Tony-OH

On November 8th the Orioles quietly claimed Bryan Baker off waivers from the Blue Jays. I did some quick research on him at the time and saw he had great numbers in AAA in 2021. I then looked at his 19 pitches he threw in his one big league appearance in September and saw a 94.8 MPH fastball and 88 MPH cutter as the two pitches he used. Since I had some time I went back and watched video of him last year as well as 2019 and I'll tell you, he gets a lot of swing and miss on his fastball. I saw an occasional curveball to go along with his cutter that has more drop than "cut". Honestly, I kinda like him. At 27 years old he's not that old and if he can command the ball like he did in 2021, I think he's going to be a solid 6th, 7th inning guy. Did the Orioles find a gem, I don't know if I'd go that far, but I think they've found a better Travis Lakins and a guy who can be very similar to Cole Sulser. The craziest thing is the Blue Jays claimed Shaun Anderson (yes the same Anderson that pitched seven games with the Orioles and put up a 9.00 ERA in 10 IPs last year before he was DFA'd) on the Nov 19th, so they basically picked Anderson over Baker. The Blue Jays would eventually DFA Anderson on the 30th. I'm not sure I would have traded Baker for Anderson, but we'll see next year (assuming we have a season) who was right. My guess Baker spends all of 2022 in the Orioles bullpen and ends up with a sub 3.50 ERA.

He looked heavier than his list weight and although we've seen a bit of velocity bump for him since signing as an 18-year old, there's not a ton left in there. I think he'll settle in as a 89-93 guy will top occasionally around 94.

I think a lot of it has to do with the collective bargaining agreement and how it all shakes out with arbitration and free agency. If there is nothing holding them back, I could see Rom getting some starts in September since he'll need to be added to the 40-man next year anyways (assuming everything stays the same). I've been higher on Rom than most because I see a guy who really can pitch. He drops arm angles, can add and subtract velocity, and can really bury that breaking ball to the back foot of righties. I'd really like to see his statcast info before getting too high on him, but I do think he's going to outperform his mediocre velocity readings.

Well let's look at their numbers in Delmarva at 19 years old. Grant it Coby only had 125 PAs vs Mountcastle's entire season of 489 PAs, but let's look at the numbers: Player Name BB% K% wOBA wRC+ ISO OPS Mountcastle 5.1% 19.4% .336 112 .145 .745 Mayo 12.8% 20.8% .438 159 .236 .963 Mountcastle also had 199 professional PAs at 18 when Mayo had none. So I'd say Mayo has a good chance of being better than Mountcastle if his development continues on schedule.

You are on quite a roll today. I was talking hitter and no point did I say Mayo was next Machado. Saying that, Machado didn't miss a whole year because of COVID so comparing them age wise is not really fair. Machado was also major league ready defensively. I'm not even sure why you came up with this one other than you are bored.

Or you can argue the second half of the season saw the college draft picks and the talent was higher. Judging by Delmarva, they were much stronger prospects wise by the end of the year then they were earlier in the year.

You realize that he was hurt, right? He had a leg injury that led to his later start of his season.

That's not surprising at all. There were some starts last year where he threw all four pitches for strikes with WHIFF. His stuff is the best in the organization when he's commanding it and healthy. And yes, I said in the organization including the majors. He just has to stay healthy and keep improving his command.

Henderson has better arm strength and a little more range than Westburg at SS, but Westburg has the better hands and was more steady on the everyday play. If you go off of raw tools than Henderson would get the edge but overall glove, I'd take Westburg at SS over him right now but Westburg is two years older.

He faced the same level of competition as Henderson did in Delmarva and had a better average, and plate discipline and no platoon advantage while being a year younger. I like Henderson, but he's got to settle down on defense at SS where he makes way too many easy errors and he needs to show he can hit left-handers. So far that's been a struggle for him. The jury is still out on whether Mayo can handle 3B, but there's just as many questions on whether Henderson can stay at SS, especially as he fills out and gets bigger. Obviously I like Mayo a lot and was very impressed by his debut season even if it was a little short due to the early leg injury. I like Henderson as well, but just not quite as much as others because I just see some things that are yellow flags for me when it comes to struggles against left-handers and positional question marks.

Geoff Pontes is a smart man. Obviously I agree with his optimism with Mayo. Mayo may have more upside with the bat then anyone in the system including Adley.

Unless he has a health setback, I can't imagine him not making Delmarva. If he doesn't make a full season club and is "healthy" then we have to start having very serious concerns about his recovery and his ability to play baseball at a high level.

I became aware of his velocity last summer, but his struggles at his age limits my interest. For comparisons, Ofelky Peralta was pitching in Frederick and outperformed him. So you never discount an arm like his, he'll need to improve his command and control significantly to get on the prospects scene.

He had some talent but ultimately, he made the right decision. I certainly wish the young man well.

I don't really know what to make of these velos while getting a running start. It's clearly different then pitching from a mound. Still, a velocity bump can't hurt.

True, they certainly could make big jumps.

Sorry, he was a $35k signee. He's a pitchability strike thrower, runs it up 88-91.

A couple of thoughts about this class: 1. Interesting that 10 of the 24 are from Venezuela. 2. RHP Ezequiel Bonilla piques my interest. Not only is he from a country (Panama) that isn’t as heavily scouted as the DR and Venezuela, but he’s also the youngest player in our class, born on 8/12/05. He’ll still be 16 for most of the upcoming season. He strikes me as a guy who other teams might have overlooked. Bonilla is 20K signee. More of a DSL filler.

There were issues with his paper work and getting cleared by MLB. He was cleared yesterday and will sign early this week.

I may have those video's backwards with Jean Mata. I'll have to check.

You can't see the OP in this thread? I checked my phone and it looks fine. Wonder if this is an Iphone thing?

There's a scouting report and bonuses for all of the players now in the OP.

The Orioles will sign Jean Carlos Martinez next week for $125k. He's an outfielder, big strong guy, really athletic. Paperwork issues, age issues scared off some teams, but cleared by MLB. Could be a steal for the bonus.

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