Tony-OH

They don't count until May.

I'm ok with trying guys as a starter first if they are having good success in AAA in that role (ala Bradish), but Akin had a 4.80 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP in 25 starts there. His problems were the same there is they were in the big leagues in that he was too inconsistent from outing to outing and sometimes ining to inning when he needed to be stretched out. As a reliever this year, he's averaging 93.3 MPH vs 92 MPH in the past. He's getting better vertical movement (less drop) and more horizontal movement with the pitch this year. He's using his slider 10% more than last year (29.7% vs 19.5%) and he's getting more vertical and horizontal movement on the pitch and it's up 1.2 MPH. His changeup has more horizontal movement (1.8 inches) as well, which is something most of the Orioles pitchers have this year (more on that in in another thread). So basically, all of his stuff is playing up in this role. Now could it be that suddenly a lightbulb went off and he can maintain this stuff and command as a starter every 5 days? I certainly can't say 100% that it can't, but I think he's shown what he can do as a starter when trying to maintain his stuff over 5 or more innings vs coming out and knowing you are probably not going to throw more than 3. I think Akin found his role and the Orioles should keep him there. He could be the Orioles new Arthur Rhodes.

Henderson's best fit is 3B at the major league level. Westburg can really play all three effectively but may be best fit at 3B or 2B. Ortiz is the best defensively at SS but not sure if the bat will play for full-time gig. Honestly, I'm not saying I disagree with how they are developing these guy, but rather suggesting it's an interesting way. In my mind, some of these guys will traded so they are trying to show they have some value at SS.

It's unfortunate that JP was never quite the same after his TJ surgery. Saying that, he Akin was similar in several ways, but Akin has a much better change than Parrish had.

I've seen him do that a few times in the minors, but wasn't sure was a hot gun. Either way, it has come together for him in this role and it's a role they need to keep him in. It's almost like a role I suggested for him since Bowie.

Very true. It's way too early to draw any conclusions on anything right now, but it's certainly not a good start to the two-headed hitting coaches career.

The simple answer is that yes, a good first baseman makes that scoop. I'm not sure what Mountcastle was doing on that play. He was falling to his left away from the scoop like it was some kind of poison dart. Urias certainly gets the error by MLB rules but it really wasn't an awful hop. Mountcastle has been pretty good this year at 1st base and in particular scooping throws, but for some reason that one ate him up.

I wonder if this is players adjusting to the "swing decisions" approach at the major league level? The lack of power from this team is striking, even from the actual power hitters. This team has hit 4 home runs in 10 games. Now maybe they're all off to slow starts, but at some point you have to question is this part of the process?

Hey, if Sig's compute spits that out, you just go with it. Maybe Sig forgot to update it with "Trying to win" instead of "trying to lose" over the last three years?

It's going to be very interesting to see if the Orioles develop plan of moving guys around to different positions from game to game is going to produce guys who are very good at multiple positions, or guys without a ton of experience of playing their primary positions the major league level?

We know the Orioles under Elias are very, very careful with their injured players and that their program for pitching is for their pitchers to throw the least amount of pitches as possible. We will see if this careful risk adverse program will help them develop good pitchers that are less injury prone when they reach the majors. As for pitch counts, despite full spring trainings, here are the pitch counts for the top pitching prospects so far: Grayson Rodriguez: 61 & 67 Kyle Bradish (not a full spring training: 58 & 68 Drew Rom: 67 & 74 Jean Pinto: 52 & 68 Zac Lowther: 63 & 46 (who know what they are doing with Lowther once again brining him in for relief late in a game and only getting 46 pitches) Brandon Young: 75 & 79 (why is he at 79 and Rodriguez at 67?) Antonio Velez: 68 & 80 Kyle Brnovich: 68 & 76 So it's interesting that Grayson Rodriguez is throwing less pitches than most of the top starting pitching prospects besides Bradish who had a shorter spring training.

Another bad camera angle for this start, but I could tell he was getting a lot of swing and misses on his fastball up and his changeup away is his swing and miss pitch to lefties. He gave up some hard contact on fastballs though.

If Rutschman is not playing Norfolk by this week, I'd say there was a setback at some point. Just like I'm not buying that Baumler is being held back in extended to watch his innings.

It's still way too early to be concerned in my opinion. If he's still striking out a ton by May I'll have concerns, but he may just be going through a slump and it's magnified by being early in the year. Still, K's concern me with guys without a lot of pop. He could be just trying a new approach but his swing decision have not looked great.

The Orioles have played Vavra in the outfield 6 times (5 in CF, 1 in LF for the first time ever professionally) and at 2B 4 times so far this season. So early on it appears they are certainly giving him a look as a 4th outfielder type who can play 2B if needed. Vavra has really good at bats and sees a lot of pitches. He's a gap to gap guy, line drive guy who will occasionally pop a homer, but power is not going to be a big part of his game. One of the reasons he fell on my rankings a bit was my concerns that he's not a full-time player because he's not a plus fielder anywhere and doesn't bring much pop. The concern with high OBP guys without a lot of pop is when they reach the majors, pitchers will come right at them because they don't fear them. See Joey Rickard as a good example. Defensively at 2B he's ok, but his limitations with a below average arm and he's not a quick turn at 2B in DPs. His hands and range are average at best so he's not going to kill you, but he's not going to bring plus value either. I haven't seen him enough in the outfield to have an informed opinion yet on him out there but the arm will be below average. So what's his future role in the big leagues? Well, he's probably a pretty good PH option late in games because he'll have good PAs won't chase too many pitcher pitches. As a left-handed hitter, he's a better option on the bench than say McKenna because the guys you want to pinch hit for late in games against good righties are Mateo and Chirinos and maybe even Urias right now. McKenna has a much better arm and can play all three outfield positions while Vavra is probably a CF/LF option. That's not a huge issue because both Hays and Santander can play RF and Mateo can go out there if needed. Honestly, McKenna is not bringing much to the team right now besides pinch running and outfield defense late in games for Santander. If Vavra can show he can provide good defense in LF, they can move Hays to RF late in games if they want the good defense option. Vavra then provide a decent LH pinch hitting bat and can spell Hays against tough righties.

8-12 weeks puts his return sometime in late May to Early June. I doubt we will get much in progress reports until maybe mid-May.

I'm waiting about 3-4 weeks before moving any of the top prospects. They deserve to settle into the year before moving too much but obviously Westburg and Stowers have looked real good early on. He only went down by 1 and that was only because I really see him as a bulk reliever guy and had to move some guys back on the rankings who have higher ceilings.

Cool video. What is his story. Why did he start pro ball so late at 24 years old? The Rangers moved him very slowly despite good K numbers. I'll keep an eye on him for sure if he's throwing 96 MPH with success at AAA.

I didn't move anyone that were top prospects going into the season. I really only moved guys around that either have looked real good so far, changed something, or I got a better look at and didn't like what I saw (Deson comes to mind). I figured the top guys will get at least 3-4 weeks before I do any movement with them.

This is all about these RSN thinking they can save money and the stupid fans won't notice of care that the announcers are on the road. It's ridiculous because you can see so much more when you watch a game live from a press box view than from your TV broadcast. You can judge flyballs better, see when guys weren't backing up or not in the right positions, identify when something is happening that's not on the tv screen, etc. But, until fans unite together and get pissed about this, they will continue to cut corners that can save them a few bucks because who cares about the fans really? The fans are nothing more than numbers in a spreadsheet to almost everyone involved with pro sports. Players act like they care publicly, but they could really give two squats about fans which is why they are so willing to switch teams the second someone drops a dollar more there way. Ownership and their employees certainly don't care because either they see the fans as someone to milk as much money as possible out of or they just see their position as a job. This is why I just root for whoever is in the Orioles uniform because I enjoy the sport and the Orioles are my team. Sure, there are some players that seem like good dudes and while they wear the orange and black I'll cheer for them, but overall, when they move on, I'll just cheer for his replacement.

Bad roster construction when McKenna is a pinch hitter against righthanders!

I don't care what the analytics say, going on contact with the infield drawn in is stupid at the major league level.

Nah, the offense will catch fire soon. They are not this bad. I don't think they were prpared well for the season with the shortened spring training. If you look at the PAs their regulars got compare to others they were behind a bit.

Now that was a nice pitch by Watkins. Diving 87 MPH sliders are nice.

That makes some sense then..