Tony-OH

It makes sense to me that they move Norby to the outfield at least 80% of the time. I'd be surprised if Wong got an opt out at this stage in his career coming off the year he just had.

Is it possible for you to stop trolling Roy? Nobody forced you to read this thread. Scroll on by if it hurts your feelings.

Definitely shoring up some AAA depth with guys they know they have vs guys these need to get through waivers.

Updated with Wong signing. Looks like AAA depth to me, but he's left-handed and we know Elias likes himself some left-handed hitting 2B.

Let's say Teheran is a bridge until Means or Bradish come back? Last year he was good for his first six starts. I have no idea how much he has left in the tank of anything, but if he looks good, maybe we can keep Wells in the pen where he could be used in more high leverage situations? Either way, they're only risking 100k to take a look. Seems like low risk move, especially with him showing some success with the cutter last year.

Added the Julio Teheran signing

Thanks. I sometimes don't worry too much about every outing unless it was significant. But I have been keeping up with pitchers so I may have just missed that one.

Haha, tough problem indeed. Honestly, they have enough players who can cover down at SS, especially once Gunnar is back. Burns is capable of coming up and providing some decent SS defense from the minor leaguers as well as Robinson.

Well, we do have a "glut of" infielders but not shortstops. Gunnar and Mateo are probably the only two players you'd want to run out to SS on an everyday basis defensively at SS, and we know about Mateo's bat. Holliday is getting the Brian Roberts treatment, partially because Gunnar is better at SS and partially because he has a below average major league SS arm and not a ton of extreme quickness. But, with Urias, Westburg, Holliday, Mayo, Maton and Norby once healthy, they do have a lot of players who can play 3B and 2B who are either major league ready or nearly ready. The trading of Ortiz helped with that "glut" a bit, but after Holliday, and we already know they are eyeing him for 2B, the shortstop prospect well goes dry until you get into the low minors with Leandro Arias and Luis Almeyda being interesting.

Not a lot of shortstops on the roster especially with Gunnar out, so expect to see him late into the spring.

Updated through today's game with Daniel Johnson having the big day at the plate in the 5-2 win.

That was just sitting there on a tee.

Good assessment of the early season lineups. We haven't seen Mateo yet in CF due to not having many SSs with Gunnar out, but other wise the lineup and starts so far back this up. Just four games in though so it will be interesting to follow the games played at positions.

Thanks.

Updated thru split squad on 2/26.

McKenna for sure, Hilliard could still make it as a 5th outfielder type if they don't want Cowser sitting on the bench. Kjerstad will be the 4th OF/DH so there is still a chance for left-handed hitting outfielder to spell Hays against a tough righty and be a defensive replacement for Kjestad or Santander late in games.

Anyone have the Just Regular decoder ring on this one?

Ha, I had to go look back at what I wrote! Sorry to report to you that it should have been striking instead streaking!

So you take a few comments and surmise it's the entire board's thoughts? maybe you should respond to the poster that you disagree with vs saying "the board" or acting like everyone has the same thoughts. i would think someone with 2.4K posts here would kinda understand that by now.

What board are you reading? Seriously. The second the injuries were announced almost every single person went ahead and scratched Irvin's name in the rotation. I had him making the team in the bullpen prior to the injuries, so most of us felt he had a role on this team.

Wait, first there's hate for Irvin and now people are too excited over him? Dude, pick one and stick with it! lol At the end of the day, all of Irvin's stuff has ticked up from last year and that's a good sign. I just wished the Orioles would install statcast in Sarasota. It's annoying that we only get this data when they play away and does a disservice to the fans.

He averaged 17 inches of horizontal break in his six sinkers in yesterday's outing so he's off to a good start. He got three swings and two WHIFFs off the pitch. he averaged 94 MPH on his fastball which with 1.8 MPH higher than last year's average and touched 95.9 MPH. Maybe he was hyped up or maybe he was able to do that because he knew he had only two innings, but the stuff all ticked up from last year.

Updated thru yesterday's game vs Pirates.

Good batters never look very uncomfortable against him despite the velocity. It's a very low spin 97-99 MPH fastball. It looks like he's gone to a cutter (according to statcast) but I always thought it was more of a bad slider. Who knows? Can't teach that velocity, but the command goes pretty quick and he still throws too many uncompetitive pitches.

Well on the ball hit to the fence, he made that looks routine but it had a .925 xBA on the hit. I think that counts as making an exciting play routine. As for the other, Bradenton is known a a very hard place to track fly balls and winds can be tricky, so I'm not too concerned on him coming in that one ball and then having to dive a bit for it.