Tony-OH

True. The current international guys on this team outside of Deson and De Leon are not Elias/Sig guys, but he does have four draftees on the team in Hernaiz, Higgens, Craig and Willems. Elias/Sig guys: Craig (21): .063/.286/.063/.348 De Leon (20): .149/.333/.241/.575 Deson (19): .222/.294/.250/.544 Hernaiz (20): .278/.328/.537/.865 Higgens (22): .165/.283/.282/.565 Willem (19): .102/.170/.225/.394 So I'd say he has some of the blame here. Other than Hernaiz his guys aren't doing much.

But why are the other teams so much better if they are under the same system. Honestly, if you look, most of these guys did not have that great of a season in the FCL. Some held their own, but when you look at the K-BB rations you see guys that probably were going to struggle at the next level. The Shorebirds average age of hitters was 6th out of 12 teams and pitchers were tied for 5th oldest out of 12. Delmarva is bad because Elias does not draft many high schoolers, most of his college guys were pushed to Aberdeen, and because his international guys have not produced anyone of significance yet that has made it to Delmarva. Oh, and the fact that he doesn't drat or sign high school or high priced Latin American pitching so far doesn't help. We'll find out how some of the bigger named prospects perform this year in the FCL. That should give us a better indicator for next year.

Nice to hear and nice to see he got a dinger off a lefty as a lefty.

Yeah, you're probably right here. He did miss a few games and it's only been 11 games, but he has started to hit a bit. Either way, they need to find a place for Prieto at a higher level but with Norby out and Bowie full, they may just decide to keep him there for a bit more.

Bellony is a switch-hitting stocky guy with a little pop and understanding of the strike zone. He hits well from the left-side and probably needs to consider pulling a Mullins and giving up hitting right-handed. He's slashing .286/.378/.533/.910 batting left-handed and .063/.211/.063/.273 batting right-handed. He had similar splits last year in the FCL. I've noticed he has 3 PAs as a left-handed batter against left-handed pitching so maybe they are beginning to move him to left-handed only. He walked in two of those PAS and K'd in the other. Outside of Hernaiz, he's probably the best hitting prospect on the team though that bar is not very high. He's worth keeping an eye on a bit.

Bradish is a rookie holding his own in his first taste of the big leagues so there's going to be games like last night. Now remember, one of the reason why I didn't have Bradish as high as others did in prospect lists was because I wasn't sure he could stick as an effective starter long term. He's morphed from mainly a fastball-curveball guy to a fastball-hard diving slider guy who mixes in his curve and change occasionally. The slider is clearly his best pitch (41.% Whiff, .148 BA, .178 WOBA, .214 XWOBA, 90.5 EV) but his other offerings have been hit hard and often, including his fastball (15.9% Whiff, .333 BA, .438 WOBA, .386 XWOBA, 92.3 EV). He's using those two pitches 82.2% of the time and getting barreled at 10.% which is 22nd percentile in the league with league average at 6.7%. It's been just four starts, but we're starting to to see a little bit of some bad trends when it comes to him sticking as a starter long term. - The more pitches he throws the less effective he is with batters. - Pitches 1-25: .278/.381/.278/.659 - Pitches 26-50: .286/.310/.571/.882 - Pitcher 51-75: .400/.429/.680/1.109 - Batter's hit him much better the 2nd time they see him in a game. - 1st PA: .273/.333/.364/.697 - 2nd PA: .406/.444/.781/1.226 - He has struggled pitching from the stretch - .429/.452/.893/1.345 in 31 PAs vs .216/.286/.255/.541 in 56 PAs with no one on base from the full. Now these are all small sample sizes, but they match up a bit to what I saw in the minors at times last year, especially early on before the slider became a weapon. It's not to say Bradish won't have game where it works well, but we need to keep an eye on these stats with 2nd time through a lineup and after 25 pitches to see if they come down. If not, it suggests he's better suited for the bullpen longterm.

Certainly a good article that shows how mature Jones has become over the years. Obviously everyone eventually matures (well almost everyone), but he truly seems like someone who found himself through his family. And that's the best place to find yourself! I'll bet jones end up a guy who finds a fulfilling life outside of baseball. While he could certainly turn to coaching or maybe even broadcasting, he seems like a guy who would do well in business. I'll be rooting for him to do well in this next chapter of life. As someone who retired from the Army at 39-years old, I know what it's like to transition to a new "career". Grant it, I didn't have the money that Jones has, but I understand what it's like to basically start over. There will be ups and downs, but I'm betting there's another story in Jones' life that hasn't been written yet, but will eventually be another story of success.

Wow, now we know why they don't like to play Urias at SS. That was a putrid relay throw.

Never doubt the Orioles ability to not score runs with runners in scoiring position. I hate to be so blunt, but at the end of the day, there's a reason why this team has lost histroic amounts of games with the same "core" of veteran players. They lost in the minors and they lose in the majors.

Great title by the way. When your veteran makes base running mistakes like that one that just happened, there's a reason why these veterans have always been on losing teams.

Was placed on the 7-day IL on 7 May. His injury as usual is undisclosed. The Lefty was coming ff his longest start of the season when he went 80 pitches over 5.1 IP, allowing just two runs. Rom has dominated lefties (.077/.143/.115/.258 in 28 PAs) this year but has struggled with right-handers (.370/.426/.407/.834 in 61 PAs) in his 5 starts. His lack of success against right-handers highlights his need for an effective consistent changeup. He has not allowed a home run in his 20.1 IP

Over his last ten games, which includes a 12 day IL break for a hamstring injury, Prieto is slashing .432/.523/.946/1.469 with 5 HRs in 5 BBs, 4 K's over his last 44 PAs. I'd say he's due a promotion. Honestly, I'd be ok with moving Ortiz back down to A-ball unil he can get things going. Either way, at his age, it's time for AA.

Was placed on the 7-day IL on 14 May. He's slashing .264/.337/.506/.842 in 104 PAS, smacking 5 2Bs and 5 HRs. The best news is he had committed an error all season after being a bit error prone last year. Hopefully he'll be back once the 7-day is up.

They could demote about 3/4 of the Delmarva roster since few of them are good enough to be in Low-A.

Well, he must not be good enough yet, which is a bit concerning. They did the same with Willems and when he showed up, he was bad. While Mayo is handling High-A ok for a 20-year old, the other high school overslot guys have not exactly looked very good the last few years. Who knows really? It's hard to tell with how the Orioles slow develop their players.

And it might be for a the rest of this season. Rutschman has needed time to adjust to each level and the majors will be no different. I don't see him being an impact hitter right off the bat in the majors.

Yep, and i will take him off once he does. He's done quite well for sure!

They are out there getting AAAA guys like Allen but won't give Vespi a chance. I just don't get this regime and what they are trying to do this year.

Updated as of May 16th..

It wasn't Low-A that was taken away, it was Rookie plus and Short season-A. I for one liked the rookie leagues and think they need to replace it with a full season Rookie-plus that would allow those 18-20 year old a full season to play before going to Low-A. But I don't think it will happen.

It can be a big jump, and the rookie leagues were great to give a high school kis a place to play while he gets his feet under him. It seemed though that baseball execs saw that most 19-year old that were true prospects should be able to compete in full season ball so they got rid of that extra rookie league.

You don't understand the slotting system. Most teams did not have the money left in their bonus pool to get Mayo or Baumler during that COVID draft. It had nothing to do that othe teams didn't value Mayo. I never heard any buzz on Willems at all and considering he's an overweight short catcher who has two tools, raw power and a plus arm, I don't think he's anywhere near the same as Mayo besides both being overslots. I doubt very much Elias just gave Willems extra money because he had it after underspending on previous slots. At the end of the day, Elias and his scouts felt Willems was worth $1 million. We're a long way from knowing whether that will end up a good investment, but clearly the early returns have not looked good. From all reports Willems is good young man, but it's pretty disappointing to see him come into camp in such bad shape after getting that big bonus. You would have thought that his entire offseason would have been built around him getting in better shape. I know he was a bad body kid when they drafted him, but it really looks bad when you totally fail against competition you should be able to compete against when you have that body. It just gets highlighting more. Hopefully he'll rededicate himself after this tough start and we'll see a different player next spring. But either way, personally, I would have liked to have seen a few more tools from a $1 million overslot high school kid. More of a lottery ticket per se.

I dont think Elias' system cares about proeffssional experience. I think they think that's all old school and worthless and that its better to have young guys who never played at high levels preach analytics. Not saying analytics are bad, but I do believe there is a place for guys who have been there done that on minor league coaching and major league staffs.

We have no idea how Rutschman will hit at first. He has needed to adjust to eah level so I expect him to have an adjustment period in the majors as well. Saying that, he could hit with one arm behind his back better than the Chironos/Benboom disaster at the plate. Mountcastle is OPSing barely over .700 and his just three home runs and an awful BB-K rate. Hays has been doing well, but he's not really a game changing player, more of a solid guy.

Except that Mayo was during the COVID shortened year, was a 4th round pick, and actually look s exactly like what you look for in a professional ball player. But yeah, everything was the same!