Examining how public projections could, at least in part, explain the Orioles' offseason
Yes, money has a lot to do with it, too. But from a baseball sense, seeing projection systems that believe in the Orioles' prospects at least explains some of their thinking.
This is not a defense of the Orioles’ offseason.
Even someone steeped in the farm system and with a relatively strong understanding of how the organization views its own players and their development tracks can’t look at the club making moves that reinforce their floor, if they even do that, and say this was the right way to go.
What it is, however, is perhaps a look into why they’ve approached things this way. Money is obviously one reason; I don’t know what their budget is, or how much money ownership is making available for the major league roster. I only know the circumstances at that level make it easy to connect the dots on why that number isn’t what anyone hoped for.
There’s probably a baseball philosophy behind it, though, considering the Orioles are a baseball team, and seeing a fresh set of projections in the form of the ZiPS forecasts over at FanGraphs made some things make a little more sense to me this winter.
