Tony-OH

"Bautista is listed at 6-foot-5 and 190 lbs., but looks bigger." lol

Ceiling is based off tools that he has or reportedly has. It's always tough when I haven't seen them personally. I did get to see Deson a few games at Delmarva though. It all depends on how the power develops as he fills out. Right now I see fourth outfielder, but let's see what he does next year in Delmarva as a 19 year old.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/11/16/26-reed-trimble/

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/11/16/25-mishael-deson/

Well there are two FCL teams so they could both be on each. I'd like to see Willems make Delmarva at 19-years old like Hernaiz did. Hernaiz really didn't show much and his tools were underwhelming, but he was one of the youngest guys in the league. Willems comes from a pretty baseball heavy area in Texas so he should be fairly advanced. If he does start in FCL, gotta hope he puts up pretty good numbers and finishes the year Delmarva like Mayo (Not that I think he's Mayo).

It had good 1-7 bite and seemed to be a good offset to his fastball, but that pitch doesn't seemed to be used very much in the majors by right-handers as often now. He tended to bury it a lot in the dirt and that also doesn't typically work in the majors. He only had a 11% swinging strike rate in AAA but I don't have the break down between pitches. I try to remember how good Kremer's curveball looked in Double-A and how it didn't work in the majors.

No, not the worse thing, but typically, the better high school prospects are able to compete in a full season club, which is why they got rid of the rookie leagues outside of the complex leagues. Now, I'm not saying Willems is not a prospect if he can't make Delmarva, but i am saying if he's able to make a full season club and put up decent numbers, it would solidify his prospect status. For some reason he barely played this year after signing. Whether that was because the Orioles felt he needed work before playing in games of he had some kind of injury is not know, at least by me, but it would have been nice to seen him got 100 PA there. There were no catching prospects in the GCL last year and only Connor Pavolony was vaguely interesting who played in Delmarva last year so there is no one standing in his way other than his own abilities.

He may have, but remember, like I said when doing them, they are power rankings, not pure Prospect rankings. In other words, I move guys that were doing well or badly up nd down but not with full analysis. I put much more analysis into the prospect rankings in the end. Willems has a nice upside, but he's going to have to put some numbers up next year hopefully in Delmarva to stay on the list, but he wasn't a consensus $1 million player.

I think what this shows is the complete change from "ex-major league players" as coaches to guys who understand the new analytics, Blast motion, Rapsodo, video work, etc. We saw it in the minor leagues as ex players were let go and young, energetic, and probably cheaper alternatives were brought in to focus on the technology side vs the "old school" approach to hitting. While some veteran players may have some resentment to these guys, I do think this next generation is growing up with this stuff and they are embracing it. My question of, "Wonder how the veteran hitters will respond" was not to say this wasn't the right thing to do, just thought it was interesting question to ask. We are seeing this all over baseball and not surprising that it's reaching the major league team. When you look at the OBP in the Orioles system this year, it sure is hard to argue with the swing decision approach of only swinging at pitches the batter can hit well, even if they may be strikes. It's a hard thing to learn because most hitters are taught to swing and hit strikes, but when the analytics show that you don't hit balls well in a certain part of the zone, you work on improving that while potentially not swinging in that zone with less than two strikes. It's not as easy as it sounds, but the proof is in the pudding. I'm interested if known free swingers like Mountcastle, Hays and Santander can improve their swing decisions or if the aggressiveness is what makes them good at times. At the end of the day, Why not? I've never really believed a hitting coach does a ton for players unless they really understand why the hitter is struggling. Is it mechanical, is it eye sight, is he just facing guys with stuff that he's not good at hitting?

He basically ditched the curveball and went slider heavy late in the year.

I'm not because the estimate barrel % uses extra base hits including home runs as part of the equation and he he did not hot for much power.

Honestly, I could be under valuing Young because of lack of pedigree. The numbers were very impressive, especially for his ability to miss bats and it's rare that a guy can throw four pitches for strikes and miss bats. Obviously how he fares in AA or AAA will either cement his prospect status or show his warts, but I really liked what I saw from him this year. This is a guy who came from a small school who missed most of his Junior year because of COVID and was one of the losers of the five round draft. He's not a $20K talent for sure. It's unfortunate how it shook out for him so far, because honestly, I think he has 2nd or 3rd round talent.

I wonder how major league hitters will react to a guys with limited or no pro experience as a hitting coach.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/11/15/24-creed-willems/

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/11/13/23-brandon-young/

With those gaudy numbers, probably a 1st rounder since he went into the season top 30-50 college prospects in several national publications.

He'll play most of next year at 21 so I'm guessing he starts at Delmarva, especially after not exactly lighting things up. There is still going to be a little bit of a traffic jam there in the outfield with Deson, Craig, Trimble, Williams, and Rhodes needing playing time though I'm guessing Williams' advanced approach will give him a chance to start at Aberdeen. Cowser could get the Rutschman approach and start next year in AA.

At 6-foot-7, I'm going to imagine his extension is more than the 6-foot-5 average so imagine an upper 90's fastball that can touch 100-101 playing up in velocity? I don't know spin rate but not too many guys barreled him up and hitters slashed just .126/.275/.208/.482 off him across three levels so while it may not have a lot of horizontal movement, that fastball has been effective albeit against minor league hitters. The key will be keeping it out of the middle of the zone where major league hitters will hit it that pitch. I think if he focused on that split change that's a great combo with his fastball.

Yes, he pitched two innings in 7 of his appearances and was still throwing upper 90s and touching 100.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/11/13/22-felix-bautista/

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/11/14/21-john-rhodes/

Hall, Bradish and Bautista are no brainers. Vavra is probable. Neustrom and Smith are possible. Sedlock and Bishop are fringe.

From what I heard the pitchers are not pitching to batters this year. So there's probably not a lot to report.

It's not, but he's ok as AAA depth. Now if he's back in the rotation at the start of 2022, things went horribly wrong.

After I do the top 30 I will do a piece on guys outside of the top 30 that have potential. Rangel is definitely a guy I have info and was following closely.