Tony-OH

I don't think it any coincidence that we're seeing the launch angle increase, walks decrease, and him pulling the ball more. It's quite clear to me that Adley has decided this year he's going add more home runs/power to his game. That has worked (.180 ISO vs .158 last year), but it's come at the cost of his OBP and Runs created per game per 27 outs (5.6 vs 5.9 last year) and he's seeing the least amount pitches per plate appearance (3.92 vs 4.26 last year and 4.21 MLB avg). Seems Adley has put himself in more bad counts this year as well but fouling off or missing meatballs more often, probably do to his upper cut swing that does not stay in the zone much. I'd like to see him cut that down with two strikes and go back to see ball, hit ball to all fields Adley.

Seems that the Orioles have seen more left-handed pitchers this year and they also have seen that Adley traditionally has hit much better when DHing vs catching. Saying that, McCann has been absolute zero this year and looks like a guy who is in his last year of major league baseball. I'm sure McCann is a good clubhouse guy, but he's not a guy you want to run out there as much as they have been, and I think it's more out of necessity at this point. Maybe Hyde/Sigbot will let Stowers actually start against a lefty and that would allow Rutschman to C more against lefties?

It certainly goes to show the Orioles have a good team when almost all of their DFA's are claimed now. But that's exactly why having three options was put into the MLB system. This gives guys like Nevin, McKenna, Baumann major league opportunities when they would be stuck in AAA with the Orioles. while it stink for the Orioles to not have those depth players, it also give guys chances to becomes those depth players still in the system.

Unless Tony Kemp just needed a few days at the major league level to qualify for some kind of pension or health care, that move still makes zero sense. Baumann was definitely going to get claimed so it was nice to get something back for him, even if its just a potential backup to McCann (who looks done as a major leaguer at this point).

I'll probably add him to the players to keep an eye on right now. He doesn't throw particularly well so there is some question on whether he can be an effective backup. Seems to have some ability to hit though.

And we may still get a chance to get Baumann back when Seattle eventually DFA's him! Solid return that give the Orioles some upper level catching depth.

He's on the FCL roster but has been out with an ankle injury. He's expected to play this year in the FCL at some point. Unfortunately he's missed some PAs.

Agreed, but I don't know when he got up to warm for the game. Should be a problem but strange that he would be down that much too. The results were there though.

Irvin is down almost two MPH too on all his pitches. Maybe not full warmed?

No bueno, no bueno!

Statcast had all his pitches down 2 MPH. Not a good sign, especially if he was seen shaking his arm.

Well hopefully it's like Kremer who seems to shake his arm or look at his blisters every few pitches. Would suck to lose him after how good he's been since he's been back.

I just got out of a meeting. What happened to Means?

Did he warm up properly or was this the classic, hurry about because the pitcher before him gave up a few hits and the reliever gets like 7 warm up pitches in the pen before coming into the game?

Top five hitters in the lineup are 0-for-16 in this game. Not a single guy on this team just puts the game on their back and says, "I've got this." Instead we get wailing away at first pitches with popups and weak roll over groundballs.

I'm not typically a "fire the coaches" kind of guy, but the obvious difference in this team not taking pitches anymore and there are no adjustments tells me this is something being espoused by the hitting coach tandum. Maybe if you make tandum hitting coaches you make one with actually hitting experience and the other one a nerd with a Ipad because clearly these two have no ability to help hitters out of a slump besides telling them to swing at everything.

A .106 XBA is pretty pitiful. Amazing how bad this offense is right now. Seems the hitting coaches are not doing a very good job of preparing these guys because it's crazy to think they all suck at the same time.

Missed this report, thanks. Watching the boxscores every day and seeing Almeyda go 0-fer just about every game and then looking at his numbers over between the DSL and FCL, Hernandez is certainly the first guy that comes to mind. Obviously it's very early so too early to give up on him, but his start to his professional career after being given such a large bonus has been underwhelming to say the least. So far, only Basallo has looked good among the "bonus babies" though De Leon looks really good and was had for $30k. Just goes to show us how big a crapshoot that International scouting is when you need to make agreements with players at 14 or 15 years old. I really wish they would put a draft into play with a slotting system. that would take away having to make agreements with 15-year olds and their handlers. But that's a discussion for another day.

Amparo is worth a follow for sure. It's good to see him having some success in the FCL. It would be nice if that translates to Delmarva at some point after their season is over. These Latin players have really struggled with the move to the states and then especially at A-ball or higher.

Sosa starting to heat up the power. Seems to be mostly pull power so far. Would like to see some RC homers to show that he's letting the ball travel a bit.

Just a bad night. Everyone has them. The key is to make them rare.

One of the things that bothers me about the Orioles developmental plan for their starters is how they will randomly take top prospects and piggyback them as a reliever instead of as the starter. Starters have a routine and they like to know when they are going to start. Now I'm sure De Leon knew he was going to come in and piggyback last night, but why not start him and piggyback the lesser prospects Fruit? Let De Leon get his first appearance in Aberdeen as a starter. No matter how the Orioles view it, young men like to feel special and starting feels a lot better than coming during the 4th or 5th inning. I think they did De Leon a disservice by piggybacking him in his first High A appearance. Here are my raw notes from watching his appearance last night: 5/22 Aberdeen Debut: Didn't have great feel for the change in 1st inning. Allowed opp HR to RHB on 2-1 fastball away (Nice piece of hitting) Good extension helps fastball play up. Lots of ground balls Fields his position well, turns and makes accurate throw from 3B side Announcer: Fastball up to 98 this year. K with Change out of the zone - Got out of 1st and 3rd no out and 2nd and 3rd one-two out situation by getting two weak groundballs and a strikeout Fastball tends to get hit up, but works really well low in the zone and gets swings and misses. Lots of groundballs off the sinking fastball Still too many uncompetitive pitches, but seems to be able to throw strikes when he needs to.

I also would like to say the WBAL11 projected radar sucks!

Ben, "Tarnader warnings!"

No, but you are allowed to like him while he's playing well.