May Banter 2025

[Chris78]

30 minutes ago, CAPE said:

Sugano! The one and only solid acquisition in the offseason. Credit given for that. Dude has an amazing splitter. They better extend him. The only legit starter they have right now lol.

Trade bait. 

To Jump start the next rebuild. 

[winter_warlock]

1 hour ago, Chris78 said:

Trade bait. 

To Jump start the next rebuild. 

  Won't be a rebuild. Rubenstein already said  orioles may retool but no rebuild he wants a winner now. Although he wasnt happy about Elias lack of free agents even though  money was available.

[Deck Pic the Sequel]

On 5/21/2025 at 6:37 AM, H2O said:

Thank you!!  I’m now at the point where I stop counting and anyone who tries to say my real age is fake news. 
 

 

Happy belated fellow Atom!  You’ll always be a year older than me

[WxWatcher007]

Out on the town and it seems like the customers from the shirt sales back in the day are still pleased.

[CAPE]

Sipping on a Limited Release 120 min IPA to start the long weekend. Glorious weather the next few days. Probably wont have this again until early October lol.

[87storms]

What is going on with the O's.  They won 101 games in 2023 and 91 last year, and now 16-33.  It defies logic.

[Maestrobjwa]

33 minutes ago, 87storms said:

What is going on with the O's.  They won 101 games in 2023 and 91 last year, and now 16-33.  It defies logic.

For me the picture is becoming a little clearer: We have a GM who is absolutely fantastic at finding young talent and building the best farm system in the league. Because the young talent was so good the team rose to contention a year quicker than anybody thought! But unfortunately...this same GM has absolutely sucked at building around that young talent. In fact he was OVERfocused on young talent, smh And then...there seem to be other issues with the way he ran things overall that are still coming to light. (over emphasis on analytics may be one of those things).

As one analyst said earlier: It's one thing to get talent: It's another to win with it. And unfortunately...Elias just hasn't been good at the other side of the equation.

[CAPE]

16 minutes ago, Maestrobjwa said:

For me the picture is becoming a little clearer: We have a GM who is absolutely fantastic at finding young talent and building the best farm system in the league. Because the young talent was so good the team rose to contention a year quicker than anybody thought! But unfortunately...this same GM has absolutely sucked at building around that young talent. In fact he was OVERfocused on young talent, smh And then...there seem to be other issues with the way he ran things overall that are still coming to light. (over emphasis on analytics may be one of those things).

As one analyst said earlier: It's one thing to get talent: It's another to win with it. And unfortunately...Elias just hasn't been good at the other side of the equation.

He was a good assistant GM for the Astros, where his focus was scouting and player development at the minor league level. Unfortunately he seems to think that is the sole purpose of an actual GM as well. He is a failure.

[Maestrobjwa]

57 minutes ago, CAPE said:

He was a good assistant GM for the Astros, where his focus was scouting and player development at the minor league level. Unfortunately he seems to think that is the sole purpose of an actual GM as well. He is a failure.

I look at him more as a half failure: Got the rebuild part right, but nothing else, lol Because even after he leaves, we're still gonna benefit from the young talent he brought in, the farm system, and finally being involved in the Latin market--the first fruit of that being Basallo. So all of that was great: but the rest was utter failure.

[87storms]

For me the picture is becoming a little clearer: We have a GM who is absolutely fantastic at finding young talent and building the best farm system in the league. Because the young talent was so good the team rose to contention a year quicker than anybody thought! But unfortunately...this same GM has absolutely sucked at building around that young talent. In fact he was OVERfocused on young talent, smh And then...there seem to be other issues with the way he ran things overall that are still coming to light. (over emphasis on analytics may be one of those things).
As one analyst said earlier: It's one thing to get talent: It's another to win with it. And unfortunately...Elias just hasn't been good at the other side of the equation.

The wizards got hungry over advanced analytics, too. Some of the formulas in “Basketball on Paper” are wild (if you want to have fun, look up “individual offensive player rating”). I get it, it all comes down to points per possession, 3 > 2, a 3 = bucket and a free throw, etc etc, but you gotta put the right talent in place to implement some of these sabermetrics. Not to mention, advanced analytics are descriptive, not formulas that explicitly tell you how to win. Fun and interesting topic, but it can get overused.

[toolsheds]

9 hours ago, 87storms said:

The wizards got hungry over advanced analytics, too. Some of the formulas in “Basketball on Paper” are wild (if you want to have fun, look up “individual offensive player rating”). I get it, it all comes down to points per possession, 3 > 2, a 3 = bucket and a free throw, etc etc, but you gotta put the right talent in place to implement some of these sabermetrics. Not to mention, advanced analytics are descriptive, not formulas that explicitly tell you how to win. Fun and interesting topic, but it can get overused.

Talking with my sons about the Wiz (One who played D3 and has friends in the NBA) and we were wondering why they don't look to hire Mike Malone or Taylor Jenkins.  Both have built teams and with the young talent the Wiz do have, could be a good 2-3 year project to build a competitive team. 

[87storms]

Talking with my sons about the Wiz (One who played D3 and has friends in the NBA) and we were wondering why they don't look to hire Mike Malone or Taylor Jenkins.  Both have built teams and with the young talent the Wiz do have, could be a good 2-3 year project to build a competitive team. 

I think a hire like that is coming, but for now they seem content letting the team struggle/learn and get picks. One more year of this and it’ll be go time…if not sooner…if Keefe doesn’t show improvements. This upcoming draft is huge for them.

[toolsheds]

9 minutes ago, 87storms said:

I think a hire like that is coming, but for now they seem content letting the team struggle/learn and get picks. One more year of this and it’ll be go time…if not sooner…if Keefe doesn’t show improvements. This upcoming draft is huge for them.

It is.  They do have some good building blocks that just need experience.  Happy to see a vets like Middleton and Smart there to teach.  Still miffed about the draft lottery; too much of a coincidence to not make you wonder. OKC did a great job building their team.  Hoping the Wiz can do the same. 

[87storms]

1 hour ago, toolsheds said:

It is.  They do have some good building blocks that just need experience.  Happy to see a vets like Middleton and Smart there to teach.  Still miffed about the draft lottery; too much of a coincidence to not make you wonder. OKC did a great job building their team.  Hoping the Wiz can do the same. 

The fact that OKC still has some great draft capital left, is outrageous lol.  Part of that was great timing because it was clear that Kawhi wanted to play alongside PG13, so OKC basically fleeced the Clippers.  The Wiz had a chance to do something similar when Beal's stock was high, but they sat on it for too long and basically ended up having to cut their losses.  I think they had a chance at getting 3-4 first rounders for Beal at his peak performance, which is one of the reasons I wasn't a huge fan of the new front office blowing things up, but I will say they've done a respectable job so far with the draft picks they've had (though Sarr is still a wildcard).  Looks like Tre Johnson is who they're eyeing.  I'm not sold on Queen at the NBA level, but if the Wiz are able to add another mid-first, then I'd consider rolling the dice.