Tony-OH

Even if the CBA stays the same from that point, Rutschman will only start in AAA for a week or two at most. They won't keep him down to June.

Actually, I said they were all small market teams, not all OF the small market teams.

I didn't say they were all the small market teams, but mostly. The Tigers aren't small market either and I'm betting it has a lot more to do with making small market teams hit a floor or pay more to to sub par veterans than it does with just those owners not caring about the fans. Face it, none of the owners care about the fans only how to drain the fan of as much money as possible.

Lol, those are all the small market teams. Complete and obvious stooge for either the players and big market owners who are probably in agreement. Like I said earlier and was scoffed at by some, the big market teams and players want the same thing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ When I was a kid, the players were Heroes to me. They were special and many spent their whole careers mainly with one team and lived in the city in the off season and became part of the community. Once fee agency hit, loyalty was to the almighty dollar and not to the team or fans. Now don't get me wrong, I'm for free agency and the players opportunity to make as much money as they can and the days of Charlie Finley giving his star a $1000 a year increase in salary after they won the World Series are thankfully long gone. Saying that, I root for the guys wearing the Orioles uniform because I'm a fan of the team. I've never rooted for an ex-Orioles if he left the team. Sure, do I like when the player are good guys like Mancini or Mullins, absolutely. But I never rooted against surly Erik Bedard when he pitched for the Orioles. Players are commodities and when they leave, another guy replaces him and sometimes outdoes what they did. I don't have a favorite Oriole anymore because I'm not 10. If a player needs to be traded or let go because it's what's best for the team, I Iook forward to rooting for the guys who are acquired. Now this isn't to say I'm pro owner here. I'm just saying that you could wipe out the major league players and put in minor league players and I'd root for the ones with the Orioles across the chest. Put let's face it, the owners are looking at this from a complete business prospective. They think wiping out April games for the potential gains in negotiations is worth it because they just think the fans are lemmings that will just come back when it starts back up. Some, maybe even most will, but think they are underestimating the anger of fans right now. Baseball should be a diversion away from all the crap happing in our country with out of control inflation, high gas prices, interest rates climbing, and an unsettled political world suddenly. Instead, we are going to get cancelled games. It's disgusting.

No, I don't think they are the same as at least a 5 game series. College basketball work because the teams don't play each other and at different levels of competition, so its exciting. Giving the 16th best team over a full schedule a chance to win a bunch of one and done series would be awful for the sport in my opinion.

Absolutely awful idea. One game series are a flip of the coin.

Yes, I've been a proponent of two seasons for some time now. It makes two pennant drives and gives the bad teams hopes for the second season and like you said, it limits tanking.

162 games is too much anyways, and if they expand the playoff teams, it makes more sense to try and start those playoffs in mid or at worse, late September. I also agree they need to have the season done by October. I use to be a purest when it came to keeping it at 162 games because of the records like Roger Maris' 61 home runs, 20 game winners, and 200 hit seasons. None of these are really that important any more. The home run records were tarnished with steroids and it's very rare for pitchers to win 20-games any more because pitches barely pitch more than 6 innings now a days. I'm ok with expanded playoffs but they should be "play in" 3-game type tourneys which allow the four Division winners (I think they should go back to larger four Divisions) to have byes.

I'm all for shortening the regular season to 154 games IF, this means the playoffs start earlier, not if they just give more off days during the season.

Truer words were never spoken.

This is a good point. But of course, we don't know exactly where the Orioles stand on issues because John Angelos is like his father when it comes to talking to the fans. Like his father, he's a guy who thinks he is above the common fan.

I think it's the opposite, The hardcore fans will always be there, but the common fan may just not be into the sport anymore, especially with so many entertainment options. I was casual Hockey fan until the NHL went on strike what, back in 1994ish timeframe? I haven't watched a full NHL game since, minus a few Caps playoff games. Just never could get back into the game. I think baseball is playing a very dangerous game with the fans. We should be talking about the first games coming up and here we are talking about bulls!it negotiations between Billionaires and Millionaires. Meanwhile the country has 7% inflation, there's a potential for a World War III situation, and there's still people walking around with masks on everywhere. In my opinion, it's a real bad time to start missing games.

That's assuming they get the fans back after missing two moths of games. I think it would be suicide.

100% true, and we know that there are owners out there like Angelos who will be played by Boros and other mega agents to go farther than they needed. However, part of this is that big market teams can offer those extra years and money because they know if the player fails, they can just write it off and get another player. Mid and small market teams can't compete with that unless they take on significant risk.

I don't think he has a real position, and doesn't have enough pop and speed to be an asset otherwise. I agree that there are guys ahead of him on the DFA line, but i just didn't see anything from him that got me excited about him last year in the majors or at AAA. Seems like a good kid though, so I'll root for him to show up looking different this spring or summer, whenever he gets to actually play baseball.

That's a good question, but I'm not sure how Fangraphs does the FVs. Weiters at his best was probably a 55 player from a scouting standpoint, but not sure how they would value his career.

This is an excellent answer by the young man. He knows how good he is and doesn't need anyone telling him one way or the other.

BTW, Laurila does an excellent job with these.

Just to correct a bit, he was on an 80-pitch limit, not 70. Almost all of the minor league starters in the Orioles system were on that.

But that's pretty common for the national top 100 lists. It's nice to see how they stack up against other team's prospects, but the odds are some of these guys are not going to pan out. Also remember, Mancini, Means and Mullins never showed up on these lists.

Wonder where that started? lol

I ask myself literally that question when I do my rankings. For me, being closer to the majors and productive does give a player an edge to someone father away because they are performing against high level competition, but if the younger player has a much higher ceiling, I ask myself, would I rather have a power hitting catcher in my system or a 7th inning guy? Who is harder to find?

Thanks, appreciate it, but I do want to clear up one thing. I don't have any issue with people mentioning other lists and talking about it, but occasionally I start seeing people who seem to insinuate these other lists are more accurate because they are more closely aligned. My argument there is most of these sites are just regurgitating information they've found vs doing the hours of video and in person scouting that needs to go into these to be something more than a regurgitation of other people's work. I'm by no means perfect, but I do put the time in, especially last year when I probably put in the most hours since the early 2000s when I used to go to 60+ games in person. But back then, I was really still learning and didn't have the info that i have now. I honestly believe is I had the stat cast data as well, I'd be pretty darn close on my assessments of guys. Have players under performed my assessments, sure, occasionally. Dean Kremer is a good example but I've learned some things by watching how Kremer plays out. The book is still not totally out in him, but it has made me grade fastball, curveball combos harder for potential starters. Now, I do think the MLB ball has affected him and his ability to get that sharp break on his curveball;; consistently. Hopefully MLB will pay to have the same ball used throughout the minors. You were right about I care much more how Hangouters think of my work then across the internet. The media is full of a bunch of underpaid cronies, most of which have very thin skin, so I could care less what they say or don't say anymore. I also don't really care about the opinions of the kind of fans that are worried about being first on a blog. I care about the smart baseball people that are Hangouters. I hope that they look at my list as the defining list when it comes to prospects. Trust me, I value and respect Hangouters opinions on players. We have a lot of very smart people who spend a lot of time following and even watching the prospects as they come up. I enjoy the back and forth with people, even if they have differing opinions on players than I do. Heck, it would be boring if all everyone did was agree with me, but I take that as a challenge and it makes me work harder to prove that my final assessment is correct. Saying all that, I really don't know how next year will shape up for me. Losing Michael was hurtful in many ways, but he was always the guy behind the scenes that kept me motivated and going. I can honestly say that I'm not sure whether I'd still be doing this without his encouragement over the last 4-5 years or so. Now I'll never let this board die off and would rather sell it before allowing it just to close because I know how much this community means to so many of us, and that includes me! I just have to see what my time availability will be this coming year and how my motivation is once the season starts.

He's a DFA guy for me when they need room. Minor league depth at AAA for 2B and maybe corner outfield. .685 OPS at AAA.