Tony-OH

You obviously missed the point like a few others, including anyone who up votes this comment. Look, I'm tired of explaining my point over and over again. I pointed out where Elias and his evaluators are not infallible. I never said they were terrible. But some of you are such a love affair after last year you now have deified Elias to the point that adding a 33-year old back up catcher to his 40-man roster is met with thumbs ups by some of you. I do think Elias and company have done some good things and identified some players off waivers that have become good parts of the bullpen, but other teams find these guy too including teams in the World Series with Elias castaways.

And released Evan Phillips from AAA who was immediately signed by Tampa and ended the year pitching in the World Series for the Dodgers. Crazy how Tampa and the Dodgers liked a guy that Elias' regime tossed away like trash. They also released Josh Rogers last year and kept guys like Tom Eshleman to eat innings in 2021. So people need to realize that while there is good, the talent evaluation and moves are not infallible and that we should absolutely question the ones that look "questionable". Claiming Cave is questionable, but adding a 33-year old back up catcher who has never hit in the majors league to the 40-man makes zero sense in any shape or form.

Actually, I have zero issues with adding the Cincinnati catchers. I have major issues with anyone's baseball acumen who thinks Bemboom is a guy you concern yourself over enough to add him to the 40-man roster and try to keep from other teams. Bemboom is a minor league free agent guy who you give a minor league contract to and offer a spring training invite at best. You guys crack me up. They added a 33-year old catcher who has never hit in the majors and hasn't even put up good minor league numbers!!!!! But you guys are like, eh, the genius knows what he's doing. Sorry, I don't buy it and yes, I have concerns over an organization that covets players like Bemboom and Cave. Heck, they already have Cam Gallagher on the 40-man. Even if they wanted Bemboom as depth, there is no way anyone can convince me he's coveted by other teams so much that they had to act on him right away. The fact that they claimed two other potential backups that are probably better than Bemboom shows how easy it is to find AAA-type potential back up catchers. Not to mention they have Maverick Handley in AA who fits the same mold. Also, let's not forget, this is team that started Odor all year and felt Aguilar was a better play than Stowers. They are not infallible at all.

This. I like a lot of things Elias has done, but if DD would have signed Bemboom to a 40-man contract the pitchforks would be out around here. I just call each move as I see them and the Bemboom and Cave moves make zero sense. I can't even wrap my head around the Bemboom move in any way. Bemboom would have clearly been available on a minor league contract with a spring training invitation without being put on the 40-man roster. But yeah, I'm also pushing back against this sudden thought process that Elias can do no wrong and whatever he's doing must make complete sense, even when the move makes zero sense to anyone who has followed baseball moves closely. The thought process of "Eh, who cares right now" also bugs me because these moves are giving us a glimpse of the organization's priorities after the season. I still have no idea with all the owner strife and lawsuits whether Elias will be able to spend this offseason. If not, he'll need to be very shrewd in his moves this offseason and he's not off to a good start in my opinion. As always though, if he makes moves I agree with or like, I'll give him props but I'm not just going to overlook unnecessary moves that make no sense and shrug them off like he has some master plan for these players.

You should probably take a look at Pena's power numbers in the minors and compare them to Ortiz this year. Then get back to me about impacting the baseball.

When I look at Pena's minor league numbers and when I watch him hit and play defense with Astros this year, I see Ortiz as a very similar player. Now he may not hit as many home runs because of playing half his game in Camden Yards instead of the bandbox of Minute Maid park, but I do see a guy who could make that jump like Pena and find success right away.

No, but he was so important that the Orioles needed to add him and protect him on the 40-man roster. Thank God! I was really worried about losing a 33-year old back up AAA catcher who can't hit to another team. Genius move. I apologize for ever suggesting Elias and his crew aren't perfect genius' on all their moves. I mean this move clearly depicts their genius because no other team would have possibly thought about signing up their own 33-year old backup AAA catchers to their 40-man rosters. These other team are so far behind the curve. They don't understand the value of a 33-year old catcher with a career .160/.231/.265/.496 line in 203 magical major league PAs. Dummies all of them. Yes, when the season was over, the most important move was to sure up Bemboom!! Freakin' Genius I tell you. I apologize that my obviously non-genius brain was unable to understand the pure ingenuity and foresight it took to ensure the organization doesn't lose this talent. With only Cam Gallagher on the 40-man as a potential backup, it now has become clear to me, the need for three more back up catchers on the 40-man, to include the talents of 33-year old Bemboom was not only necessary, but a necessity. How could I have been so blind? I hope you guys will forgive me for ever questioning Elias because clearly cornering the market on back up catchers after the season was over, but before free agency occurs is beyond my non-genius understanding. Maybe I need to change my scouting approach? Perhaps age and performance don't matter as much as I thought. Perhaps there is some magic evaluation metric that occurs in the Orioles-cave (The place I assume Elias and Sig do their work) that finds value in players like Bemboom when other mere mortals just see a AAA backup catcher. I now have to question everything I know or have been taught to believe in scouting evaluations. But without the special Orioles evaluation computer, how will I ever be accurate again? Guess I'll just have to evaluate like everyone else on age, tools, and performance.

Jeremy Pena is a good example of what Ortiz good be. When I watch Pena, i see a lot of Ortiz in him. Pena only had 133 PAs under his belt when the Astros made him their starting shortstop while letting their superstar SS go. I don't think there is any doubt Ortiz can be as good as Pena both offensively and defensively if he's given the job next year.

I certainly think "protecting the investment" is big part of things now. I also think pitchers pushed through pain a bit more than platers today, but a lot of that has to do with pitchers now are protecting their own investment in themselves. In 1982, pitchers didn't want to go on the DL/IL and there was a bit of a machismo effect going on that pitching through pain is just part of the business. In the documentary fastball, Nolan Ryan discussed pitching through pain in a year he threw over 300 innings in a season with starts going past 150 pitches many times. Grant it, few were/are built with Ryan's makeup, tolerance for pain, and abilities, but at the same time, young pitchers are taught at a young age to shut it down when they feel pain. Heck, even when I played in High school in the 80's, none of us ever missed time unless we had "hospital injuries." As a Junior, I was competing for the varsity starting catcher's job when in a out first scrimmage game, some yahoo pitcher hit me with a fastball on the wrist bone on my right hand. It swelled up so much I had to go to the emergency room to have it xray'd. The x-ray came back negative and they said it was just a bone bruise so I went home. I was unable to really do anything for about a week, but with the season coming up, I know I was going to lose the job if I didn't play. So even with hurting like hell, I went back out and started playing. No trainers (I don't even recall us having a trainer in my high school), no coaches cared, they were just like, "Are you good now?" and me wanting to play was like, "Yep, feeling fine, coach!" Now a days in high school (at least when I coached back in the 2013-14 timeframe) we would need a doctors note or the trainer to give allow them back on the field once they had gone to the hospital. Just a different time I guess. Funny thing is, I lost the job anyways to a Sophomore who ended up playing in the minors for a bit after High School. Off to the outfield I went! lol

Ortiz will be a superior player to Mateo in everything but speed. Maybe Mateo gets a slight edge in range, but Ortiz will commit less errors.

There is no big arm guy that is close unfortunately. The sooner they move Juan De Los Santos to the pen the faster he will move. He has been up to 99 MPH this season and at 6-3, 250, he's like the little Mountain! But he'll be just 21 next year so they will probably want to see if he can develop his secondaries enough to stick as a starter.

That what happens when I type quickly and don't reread my comments. All I was saying is I give more weight to Law's comments on Kjerstad not hitting certain pitches hard vs getting to excited over him putting good numbers up overall in a good hitter's environment. Saying that, I agree with everything you are saying here. We'll know a lot more about Kjerstad after next year.

Well I imagine I annoy you at times too then, because I try to give as accurate an evaluation as I can on Orioles prospects which includes when it's not what Orioles fan might want to hear. Personally, I'd rather hear an accurate assessment vs the Pollyanna "scouting approach" from some out there that over rate prospects and their tools.

I don't think Law has a bias. I think he's a tough grader, which most scouts should be. I don't always agree with analysis, but then again, scouts don't always agree with each other on players.

I have zero issues with moving the regular season back to 152 or even less games and keeping the playoffs. Whatever it takes to get baseball out of November.

I would be surprised if Voth is non-tendered because he really shouldn't be that expensive. He provide depth at SP and could slide to the pen for some long relief if needed.

I'll be honest, I give more weight to Law's comments then the numbers he's putting up against sub par AFL pitching. Not what any of us wanted to hear but I'm not ready to make a full decision on him until after next season. I don't put a ton of weight into AFL numbers though obviously playing well is better than struggling. Most team do not send out their better pitching prospects unless they missed a bunch of time and they are trying to make up some innings. Either way, Kjerstad just needs to keep getting PAs.

I'd have to time him going to first on a play that he has to really has to sprint.

Here's what I don't understand in this line of thinking, how do they "take a look" at them in October when the year is out? I'm not bashing Elias, I'm questioning his evaluations for major league talent. I've honestly never seen a team ever protect a 33-year AAA back up catcher after the season was done. Evah!!! lol Look, I'll give him credit for finding guys like Mateo and Urias off the scrap heap, but those were no doubter 1st on the waiver wire queue claims. They have done a good job in finding some good pitchers off the waiver wire and I'm a fan of their scouting and development so far for the most part. I'm not an Elias basher, but I'm also not giving him passes for bad moves or moves that make me question his sanity. Collecting backup catchers in October after the season standpoint just seems very weird to me and the Bemboom and Cave moves are borderline crazy as neither are valuable pieces of any winning team in the future. I'm going to call them as I see them. If it's a good move, I'll be the first to say it, but he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating borderline major league talent because he's failed more than he's found success and he's also given up on talent that found great success elsewhere (Evan Phillips and of course Yaz comes to mind). We're all on the same sheet of music when it comes to saying we doubt these moves mean a lot overall, other than the need to do them. Makes me wonder what other things are they wasting their time on instead of quickly saving a 33-year old back up catcher from potentially becoming a minor league free agent.

Good find..

And I think that's the issue. His sustained slumps really hurts his value overall. I really wonder if they will give Ortiz a legitimate shot to be the everyday SS next year. Of course I think they will give Westburg a legitimate shot at playing 2B next year.

You guys crack me up with "The orioles want to take a look" at journeyman AAA catchers by putting them on the 40-man." I get it, many of you are so happy after a great season that Elias can now do no wrong. He can make ridiculous moves and people will just be like, eh, he's a genius so of course this must be right. I mean, what team doesn't have 3 journeyman catchers including a 33 year old who was a back up catcher in AAA on their 40-man roster? Look, I agree with those that say ultimately none of this matters right now and the guys they are removing are guys that can be easily found again, but I'm not going to just accept that this makes sense because Elias is doing it. But hey, why should we challenge a GM that played Odor and Aguilar down the stretch while his team was still in contention for a wild car spot? Elias is clearly infallible here to some and I get it after the nice year, but the historic losing was under Elias as well. I will leave you guys with this, while this really doesn't stop the team from doing anything and any of these spare part catchers can be jettisoned at will, I question the analytical evaluations of a team that believes protecting a 33-year old back up AAA catcher is so valuable that they see a need to protect him on the 40-man. Considering this team felt Aguilar would help down the stretch despite being terrible all year with Miami, and their analysis that Odor was the best player to play a bunch during a stretch run, make me question this organization when it comes to evaluating major league ready talent. Maybe this is some weird way to get guys under contract as cheaply as possible into the system, but there is no magic evaluation system going on that they send these guys through.

He's had a nice little career with the Diamondbacks. Nice environment to hit though.

That's ashamed. Pretty young overall. He was one of the best of the first true closers.

BTW, Ortiz is probably the best defender at SS that I've seen come through the system. He's what they hoped Grenier would have been (different scouting directors and GM).