Tony-OH

At 19-years old, the switch hitter is about a year younger than the average hitter in the Carolina League so he gets a little bit of a Mulligan for his Delmarva numbers. As you pointed out, he's doing better in the Sally League (I hate that those leagues switch positions in the A-ball pecking order). The more I've seen of him the more concerns I have on his position of the future, but he does have the arm strength to play SS, even if it's not top tier arm strength. There is not a ton power, but there is some gap power. He's never really hit a ton, but he's always been about a year young for his league and he controls the strike zone decently. He might not end up in the top 20 when it's all said and done, and he's going to need to cut down on the errors to stay at SS, but a switch hitting utility guy with the tools to play SS is not so bad.

Well we know so far this approach hasn't developed major league pitching and pitchers still are on the IL all over the org.

Well, it takes talent to get a guy like Eflin and I guess Soto. I said when the trades happened that Chace could be the best of all of them that were moved. Their success in Tamps' system does make me continue to question the Orioles pitching development though.

My very early impressions of these guys is Stafford stood out. He's a very good 5th round pick. He's fast, seems to be a decent catcher, though he doesn't look lost in the outfield. At the plate he hits the ball to all fields, and while he doesn't have a lot of power, he seems to hit a lot of line drives. Overn has looked like the guy we hope Honeycutt looked like if that makes any sense. Again, not a ton of pop, but some pull power and the ability to drive the ball all over the field. He's very good defensively. Anderson reminds me of Kyle Stowers, except he really doesn't whiff that much. He has a big upper cut swing but has found a way to put the barrel on the ball. He's going to have to move to 1B or the OF, because he can't throw very good, at least in my early looks. O'Ferrall has all the took to be a solid major league shortstop defensively and offensively, he doesn't swing and miss much. He also doesn't have a lot of juice in the bat. He needs to get stronger. Honeycutt looked rusty, but had barreled some balls up. He can hit some mistakes but has holes in the swing and was beaten up in the zone on fastballs on some my looks .

I like Cuevas' bat a bit. He controls the strike zone and there is legitimate pull power in there. Defensively, he needs to be in the outfield as he's not going to be a 3B and at 5-11, he's not a good fit at 1B. He's got enough speed to play center, but he's got work to do on routes. His arm is below average and has the accuracy of Cowser which is where the errors are coming from. Saying that, despite his defensive short comings, he's certainly a guy to watch.

But his strike outs rate did not plummet. I 100% give the Orioles credit for drafting and developing Jordan Westburg. I just don't think he was project a pick like say a Rhodes, Fabian or Young. Honeycutt's miss if very high currently and was in college, hence was he dropped to #22 and some evaluators had him even lower. But here's the thing, the issue isn't whether he's just going to strike more at the major league level than say a Westburg. The concern is that the miss means there are holes in his swing that major league pitchers will be able to take advantage of, and if he can't solve them, he won't hit at all at the major league level. We're a long way from knowing that and won't know this based off his limited playing time at the end of this year. Next year should give us a better indication, but remember, Fabian hit well in Aberdeen before hitting the wall a bit in AA.

I doubt that. Irvin is the most likely replacement if Kremer can't go. Povich tonight, Suarez Wednesday, off Thursday, Irvin starts for Kremer.

I'm not sure it needs to be an either or here. Elias probably was shopping Hays around for pitching and it was probably a combination of him not being happy, and them needing bullpen help. Dominguez was probably the best guy that was offered back. I can't blame Hays for wanting to play everyday, but Cowser made him expendable.

Since I haven't studied the other teams, I really don't know where they fit in honestly. But I think we both agree that they haven't had any success taking low hit tool guys and making them into good hitters. Now, will they be willing to live with Jud Fabian or Honeycutt as a 4th outfielder if their contact skills don't improve, because of their defense? Maybe. I'm not saying Honeycutt is a 4th outfielder already, I'm just saying that at least with Fabian and Honeycutt, you get the defense vs a Stowers/Kjerstad/Norby where defense was their questions marks.

Slater has ended up a good addition as the McKenna on this team. Having that nice game against a righty yesterday was nice, but he's here to hot against lefties and he's done well with that overall. Defensively he's solid in all three spots which is a rarity.

This might be my new favorite quote!

And I think everyone needs to remember this. Drafting a guy #22 is no guarantee he's going to succeed, and it's obvious that Elias is going with more of a boom or bust with Honeycutt.

He had 74 PAs in a COVID shortened season, but the game is changing and I think we're going to see more and more college hitters coming out with high strikeout percentages getting drafted higher. BTW, Westburg has always been about that rate in his professional career including a 21.4 % this year in 420 major league PAs. I think the point is we have not seen the Orioles draft a "toolsey" guy with a limited hit tool and turn them around. Maybe Honeycutt will be the guys that changes that, but I don't believe the Orioles have some kind of hitting fairy dust that makes hitters much better. I think they are about as average as any other organization and it's much more important to evaluate and draft the right hitters, then expecting the develop staff to rework a guy and make him much better. Probably the guy that changed the most from when he was drafted until he made the majors was Joey Ortiz, and he did it himself over COVID when he got himself much stronger. Again, I'm not saying the Orioles are terrible at hitting development, just that I don't think they are more than average.

Yes, the list is certainly drying up of potential impact prospects, but it does seem deeper is interesting International players with upside. Hopefully someone from the 2024 draft class will do something to stand out as well.

Yeah, that was good analysis by him.

Lol, KB getting sarcastic on Burnes and the umpire.

Wow, got lucky from this terrible umpire.

You would think a good pitching coach that is respected, would be able to make some adjustments to a guy with as much talent as Burnes. But maybe that's not in his Ipad.

Got to wonder what they teach that all of their rookies comes up and look lost at the major league level.

How fast does Burnes give this back up?

Maybe that's the key. Maybe Slater is just ignoring anything that hitting strategy knuckleheads have to offer.

You would think that the number one prospect in all of baseball wouldn't have as much swing and miss still.

Mullins is fine if he's your 9th place hitter.

Eddie Murray, right now at whatever age he is now is better clutch hitter than Cowser.

Flexen is a right-handed Povich.