Tony-OH

I will go back and do a more thorough look at both when I get a chance this weekend. Aberdeen is in a tough league for video work as some teams don't have broadcasts or are at the bare minimum like Aberdeen.

DEnoyer is one the power rankings at #18 but he certainly could continue to rise. I need to go back and watch his last two starts. I wasn't impressed with Van Loons' stuff when I saw him earlier in the year but he's worth following. Even Peek, who reminds me of Kremer a bit before Kremer improved his change and developed a cutter, is worth following. He doesn't throw quite as hard as Kremer though.

Denoyer is quickly becoming very interesting.

It also unfortunately goes the other way were success at hose levels may not mean success at the major league level. That's why you gotta scout them and look at how they are being successful. I wish statcast data was available for the general public on minor leaguers. Not sure why those are held as state secrets!

Now has hit two home runs today! This kid could be breaking out!

True, that may not have been the best word. Like you said, there are things happening in real time that I believe only the coaching staff can see during games.

Let's just stop here, ok? You are derailing this thread with whatever issues you have about this subject. Let's stay on baseball. Thanks.

Yeah, making Harvey out to be some drug dealing Kingpin because he gave a teammate one of his prescription painkillers is about the biggest bunch of hyperbole and character assassination I've seen on this site in a long time. Oh and supposedly did cocaine too. The humanity! The only discussion we should be having is over whether the team is in need of his services and if he will be good. He may be able to burn some innings and can easily be released if he stinks, which he probably will judging by last year. I wasn't a fan of the signing when it happened because I didn't want to see him get innings that should be going to young pitching talent. That talent has either gotten hurt, has a new role, or has struggled. Now, if Zimmermann has another good start would i rather see him than Harvey, yes sir, but outside of Zimmermann, who else in AAA is ready to start in the MLB?

See, this is where we really don't know how decisions are made. Hyde and Elias have bee very consistent calling decisions like this a collaborative decision. I would hope that in game decision are made after pre-game discussion on availability, situations and matchups and are done by finalized by Hyde. Honestly, I don't know how it works and lots of managers now are just slaves to the what the computers spit out. Look at Cash in Tampa. he may have cost his team a WS because he pulled a perfectly good starting pitcher because the computers said it was the percentage move. I'm not against the computer systems and certainly not against using stats and matchups for your decisions, but I also believe in managers' intuition to override the information sometimes.

I like cheap contracts for productive players, but I don't pretend to believe in fairy tales or look into the future by promising a kid who never hit above A+ ball a team friendly ten year contract and rush him to the major leagues!

Yet you are calling for "credit" by suggesting it was the right thing to do. You can't have it both ways.

Huh? How would any of that be a good idea? We have no idea if Henderson would have improved like has against major league pitching vs the AA and AAA pitches he's been facing. The Orioles have developed Henderson quite well, pushing him when he needed to be pushed but not before he was not ready.

Considering Cueto was available for a minor league deal worth $4.2 million, you do have to question why he wasn't signed to that deal. He was better than Lyles in 2021 and he cost less. Would i rather have Lyles than Harvey, absolutely. But, that's the past, and we need to focus on what helps us this year. While Harvey would not have been first, second or probably 3rd choice, he might end up the best choice available at some point. i will say Zimmermann outpitched him at a higher level last night so if Zim can find his command again, I'd prefer to see him than Harvey.

It's time to give this 17-year old (turns 18 in mid-August) his own thread. Playing against older competition, Basallo is hitting .444/.500/.611/1.111 with a home run over his last five games. He's striking out a bit too much overall, but it's not awful at 28.6%. His LD rate is good at 23.1% but his groundball rate is too high (53.8%) but at the end of he day, he's one of the youngest players in the league and he's certainly holding his own so far.

I'll say this, I'd rather have Stewart on this team than Nevin who really has no role on this team with Arauz getting a look.

This pretty much mirrors my thoughts on the situation. But here we are at the end of June and the guys we wanted to see get chance have mostly failed or gotten hurt. Lowther imploded and now is down in Sarasota on the Developmental list trying to figure himself out. Alex Wells got hurt. Bradish was mostly disappointing and then got hurt. Zimmermann's command left him and now he's in AAA. Rodriguez is out with an injury and Hall does not look like a guy on the cusp of helping the team in a starting pitching role. Akin has been converted to a bulk reliever and is thriving in the role, and Kremer is the only guy who actually has come through. So when I look at the current options for the rotation, they include Spenser Watkins and Austin Voth (who actually has a really good curveball) you have to consider giving Harvey a look now. Do I think he will be very good? No, not really, but he's got a fresh arm and may be the best current option to help out the rotation.

You meant Mayo instead of Baumler as a possible Mountcastle replacement. Either way, I doubt the Orioles are going to keep an older more expensive player in Mancini over Mountcastle. Saying that, Mancini is not really going to be that expensive next year as they have a mutual option that they could both decide to enact. I'm not so sure Mancini needs to be traded. As for Mountcastle, he's cost controlled and productive most of the season. Now, would I trade him if for a similarly aged, experienced and good starting pitcher? Probably. Mancini could go back to first and it would open up a spot for Rutschman to DH when he's not catching. Also, Rutschman played a decent amount of first base in the minors last year and was pretty good. He could also play there when not catching.

Wells and Kremer are certainly the top two starting pitchers in the rotation right now. Nice to have guys in the rotation that you kind of expect to have a good start, not hope to have a good start.

But with six teams ahead of them, they have to outplay a lot of teams to get there. Not saying it's impossible, just that this team is going to need a lot of things to go right and a lot of things to go bad for the other six teams.

Nevin needs to be gone anyways. He has no role on this team or really in the big leagues. He's not going to hit enough and while he plays 3B and 1B and has played LF, he not plus in any of them. He's a AAA depth guy who really should be behind a healthy Kelvin Gutierrez.

Yeah, definitely had a weird develop growth starting at being 16-years old in the Gulf Coast League with the Phillies. Getting Rule 5 drafted also made him lose a bit of a year so there's room to improve and develop. He's only 23 years old and just six months older than Jordan Westburg.

Nice recap that's on point WC. Good job. i will say this Arauz has a plus arm and the hands look good. If he can hit at all he becomes attractive as a utility guy.

Interesting. Wonder what is causing the jump?

Hmm, interesting. I've always liked rWAR over fWAR but this is interesting. Did you go back to last year and see if rWAR or fWAR was closer to the record to see if this is an anomoly?

I'm too young to remember Paul Blair in his prime, but I know he's widely considered one of the best defensive CF of all-time. Saying that, Mullins is not great, but about league average on coming in on balls. He's never had a negative or positive OOA coming in in balls. So basically, he's get to what he's supposed to get to, but he's not going to make that amazing play coming in very often.