Tony-OH

I don't really know a lot about Soto defensively so I couldn't tell you that for sure. They may be for all I know. Soto is here because of his versatility, but he hasn't played a lot of 3B in his career. I think the Orioles prefer to keep running Holliday out to 2B so would most likely play Soto there over him if Gunnar needs a day off.

Is O'Leary still around? I'm pretty sure his inverted W theory was debunked when a study showed there was no correlation to more Tommy John surgeries for pitchers with an inverted W then without. I don't follow it all that closely, but I definitely remember his name and definitely remember the counter argument/studies. I also remember for years looking for the inverted W in pitchers to express concerns until the counter study came out.

After the way Westburg looked like he had never played there in his life, in his one game this year, by default, Holliday. Really you don't want either of them at SS for anything other than an emergency or for a few innings. This was why Mateo was so important and why Soto was eventually recalled.

That may have been hyperbole for sure. Either way, I can remember talking with player development people and scouts and none of them wanted to play Mountcastle at SS, and only a few wanted to give him a shot at 3B for the same reasons.

I'll be honest, I don't know at what point a throwing motion is a throwing motion when it comes to fielders. Some of it has to do with muscle twitch as well, so not everyone is a quick twitch person.

Hardy definitely had a strong arm when he needed it, he just didn't show it off all the time. His internal baseball clock was off the charts when it came to knowing exactly how much he had to put on a throw to get a runner, many times by a half step. Mountcastle not only had a weak arm, but his arm swing made it a slow release on top of the lack of arm strength. The fact that Duquette ordered Mountcastle to play SS for so long to "increase his value" was one of his bigger blunders. Just because you play a player at a position does not mean the other team's scouts believe they can play there. As for Holliday, I think he could fill in at shortstop and probably not kill a team, but he would be a below average defender there in my opinion based off what I've seen from him playing there in the minors. He really doesn't bring anything plus to the infield (hands, tagging, arm strength, accuracy, quick release) and a lot of these are a work in progress.

This exactly. Holliday does not have the quick release of the players Frobby mentioned.

Unless there is something wrong with Suarez that we don't know about, this makes more sense.

Who are the project picks that have gone from "present power guys" that they improved their launch angle and swing decisions to make them good big leaguers? Zach Watson, Hudson Haskins, John Rhodes, Jud Fabian, Max Wagner, Anthony Servideo, Carter Young, and Silas Ardoin probably all fit into this category. I'm struggling to see some amazing secret sauce. The guys that have made it and done well at the major league level were all very high draft picks that were valued highly by most other evaluators/organizations. Ortiz was a great pick, but he remade himself over COVID and showed back up a different guy. Let's not forget that he was also not valued very highly and treated like a spare part last year when they played Adam Frazier over him. I'm not saying the Orioles are terrible at development, but until I see a project guy suddenly turn it around after being drafted, I'm not going to brag about some secret sauce.

Good story, and it's true. While minor league performance is a tool to use, ultimately a good scout can see the stuff and command and know what will or will not work at the major league level. You can get a lot of chase strikeouts with certain pitches against poor hitters, but major league hitters a different beast. You may fool them once with something, but if the stuff is not quality or they realize you can't or won't throw it for strikes, they will ignore the pitch. He reminds me of Pham (who I like more than Van Loon), who will go through streaks of pitching well and getting K's, but you look at the stuff and go, "eh".

That's a good assessment of the situation if you ask me. Westburg's injury "forced" Mayo up before I think Elias wanted him up. The fact that he hasn't done well offensively, but especially defensively was only part of the reason to send him back down. They may not like the matchup with the Red Sox starters as well. They appear to be happier with Urias at 3B and Jimenez at DH right now. Personally, I would not have sent him back and played him everyday at 3B/DH and use Jimenez off the bench when he DHes. His throwing woes really hurt him IMHO. I've watched him a bunch in his career and he never looked that bad consistently on his throws. I think it got into his head.

Basallo in lineup tonight, so everything must be ok.

100%. I noticed the velocity had really fell off in his last three games with Miami, which you think would have been a red flag for Elias and the Orioles. Again, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on him this season yet, but forget the 28 runners he's allowed in 14.1 innings over his first three starts, the stuff is just yuck. There's a reason his stacast leaderboard looks like this: I generally give Elias the benefit of the doubt that they see something outside of the numbers when they get a guy like this, but they traded two guys who are legitimate major league hitting prospects for him during a pennant race. He's allowed a 47% hard hit rate in his first three starts and while his FIP 4.78 is better than his 7.53, his 8% swing strike rate tells me he's not fooling a lot of guys. I hope they can figure out something, because he's going to have to pitch with almost perfect command to get by with this stuff. I won't lie, Povich may have struggled walking guys, but he didn't get hit hard, and I felt better with him on the mound than Rogers so far.

I just don't see it. I actually went and watched his performance yesterday and don't see a major league outpitch. I only got one velocity reading from the announcers at 91 MPH, and his fastball did not garner a lot of swing and miss. Despite the high strike out numbers, I see more bad hitters than I do anything special about Van Loon's stuff. I didn't see a lot of swing and miss on stuff in the zone. He's a four-pitch guy, fastball, curveball, slider and changeup. The changeup is more a "foshball" that is more like a loopy offspeed pitch that dives down. He doesn't have very good command of the pitch, but he does get some swing and miss below the zone. the curveball and slider are both below average in movement and consistency, but he does throw them enough around the strike zone that batters have to adjust for different shapes and speed. I know the numbers look good, and if he had more velocity then maybe you could hope upon him a bit, but I'm guessing he turns into Armbruester in AAA. For the life of me I can't figure out how that stuff is working, even in AA.

I'll be honest, the only things these numbers reaffirm for me is how little I believe in ZiPS for anything.

I think Rogers will get a few more starts, but I agree that he needs to perform to stay in the rotation. Povich has been ok his last few times out and either he or Brandon Young could get looks if Rogers can't limit base runners and more importantly, runs from being scored. I do think the Orioles believe they can fix him this offseason, but I have not been impressed with his stuff at all.

Did I really need to put, "in the major leagues" for you to understand what I was saying? C'mon now!

This alone should make you question Fangraphs project WARs.

I have no idea how they think losing Bradish, Means, Wells, Rodriguez, Coulombe, and Westburg comes out to just 4.7 WAR. I agree with your premise that injuries affect all teams, and I'm not saying the Orioles have suffered more than others, I just question the 4.7 WAR number. I will assume they don't count Bautista.

No problem, thank you for saying that. Now back to the original reason for the thread. Now I'm ready for Coby's first massive homer!

A little piece of @Moose Milligan just died, but I for one am glad he'll be around. He's a good play by play guy overall.

I appreciate your update and observations, but I'm surprised your questioning Basallo's toughness. Minor League managers don't take any chances with big prospects and are under strict rules when it comes to taking guys out or not playing them. I don't think anybody who catches professional lacks toughness. Let's hope nothing was broke. I didn't see the injury but I don't like the reaction that you stated.

Why are you "embarrassed for this site?" Instead of bashing the moderation, maybe do your part and report offending posts so the moderators see it quicker. Do you think we sit here all day and monitor every post? do you think we see every post that breaks rules and we just allow them to go? Your comment here is just as bad as the offending poster in this thread.

Some people just have a hard time with joy. Congrats to Coby for the first of many major league hits that he has ahead of him. I personally always enjoy a first major league hit or an out for a pitcher. Good for them for making their dreams comes true. no matter what happens from there on out, they can always say they were a major league baseball player. Mayo is going to be able to say a lot more when it's all said and done.

Chapman is an oddity, similar to Nolan Ryan when it comes to throwing heat at an advanced age and not getting hurt. It would be interesting to see if someone has studied their mechanics to see if it's mechanics related, or just that they are physical freaks. Morfe throwing as hard as he is right now seems to be an early physical freak because there are not many 18-year old who can hit 101 MPH (His reported high this season). The question like with all young pitchers is whether he will hold up. We also don't know yet whether babying their pitch counts and innings like the Orioles do works or not. It's not like the Orioles system is immune to TJ surgeries and injuries to their pitchers at the major and minor league levels.