Tony-OH

Not to take away from Drungo's "Old Timey baseball" review segment, Cowser's early season SSS success against lefties has been pretty notable.

You're trying to fan jinx us hard here, aren't you?

While I don't think the "media circus" driven by the Orioles PR, to include giving away his t-shirt in his home debut, caused his problems, I'm a believer that you make a guy earn it at the big league level before you start giving away his likeness on t-shirts or bobbleheads. I don't care who you are, you don't need any added pressure while trying to make your way in the big leagues.

Elias is pretty good at using his entire 40-man as well as other AAAA players to give him short term advantages. At the end of the day, all Elias has to do is point to the standings since last year when people are too upset over any move.

I think that's exactly the thinking here. McKenna is right-handed hitter who can handle CF defensively. This allows them to keep Cowser in LF where he's looked very good. I'm only a little surprised because Mateo has played some CF and you would think he'd be ok for a game or two until Hays is back. They clearly want to be able to DFA that last guy so McKenna makes more sense in that regard than Norby. Still, with several pitchers like Heasley and Ort available to be DFA'd without issue, I might have gone with Norby and given him some starts at 2B, even if no one can be too psyched with him there defensively.

In other news, wonder what the record is for DFAing a guy in one season by a one team. Not that Banuelos is complaining because he probably knows he's pretty lucky to be collecting some nice paychecks, but he's going to be close by the end of the year if they keep using that taxi squad thing to give them an extra player when they need one right away.

No doubt this is another opportunity for Urias to get pretty regular PAs, though I expect some still to go to Mateo against lefties.

The fact that they added McKenna instead or Norby tells me this is a very short term thing. Still, I would have liked to have seen Norby be given his shot, but maybe they were worried he come up, hit, and then they'd still had to make room for Hays next week. Not overly surprised that Holliday was optioned, only slightly surprised they didn't do it before the Angels series with the two lefty starters scheduled.

Most quality major league starter's hold their velocity throughout their starts. They may cruise for a bit, but have it when they want it. Typically command goes long before velocity.

Thank goodness a minor league system is not judged on wins and losses, because they are putting many Ws up of late. Delmarva is pretty much an embarrassment right now from the hitting side. The first real wave of international position prospects have been left wanting after the first month or so of the season. The Shorebirds are scoring a league low 2.29 runs per game and slashing a league worse .182/.259/.263/.523. The Tides pitching outside of Povich and McDermott to a lesser extent has been pretty bad minus a few decent relieves in Vespi, Krook and Charles. Elias/Sig's thought on being able to identify pitching talent through pitch shapes and spin rates through the draft after the 10th round has been a pretty big failure. Armbruster was the flag ship pitcher and he's been a flop this year so far, though I had already seen major red flags from him last year. Not surprisingly these guys struggle at the high levels and why they were available that late. Glad to see Elias made a change in his draft philosophy last year and went after some younger, higher ceiling guys like Forret vs 21-year old juniors in those later rounds.

Cook is pretty much an org guy so he's easy to move back and forth when playing time opens up. He's versatile, so not only can he fill in the outfield, he can play 2B and 1B. Norfolk has been scuffling for offense and is short handed right now.

Ramirez is who he is with no upside. He's got decent stuff, but is never consistent enough to put together a series of good outings that he can be used in anything close to a small margin game unless it's an emergency. Sounds like Baumann, doesn't it? At least Baumann has a little upside, but at 28, he's basically who he as a well, but he can give you a little length on occasion which is why I'd move Ramirez first.

Why do you feel it's your job to troll Roy? "Hard throwing" is subjective, and besides, you are adding nothing to the board unless you can give statistical evidence to change an existing opinion. But you know that, don't do that, and particularly like to troll Roy. Since this is a Perez thread I won't continue this conversation about Povich.

Are you talking Ramirez or Baumann?

I'd definitely DFA Ramirez first vs Baumann, but Baumann may not be far behind.