Rich Dubroff
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July 1, 2020 at 7:00 am
The Orioles’ 60-game season dreamers; Canceling the minor leagues
A 60-game season has some Oriole fans dreaming sweetly. They shouldn’t be. Yes, it’s certainly easier to exceed expectations in 60 games than it is in 162, but the Orioles are still painfully thin in starting pitching. And, as executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias pointed out on Monday, they’ll be playing...
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June 30, 2020 at 7:00 am
Elias addresses evaluating players in a short season; Orioles’ long-term goals; New rules
Mike Elias is used to making evaluations over a 162-game season. This year, he needs to make decisions based on 60 games. “I hadn’t really thought about that until recently,” the Orioles’ executive vice president/general manager said in a Zoom call on Monday. “It’s going to be a very small sample for...
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June 29, 2020 at 7:02 pm
Elias says he expects all Orioles to report when summer training starts
Orioles executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias knows that summer training and the truncated season that follows will be a challenge. “This is going to be unlike anything that any one of us has ever experienced,” Elias said in a Zoom conference call on Monday. The Orioles begin reporting to Camden Yards...
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at 7:00 am
Lots of competition in Orioles’ bullpen; Draft signing update; ’70 celebration might have to wait
The Orioles’ designated 44 players for their 60-man summer training roster on Sunday, and the list contained a few surprises. Perhaps the biggest was the addition of right-handed pitcher César Valdez, who was signed to a minor league contract on January 10 but didn’t receive an invitation to major league spring training....
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June 28, 2020 at 4:36 pm
Orioles put 44 players on initial camp roster; Mancini placed on injured list
The Orioles released the names of their initial 44 players on the 60-man summer camp roster on Sunday. They added right-handed pitcher Cesar Valdez, who was in minor league camp and used as a fill-in during early spring games to the list. The 35-year-old Valdez struck out nine while walking none and...
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3.8K17June 26, 2020 at 7:00 amJim Duquette on Orioles’ strategy and outlook for 2020
Jim Duquette is best known in Baltimore for his two seasons as the Orioles’ vice president of baseball operations. He was also...
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June 25, 2020 at 7:00 am
Some questions and possible answers about Orioles’ 2020 season
As the countdown to the 2020 baseball season begins in earnest, let’s look at some questions and possible answers. How many games will the Orioles win? According to BetOnline, the Orioles will win 21 ½ games, tied with the Detroit Tigers for fewest in the major leagues. Giving the Orioles the “over,”...
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June 24, 2020 at 7:00 am
Baseball season to finally begin a month from now
Three weeks later than Major League Baseball had hoped, the 2020 season will finally get underway on July 23 and 24. And with it, the Orioles are about to enter the age of “speed baseball.” Instead of 162 games, they’ll play 60 in the 2020 season. How unusual is that? Let’s look...
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June 23, 2020 at 7:00 am
What will Major League Baseball’s season look like?
As the seemingly endless dispute between commissioner Rob Manfred and the Players Association drones on, there was an interesting series of tweets from Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, who’s often good for a contrary opinion. Here are two of them: “Fans want baseball. The vast majority of players want baseball. Most owners...
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June 22, 2020 at 7:00 am
Pandemic concerns not going away for baseball; McDonald on draft picks Westburg, Servideo
Baseball had its share of issues in spring training. For most of it, electronic sign-stealing by the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox dominated the talk. There was also some discussion about the talks with minor league baseball about what it would look like come 2021. The coronavirus pandemic was news in...