State of the Orioles

The Orioles are a legacy AL franchise founded in 1901 as the Milwaukee Brewers morphing into the St Louis Browns in 1902.  The team moved to Baltimore and was renamed the Orioles in 1953.  They were an elite franchise from 1966-1983 but have fallen on mostly hard times in the years since.  At this time, they appear to be (hopefully) near the bottom of a long term rebuild.

Ownership:

Principle owner Peter Angelos is 91 years old.  He has been a controversial owner with a reputation for meddling in baseball decisions.  He made his stash as a trial lawyer representing plaintiffs in big time product liability cases.  Politically he is a Democrat.  Almost immediately after purchasing the team in 1993, Angelos infuriated his fellow owners for refusing to take a hard line against the MLBPA and for refusing to hire replacement players if the strike was prolonged into 1995.  To what extent he is to blame for the team's extended run of on-field futility is probably open for debate, but when futility runs that long, you have to take a hard look at the top guy.  He's been willing to spend money on players,  maybe to a fault, but he's tended to spend it on the wrong players which may be related to not taking advice from his baseball management staff.

Grade D.

Management:

GM Mike Elias is a protege of Jeff Luhnow, first as a scout for the Cardinals, then as Director of Amateur Scouting and Assistant GM for the Astros.  The Orioles hired him in 2018.  Elias brought along Sig Mejdal from the Astros who is versed in sabermetrics.

Brandon Hyde is entering his second season as field manager.  His debut season did not go well with a 54-108 record, but he didn't have a lot of talent to work with.

Grade C(could go up or down depending on how next 2-3 seasons go).

Current Roster:

Starting Nine:  Pedro Severino C, Chris Davis 1B, Hanser Alberto 2B, Rio Ruiz 3B, Jose Iglesias SS, Anthony Santander LF, Austin Hays CF, DJ Stewart RF, Renato Nunez DH.

Bench:  Chance Sisco C, Richie Martin IF, Andrew Velasquez IF, Dwight Smith OF.

Starting Rotation:  John Means LHP, Alex Cobb RHP, Asher Wojciechowski RHP, Wade LeBlanc LHP, Kohl Stewart RHP.

Bullpen:  Mychal Givens RHP, Hunter Harvey RHP, Shawn Armstrong RHP, Miguel Castro RHP, Richard Bleier LHP, Paul Fry LHP, Tommy Milone LHP, Hector Velasquez RHP.

An already bad roster took a huge hit when Trey Mancini was diagnosed and treated for Colon Cancer.  Gotta wish him a complete recovery!  Wow!  Hard to believe the O's couldn't find a way to give Mike Yastrzemski a chance before letting him go to the Giants.  The Orioles would seem to be a few more drafts away from contention and headed for another top 5 draft pick if not #1 overall.

Grade F

Farm System:

Adley Rutschman is the clear cut #1 prospect.  I'ts a reasonably deep system with Zac Lowther who is a better than decent pitching prospect at #10.  Analysts are polarized over how much the 2020 draft will help as they appeared to go under slot with Heston Kjerstad at #2 overall, with some analysts underwhelmed by the overslot target, Coby Mayo, in round 4.

Grade C+