At its core, baseball's winter meetings is a trade show, one put on by Minor League Baseball for its member clubs to congregate and build their businesses in every facet. The major league rumorfest only subsumes that.
Yet when the Orioles’ affiliates — many of whom share a unique connection to the major league club by virtue of their proximity to Baltimore — gathered this week in Las Vegas, it wasn't bobbleheads and promotional strategies that most appealed to them. It was hope, delivered in the form of new executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias' comments at the organization's affiliate dinner Monday night.