More than a week after the Orioles announced their new manager, today is finally the day where they’re having a public press conference with Craig Albernaz. The local reporters will get their chances to ask questions starting at 11am Eastern, or whenever the thing actually begins shortly afterwards.
I’ll be doing my best to transcribe the opening remarks, questions, and answers in the comments below this article. I’ve watched enough team-related pressers by now to know that it’s unusual for any real
news to be made in these things. For those who are free during the day to watch, the conference will be carried on MASN and also broadcast on the Orioles pages on YouTube and Facebook.
The particular tendency of Mike Elias to say things that sound like he’s signaling a certain kind of aggression while then failing to follow through on those commitments adds to this feeling. He might well say something about getting starting pitching that, if you forget he’s said these things before, sounds exciting.
As for Albernaz, we’ll get a taste of his Massachusetts accent in a larger dose than just the ten second video clip that the Orioles posted last week. I don’t expect him to say anything more than platitudes, in part because the reporters collectively often ask questions that are broad enough to be easily answered with platitudes.
Maybe a question that could inspire an insightful response will slip through. I’d really like to ask Albernaz what he believes went wrong with the 2025 Orioles, and as a follow-up, how he intends to address those issues. Even with a question like this, I don’t expect him to put any specific players on blast, but hearing about general priorities on fixing things would be interesting.
