I think it all depends on whether Elias remains or is replaced. Brandon Hyde wasn’t the problem. Mansolino will work as best possible with what he’s given. Elias is the reason for the state of this team. Elias is the one who assembled this pitching staff. Elias is the one who signed the off season acquisitions.
Should Elias stay or go? I am torn on this question. And given my qualms for making hasty decisions, the fact that I’m torn suggests that replacing Elias might make the most sense.
My guess would be that we give him (Elias) until the end of the year to try to straighten this mess out. And I do mean the end of 2025, meaning that he will still be in charge of deciding whether to tender or nontender players, make any qualifying offers, who to protect in the Rule 5 draft, do we make a pick in the Rule 5 draft, and so on.
I feel the same way. Elias did a lot of good thing but the recent off season was very poor. Getting Tomo great move the rest not so good. As many of us feared O'Neil cannot stay in the lineup and to this point is a 39 million dollar mistake. Morton has been awful for his 15 million and they gave Gibson 5 million to stop by and say hi to some old buddies for less than a month. That is 60 million they could have used to get top talent with.
Mansolino should know the team by now and have his own opinions about the personnel. Mansolino can be grateful to Hyde and still put his own stamp on the team. If he ever had aspirations of being a big league decision maker this is a good chance to show what he can do. At this point getting to .500 would be a step in the right direction. Turning around a badly underperforming team will make everyone look good.
Absolutely terrible off season and add to that the deadline trades the last two years. Eflin was good but Flaherty and Trevor Rogers were disastrous, and frankly Soto and Dominguez lacking. A lot of Elias’s decisions have been very questionable. He seems to be great at drafting but terrible at putting the overall team together.
I will tell you the Orioles miss Santander’s big bat in the middle of the lineup. Kjerstad and ONeill have not made up for it.
My early (very early ) take is that Mansolino is going to be just like Hyde. No difference. New manager and same old robotic on field moves. Bring Cano in to pitch the 8th. He's the "8th inning guy". He gives up runs almost every time out but that doesn't matter. He the 8th inning guy and that's when he's going to pitch. I hope I'm wrong but if Elias is in control this is what we are going to get. I believe this team needs more of a veteran manager. Someone who has the guts to do things a bit differently. We will see but that's my very early take.
This is the mindset I don't like. Why does ANYONE have to be brought in. Whomever is pitching well in the 7th leave him in the game. Cano has been terrible this month. These guys are humans not machines. They have ups and downs. When someone is struggling like Cano, don't bring him into a tie game in the 8th. He's blown 2 games just this week!!!! The "book" say he's our setup man. Well screw that. Right now he's our "blow the game" man. Think outside the box. That's what good manager does to win games
You don't like the current bullpen management that as far as i see every team has gravitated too? Your bullpen management philosophy is that of 30 years ago. Today's philosophy is to carry eight pitchers in the bullpen, pitch them for one inning or so and then have them fresh for the next day or at most the day after. With eight pitchers you can optimize matchup against the lineup and put your key pitcher in the ideal spot for him. Pitching one inning gives you his strongest pitches, and then you replace him with someone else who will give you his strongest pitches. There is no guarantee that a pitcher pitching a second inning will replicate his first. In fact many times I have seen a pitcher get hit in his second inning. The managers and analysts have the stats on which approach is best in the long run. That's why they have all gravitated to this approach.
I don't know if that is true or not. Perhaps for starters, but even there I'm not sure. Plenty of pitchers in the past were hurt. Palmer went on DL at least three major times. There are so many more relief pitchers today that I'm not sure if the percentage of relief pitchers on IL is higher today than the past. In the past, pitchers did not have Tommy John to have done. They just pitched with their velocities down.
Cano is the setup man until he’s not. As long as Cano is the setup man, that was the correct decision. I can see replacing him as setup man, but then the questions with whom? Who would you make the setup man? Soto? Domínguez? Baker? I could see Baker but he seems to be the to go guy for high leverage situations. The fact is, this bullpen is vastly overrated. It’s not that good. Hopefully Etteridge can help but there is not much we can do about it. Whoever else would have been brought it could just as easily have blown that game.
I have seen some different lineup thoughts which I think is good. I like Holliday leading off. leave him there for an extended time and see how it goes.
I think he will do things differently. Already constructing lineups different. I think he will handle bullpen better as he gets a little experience. Wish him the best. He will have Westburg and Cowser coming back soon which should help. Laureano is looking good.
Sure. We would all fill out lineups a little differently. But, I don't think we are losing games because Mountcastle is batting 2nd instead of 6th, or because Holliday is batting 9th instead of leading off.
We're just not playing well. Not pitching well. Not hitting well.
When we lose 24-3 no but when we lose 5-4, line up construction could make a difference. Hyde's over reliance on left, right, left always irritated me. I think Masolino may cluster hot hitters together more to possibly score some more runs? We'll see.
Yea, Mountcastle was hot for a few games. But I still see someone swinging through balls over the plate, and fishing for low and away pitches 3x in a row.
I felt like you did Steve with his honesty as the first presser and pretty much since then. He's not sugarcoating anything but hes also not hitting us with the same platitudes many other managers would in this position. Maybe that changes as time goes on but besides my own Fandom I'd like to see the team start winning for this guy because it's clear he cares
I like Mansolino. I hope he does well.
I think it all depends on whether Elias remains or is replaced. Brandon Hyde wasn’t the problem. Mansolino will work as best possible with what he’s given. Elias is the reason for the state of this team. Elias is the one who assembled this pitching staff. Elias is the one who signed the off season acquisitions.
Should Elias stay or go? I am torn on this question. And given my qualms for making hasty decisions, the fact that I’m torn suggests that replacing Elias might make the most sense.
Hard to handicap this one.
My guess would be that we give him (Elias) until the end of the year to try to straighten this mess out. And I do mean the end of 2025, meaning that he will still be in charge of deciding whether to tender or nontender players, make any qualifying offers, who to protect in the Rule 5 draft, do we make a pick in the Rule 5 draft, and so on.
Just a guess.
Possibly. But if Rubenstein was going to fire him, the best time would be September to give a new guy the offseason decisions.
I feel the same way. Elias did a lot of good thing but the recent off season was very poor. Getting Tomo great move the rest not so good. As many of us feared O'Neil cannot stay in the lineup and to this point is a 39 million dollar mistake. Morton has been awful for his 15 million and they gave Gibson 5 million to stop by and say hi to some old buddies for less than a month. That is 60 million they could have used to get top talent with.
Oh Boog, I accidentally replied above and not directly to you. Look for my comment above.
Great insight. He seems to bring a sense of calmness in the midst of turmoil. Young players should respond well.
Mansolino should know the team by now and have his own opinions about the personnel. Mansolino can be grateful to Hyde and still put his own stamp on the team. If he ever had aspirations of being a big league decision maker this is a good chance to show what he can do. At this point getting to .500 would be a step in the right direction. Turning around a badly underperforming team will make everyone look good.
I really that the keys to the rest of the season will not be the day-to-day game decisions made by the manager, Mansolino.
I think that the keys will be the personnel decisions, made by Mike Elias.
When players are allowed to come back from the IL.
Which players might be called up from the minors.
Which players on the current rosters might be optioned, traded, or otherwise released.
What players we might add through trades or, I suppose, free agency.
Absolutely terrible off season and add to that the deadline trades the last two years. Eflin was good but Flaherty and Trevor Rogers were disastrous, and frankly Soto and Dominguez lacking. A lot of Elias’s decisions have been very questionable. He seems to be great at drafting but terrible at putting the overall team together.
I will tell you the Orioles miss Santander’s big bat in the middle of the lineup. Kjerstad and ONeill have not made up for it.
This was supposed to be a reply to Boog.
How much longer before Elias is gone
With 1st base open , why are you pitching to someone with 3 hits?????
I was screaming for a pitching around
My early (very early ) take is that Mansolino is going to be just like Hyde. No difference. New manager and same old robotic on field moves. Bring Cano in to pitch the 8th. He's the "8th inning guy". He gives up runs almost every time out but that doesn't matter. He the 8th inning guy and that's when he's going to pitch. I hope I'm wrong but if Elias is in control this is what we are going to get. I believe this team needs more of a veteran manager. Someone who has the guts to do things a bit differently. We will see but that's my very early take.
This is the mindset I don't like. Why does ANYONE have to be brought in. Whomever is pitching well in the 7th leave him in the game. Cano has been terrible this month. These guys are humans not machines. They have ups and downs. When someone is struggling like Cano, don't bring him into a tie game in the 8th. He's blown 2 games just this week!!!! The "book" say he's our setup man. Well screw that. Right now he's our "blow the game" man. Think outside the box. That's what good manager does to win games
You don't like the current bullpen management that as far as i see every team has gravitated too? Your bullpen management philosophy is that of 30 years ago. Today's philosophy is to carry eight pitchers in the bullpen, pitch them for one inning or so and then have them fresh for the next day or at most the day after. With eight pitchers you can optimize matchup against the lineup and put your key pitcher in the ideal spot for him. Pitching one inning gives you his strongest pitches, and then you replace him with someone else who will give you his strongest pitches. There is no guarantee that a pitcher pitching a second inning will replicate his first. In fact many times I have seen a pitcher get hit in his second inning. The managers and analysts have the stats on which approach is best in the long run. That's why they have all gravitated to this approach.
To a point, yes I think it was better. One thing for sure, they didn't get hurt nearly as much as now.
I don't know if that is true or not. Perhaps for starters, but even there I'm not sure. Plenty of pitchers in the past were hurt. Palmer went on DL at least three major times. There are so many more relief pitchers today that I'm not sure if the percentage of relief pitchers on IL is higher today than the past. In the past, pitchers did not have Tommy John to have done. They just pitched with their velocities down.
Cano is the setup man until he’s not. As long as Cano is the setup man, that was the correct decision. I can see replacing him as setup man, but then the questions with whom? Who would you make the setup man? Soto? Domínguez? Baker? I could see Baker but he seems to be the to go guy for high leverage situations. The fact is, this bullpen is vastly overrated. It’s not that good. Hopefully Etteridge can help but there is not much we can do about it. Whoever else would have been brought it could just as easily have blown that game.
I have seen some different lineup thoughts which I think is good. I like Holliday leading off. leave him there for an extended time and see how it goes.
I think he will do things differently. Already constructing lineups different. I think he will handle bullpen better as he gets a little experience. Wish him the best. He will have Westburg and Cowser coming back soon which should help. Laureano is looking good.
Sure. We would all fill out lineups a little differently. But, I don't think we are losing games because Mountcastle is batting 2nd instead of 6th, or because Holliday is batting 9th instead of leading off.
We're just not playing well. Not pitching well. Not hitting well.
It's hard to keep track of things going wrong on any given night.
When we lose 24-3 no but when we lose 5-4, line up construction could make a difference. Hyde's over reliance on left, right, left always irritated me. I think Masolino may cluster hot hitters together more to possibly score some more runs? We'll see.
Okay, so we have Ryan Mountcastle with a 12-gme hitting streak, right?
He's a "hot hitter," so we cluster him together with other hot hitters.
And then he goes 0 for 4!!!!!
Kaboom, Harry. Kaboom!
Yea, Mountcastle was hot for a few games. But I still see someone swinging through balls over the plate, and fishing for low and away pitches 3x in a row.
I felt like you did Steve with his honesty as the first presser and pretty much since then. He's not sugarcoating anything but hes also not hitting us with the same platitudes many other managers would in this position. Maybe that changes as time goes on but besides my own Fandom I'd like to see the team start winning for this guy because it's clear he cares
How much longer before Elias is gone