Tony-OH

He was transferred to the 60-day Il which is never a good sign. Anyone heard what happened to him?

Lowther better figure it out because he's got to eat some innings tonight.

Wow, Lowther really has imploded as a prosepect. He's been lost all year including spring. He looks totally different than the guy we saw last September.

I feel like the umpires are almost apologetic when they do! lol

Lowther really has lost his command, and he never had the stuff to have success without it!

Yeah, you to imagine he's the length guy after Baker. His command has been terrible this year but hopefully it's getting good enough to do well in that Akin role. We'll see. He's been disappointing.

The thing is, we want to find out this year who are guys and who are not. Vespi is old for a prospect but has dominated in AAA. Let's see him against big league hitters this year. There is a better chance he's a decent bullpen piece much more than Sedlock, Diplan or Lakins.

Well there's your length guy after Baker. We'll see if that helps him like it did Akin. His command has not been good all year.

Rutschman has needed a bit of time to adjust to each level and the majors was going to be no different. I did not expect him to show up and be an impact guy right away. After yesterday his EV went up to 90.4 MPH which is above league average of 88.4. He's going to be fine when he adjusts. As for framing, if he qualified, his 52.8% strike rate (cumulative total of all zones just off the plate). The zone on the inside of RH batters he's stolen an amazing 82.8% strikes. So yes, he's damn good framer.

I'm no sure why he keeps guys like Diplan and Lakins on the roster other than they are those guys they can just use in blowouts. I'd rather have guys like Vespi and Kremer in those roles.

So defensive measure suck because YOUR eyes tell you that the players on your team are better than the metrics tell you? My eyes told me for years that Markakis was below average in RF and definitely that jones should not be playing CF towards the end of his time in Baltimore. Both of my "eyes assessments" were back up by most defensive metrics. While defensive metrics like range factor and things like that are just based off raw stats, the new ability to track player movements and produce OAA is pretty darn accurate. Like Frobby posted, you really have to look at all of them. I mean you can just ignore them all an go off your fan eye balls, which is certainly your right, but the metrics now give you much, much more data to add to your eye balls.

Looks like e bullpen game with them hoping to get two out of Baker. Think we see a lot of guys that could sent down afterwards like Sedlock and Diplan.

Is Tyler Wells a long term answer in the starting rotation? that's the question was have to ask ourselves and while the 3.71 ERA through his first 10 starts this year is pretty good, let's look at the numbers a little closer and see if it's done with mirrors or sustainable success. The first thing we have to remember is that Wells is almost 28 years old (August). I know we all think of him as being so young because he was rookie last year and a rule 5 pick, but Wells is older than Zimmermann, Akin, Baumann, Kremer, Lowther, Gillespi and A. Wells. When looking at his overall numbers this year, the first thing that jumps out is his 14th percentile K% (15.9%, 5.8/9 K) and 40th percentile WHIFF. The next thing that jumps is a positive, his 90th percentile walk percentage (4%, 1.4/9). So while he's not missing a ton of bat and doesn't seem to have that goto K pitch, he's not getting hurting because he's not giving up free bases often. Let's look at the stuff: His Fastball has good vertical movement but is just a little below average on horizontal movement. BA SLG wOBA WHIF K% Putaway xBA xSLG xwOBA hard hit % .277 .508 .349 18.1 9.9 9.3 .321 .668 .421 56.7 Basically he's been outperforming his expected outcomes on the fastball so that's something to keep an eye on and could mean regression. Slider BA SLG wOBA WHIF K% Putaway xBA xSLG xwOBA hard hit % .238 .333 .273 26.6 21.3 13.7 .227 .352 .301 32.4 While the slider has slightly below average vertical movement he's getting slightly above average horizontal movement and been his 2nd best putaway pitch (getting outs). Change BA SLG wOBA WHIF K% Putaway xBA xSLG xwOBA hard hit % .216 .270 .214 30.8 18.9 15.6 .176 .199 .161 10.0 The change has been his best overall pitch. It's not hit hard (78.4 EV) and it's been his go to putaway pitch. Not surprisingly he's starting throw it almost as much as his changeup. Curve BA SLG wOBA WHIF K% Putaway xBA xSLG xwOBA hard hit % .235 .353 .278 28.9 16.7 8.8 .146 .172 .169 21.4 The curve has been very effective as well with it's 13.1 inches of horizontal break, it's 5.7 inches more than the average curveball at that velocity which means it's something different for hitters to see. So the good news overall is that he has four pitches that are useable and can get outs. His three offspeed offerings allows his fastball to play up and when he keeps that pitch up in the zone, he can get swings and misses of it because of the above average vertical (lack of gravity drop). The repertoire suggests he can stick as a starter and if locates well, he should be a good 4th starter type similar to Chris Tillman. He's a good find by Elias/Sig. Just don't expect TOR stuff from him. He's probably going to be a 4.00 to 4.50 ERA kind of starter.

It really depends on the return. No way do I want some more Dominican Lottery tickets kinds of trades. Honestly, if you look at the trades Elias has made, he hasn't exactly found a true nugget yet so I'm not excited about him trading off vets for prospects. Now maybe he will better at prospects for prospects kinds of trades, but Bradish looks like the best guy he acquired and I'm still not convinced he's going to be starter at the big league level long term. Either way, I'm fine with trading Mancini, Santander or even Mullins if the return was right, but it needs to be for high level (AA/AAA) prospects and not lottery tickets.

The disappointment of Cowser this year really puts a kink in the trading of outfielders. Really Stowers is the only guy close that's a potential everyday regular. I'm still on the fence on Haskins but I think he looks more like a McKenna type 4th outfielder than a regular. The good news is that Hays (26), Mullins (27) and Santander (27) are just entering their prime and should have 3-4 years left which means all could be part of a winning team. Saying that, you have to open to offers particularly for Santander in my opinion since Stowers could be his replacement. As for Mullins, Sports Guy showed the numbers since August of last year so this is more than a slump. I'll have to look at Baseball Savant, but just from watching the games it seems like they've found a hole on the inside part of the plate with him and are busting there with hard stuff. One thing to remember that despite the down year with the offense so far, he's still been worth 1.3 WAR through the first two months, so he's still an above average player. He does need to be more patient though. That walk percentage has gone down, but the biggest issue is he's just not doing the same damage to the pitches he does swing at. Everything is down from EV to hard hit and his "heart of the plate" swing/take is -5 runs which means he not doing the damage he should on hittable pitches. Hopefully he'll break out soon.

Man, remember me getting bashed by some when I suggested taking him out of the pen and trying him as a starter? Seriously though, Wells is so mature and we have to give credit to Elias/Sig on taking him in the second round of the Rule 5 draft. Amazing that Scheroler was actually picked before him.

Everybody hitting tonight for the Orioles: McKenna and Owings: Hold my bat

And one Diaz gets hurt and he wasn't even in the tree.

Why? Shake a minor league tree and 10 Stewart and Gutierrez type players fall out.

No one is claiming Jones. Hes a below avager hitter with no real position.

The Cobb trade was a salary dump. The Orioles saved a little more than 4 million and didn't want to win games until this year so it was a win-win in the Elias run Orioles.

What in the hell garabage is going on? Where is the Orioles game on Verizon FIOS? No, I dont have Apple TV, no I don't own any Apple crap. This is garbage.

No one is going to stop Gunnar for getting PAs in AAA. Right now, it's an organizational decision to keep him in AA because of his development plan, not because any of the org/AAAA guys you mentioned.

I could see this being the Orioles plan in the second half or maybe the last month or two of the season. Right now he needs to refine his command of his four pitches.

Rhodes was placed on the 7-day IL and hasn't played since May 18th. Doesn't seem like he was pulled from his last game so not sure what's up. Anyone heard anything?