Tony-OH

Looks dry until early over night according to the future cast radar!

Raúl Rangel is the only pitcher that I'm mildly surprised he didn't make Delmarva. He could be hurt again or just did not make it. Offensive players, the only ones I'm mildly surprised are Edwin Amparo and Maikol Hernández, only because the Orioles have so much invested in Hernandez and Amparo has some investment too. Wonder if they are hurt. Oh, and thought maybe Raylin Ramos might make the team despite missing so much time with a broken leg last year.

Interestingly, when Holliday played shortstop, Norby still played the outfield in LF. Seems the org has finally determined that his best path forward to the big leagues, especially with the Orioles. I still think he'll see some 2B time this year, but looks like he'll spend the majority of his time in corner outfield. He's an average runner so I wonder if they'll give him some CF time too.

I do recall something like that but thanks for the reminder. I hate to see that season end so early though. I wished they would have just extended the league to start earlier.

Way too early to be worried about that. Saying that, you have to wonder him getting demoted after showing he clearly was ready offensively may have him reeling a bit. Obviously he's done nothing defensively to show the Orioles that they were wrong about sending him back to work on defense. Offensively he's looked pretty good so far, hitting the ball hard despite the Ks and no walks yet. That K to BB will improve because pitchers are going to start getting very careful with him at the plate.

111.3 MPH and 420 feet, so I'd say he got into that one.

The easiest way to find it is when you go into the game thread in baseball savant, after the game is over a filmroom tab will show up that has all of the plays from the game. With Filters you can narrow down what you are looking for then create "reels" to put those plays into a quick video that you can link to.

I was not. I take "News" by longtime Hangouters seriously. Saying that, you made it pretty realistic because it's the kind of off the wall trades that Elias would do. I guess you can say you got me. Saying that, April Fools or not, I'll be double checking anything you post from now on.

Damn man. I wasted some time over this. Last time I react to "News" from you without checking.

It would be really cool if people went into the filmroom in baseball savant for each game and post the video of the play.

This is really interesting. He's making $2.3 millions and is coming off a 1.9 rWAR with Angels in just 394 PAs. Strangely, while he switch hits, he's not very good defensively at any infield position when you look at OAA. Got to imagine that's the end of Kemp but he's not exactly that great defensively anywhere. He does have a little pop though. I wonder if this means Holliday is going to be in the minors longer than we thought. When/If Holliday is promoted, who goes now? Westburg might be in danger too if he doesn't start hitting for more pop, but go to imagine this threatens Urias's job as well if he's not doing well.

It is the Hangout afterall! You're probably right!

Poor Nevin. He'd be playing in front of bigger crowds in Norfolk than Oakland. But I guess it does give him big league time towards MLB "retirement".

Well more precisely, he has to start hitting for some pop. Westburg was disappointing last year power wise at the the big league level and this spring he was not exactly hitting bombs consistently. He looks very unbalanced at the plate and while he's had some nice deep count PAs, he's not driving the ball very much and is not a power threat at all at this point.

You means the two ABs that Kemp brought was not worth not having a red Hot Norby DHing against lefties?

I'd rather them give my playing time to Burdick then McKenna. They know what they have in McKenna.

He would have been before Beavers and after Ortiz. So basically he's 5th or 6th now if he was eligible.

Pretty brutal start of the season for Means as he was crushed by a Durham Bulls lineup for 7 runs in just one inning or work. He did not miss many bats (18% whiff) on any pitch. It's just spring training for him, but not making anyone feel that he's going to help anytime soon.

It is and I'd really not like to see McKenna taking away PAs from Kjerstad, Stowers or Norby.

Maton will probably play some 1B at AAA.

He wasn't good last year in the spring either if I recall. His velocity looked fine in his five pitches before the injury.

Interesting. Maybe they're getting away from that in the dugout.

I had left the bar/restaurant I was watching the game at when it happened so I didn't see what he grabbed. I hope it's not an oblique, but most pitchers that have to come out of a game typically are heading for the IL. The Yankees just DFA'd Nick Ramirez for some reason even though he was pretty good last year and had a good spring training. He's kinda of like Perez in that he doesn't get a ton of strikeouts, but does get grounders. The only issue with Ramirez is he's a reverse split guy who gets righties out much better than lefties, so the Orioles may just bring up Vespi. I have to say though that Luis Gonzalez was pretty impressive at times this spring and in his first game with Norfolk. They got a lot of options to replace him if he goes on the IL. Hopefully it's not a long term thing though.

He doesn't have to unseat either of these two. Right now, he's the team's 3B of the future if Mayo can't get his throwing under control (he's been awful in the two games in Norfolk this year). I'd like to see him playing 3B with Urias at 2B so he gets more reps because when Holliday comes up, he's going to have to move over there. Doesn't make a ton of sense for me to see him playing 2B right now knowing that he'll need to move. Now, is he better than Urias at 3B, probably not, even though last year's OAA said he was. But it's not a significant drop off in my opinion and I'd like to see him get as much playing time as possible on the position he'll need to play soon.