masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgWell, we did this here a little over a week ago and it’s time to try it again. A fan/reader question-and-answer session. You ask some Orioles questions – whatever you’ve got – and I’ll try to answer your questions and other readers please throw in your two cents also.
Hope to hear from many of you today with many questions.
They can be on any O’s topic, minors or majors. For instance, in some recent entries here, we discussed a few free agent pitchers that could be signed to one-year,…

Well, we did this here a little over a week ago and it’s time to try it again. A fan/reader question-and-answer session. You ask some Orioles questions – whatever you’ve got – and I’ll try to answer your questions and other readers please throw in your two cents also.

Hope to hear from many of you today with many questions.

They can be on any O’s topic, minors or majors. For instance, in some recent entries here, we discussed a few free agent pitchers that could be signed to one-year, low-dollar deals, along with Hunter Harvey and Dillon Tate potentially being a big part of next year’s bullpen, along with Jonathan Villar’s situation and also how long the O’s rebuilding might take. Yesterday, we discussed the possibility of protecting pitcher Gray Fenter from the upcoming Rule 5 draft.

Elias-Watches-Spring-sidebar.jpgA lot of readers here in recent days expressed concern about the electronic sign stealing investigation into the 2017 Houston Astros. The O’s current executive vice president and general manager, Mike Elias, was with Houston then. Fans expressed some concerns over that. But Elias seemed to let us know there is real reason to distance him from that situation in this answer yesterday in this entry.

“The fact that there’s apparently an investigation ongoing prohibits me from making any type of public comment about it. I was almost exclusively focused on the amateur scouting and the minor leagues, so I’ll leave it at that. But I can’t really talk on the issue because of the investigation,” he told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko.

Elias was asked if the O’s will be busier this winter in the free agent or trade markets.

“I think we’re going to make some free agent signings, but we’ve made no secret about the organizational mission at this point and that’s to bring as much young talent as we can, invest in our internal capabilities, invest in the amateur markets and give our young players space to play,” he said. “So I think it’s fair to describe it as we won’t be behemoths in free agency, but we’ll be monitoring things and we will look heavily at any trade possibilities and I anticipate that we have some activity.”

So now it’s your turn. Any questions today about the Orioles?