Albert Pujols, next Orioles skipper? | Banner Baseball Show

Albert Pujols, next Orioles skipper? | Banner Baseball Show

From inside the banner offices along the inner harbor, it is the banner baseball show. Paul Manano and John Mioli, a world traveler, has returned. He is back from Italy. Ciao. Ciao. What a trip, John. It sounded like a magical time that you had for your brother’s wedding in Tuscany. Wonderful time. Um, loved every second of it. What a country, huh? It was great. And and you know given given my appearance I got a lot of like hardy Italian like chows when I would walk into places and then I would like sense a disappointment when I wasn’t actually Italian when I when you opened your mouth. Yeah. When I said ciao. Hello. Are you Italian? Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. I figured because I was saying on last week’s podcast with Andy Kuska that which I definitely listen to. Which you absolutely listen to. I would be upset if you did listen to it while just in case I forgot. Well, man, Mioli, you know, it sounds like a we’re opening some kind of Italian deli here. I would love to do that. I have some ideas based on what I did the last the last week, which was eat a lot of meat and Yeah. Some cured meats. Some My god, so much meat. Yeah. Did you get some gelato, some pasta? I had some gelato. Yeah, gelato was a heavy incentive for the Mioli traveling party for some of the smaller members of the Sure. of the group. That’s awesome. Yeah, the meat was an incentive for me as was as was the wine. Well, uh, now you are back and it’s cold and it’s America and it’s Tuesday and the Orioles still don’t have a manager. Yeah, I love fall and, uh, I’m not surprised that it is fall, but I’m a little surprised that I’m back and like there’s not any nothing has happened. Yes, absolutely nothing. Surprised you, you missed absolutely nothing. Today we’re going to talk about where the Orioles managerial search stands because that is still the most critical top item on their to-do list. But we’re also going to look back at our predictions as well at the end of the show. Our horrible, terrible predictions that we made before the season started. Spoiler, none of them turned out well. But John, that won’t take long. Uh, last night the World Series matchup became set in stone and it is the Toronto Blue Jays against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Blue Jays winning game seven against the Seattle Mariners last night. I always struggle with taking big lessons away from World Series participants or World Series champions because I feel like you could do that every year and find a new lesson and then in a year’s time that lesson becomes irrelevant because a different kind of team with that is structured differently wins the World Series and it doesn’t matter anyway. But yeah, if I could point out one trend, it is the most obvious one, and it is that spending money helps you get to the World Series. Only one team in the last five World Series has ever had a has had a payroll outside of the top 11. That was the Arizona Diamondbacks had the 21st ranked payroll back in 2023, and they lost that World Series. And only one other team has had a payroll outside the top 10 and won the World Series in the last five, and that was the Atlanta Braves back in 2021. This year’s matchup features the number one payroll in the Dodgers against the number seven payroll. Last year, it was the number one against the number three. 2023, number seven against 21, 22, it was number five against number seven. And 21, it was number three against number 11. Paying money doesn’t guarantee that you are going to get it into the World Series, but it sure does help. Yeah. And I and I think these are two different instances that we’re talking about and I I’m saying this not remembering like how and when the Blue Jays spent their money, but it wasn’t like they turn like either of these teams just decided one day that we’re going to spend all the money that we have and became good. You know, I’m saying this because I’m mostly thinking of like when did they sign Kevin Gossman? When did they sign George Springer? But like those contracts over the life of them will be worth it if they win a World Series. And they didn’t I’m saying they didn’t do them all at once. I have no idea. I will find out as I’m speaking. But but these are all not necessarily incremental commitments because that means don’t mean we’re talking something small. But these are not just like let’s just do this because we’re ready to. You know, the Blue Jays had their core. They spent money on players around that. It was steady paying over time. Yeah. Decisions to pay over time. And the the biggest example is the most recent one with which is Vlad Jr. You’re getting 500 million from them. Yeah. Less than a year ago, which everybody thought was an overpay and still might be. Doesn’t matter if they make the World Series. If they win the World Series, it’s worth every penny. Yeah. I’m looking at I’m looking at this right now. They signed George Springer in 2021. Do you think that guy heartbe heart rate was any different driving to the ballpark in in game seven of the ALCS yesterday than it was when he was driving to the ballpark to play the Orioles in? No, not even a little bit. He has been there. He has done that. When that moment came, he was ready. And was he Even like was he great for the last couple of years before this year? No. Does it matter? Do you care even a little bit if you’re the Toronto Blue Jays and you’re in the World Series? No. No. Not even a little bit. Kevin Gossman 2022. Think he’s been good throughout. Chris Basset 2023. They they bought out um some before or or they you know paid Bo Bashette rather than going year to year with arbitration. Jeff Hoffman. I I guess we can’t make Jeff Hoffman jokes anymore. Although I will continue I mean he still could fall flat in the World Series but absolutely you know they went big on Jose Bereos. All these things these are incremental and the Dodgers are the Dodgers. No one has done um what they’ve done before in terms of spending money and and you know kind of amassing the pitching talent that they’ve they have. But I stopped myself short of saying no one could do it because I’m sure someone if they really really wanted to could have. Is there circumstantial things with having every great Japanese pitcher who comes on the market wanting to go to the Dodgers? Yeah, that’s a circumstance that I don’t think the Orioles can recreate. Yeah. But you’re seeing, you know, I I I was talking to you before about how I am in the middle of the Baseball America process and and doing some of that stuff and you look back at like picks and blah blah blah blah blah. No point in explaining that. But the Orioles want to make like the best bets possible. And like the Dodgers are making good bets, too. They’re expensive bets, but we’re betting if we have all this talent that maybe the year that all of our starting pitchers get hurt, we can piece it together and win the World Series because we don’t really need starting pitching. We have a lock down bullpen, right? And if you have a ton of talent, you can also have everything work out and you can just have a rotation that doesn’t give up any runs ever and it’s just awesome and strikes everybody out and just beats the Brewers into the dirt. Like that is what doing that gives you. And when you not to say the Orioles don’t have talent, but they didn’t really have a lot of ways out of the situation they were in. That’s not because they didn’t spend money. They spent money in the way that they thought was appropriate, but they did not they did not give themselves as many chances to win based on the talent that they used that money for. Yeah. And it’s not like the Dodgers have been number one every year for the last 10 years. They fluctuated. They’ve been one, five, three, four. They’ve been consistently near the top. And that’s the key here is the Orioles are never going to be the Dodgers, as you said, John. But if they can be higher than 15th, if they can regularly be a top 10 team in terms of payroll, that will at least mitigate some of the other flaws that they might have on the roster, the injuries like the ones that they’ve suffered over the last two years, and it just gives them more bites of the apple than what they currently have. Yeah. All right, let’s talk about the managerial search. Something that could give them a lot of bites at the apple if they nail this higher. What we know about the Orioles managerial search so far, we’re on the 21st of October. Orioles still don’t have a leading candidate that we can tell from the outside. What we know is that Tony Manelena was quote unquote a real candidate. We knew that three weeks ago when the season ended. We also know that the Orioles have interviewed Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas according to SNY. And we know that the Orioles have interest in former Seattle Mariners manager Scott Service according to John Haymon. And then ESPN reported last week that the Orioles hadn’t yet interviewed Albert Poolhols for the job, but that they were interested in interviewing him. Britoli of The Athletic tweeted yesterday that the Orioles still have not interviewed Albert Phulse. She went on to say, “Not saying they won’t, but they, like many other teams right now with vacancies, aren’t moving with a lot of urgency.” We’ll talk about Albert Pulse’s candidacy in just a bit, John. But the comment about not moving with a lot of urgency. I think some Orioles fans saw that and became distressed because they know what Michaelas, president of baseball operations, said after the season ended that they wanted a manager ASAP. And now we are three weeks after the season ended and they don’t have a manager. But the only manager that has still yet been hired this cycle is Skip Schumacher in Texas because he was already in the building. So, the Orioles are not alone in this. And them taking their time doesn’t mean that they’re doing the process wrong. It just means that they’re taking all the steps that they deem necessary in order to find the right guy. Yeah. Yeah. And I and I think, you know, there’s a couple ways you can interpret the as soon as possible. Maybe it’s not possible because, you know, someone they want to maybe they want to do the process expediently and they don’t want to start their process until everybody is is ready. So maybe there’s somebody on the Dodger staff that they’re incredibly interested in. Maybe it’s somebody that’s on the Mariners or Brewers staff. Maybe they’re interested in Don Mattingley. You know, he’s People would if you were walking down the street and said to like a average person in Baltimore that the Orioles hired Don Mattingley as their manager, people would know who they were talking about. Yeah. People would be pumped. Yeah. I mean, he’s experienced, you know, AL experience doing what he’s doing right now with Toronto. I’m just throwing that out there. Yeah. So that’s one as soon as possible that it’s not possible for them to interview somebody they really want to and they don’t want to interview six people and show their hand and then tell all those people you just you go home for a week we’ll call you if if we need be but we’re still waiting for so and so like that that could make it not possible. Maybe the GM search has heated up more or or the executive search has gotten a little more fruitful than they thought and maybe they want to get that in order and then that person can be involved in the manager search. There’s a lot of different reasons, but I think when he said that as I our minds went to because I believe we had this conversation that that meant somebody who had just lost their job or might not be available for long was high on their list and they wanted to make sure that they could get that person going to that is clearly not how this has gone. And that’s not to say it’s not true, but Bruce Bochi doesn’t have a ton of interest, then you don’t need to jump the gun in the first week of October to hire him. Yeah. Um, you can see what else is out there. Uh, so I I I’m I’m fascinated to see, you know, I’m fascinated to see the direction that it goes in, but I think you’re seeing and I think we use the word I don’t know specifically if like like there’s some there’s some cache to the players that to the names that we’ve heard so far. There’s a little bit of heft. There’s a little bit of gravitas. We’re not talking about always experienced like been a manager for 20 years, like seen everything 10 times, but people who have done it or when they walk in the room, you’re not going to be like, “What does this guy know?” And I think that’s I think that is uh I think that is a theme that we might be seeing in we might be seeing, you know, emerge right here. Yeah. And what we know about the Orioles front office is they like to move in silence. And there could be a lot of other candidates that they’ve spoken to, that they’ve interviewed that we don’t know about because if there is a candidate out there that they’ve spoken to that they don’t want it to get out, I’m sure they would make it clear to that person and their reputation, their representation that, hey, don’t go around spreading the fact that we interviewed you or that we talked to you. So there could be all kinds of people out there. One person that we do know according to ESPN that they are interested in is Albert GS, the future Hall of Fame first baseman, retired after the 2022 season after his final reunion tour with the St. Louis Cardinals. He has never managed a big league team before. He has never managed a minor league team before. The only coaching that he has done since he has retired is managed a Dominican winter ball team in 2024 and 2025 and won some kind of championship I believe with them as well. So that’s good. Hall of Famer, as mentioned, three-time MVP, 703 career home runs, 3,384 hits, 11 time all-star, two-time World Series champ. I looked it up. If he were to manage a big league team, he would be have the seventh highest war according to baseball reference as a player who then went on to manage behind Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Ted Williams, Melt, know this guy, Frank Robinson, and Christy Matthew. So, he would be one of the greatest players ever to sit in a manager’s chair if he were to manage a big league team. And it seems like there are other teams that are also interested in him. According to multiple reports, he’s no longer a candidate for the Angels job, but the Padres’s are also reportedly interested in him after their manager retired. So, Sean, what did you think of the report? I don’t know. I hope you weren’t were asleep or not paying attention in Italy when this happened, but when you saw that the Orioles were interested in Albert Pul, a guy who’s never managed before but was is an all great player, what was your thought? I thought that that’s interesting. That’s really interesting. Um, you know, I think that if you have been around this team and this organization for any amount of time that you think back to, and I don’t know the extent that Michaelas, who was doing draft stuff with the Cardinals in the Albert Pooh’s heyday, I don’t exactly also remember when he signed with the Angels. Um, but it was there was some overlap, though. There has to be some overlap. There had to have been some overlap. And I’m sure there’s some familiarity. and he knows how to an extent they do things and how they operate. I think there’s probably um something there. But I think that to to kind of reiterate the point like if walking in that room, you’re gonna you’re going to sit up in your chair and you’re going to pay attention. And that is something that I think do would should could the Orioles have a George Springer type person? Yes. Could they go out and sign Alex Bregman if he ops out? Absolutely. Like could they get that type of presence from somebody who is also their manager? Absolutely. I think that’s possible. And I think and I think there’s there’s definitely upside with somebody who knows the game as well as somebody like Alvar Puhol does to getting him in this first job and getting a really good manager for a long time. I’m not sure there are a ton of examples of players who do that for who manage for a long time after playing at that level for a long time. So that’s pretty interesting to kind of see how that would shake out. But I think that it kind of speaks to it speaks to the I guess broad nature of the search the Orioles are having that they’re interested in somebody service who’s managed a lot before and managed well and like Albert Puhol who has very little manager experience but I don’t know that anyone would look at that hire and be like what are they doing? I think that’s something somebody is going to hire Albert Pools probably to be the manager in the next couple years. It could be the Orioles and I think there’s going to be a lot of people who are who feel constructive about that. Yeah. The example I think of in recent memory is Steven vote. Obviously not nearly the player that Howard Ples is but a guy who basically walked off the field and took a year or two and then walked into a big league managerial job without ever having managed before. Stephen Vote, 40 years old, went from playing for the then Oakland Athletics in 2022 to managing the Cleveland Guardians in 2024 and then he wins manager of the year. So, it it is incredibly possible. I also just think of the kind of archetypes that the Orioles might be looking for here because if you’re looking for a former big league manager like Scott Service, that guy knows how to fill out a lineup. That guy knows what the ins and outs of the managerial job requires. Not that Albert Pooh doesn’t, but Albert Pooh has just never done it before and they’re gonna guarantee going to be problems that come across his desk that he’s never dealt with before and he’s going to be dealing with for the first time. Scott Service managed for several years in Seattle. He has seen it all and done it all to a certain extent. Don Mattingley would kind of fit a similar category there. But Scott Service doesn’t have the gravitas, the weight that Albert Pulse does. when he walks into a room, it it not everybody’s head snaps to attention the way that they would for Albert Kuhol. And if you’re thinking about what this Orioles team needs, first and foremost, it is for their young players to get back on track. You you wrote about on the banner.com where people can subscribe $1 for six months about how we use this broad term that we should probably retire, which is the Orioles young core because it paints with too broad a brush. Yeah. And frankly, they’re not as young as they once were. No, they wouldn’t crash the season. They’re not that young. They’re not that young. So, it is guys like Colton Cowser, Adley Rutman, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westber, all those guys need to be productive and successful in 2026. There’s a good chance that Albert Puhol is the kind of guy that can walk into a room and tell players what they need to do better and get them to be at their best because of the gravitas that he has and because of his hitting experience. Because he can perhaps look at a player, look at what’s going on at the plate, look at his mentality and say, “Hey, I went through this once. I know what what you’re going through. Here’s what you can do differently.” Or looking at your swing. Here’s what I don’t like. here’s what you could potentially fix. That’s something that Albert Puhol I’m sure has in his bag. Yeah. So that’s just it’s just a different archetype and frankly I’m kind of happy because I think that the Orioles should be talking to as many different kind of people as they can. They should be talking to the veteran big league managers. They should be talking to the upandcomers and they should be talking to future Hall of Famers who have never managed before and say what fits our team best because sitting here in our chairs we don’t know. we’re not in that that clubhouse and talking to these players every day now, especially during the offseason. It’s up to the front office to decide. And so I think Albert Pools is an interesting candidate in that way. Yeah. And to make a to make a completely separate point as I was listening to you, um there was a really good article recently on Drive Line’s website by Travis Auk about how the Blue Jays hitters like basically they brought in a new person in their hitting department, I think new hitting coach and they started training bat speed and all of them increase their bat speed by like two or three miles an hour and all these players who disappointed recently had really good seasons, young ones, old ones, George Springer, list goes on. Um, so that type of thing is possible for Orioles hitters and that has that can have nothing to do with who the manager is. Even if Albert is is helping tell them like, hey, this is where the game’s going. Like maybe that’s the type of thing you need somebody to to not be like a shepherd, but almost be like a heavy for like the hitting coaches to be like, “Hey, you know, I would do this if I was if I was still in your shoes. Do you think you have a better idea? How many imagine selling everpools? No, I think I know what I’m good. I’m good. I thank you. Thank you, front office person, for recommending that I use a different bat because the one that I use isn’t like optimal for me, but like I know better. And the rules is like actually you should do what they’re telling you because you’re you don’t know what you’re talking about. Um, who knows? Like that’s the type of thing. And I also as we’re as we’re talking about this and and and you’re talking about the traditional managerial skill, you know, the things got 162 times for however many years. He was the manager of the Mariners lineup submitting changes, the switches. No one’s going to want to hear this what I’m about to say. And that’s not to say this is true, but what if that what if the Orioles are going through this process and saying we can get somebody 90% of the way there with that? Yep. If there’s somebody who is who has that kind of feel sitting beside a manager who can help that process out. If Robinson Charino got what we you know who has been doing it behind the plate for a long time and did in the dugout for one year, he can do that. What if we don’t need to consider that as a managerial skill? What if we need somebody who can be the person who is a presence who is bringing this team? One thing Albert Puhol has done, he’s had probably great teammates. He’s had okay teammates. He’s helped young players along. He’s seen players who are, you know, on one year deals or coming through his clubhouse trying to make a difference and get paid the next year. He’s seen he’s seen rookies come up and struggle. He’s seen rookies come up and do well and and have their heads get big. He has seen he has seen all of that. Not in a way that a manager has seen, you know, oh, this guy’s got a left on the bench in the three hole and if I bring in this guy whatever, like over the course of a season comes out in the wash. But you can make a real difference if you if you over the course of like a 20ome year baseball career, you can tell these guys like, “I’ve seen this.” They’re going to listen. you can see, oh, this didn’t work with so and so when he was a in his third year and was trying to figure out why he kept striking out and why, you know, why the hitting coaches were steering him wrong and this and that and he was I saw somebody put their arm around this guy and it worked and I saw somebody yell at this guy and it didn’t work so I’m going to put my arm around this. That’s the type of stuff that somebody like Albert Puhol can do. I think that’s I I don’t know how we’re indexing these things or the Orioles are indexing these things, but I do think that that’s probably a heavier consideration than somebody who you know when you put in, you know, nobody has to tell Brandon High to put Felix in a night like that’s he was going to do that that that does it. The game does that for you. Um you know, if there’s somebody who can’t hit lefties, maybe don’t guard him against that type of stuff. Just you just know and the type of stuff that Albert Pooh knows there are probably a handful of people on the planet who know that is valuable as well. Yeah, that’s a good point and I’m glad you brought up the influence that the front office might have in that because where were we sitting six months ago when Mike Elias was getting asked how much influence he has over the Orioles lineup decisions when Brandon Hyde at that point was on the hot seat. Everyone was wondering, all right, is Brandon Hyde really making these lineups or is the front office making these lineups? Because sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know why they keep trotting out Jorge Matteo in center field. I don’t know why they keep sitting Jackson Holiday against lefties. Brandon Hyde gets fired and Tony Manelino clearly assumes some kind of change on the way that the Orioles make their lineup. But we cannot ignore the influence that this front office has. Yeah. on making the lineup, on in-game decisions, on pitching changes, on all of that stuff. This front office has a hand in it and maybe with Albert Pulse, they’re saying, “We can help you along with that kind of stuff because you’ve never done it before.” Yeah, we will happily help. And Orioles fans could agree or disagree as to whether they think that’s a good idea. I’m sure there are a lot of Orioles fans that would say, “We don’t want the front office messing with any of that. let Albert Kouls or whoever is the manager handle the lineup and handle all that stuff. But maybe this is the Orioles thought process is that we we can handle a lot of that other stuff. And I’m interested in as well if it were to be a former big league player without managerial experience like Albert Pulse who sits in the manager chair. Would they want to pair him with Robin Cinos, another former big leaguer who has not managed before? Because Robinson Torino, he has seen a lot in his playing days, he’s seen a lot behind the plate, he knows Baltimore, but maybe if it’s if they put somebody who’s an inexperienced manager in the manager spirit, they say, “Let’s get a Don Mattingly type, somebody who’s managed before as the bench coach, like a you know, obviously he doesn’t want to come back and be a bench coach, but like a David Ross in that bench coach spot. Would they want to really pair Albert PH and Robinson Torinos, two former big league players who don’t have managerial experience, or would they want to give a safety provide kind of a safety net for somebody who has never managed before? Yeah. So, I haven’t thought about this at all. Let’s we’ll both make up one title. Let’s make up a title for the for the for the 62year-old former manager who because they don’t want to make Robin Robinson Trinos not the bench coach and they want let’s make up titles for him. I’m going to call him director of baseball. A shoot, I lost it because I think they have a director of baseball strategy. I think they do. Yeah. Um the major league strategy chief. Okay. Absolutely. Major League strategy chief. That’s what I’m going with. Senior field bench coordinator. Senior field coordinator. I like bench. Is that Is that feel like a demotion to is like putting you’re putting somebody in over Yeah. over Robertson Shinos because it needs to be very clear that like you’re on the same level of co-bench coaches. Associate manager is actually is the actual title they will use. That’s the title they will use. What What was the uh job title that John Mapry got when he came in? Senior advisor. I think it was something hitting, wasn’t it? Let’s let’s Google it. Senior adviser. You’re right. Senior adviser to the major league coaching staff. They brought him in at the end of May to help out Tony Manscolino. I mean, somebody in this instance that was kind of a just grasp desperation move by the Orioles at that point, but not to say that John May didn’t help this team. Yeah. But they could definitely have their pick of the litter right now. And I’m sure that there will be a lot of coaches around the game who would jump at the opportunity to get a chance to work directly with Albert Puhol as the manager with what should be a talented roster. I mean that that is that should be a pretty pretty good job for anybody that is sitting out this winter because their contract expired or somebody who is looking to take the next step to be a manager. There are a lot of a lot of guys who would fit that bill. Yeah. Um, well, an interesting candidate in Albuquen, somebody that we will keep an eye on. Kind of gives me shades of Carlos Beltran when the Mets hired him after the 201 what year was it? 2018 season. Yes. He obviously has his final kind of um World Series tour with the Astros in 2017 and is hired as is signed as that veteran leader in the clubhouse and he provides that veteran leadership. One year later, he’s hired as the Mets coach, as the Met Mets manager, and then James Scandal, a little trash can, something something came out. Carlos Beltron is mutually agreed to that they will part ways, he and the Mets, but somebody who was an all-time great player, great slugger in his day, not that removed from retirement. This kind of if the Orioles were to hire Albert Pul would smack a little bit of the Mets hiring Carlos Beltron. Let’s just hope that Albert Pools isn’t involved in anything that we don’t know about. Yeah, that’s always the hope. That’s literally always the hope. Always the hope. Um, all right, John, let’s go back and look at our terrible predictions from before the season because they’re all bad. We made some pretty bold assertions about what we thought this team could be in 2025, and it did not live up to our expectations. On our preseason podcast, we gave you several stats that we thought might change, mostly for the better in 2025. Those stats certainly did change, not all for the better. One of the stats that we gave you was 98 stolen bases in 2024. We said that number would be higher than it was the previous year. We were correct. The Orioles stole more bases in 2025 than they did in 2024. All right. Thank you for listening to the Banner Baseball Show. our one correct take. We’ll see you next week. Gunnar Henderson had 30 stolen bases this year. And if you were to tell me that Gunnar Henderson had 30 stolen bases six months ago, I would say, “Wow, he joined Cedric Mullins is the only other oral to have a 3030 season, Braz.” Yeah. Gosh, 30 stolen bags for Conor Henderson. Jackson Holiday had 17. Yours were definitely more aggressive on the base pass. Certainly under Tony Manelino didn’t really help them offensively though. Another stat that we threw at you, 481 walks allowed by Orioles pitchers in 2024. We said that number is going to go down. The Orioles are going to be better at controlling the strike zone. Not true. They walked 523 batters. Charlie Morton led the way with 48 walks in 101 innings. Pitched the worst walk ratio of all the pitchers in walks per nine. Chase Mcder 12 walks in eight and two/3 innings. That’s a lot of walks innings. Yep. This Orio’s pitching staff was not great at keeping the ball in the strike zone. No, it was um which is you know I would be interested to know what the rate pace was like in the first half of the season like before before the trades versus after. Not that they lost like anything um you know significant in the rotation when they traded Charlie Morton, but I would be interested to know how much of that came in the in the aftermath when we’re just kind of like throwing throwing guys out there. There were there were some guys that struggled that hadn’t struggled that way before. Keegan Aken walked a lot of guys this year. Yeah, I mean Zack Efflin I don’t think was walking one guy per nine this year. Exactly. A lot of guys struggled in that area. Another stat that we threw at you. 13 Orioles made starts in 2024. We thought that number would be lower. The actual number was 16. Number went up. Those 16 guys, Dean Kramer, Cade Povich, Trevor Rogers, Charlie Morton, Zack Effel, Brandon Young, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Kyle Gibson, Keegan Aken, Dietrich Ends, Scott Luette, Rico Garcia, Albert Suarez, Jer. Handful of openers in there. Yeah, handful of openers. Grayson Rodriguez not in there. Grayson Rodriguez not being a part of that. I mean, I’m sure when we did this, we were thinking that there would be, let’s count them out, Morton, Elyn, Kramer, Hovich, Varez, Rodriguez would have been like guys you definitely are going to start games. And then McDermott, Bradish, Wells, Young, Brandon Young would be in there. That’s nine. And then Bradish and Wells would get back. That’s 11 already. So, we basically said they were going to not have anything terrible happen other than like the usual like need somebody for a start or two. I don’t know if you know, but a lot of terrible things happened this year, John. Oh, I know. Oh, I know. That’s whenever anybody asked me like what happened. Like everything bad that could happen did happen and they didn’t really know how to handle it. That’s just a lot more succinctly as anyone who’s listened or read that I’ve been able to explain it. I was able to explain it in the moment. Now I’m just like, eh, a lot of bad stuff happened and everyone kind of fell apart. Yep. Another one where I personally have egg on my face. I predicted the Orioles attendance would be higher in 2025 than it was in 2024. The number in 2024 was 2, you round up, 2.3 million fans. This year it was 1.8. So their number dipped by about 6,000 fans per game in terms of attendance. Orio season was done in May. They were cooked. and fans naturally tuned them out. They were not a fun baseball team for a lot of the season. They were not competitive for a lot of the season. And if they had finished with this same record, but had a September swoon in the way that they did during the 2017 season, that number would be a lot higher. But you got to June and there were so many fans that were already saying, “I’m throwing in the towel. This season is over. They fired Brandon Hyde. Nothing is is salvageable here.” that became really difficult for fans to get excited about this team. Yeah. And I think what was interesting this year, excuse me, is that they didn’t get the lows weren’t as low as they were in the in the rebuilding years. I’m looking just scrolling through it right now and 16 14 15 16,000 is like the weekday floor. Yeah. which is if we’re talking about 16, like twice what the weekday floor was in 2022. Um, you know, I’m looking at some No, those are in Oakland with 2,000 people in 2022 in April. That seems like a fun time. But in May May 3rd, 2022, Tuesday, home against Minnesota, 6,000 people. That home, that four game series had 7,427 people. 6,678 people, 7 466 people and 8,652 people for the day game. Those are those are all night games actually. I don’t know. And then so the floor has been raised like that is a signal that that they’re selling tickets. People are buying these tickets somehow someway. They’re selling Birdland memberships and packages and like these tickets are sold. It’s just that they didn’t have the weekends where they would sell they would fill it up and they didn’t you weren’t getting 35,000 people every weekend for all these games. You were getting in the 20s. And that’s I feel like the average is lower because the top end was lower and not because the bottom. And I think, you know, I’m really fascinated to find out what’s going to happen with that um left field, the upper reserve, because it just makes it seem like the whole place is empty even if it’s not. and they can make the ballpark feel like it’s less empty if they whenever they do something like that. Um, another stat, Colton Cowser had 11 weighted runs created plus in high lever situations in 2024. That means he was what, 89% worse than the average hitter? Yes, it does. In high leverage situations in 2024, as we all know, he really struggled in that area. We said he’s going to be more of a clutch hitter. He certainly was. He had a 188 weighted runs created in high leverage situations in 2025. 88% better than the average hitter according to fan graphs. Also had a 130 weighted runs created plus in medium leverage situations. All of that’s great. The problem is he had 33 weighted runs created plus in lowle leverage situations. And that’s why he hit below the Mendoza line and had a down season. Yeah. You know, I I think this is illustrative of like, yeah, these things are going to happen year to year. Is he going to be maybe in the middle next year? Yeah. Will it feel like it’s worse than this year? That would feel like it’s worse if he’s like a league average hitter in in those spots and it will be fine. There will be nothing wrong with it. Um, but these things kind of fluctuate. And I think if you look at that in his season as a whole, that’s almost like the one good thing that you can take of it. Yeah. that he w those moments did not get too big for him. Yeah. Uh another final stat here, 71 double plays hit into that was a major league low in a full season in 2024. We’re said we said they’re going to hit into more. They certainly did. They hit into 102 which was 18th in Major League Baseball. Our awards, John, we predicted well I predicted that Gunnar Henderson would win most valuable oral. He lost. He came in second. You predicted Colton Cowser would win most valuable oral. That did not happen. Didn’t get any votes probably, right? I I I don’t know. I don’t think we’re not talking about MVO voting again. I mean, Tony Manzelino. Yeah, exactly. Got a vote. Dylan Carlson got a vote. Uh Trevor Rogers won most valuable oral. No one saw that one coming. Breakout star. I had H Kirstad. Woof, was I wrong. You had Colton Cowser. I think Trevor Rogers probably was the breakout star of this team. I think you could say Ryan O’Harn had a I mean, he was literally an all-star. He had a great season that I don’t think that many people expected. Yeah. Yeah. I will I will I will correct that Colton Ker did get an MVO vote, which is Wow. One, two, or three. That doesn’t mean he got the top vote, but Yeah. Yeah. He was one of the He made somebody’s ballot. It wasn’t mine. I wasn’t just trying to wasn’t mine either. It wasn’t trying I wasn’t trying to um you know, pad my stats here. Yeah. I guess Breakout I would say I don’t want to say Dylan Beavers. I know, but like cuz I feel like people thought he was better than he people think he’s better now than they thought he was. Sure, I think that, but I don’t know that there is really a breakout star. I guess Trevor Rogers. Yeah. I mean, I’m going to say something crazy. Oh boy. It’s not really that crazy. But if the Orioles had a good season this year and Dean Kramer had the exact season that he had, do you think that people would have like thought like, “Wow, this guy’s actually good.” No, I don’t think I think people have made up their minds. I think he’s been in the Orioles Zeitgeist long enough that you either like Dean Kramer or you don’t like Dean Kramer. All right, that’s my take. Yes, that’s 100% true. And I just want everyone who is who is I I don’t I don’t know where I’m going with that part of the sentence specifically, but when Dean Kramer people do appreciate Dean Kramer when Dean Kramer is pitching for another team in like game six of the ALCS in like five years, he’ll be doing the exact same thing that he’s been doing in months that don’t start with April uh and that aren’t in April and May or March. He’ll be doing the exact same thing he does for like five months out of every six month season. And people will be like, “Where was that when he was with the Orioles?” And like that the answer will be like, “He was doing that most of the time.” Sure, that’s fair. Um, not a breakout star, though. Top rookie. You mentioned Dylan Beavers. I think you could make a case for Dylan Beavers here. He had 1.1 war in just 35 games. He was awesome. Samuel Basiah was your top rookie pick. He struggled statistically, but he definitely showed flashes in the month that he got in the big leagues. My prediction was Tommy Yuki Sugano and technically by baseball reference war I am correct at 1.2 war but I think we could really all say that Dylan Bever is the most uh exciting rookie campaign of anybody on this team. Yeah, Cadence Trout I don’t know. Cadence Stroud was fun. Yeah, but he you know whatever. Yeah. Uh record. This is bad. I predicted the Orioles would win 95 games. You predicted they would win 93 games. They won 75 games. We both had them going to the ALCS. We were wrong. We were just wrong. Yeah. All right, that just about does it for the Yeah, that’s it. Um, you know, what are you going to do? No, I mean it’s uh don’t don’t listen to us next year. As you said, John, recently pretty much no matter what the Orioles do this offseason, it’s going to be so hard for me to predict that they’re going to win 90 games just because I don’t want to be that. I don’t want to be sitting in this chair doing this again. Yeah. and saying, “I boy, they fooled me. I don’t I don’t want to be fooled again the same way. I could be fooled a different way, but in the words of George W. Bush, can’t get fooled again.” Yeah. I think it’s I think it’s important to note that there’s going to be a time pretty soon that the Orioles are going to start doing stuff and it’s going to be all all the reaction to that is going to be doing is going to be to you whatever anyone says all it’s going to be doing is telling people what they think about the team right now. Yeah. Because if the the most of the things that will happen other than like I don’t know signing a million free agents, it’s going to be considered like oh it’s still not enough or like get a new manager. Oh, not right, you know, never went anywhere or like not experienced or like if you don’t think the team is building off a good baseline, then you aren’t going to then like you’re not going to be able to do that. And I think it’s going to be challenging to considering how last offseason went and then the season went to kind of remove oneself from that cycle. And that’s something that I plan on hopefully uh being able to do. But I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see how it goes. As you know, we’ll we will have plenty more offseason podcast. We’ll have another podcast next week. We may have an Orioles manager by that time. Um who knows? Esposibé. Espos. Um, but yeah, I mean, the Orioles have an a very critical offseason ahead of them. I think they should make some moves. I think they should sign players. I think they should try to trade for some guys. But at the same time, next season is still going to largely come down to the guys that are already in the building. And we have some good stuff and we have some bad stuff from the guys that are considered the key pieces of this team. Which one of those versions of the team shows up next year is going to largely determine how good of a team they are. Yeah, for sure. And I think and I think the extent that the front office doesn’t sit there and think we got a lot of talent like there’s a lot of talent that is going to like determine whether this all goes well. Yeah. John Olius handle Paul Manano and Oldbanner sports like rate review subscribe tell your friends about the Banner baseball show and write us a fivestar review on Apple Podcast and I will read it out here on the show. As mentioned, more podcasts coming your way. So stay tuned to this feed and of course subscribe to the Baltimore Banner. $1 for six months for John Mioli. I’m Paul Mano. Thanks so much for tuning in. Okay.

Co-hosts Paul Mancano and Jon Meoli discuss what the Orioles can learn from the World Series matchup between the Blue Jays and Dodgers (2:12). 

Then they provide the latest on the O’s managerial search (7:15) and talk about why the team is being patient with the process.

Next they delve into Albert Pujols’ candidacy (12:32) and what might make him a good fit for the job.

Finally they look back on their ill-fated 2025 predictions (28:30).

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