I know, I know. The Orioles stink. Why waste my time writing this blog about a team who just lost their 18th straight game and have yet to reach 40 wins after 123 games so far?
Because it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for all Orioles fans and even GM Mike Elias has admitted as much. In his press conference on August 20th, Elias said “We all knew this was going to be tough and take a while… we are very much on track with what we’re trying to do which is bring this team back to playoff caliber, year-in-year-out contention in the manner of other franchises…”
It’s a REBUILD. People that follow the team know that we’re bad right now. People know that we’re only a few years removed from contention. People know we’re a mid-market team that wasn’t able to keep their superstars. People know they’ve handed out bad contracts over the years. We get it. But again, it’s a REBUILD. We’re going to lose. We have a $19 million payroll right now which is 29th in the bigs.
But you know the most frustrating part? People like Buster Olney, one of the most well-known baseball analysts in the country, is on some sort of Twitter rampage against the O’s and what they’re trying to accomplish. It’s like every other day this guy slams the O’s for losing and tells everyone that they’re on pace to only win X amount of games and lose way over 100 for the 3rd straight year. With negotiations for the new CBA looming this winter, Olney continues to advocate for “Anti-tanking” regulations so teams in the future don’t do what this Orioles team is doing now.
I’m sorry but what about the Astros rebuild from 2011-2013? The one that our now-GM Mike Elias was the Amateur Scouting Director for and was responsible for finding their superstar shortstop Carlos Correa. Those Astros teams were god-awful, losing 106, 107, and 111 games respectively within those 3 years. And even in 2014 when they didn’t break the 100 loss mark, they still were a 4th place team (70-92).
IT TAKES TIME, BUSTER. We have a #2 ranked farm system headlined by a generational talent and to-be backstop staple in the Charm City in Adley Rutschman, pitching prospects like Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall, and Kyle Bradish, hitters like Raylon Bannon and even the newly drafted Colton Cowser looks like he’s going to be a solid player as he begins to develop into a pro guy.
I decided to give Buster some choice words on Twitter on August 18th when the Orioles hit 13 straight losses. He never responded. Coward.
Take the time to just watch some of these highlights of some of the players mentioned above. The future is bright in Baltimore, but it just. Takes. Time.
The Three Spot 
GO YANKEES!!! ⚾️ 🤩 everyone become a Yankee Fan!!!
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