.
15:51
Speaker 3: I need to find out And this isn't me waving
15:54
Speaker 3: the white flag. This isn't me, you know, quitting on
15:57
Speaker 3: the season. I want to see Colden Cowser play every day.
16:01
Speaker 3: I want to see Dylan Beavers play every day. I
16:03
Speaker 3: want to see Kobe Mayo play every day. I want
16:05
Speaker 3: to see Jackson Holiday play every day. Heck, I would
16:08
Speaker 3: like to see Heston Kerstak get an opportunity before the
16:11
Speaker 3: year is over, because he's out of options next year.
16:14
Speaker 3: What are you going to do with him? This might
16:16
Speaker 3: be his last opportunity here guys. So I think all
16:20
Speaker 3: of these young guys and I know now are coming
16:22
Speaker 3: down to what forty some games remaining, So it's not
16:26
Speaker 3: a huge sample size, but I need to gain inventory
16:30
Speaker 3: on these young guys who is going to help me
16:32
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty seven and beyond. But it's also really
16:36
Speaker 3: complicated because of this upcoming workstopage. I you know, is
16:40
Speaker 3: it going to be Michael Oyas? Are they going to
16:43
Speaker 3: make a move there. If it's Mike, how is he
16:46
Speaker 3: going to operate differently? This upcoming offseason is really fascinating
16:52
Speaker 3: because it's something that we've been saying for weeks now.
16:56
Speaker 3: This is not a twenty eighteen situation. This is not
16:58
Speaker 3: a tear down. This is kind of a reboot, a retool,
17:02
Speaker 3: if you will. But I need to gain as much
17:05
Speaker 3: intel as I can on this young core down the
17:09
Speaker 3: stretch so that I can make the right decision.
17:14
Speaker 1: It's the biggest question I think facing the Orioles because
17:17
Speaker 1: when fans tell me the rebuild failed, I say, no,
17:19
Speaker 1: it didn't fail. They went to first place in the
17:22
Speaker 1: America League East, they gained fifty games in the standings.
17:24
Speaker 1: If that's failure, give me more of it. But what
17:27
Speaker 1: did fail is they failed to build on that. And
17:32
Speaker 1: the players who were having a yet eight hundred OPS
17:35
Speaker 1: now have a six hundred OPS. We all know their names.
17:39
Speaker 1: So this question that this viewer is asking is very pertinent,
17:44
Speaker 1: and the Orioles have to try to pinpoint is is
17:47
Speaker 1: it ten different guys have ten different answers to this question.
17:50
Speaker 1: Is it about our player development? Is it about work
17:53
Speaker 1: ethic of individuals? Is it about Major League coaching. This
17:57
Speaker 1: could be a blurred line of ten different things. It's
18:00
Speaker 1: not going to be a one size fits all here
18:02
Speaker 1: that if the Ools fix this, all their young hitters
18:05
Speaker 1: will hit. Nope, there's not going to be that one
18:08
Speaker 1: answer that's solves it. But I'll tell you this and
18:10
Speaker 1: I'll get off my soapbox. Mike Shilt and I met
18:14
Speaker 1: sat with him for an hour in Frederick about a
18:16
Speaker 1: week or two ago. Is a manager of the Padres
18:19
Speaker 1: the last two years. Loves the Orioles and is working
18:21
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues behind the scenes. And he was
18:24
Speaker 1: written and cow Are written about a lot a couple
18:26
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, but al of the limelight. He's at
18:31
Speaker 1: minor league parks three out of four weeks a year,
18:34
Speaker 1: three different higher level teams. He's been in Norfolk, he's
18:37
Speaker 1: been in Chesapeake, he's been a Frederick, and he's really
18:42
Speaker 1: teaching those young kids minutia of things that win games
18:47
Speaker 1: that are important, not just how you improve your launch angle,
18:52
Speaker 1: how you work on little things that add up to
18:55
Speaker 1: big things. And he managed with ninety wins in the
18:58
Speaker 1: major leagues. He knows what it takes. So if I
19:02
Speaker 1: were one of those young kids, every time he opened
19:04
Speaker 1: his mouth, I would be at attention. I want to
19:07
Speaker 1: hear what Mike Schill has to offer, and he loves
19:10
Speaker 1: offering it. I can't wait to write. It's gonna be
19:12
Speaker 1: on my substack in a week or two, and it's
19:15
Speaker 1: going to be a huge couple of articles on Mike
19:17
Speaker 1: Schill and what's happening on the farm. Let's go to
19:23
Speaker 1: a break. Why don't we Seeve calm down a little bit.
19:25
Speaker 1: You get passionate about this stuff. I do, man, I
19:29
Speaker 1: love baseball. Can you tell I think I'm in the
19:31
Speaker 1: right industry? Guys, it's our mail Bag edition. We're having
19:34
Speaker 1: a lot of fun taking some great viewer questions we
19:37
Speaker 1: got today, like this one. And uh bam, I gotta
19:41
Speaker 1: before I mess up our ad here, I gotta take
19:44
Speaker 1: you off the screen for a second. But thanks for
19:46
Speaker 1: that great question, and we'll roll on here on Birdland
19:50
Speaker 1: Territory in a moment.
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20:54
Speaker 1: Burdline Territory rolls on here our edition where we're taking
20:59
Speaker 1: viewer question and O's mail bag. Karen has another good one,
21:04
Speaker 1: When will the team change the offensive approach? The last
21:08
Speaker 1: Texas game? Was fun. Yeah, they got ten runs, but
21:10
Speaker 1: launch angle and dingers isn't necessarily for everyone. Here's my
21:15
Speaker 1: take on this. I'm going back to our friend Buck
21:18
Speaker 1: Show Walter. We were talking about him before we started
21:20
Speaker 1: taping today and how he and Brad and all you
21:23
Speaker 1: guys built the winner in Baltimore. Buck would often say
21:28
Speaker 1: win ninety feet and I think the Oarls have gotten
21:32
Speaker 1: away from that. And by that we mean sometimes you
21:34
Speaker 1: have to advance the runner with a bunch or a
21:36
Speaker 1: ground ball or a sack fly. Sometimes you have to
21:39
Speaker 1: make the throat of the cutoff man so the opponent
21:43
Speaker 1: doesn't go first to third. Little things that turn into
21:47
Speaker 1: big things, and that ninety feet that get away. Look
21:50
Speaker 1: at the Oarls one run record, it's terrible. You go
21:54
Speaker 1: back to any one of those games and take a
21:56
Speaker 1: couple ninety foot plays they lost that could make the difference.
22:02
Speaker 1: But that can't answer the question. So don't get lost
22:04
Speaker 1: in my response to Karen's question about the offensive approach.
22:09
Speaker 2: No, I completely agree with you, Steve, and this is
22:11
Speaker 2: gonna be me kind of getting my soapbox. I just
22:13
Speaker 2: feel like the league has turned into a copycat league
22:16
Speaker 2: and every team is trying to win the same exact way,
22:20
Speaker 2: and I feel like if you're not able to hit
22:23
Speaker 2: the five hundred homers a year that every team wants
22:25
Speaker 2: to do, you kind of just get stuck in the middle.
22:27
Speaker 2: And I feel like that's where the Orders are kind
22:30
Speaker 2: of stuck right now because they haven't had the ton
22:32
Speaker 2: of homers and they haven't done all the little things right,
22:34
Speaker 2: so now they're just kind of stuck in mediocrity in
22:37
Speaker 2: the middle of the league. And I feel like that's
22:39
Speaker 2: happened a lot. You have a few outlier teams that
22:41
Speaker 2: do it really, really well, they're at the top of
22:43
Speaker 2: the league every year. You have the teams at the
22:45
Speaker 2: bottom who can't do it at all, yet they still
22:47
Speaker 2: continue to try to do it, And I feel like
22:50
Speaker 2: that's where a lot of teams get stuck. And I agree,
22:52
Speaker 2: I think they should try to do something different, try
22:54
Speaker 2: to go outside the box a little bit, because I
22:56
Speaker 2: feel like this set of players has a much bigger
22:59
Speaker 2: skill set than what they're trying to do make everybody do,
23:03
Speaker 2: and I just feel like there's more in the tank there.
23:04
Speaker 2: There's different things they can do to approach the offensive
23:07
Speaker 2: game than they're doing right now, and I just feel
23:09
Speaker 2: like they would be better served as a team if
23:12
Speaker 2: every guy was able to use there. I think a
23:14
Speaker 2: Blaize Alexander, I think that offensive approach that he's been
23:18
Speaker 2: using this year is something that all these guys can do.
23:21
Speaker 2: But they're kind of all put in a box. They
23:23
Speaker 2: all drafted early on and it's all about launch angle,
23:25
Speaker 2: it's all about homers. But you can have a lot
23:27
Speaker 2: of success and score a lot of runs if you're
23:29
Speaker 2: able to hit the ball the other way, hit the
23:31
Speaker 2: ball in the gap, use your speed, and that's just
23:33
Speaker 2: what I feel like this team could do a lot
23:35
Speaker 2: of because they have a lot of talent, not just
23:37
Speaker 2: trying to hit homers and try to be power hitters.
23:39
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a lot of talent individually that
23:42
Speaker 2: could do really well under a team setting.
23:46
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that to take away all of the
23:49
Speaker 3: blame going the Orioles way, but I wonder if this
23:53
Speaker 3: isn't just an Orioles question. Is this just an MLB
23:56
Speaker 3: question right where I've had the conversations with Bordick, for example,
24:01
Speaker 3: and Bordy, you know he does those private lessons with kids,
24:05
Speaker 3: and Steve, I know you have some stories just covering
24:08
Speaker 3: the miners as well. Where I mean you're talking about
24:11
Speaker 3: kids talking about launch angle on average eggs and velocity
24:15
Speaker 3: and velocity if you're a pitcher, and spin rate and
24:19
Speaker 3: all of these you know, hot key words, right Where
24:23
Speaker 3: if they're learning all of that as as children and
24:28
Speaker 3: as young adults before they're even drafted, and then you
24:31
Speaker 3: get into professional baseball, I don't know. I just wonder
24:35
Speaker 3: if it's just sort of the state of the game.
24:38
Speaker 3: And of course there's outliers as individual players, there's outliers
24:43
Speaker 3: and as teams.
24:45
Speaker 4: Heck, even a guy that can think of luis a Rise.
24:47
Speaker 3: You know, Steve, you were joking in last episode, I
24:50
Speaker 3: think like batting average has been devalued, right, well, Luisa Rise,
24:54
Speaker 3: this is someone that hits three hundred every single year,
24:57
Speaker 3: but he's not as valued in the analytic community.
25:01
Speaker 4: And I don't know, it's a tough question. I think
25:05
Speaker 4: it's a very good question.
25:06
Speaker 3: But circling back to where we started with the OL's,
25:09
Speaker 3: I think something that has to change for this organization is, Steve,
25:15
Speaker 3: how many hitting coaches have they had? It just seems
25:18
Speaker 3: like they cycle through so many hitting coaches where I
25:22
Speaker 3: think lacking that continuity of message, I'm sure does not
25:27
Speaker 3: help these guys.
25:29
Speaker 1: In twenty three and twenty four, there's two coaches who
25:32
Speaker 1: are on both staffs, Ryan Fuller and Matt bord Chilty,
25:37
Speaker 1: and the Oils were seventh and fourth in run scored. No,
25:41
Speaker 1: we're close right now. They've cycled through a bunch of
25:44
Speaker 1: coaches since there's two guys left. By the way, Ryan
25:47
Speaker 1: Fuller is the hitting director for the White Sox. He's overseas.
25:51
Speaker 1: All their hitting majors and minors are in first place
25:54
Speaker 1: where chiltas in Washington. They're scoring five runs a game.
25:57
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying it's all about that, but it
25:59
Speaker 1: makes you wonder the suple math of it of how
26:02
Speaker 1: well they were doing when those guys were here. Let's
26:04
Speaker 1: say we can fit in a couple more. Hey, Wilke,
26:07
Speaker 1: the Oils are putting still putting Gunner in the three hole.
26:10
Speaker 1: Maybe it's to try to showcase him for next year's deadline.
26:13
Speaker 1: I doubt it's that, but they have just not wanted
26:17
Speaker 1: to move this guy and it's not working out with
26:21
Speaker 1: him in the three hole.
26:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just been a struggle. And I think I
26:25
Speaker 2: was listening to Mike Bordick talking about how he's just
26:29
Speaker 2: we forget how young of a player he is, and
26:31
Speaker 2: it's just all kind of stirring up there right now.
26:34
Speaker 2: And we talk about in previous episodes that he's probably
26:36
Speaker 2: a player who's never struggled in his career, in his
26:39
Speaker 2: lifetime in baseball, and I just think it's right now
26:42
Speaker 2: at this point, it's so much inner pressure put on himself,
26:46
Speaker 2: and I feel like now a lot of guys are
26:48
Speaker 2: looking to him to be the leader, and he's just
26:50
Speaker 2: not having that type of year where it's like you
26:52
Speaker 2: look at this guy like he's going to be the
26:54
Speaker 2: one that takes us out of this and into the
26:56
Speaker 2: next era of Orioles baseball. So I just think there's
26:58
Speaker 2: all this pressure going on, and I just don't know
27:01
Speaker 2: if you move him down to the lineup, is that
27:02
Speaker 2: going to help his confidence, because I think that's at
27:04
Speaker 2: this point the biggest thing is to try to get
27:06
Speaker 2: Gunner's confidence back, And if you move him back to six,
27:09
Speaker 2: seven eight in the lineup, I don't know, maybe it
27:12
Speaker 2: does help, maybe it doesn't. But at this point, they
27:14
Speaker 2: want they want him to know what they think of him,
27:17
Speaker 2: and they see him as a one through three hitter,
27:19
Speaker 2: and I think when Gunner's going right, that's exactly what
27:21
Speaker 2: he is. He's a middle of the lineup hitter. So
27:23
Speaker 2: I just don't know if moving him out of that
27:25
Speaker 2: spot makes sense. But I can understand from maybe trying
27:28
Speaker 2: to get confidence. But then it's you got to think about, Okay,
27:30
Speaker 2: this guy is a three hitter. Now he's hitting the
27:32
Speaker 2: seventh spot. Does that affect his mentality? You just don't know.
27:35
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a lot of factors that kind
27:38
Speaker 2: of factor into the decision to keep putting him in
27:40
Speaker 2: the middle of the lineup.
27:41
Speaker 3: Well, it certainly seems like just hearing Craig alban As
27:44
Speaker 3: his comments prior to yesterday's game, because Gunner's led off
27:47
Speaker 3: the past four games. He's their leadoff guy, and Craig
27:51
Speaker 3: alburn As he's steadfast and saying, we're trying to get
27:53
Speaker 3: him going. We're doing everything we can do to get
27:55
Speaker 3: him going. But guys, I truly believe Gunner Henderson can
28:01
Speaker 3: be a great player. Again, he's way too talented to
28:05
Speaker 3: not be a great player. But the reality is he's
28:09
Speaker 3: not a great player right now. It's been a really
28:12
Speaker 3: tough season and I was looking up some numbers yesterday
28:16
Speaker 3: for my show, and this was heading into last night.
28:19
Speaker 3: Since July first among two hundred and fifty six qualified batters,
28:24
Speaker 3: Gunner Henderson's two hundred and forty fifth in batting average
28:28
Speaker 3: with one seventy one. He's two hundred and thirty third
28:31
Speaker 3: in ops with five sixty seven. So you're talking well
28:35
Speaker 3: over a month, and it's rough. It's tough to see.
28:40
Speaker 3: It's really tough to see, and I can only imagine
28:42
Speaker 3: how tough it is on Gunner Henderson living it.
28:46
Speaker 1: Last one from a C TB JR. It's like an
28:51
Speaker 1: eye test for us. I think oriols. I've had a
28:54
Speaker 1: number of hitters who produced extremely well on the miners
28:57
Speaker 1: haven't been able to translate to Baltimore completely right, because
29:01
Speaker 1: Gunnar was Rookie of the Year, Cownser was second, Adlee
29:04
Speaker 1: had eight hundred ops, but they fell off after a time,
29:08
Speaker 1: and I think that's the answer they've got to find here.
29:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, like we've been talking about kind of nauseam is
29:14
Speaker 2: just the development at the major league side, and I
29:17
Speaker 2: just think that's where it's kind of falling off. I
29:19
Speaker 2: don't know what the disconnect is or it's just I
29:21
Speaker 2: also think too. A lot of these players don't get
29:24
Speaker 2: enough games in the minor leagues anymore that they're rushed
29:27
Speaker 2: to the big leagues. You don't have six hundred games
29:30
Speaker 2: in the minor leagues underneath your belt. You don't have
29:32
Speaker 2: five hundred eight, like four hundred games under your which
29:34
Speaker 2: a lot of players used to have. And I just
29:37
Speaker 2: think when you're trying to learn at the big league level,
29:38
Speaker 2: you have so many things put in front of you
29:41
Speaker 2: and on your plate that it just becomes overwhelming at
29:44
Speaker 2: certain points where performing on the field just becomes really difficult.
29:47
Speaker 2: It's difficult as it is, but when you have all
29:49
Speaker 2: these other things going on, I just think that's where
29:52
Speaker 2: the disconnect is and they need to kind of figure
29:54
Speaker 2: out why it is. Because all these guys have immense talent.
29:58
Speaker 2: We've seen it. There's been stretches where every single one
30:00
Speaker 2: of these young hitters have come up and shown that
30:03
Speaker 2: they can do at the big league level. It's just
30:05
Speaker 2: more about being consistent up there, and I think that's
30:08
Speaker 2: where they need to find it. It's not about getting
30:09
Speaker 2: the production at the major league level, it's about getting
30:11
Speaker 2: it for one sixty two and for multiple seasons.
30:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's the biggest issue and biggest questions
30:19
Speaker 3: surrounding this club. You know, you can look at so
30:22
Speaker 3: many of these guys that had prolific minor league careers
30:26
Speaker 3: and for some of them, it hasn't translated to the majors,
30:31
Speaker 3: and that's the million dollar question.
30:33
Speaker 4: Why is that?
30:34
Speaker 3: Or some of the guys where it did, and then
30:37
Speaker 3: you know the development is stunted and you go on
30:40
Speaker 3: the wrong way. Why is that happening? And I think
30:44
Speaker 3: it's the biggest question surrounding this organization.
30:48
Speaker 1: And more time in the minors could be an answer
30:50
Speaker 1: for some players. It worked for Westburg. We kept saying
30:53
Speaker 1: why is he not here? Why is he not here?
30:55
Speaker 1: And guess what. When he got here, he didn't struggle.
30:57
Speaker 1: Now he's been hurt, but every time he played, he
31:00
Speaker 1: was a key cog in that lineup. This is a
31:03
Speaker 1: draft pick from college, a couple of years in SEC
31:06
Speaker 1: and then a lot of seasoning and the miners on
31:09
Speaker 1: top of that, and maybe that's the difference why he
31:12
Speaker 1: didn't fall off, and we don't know. Maybe he will,
31:15
Speaker 1: but we haven't seen him in a long time, so
31:17
Speaker 1: we got to see him play first. But when the
31:19
Speaker 1: guy's been out there it's been pretty good. Maybe the
31:22
Speaker 1: reason why is all that seasoning before he got to Baltimore. Man,
31:28
Speaker 1: we again, We're closing it on a thousand, get us
31:30
Speaker 1: there and beyond by the next show. Everyone, when you
31:32
Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube show Birdland Territory and Great Great
31:36
Speaker 1: Questions Today Man, which hopefully produced a great show for
31:39
Speaker 1: you to guys to watch. So Brad, Tim and Steve
31:43
Speaker 1: we will reconvene soon and thanks to everyone for watching today.
31:47
Speaker 1: This latest mail Bag edition of Birdland Territory