Jon Meoli

5 days ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Jon Meoli

“It’s not an easy thing to control, baseball games. That’s why it’s such a long season, because one or two games, it’s not easy to control what happens. But we’re going to pretend — at least pretend — that we can control all this.”That was general manager Mike Elias in the aftermath of last year‘s Orioles playoff exit, an abrupt end to a season that deteriorated for a variety of reasons through July and August and September.

1 week ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Jon Meoli

Early last year when the Orioles were really good and seemed like they would be forever, it felt like they had more players than they’d ever know what to do with. Jackson Holliday was the best prospect in baseball, and even though he struggled when he debuted, the shine wasn’t gone. Connor Norby was in year two of mashing at Triple-A Norfolk. Coby Mayo was dominating the level, as was whichever of Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Stowers was not the fifth outfielder in the big leagues.

1 week ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Jon Meoli

Trust me: Treading water is better than sinking. It’s hard work, and it’s no guarantee you won’t sink eventually. But, as we wait for this Orioles team to kick on and start playing like a playoff team, a 3-3 homestand with green shoots starting to pop up might just be enough to keep this team afloat. That’s unfortunately what’s on the horizon for this team right now. The Orioles need to stack wins: winning streaks, series wins, winning weeks, winning months. And they need to do so fast.

1 week ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Jon Meoli

Mike Elias was never going to do anything other than throw his support behind manager Brandon Hyde, as he did Friday when discussing the underperforming Orioles’ 12-18 record through April. It was what the general manager said otherwise that not only explains why he’d feel compelled to back the manager to help oversee a turnaround but also why such a managerial change — should it come to that — would occur.

2 weeks ago | thebaltimorebanner.com | Jon Meoli

It’s so obvious. Almost obnoxiously so. I almost can’t believe it didn’t occur to me yet, and there have been plenty of occasions for this one to jump up and bite me. It took Orioles manager Brandon Hyde being asked Tuesday when he knew it wasn’t going to be Kyle Gibson’s night to realize it. “Well, he gave up four homers in the first inning,” Hyde said after an almost-incredulous pause.