Tony-OH

Love the title! Good stuff buddy!

Yeah, it's pretty clear that Holt has made that a priority throughout the organization. The changeup Kremer was using last night was the best I've ever seen from him. It bordered on a plus pitch at times.

Tell you what, Kremer has a much improved changeup. He was getting swings and misses on the pitch with good vertical movement.

Feliz has pitched his way onto the scene bit with an incredible ability to miss bats (16.1/9 thru 24.2IP). Since getting pounded by the Blue Rocks for 8 ER runs in 1.2 UP on 4/14, he's pitched to a 1.71 ERA and held batters to a measly .123/.256/.206/.461 slash line over 21 IP in 6 appearances. He can throw in the mid-90s and his slider misses bats. At 22 years old in High-A, he's age appropriate for his level.

Is Coby Mayo a disappointment this year is a debate going on in Frobby's other thread. Let's compare Mayo to Gunnar in Aberdeen. Both were the same playing age but it's worth noting that Henderson is only 5 months older than Mayo. Just for fun, let's put Ryan Mountcastle's stats in at the same age and level though Frederick was a hitter's park vs Aberdeen's pitcher's park rep. Name BA OBP SLG WOBA BB% K% ISO wRC+ PAs Henderson .230 .343 .432 .341 13.8% 30.1% .202 109 289 Mayo .234 .290 .489 .336 7.1% 25.2% .255 100 155 Mountcastle .314 .343 .542 .390 3.7% 16.1% .228 146 379 It seems as though Henderson had better plate discipline drawing 6.7% more walks than Mayo but it came at a 4.9% increase in Ks. Mayo clearly though has the power edge wit the .255 ISO to Henderson's .202. Just for retrospect, Henderson slashed .227/.348/.391/.739 in his first 155 PAs in Aberdeen so let's see if Mayo starts to adjust as he gets closer. Honestly, the only thing that has been disappointing is the lack of walks and poor OBP. The one thing I always said about Mountcastle that despite the lack of walks, he hits for a high average. Mayo right now is not doing that and that is more of a concern than anything. He's shown more power than either of the other two, but he's far off the pace OBP wise. In the end, Mayo is holding his own, but low OBP and lack of walks is a bit of a disappointment this year. Hopefully he'll catch fire soon, but the power is legit.

He's a slightly below average outfielder which was similar to Stewart when he first made his debut. He lacks footspeed i the outfield and has an average at best arm more suited for left field in most stadiums but not Camden.

Unfortunately Peralta seemed to regress back his crazy wild days again after working so hard to keep that under control. Kinda started to like him a bit last year and though the might be ok in a bullpen role, but he's been a disaster this year. I never was a Lebron guy. Very hittable fastball and nothing to get major league batters out consistently. Cruz was a gangly, shockingly unathletic looking first baseman who had no business making it out of the FCL. His best quality seemed to be that he looked like a good teammate who was positive on the field. He had a decent raw power tool but couldn't transition that to game power against higher level pitching.

And his WOBA is at .401 and his HR/Fly ball rate is at 28.1% which is back to his AA numbers.

Stowers has always been a good hitter against lefties. That's one of the reason I liked him so much. Saying that, what we've seen is that he can be very steaky. When he's on, he can carry a team, when he's off it's going to be a K fest. Over his last seven games he's been ungodly hot (.464/.559/1.214/1.773 w 6 HR, 6 BB and 6 K's in 3 PAs) finished off with his three homer game on Sunday. People still underrate him but he's got a chance to be an impact everyday RFer. The problem right now is there is no place for him to play with Mancini and Santander still on the roster. The one thing I have noticed is the Orioles have been playing him CF a lot this year. He hasn't looked out of place but doesn't have the ideal footspeed that you would like out there. Saying that, he can be ok as a backup out there giving the Orioles more flexibility.

He was 6-for-41 with 1 BB an 9 K's over 43 PAs (.146/.167/.342/.508) before his 4-for-4 game on Sunday. Neustrom is almost a mirror image of DJ Stewart in almost all facets of his game.

I'm not super excited about any of the arms right now behind Grayson and DL Hall to be honest. Way too many are on the IL and even the ones doing well in Aberdeen and Delmarva are still unknowns a bit. Pinto and Lowther have been disappointments, Rom, Brandon Young and Rangel are on the IL. Baumann's command has not been great and Bradish has only had one good start in four at the major league level.

I'll be honest here, Baumler gets a high debut for a few reasons. Felix Bautista graduated and it create a hole He was ranked #16 at the end of the year last year based on his potential Nobody that's behind him at #14 has really stepped up He still has a starter's potential Feliz has pitched his way onto the scene bit with an incredible ability to miss bats (16.1/9 thru 24.2IP). Since getting pounded by the Blue Rocks for 8 ER runs in 1.2 UP on 4/14, he's pitched to a 1.71 ERA and held batters to a measly .123/.256/.206/.461 slash line over 21 IP in 6 appearances. He can throw in the mid-90s and his slider misses bats. At 22 years old in High-A, he's age appropriate for his level. Cowser has shown a little life over his last six games (.333/.360/.542/.902) but the surprising K problem has remained. I'm convinced this is swing change problem and the org has told him not to worry about numbers and stick with the new swing. The OBP has remained and he's solid defensive outfielder. Westburg has begun to awaken out of his slump as well slashing .326/.383/.698/1.081 over his last 11 games. Let's hope it's him getting adjusted to AA because he now has a .228/.325/.456/.781 slash line in 289 AA PAs. That has to improve.

Updated thru 5/23 Three new pitchers show up including Carter Baumler now that he's assigned to Delmarva. Felix Bautista was removed since he no longer is eligible for the list.

Heck yeah

Yeah, they look like the local AV club put the commerical together.

Looks like power vs power!

Yikes, ok. But man, not a great matchup with Rizzo.

My money is he starts in the FCL when it opens on June 6th.

I don't call him a traitor at all, because that would mean he was actually on the Orioles side. Let's face it, Mu$$ina was on team Mussina all the time. He wasn't born here in this area, he wasn't an Orioles fan growing up. He was drafted and deveoped by the Orioles. He pitched well and was a good pitcher for them. The first time he was going to be eligible to be a free agent he felt like the Orioles had a chance to win a World Series so he resigned to what turned out to be hometown discount. The second time he was tired of being the number one guy and jumped at a chance to be a 3rd or 4th starter for more money. I don't blame him at all. He did what any player of fortune would do. I'm sure dealing with Mister Scrooge didn't help. When I was kid I was fan who thought the players cared about the city and the fans. Free agency changed all of that for most players. I really don't care all that much about the players but the fortunes of the team, because in the end, the players are playing their best for your team when they wear that unofrom, but make no mistake about it, their allegiance starts and end with what's best for them and their families monetarily. Sure there are few examples here and there that would not fit, but in the end, if you think players care two cents about you and or the city, you have fallen for the professional sports ruse. In the end, I root for players who play for the Orioles. Once they no longer play for the Orioles, I no longer root for them. At the end of the day though, if a players doesn;t go into the HoF with an Orioles hat, his number should certainly not be retired by the team. That would be embarrassing.

It's been so long ago I can't remember the source of that information. I do remember it being good information but Mu$$ina felt the bridge was burned.

Murray also did not leave as a free agent, he was traded away by a stupid Front office and basically chased away by a ridiculous press.

I will say two things here. I don't miss Tanner Scott, and I enjoy watching Perez pitch. He may not have the best command, but the stuff can be plus at times. He's not going to be a clean inning guy often, but he's shown me the ability to bear down when he needs to. I also like the emotion out there a bit. You can see how important doing well is to him. Saying that, he's been pretty lucky as he's been hit pretty hard as his EV's and hard hit percentages are pretty bad. The slider has plus verticle (16% above avg) and Horizontal (59%) movement and he has 44% Whiff rate on the pitch, but when he's left it in the zone it's gotten hit hard. He's gotten some swings and misses on his fastball in the zone, but none on his slider which means he has to bury that pitch for it to be effective. Luckily for the most part he has, but his xBA (.298, xSLG (.458), xOBA (.368) and XBACON (.466) shows he's been pretty lucky so far. The high XBACON shows he very relient on Whiff for success so far. The Orioles have taken his chanegup away so he's a strict two pitch so far as the "sinker" that shows up in baseball savant are probably really just 4-seams that he just threw a little differntly. I do see some regression in his future, but his ability miss bats makes him valuable.

Nice to see him finally able to start. Looking forward to seeing his stuff.

I'm fairly certain my thoughts on this have been expressed. Saying that, as others have pointed out, everyone who's had their number retired by the Orioles are in the HoF, won either a Cy Young, MVP, or Rookie of the year AND won a World Series as an Oriole. None of them also left the team for the Yankees via Free Agency. Mu$$ina still remains the only player to be drafted, developed and star for the Orioles who left the team for the Yankees in his prime. Yes, I know all of the Angelos drama and yes I know dealing with Angelos was a horrible experience for almost everyone, but at the end of the day, the day he signed with the Yankees he gave up his chance to leave a legacy in baseball. He choose to be a 3rd or 4th starter and another hired gun for an organization that has been known for hired guns since free agency started in 1977. His own brother at the time said that Mussina did not enjoy the pressure of being a number one pitcher. Had he stayed (Angelos eventually offere him the same money as the Yankees) he would have been up there with Palmer as the greatest Orioles pitcher ever. That would have been a legacy. He chose otherwise which is his right, but at no point should the Orioles give him that legacy back. The fact that he choose to go in without an Orioles cap (which made total sense honestly and I'm glad that he didn't) cemented this fact. I can't see any case for retiring the number of a player not wearing an Orioles cap on the HoF.

Such easy power. Good to see him get it going again. Obviously he had quite the slump, but he's back to being the guy we thought he was.