Tony-OH

This what you call very loud contact. Stowers hit four balls on the nose last night and looks locked in at the plate.

I'd like to get excited about Baumler, but he's 17 months out from surgery, 20 years old, and could not make a full season club. He's either a very slow healer, much more raw than thought of when drafted, tweaked something and they're hiding it, or he's on the slowest rehab program known to professional pitching. He was pitching against competition at the beginning of minor league spring so something happened or Sig's magic 8-ball computer spelled out the exact date for Baumler to pitch against hitters in the minors and we haven't reached it yet.

He should have never had made Delmarva to start off with. He's never been any good and was a project arm that never developed.

I agree, Joey is awesome. As for Martin, he's having really, really good ABs right now. His swing decisions are very good and he's a very tough AB. Saying that, Stowers is a beast and Vavra may be the toughest out in the system right now!

That will be hard to do but I agree, that is part of things.

I also think we should post the urls of the plays (can be found in game film in baseball savant) so we can see each. Here's Mancini's double that would have snuck into the stands last year. https://www.mlb.com/video/eric-lauer-in-play-no-out-to-trey-mancini-zrfiz2 Maybe it's better to keep track of "robbed runs" Robbed Run Score: Orioles-1 Visitors-0

It was this play: 1st inning, two run double by McCutcheon that Yelich scored from 1st on. https://www.mlb.com/video/andrew-mccutchen-s-two-run-double You know what though, after relooking at this video, I don't think that was wall issue at all. It looks like it deflected off Gutierrez's glove and that slowed the ball down and went into corner before the wall. So I would not count this!

There's no place for him to play in AA, but if Westburg gets a promotion to AAA, I could see Norby getting the AA call if he's doing well. He's outhit Cowser through the first 5 games so he's off to a nice start.

I did have a scout tell me last year that he was a major league relief prospect. Nothing jumped out at me when I saw him last year and most of his swings and misse son the curve were in the dirt from bad hitters. Still, that's a nice start and when you start putting up big K numbers at Bowie it's time to relook him.

He's been mostly playing 2B this year with Henderson at 3B. From the little we saw this spring, he looks effective at 3B and I still think he's one of the better SS defenders though the arm is little less than you would ideally want there everyday.

Right-center power is good power to have for a right-handed hitter. Tells me he can really drive the ball.

Not known for his defense, but that was a nice catch for sure.

They must have some information about Guerrero that I never saw. The video I saw makes him look more like Deson than a top guy. 22 is very, very high for a guy who struggled in his debut.

Fairly certain he meant the broadcast.

Yep, it's a travesty that they lost their team. On top of it, why would you want to give up on an area that is also pretty close to DC? Seems like the stadium situation cost them though. That clubhouse was small, even back in the day.

I went back and watched his performance last night but didn't get a chance to say anything here. I liked what I saw though I didn't get any radar readings from the broadcasters. threw a lot of strikes and at times show a really good hard diving slider. He got a pretty decent amount of swings and misses up in the zone on the fastball. his change wasn't great but he was able to keep the pitch playable. He definitely goes on the watch list for me.

i don't think he was ever really in play for that first overall pick. It was pretty much always going to be Rutschman or Witt. They probably went with Rutschman because they thought he would make it to the majors first. Then again, if Witt was in the Orioles system, he'd probably be in AA.

I'm hoping for the best, but all I know is there's not a lot of good outcomes that starts with "forearm tightness".

It was certainly hard to miss on that first pick, though it's a little sad that the high school kid made it the majors faster than your advanced college guy.

Cowser has surprisingly struck out at a high rate so far this year, but he's still getting on base and Aberdeen Stadium is a big stadium that can get in hitter's heads sometimes. Honestly, between their awful MiLB broadcast and their extreme pitcher friendly dimensions, I really think the Orioles made the wrong decision to get rid of Frederick and keep Aberdeen. Back to Cowser though, he's going to be just fine. I think we'll see that K % come down and BB% go up soon.

Too bad half of their games are on that pitiful Aberdeen MiLB broadcast. They are fun to watch.

I am overall, but I do have some concerns over the development of pitching, and Elias and Sig's ability to identify the right talent that can win ball games at the major league level. We also don't know if Elias can swing trades of prospects to fill the holes needed at the major league level. This should be a transition year where the Orioles should be trying to win games, but also evaluating their major league ready talent so they know what holes to fill next offseason. I'm on board that Elias has done a very good job of bringing in offensive prospects into the organization through the draft and the International signings, and the technologies and systems that should give the players every opportunities to improve. Sayin that, it's time to start winning at the major league level this year. This is the year I want us in that 70-win area, but more importantly, I want guys being used in the positions and situations that they will be used in next year and in the future because that's when they need to be a contender. The transition of Akin and Baumann to the bullpen were good signs but Bradish needs to be up here and probably Lowther at some point.

Both Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall were already in the system. Mountcastle, Mullins, Mancini, Means, Santander, and Hays were all in the system or at the beginning of their careers when Elias took over. The cupboard was not bare.

Fair enough. I felt like they should have tried this last year and then traded him it worked out and he had value at the trading deadline. I think we'll see committee this year, but I Bautista has the stuff to be a closer if he can continue to improve his control.

I honestly don't know one way or the other. While I do think Hyde makes the final call during games (at least I hope so) I'm not sure he's the final arbiter of what roles guys pitch in and the order they will be used. I just get a feeling that is given to him like the lineup. He always said it's a collaborative approach and I beleive Sig's computer program spits stuff out, then maybe Hyde has a chance to disagree based on injuries or how a guy is feeling. But honestly, I could be wrong becauee there is no transparency or information on how they do business. It's all state secrets.