Tony-OH

He's definitely going to get a chance at some point. He's using his slider effectively against lefties and the curve at the backfoot of the righties. The fastball is nothing to right home about, but if Fry fails, he could be his replacement.

Nice to find him a place to play a bit. He was a good org guy who can play SS effectively. Good luck to him. He would be one of the guys I'd love to hear that got a cup of coffee somewhere!

Step one, get Kjerstad and Baumler on a field that matters playing baseball. As for Diaz, he certainly is not missing mistakes an that second home run today was a sight to see. Majestic!

Yeah, it just seemed odd all around. Now, I'll admit, I was never much on him from a naked scouting eye but I really didn't see him after coming back from surgery. They just seemed to bury him quickly and I assumed the stuff was gone. If people remember I did a stuff comparison of Rogers, Akins, Zimmerman and Lowther I believe at the end of last year and even I was surprised at how much better his changeup was then the other three. But the real kicked was they gave him up in a year when they knew they were going to need innings eaters. that was the one thing he really was pre-surgery, at least be today's minor league standards.

So far he's doing EXACTLY what he was supposed to do. He may not always good swing decisions, but he's murdering pitches in the zone right now.

Trust me, I'm no fan of this conversation from the baseball standpoint either.

I'm fine with disagreeing, but when you say someone is grasping at straws it indicates that they really haven't thought it through. If anything, just shrugging your shoulders and saying, "Well, how could anyone know?" is kinda not looking at the full picture. It literally is the organization's job to make those evaluations. They literally choose a multitude of pitchers over Rogers who were terrible in a year when every organizations was dying for AAAA arms to try and eat innings. I really don't even know how you can build a case that suggest anything other than this was an evaluation failure by the organization. Regardless of whether Rogers duplicates his success (doubtful though the changeup numbers are actually very good), releasing him like he was awful last year was clearly a mistake.

Not to take away anything that i said before, but holy crap he just hit a moonshot home run to left field on a belt high fastball! At least he's not missing the mistakes this year so far!

Lol. What a ridiculous statement. It is Elias and his staff's job to evaluate the talent they have. Not mine, not yours, not everyone else but him and his scouts. The fact that they let go a guy who did what he did last year, a year in which this team knew they needed guys to eat innings tells me there was something wrong with the process. He wasn't kept over the guys you listed above, he was kept over the Spenser Watckins and Konner Whateverhislastnameisbecausehedoesntmatter's of the world. The team's system said that Plutko would be a better pitcher at the major league level than Rogers who they released from AAA before he had a chance to really pitch after his recovery from TJ in 2019. I don't care whether Rogers continues his success this year or not, the fact is the Orioles used many, many pitchers last year that was all clearly deficient to Rogers at the major league level. i could care less if I didn't see it, or you didn't see it because none of us have the statcast data on the movement of pitches, velocity, and spinrates that the Orioles had. If that doesn't bother you that the team gave him away by releasing him while they kept Thomas Eshelman and gave a start to Mickey Jannis (A guy who wasn't even a good AA knuckleballer) then that's on you. I'll give Elias and his crew credit when they deserve and I'm going call them out on their mistakes. Losing Rogers for nothing and not protecting Zach Popp were too unforced errors and makes me question those who are making these evaluations.

Let's get this back on subject, thanks.

It's against the law to give someone prescription drugs that are not prescribed for that person. So that person has to take responsibility for that portion of the deal. The person who took the drugs is fully responsible for their own death. But this is off subject. Let's get back to Harvey playing baseball.

I'm trying to get this solved. It has come out of nowhere so my ad partner is looking into it. Trust me, it's annoying the hell out of me too.

Personal responsibility is lost on some out there. It's always someone else's fault. As for Harvey, I'll wait to see if and how he will be used before complaining too much. I don't see the necessity for him, but he's better than Spenser Watkins as a break glass in case of emergency guy. If though he gets in the rotation over a Kremer, Lowther, Akin or Baumann then I'll have questions unless the team has decided to turn them into relievers. This is the evaluation year for them at the major league level. I will say the fact that there is a negotiation at all is crazy. Who is banging down his door besides Elias?

Out just for precaution and a bruise has turned into two games out of the lineup.

He's had a nice start no doubt statistically in the first two games. However, in the 8th inning last night though, he made a poor swing decision that actually ended up becoming an RBI single. So how was it a bad decision if it ended up with a good result? Well I'm glad you asked. In that inning, the pitcher was clearly having control problems walking the first batter on 4-pitches then hitting Jahmai Jones on a first pitch curveball that nicked him. So knowing the pitcher is having control problems by throwing 5 straight balls, and down by I believe-runs, you would imagine either Diaz is sitting dead red on a fastball down the middle or taking. So the pitcher throws him a first pitch breaking ball that was down and away a bit, but instead of taking he swings at it, getting out in front of the pitch and knocking a bouncing ball to the left side. Luckily for him it was one of those "ground ball with eyes" and it snuck through between the 3B and SS but a few inches more to the left would have been a tailored made 5-4-3. Regardless of the outcome, it highlights part of the problem he's always had despite his talent and tools. At least in this case, on the first pitch, the plan should not be to swing and pull and down and away breaking pitch. A big part of the Orioles philosophy on hitting has been to make "good swing decisions." That requires the hitter to have a plan at the plate. Now there are times (especially with two strikes) that a hitter has to go into see ball, hit ball mentality, but that shouldn't be on the first pitch of your at bat after the pitcher just walked a guy on 4-pitches and hit a guy on the first pitch. Diaz has the tools and talent to be a good major league player, but he's had a lot of time to develop a plan at the plate and understand the situation at hand. Either way, it something to keep an eye on as Diaz plays this year. If and when he plays in the majors, the stuff and command gets a lot better and without a good understanding of what they are trying to do with you, it's going to be extremely difficult to find sustained success at the major league level.

I think it's two fold, they need a place for Jones to play plus they want to take a look at Vavra out there. There also is no real center fielders in Norfolk so might as well see Vavra out there. If healthy I like Vavra's stick and his versatility helps him.

Nice walk off win tonight coming back from being 5-0. Robert Neustrom with a nice walkoff on a 2-1 fastball from a lefty that he knocked to the fence to score Jahmai Jones easily from 2B. Jones had doubled in Vavra to tie the game the batter before. Vavra making real good swing decisions in the game. If its not a strike, he's not swinging.

Good points, but I still think they would be fine with Mateo covering down if needed in LF if when Hays spells Mullins. I don't want to see Stewart in the outfield at all. He's Mancini-esque out there.

Did he have more success than Akin and Wells at the major league level? The 0.7 WAR he put up last year was better than Kremer, Akin, Lowther, and Wells who put up a -1.8 WAR last year. Whether he can continue that success of comes back crashing to earth, he was given away for free while pitchers like Thomas Eshelmen, Adam Plutko, Konner Wade and Mickey Jannis were kept. So the fact is, somebody screwed up. Somebody released him shortly after the season started and kept guys who were not major league pitchers in the least bit. We have to accept when Elias and crew screw up. And even if he never earns another positive WAR at the major league level, he was better than every "top" prospect and obviously better than any of the AAA/AA pitchers that tried to eat innings but failed.

I agree. I'm sticking to my guns though and say Lowther will surprise people at the major league level one day. but it will probably be in another organization like Josh Rogers or Zach Pop. Two guys the organizations gave away and who have outperformed players they kept instead.

I thought McKenna was redundant with Mateo and Owings on the team and they would keep Lowther, but maybe they just want Lowther to pitch everyday down there. They can still bring up guys if they become short after the first few games.

Once he's assigned I'd have him at 26.

Here’s the 28-man roster as the Orioles approach Thursday’s noon deadline: Pitchers (14) Keegan Akin Bryan Baker Mike Baumann Félix Bautista Paul Fry Joey Krehbiel Dean Kremer Jorge López Jordan Lyles John Means Cionel Pérez Dillon Tate Tyler Wells Bruce Zimmermann Catchers (2) Anthony Bemboom Robinson Chirinos Infielders (7) Kelvin Gutiérrez Trey Mancini Jorge Mateo Ryan Mountcastle Rougned Odor Chris Owings Ramón Urías Outfielders (5) Austin Hays Ryan McKenna Cedric Mullins Anthony Santander DJ Stewart Looks like missed on the backup catcher with Bembroom and his left-handed stick beating out Nottingham. The Orioles went with an extra outfielder instead of pitcher.

Amazing how much a good spring will get people excited over a player. Let me see Martin put up numbers everyday at AAA before we start anointing him a "prospect" once again. As for Odor, he was awful this spring, but he's a left-handed bat in a lineup that is very right-handed heavy. I don't love him taking away PAs from Mateo though but maybe the Orioles will find a way to rotate Gutierrez, Urias, Ordor and Mateo to get them all basically everyday PAs. He did go for 2-for-3 in his last ST game! lol That's a one game multi-hit streak according to Jim Hunter.

Ok, let me be that guy. I think this stinks from the knowledgeable fan stand point. I liked knowing the pitch call and location before the pitch so I can "Yell at the TV" before the pitch is thrown! It makes me have "fond" memories or me cursing Wieters as he put down a number one on the first pitch to Raul Ibanez in the playoff games seconds before he hit the game tying and go ahead home runs. So as a fan who loves the batter pitch matchup and watches the signs (except when their is a runner on 2nd base) in anticipation of how the batter will react to the upcoming pitch, I don't like this for one second. They've been calling signs forever with fingers. This is just an overreaction to very small problem.