Tony-OH

Umpires just giving the Orioles outs because they know they won even get a hit in the 9th against Tampa's bullpen.

I just assume we will be dominated when we play the Rays. They have actual talent, they know how to evaluate talent, and they know how to put their players in the best position to be successful. Basically they are everything the Orioles are not.

Lol, we down by just one run and Abad is the best we got?

Seems to work fine. Maybe come back when you are sober!

Hays' .621 OPS against right-handed pitching is going to end his days as an everyday player.

The second you see Sulser near a lead in the 8th or 9th inning you can kiss it goodbye. He's about as unclutch as it gets.

Not sure, but they should ask for some Oregano too.

He's had 11 walks in his last 10 innings over his last three starts so no, it's not just an off night. I've watched several of his starts this year at AAA including his dominant one against this same Jacksonville team. He works his fastball low in the zone well but when he's having more success he's able to get his slider and change over for strikes. The curveball is a nice pitch movement wise but he usually buries it below the zone. He was able to throw the change better in his good appearance but it doesn't have a ton of movement.

I've watched Baumann's last start and his over numbers look better than he pitched. Baumann is still struggling to find his command especially of his off-speed pitches. His slider has real good movement but he's struggling to find the strike zone with the pitch so he doesn't get the swing and miss that he should on the pitch. He pitches almost exclusively off the fastball, rarely pitching backwards, most likely due to being unable to land them for strikes very often. the good news is the fastball is lively enough that he doesn't get a lot of hard contact the pitch. He was not commanding his changeup up very good and did not throw many. The curveball has improved as well and it seems like he's added in a cutter occasionally. He's only getting a 10% swinging strike rate which is not very good and I didn't see a go to swing and miss pitch even though he did K 5 in 5 innings. I wish he had better feel for the changeup. Right now, I think he would struggle at the major league level due to his lack of command. I'd also like to see him start landing his offspeed pitches for more strikes, especially the slider.

Joseph was that way and through hard work became a much better defender. Stewart did at times hold his own defensively but not surprisingly for his body type, he regressed as he got older. If there were questions about Manny's glove it was his range to play SS. While I agree to an extent about taking errors with a grain of salt, minor league fields have come a long way and are not longer the rock filled wasteland of yester year. In fact, Aberdeen plays on turf. When i see a lot of errors and got to the video and see what kinds are errors are they making. Now I haven't done that with Westburg and have only caught a few of his errors this year which were a mixef bag between not fielding cleanly and a bad throw. Overall, Westburg has been fine defensively with the only question is whether the arm plays long term at SS. I've seen him make some decent throws and then some that made me question his arm strength, but I also don't know if he was just taking something of the throws because he had the time. I've seen him make some nice plays up the middle and turn and make an accurate strong throw, so I still don't think he HAS to be moved off SS, but it would not be out of the question if eventually moves because there is a better, flashier option at SS.

I'd keep Diaz, but only because I know what Stewart is at the major league level and we know what his limitations are defensively. Saying that, I could remove both and would not blink an eye though I'd rather throw Diaz into a trade.

You can squatch that five tool talent thing. Diaz doesn't bring enough consistent game power, hasn't hit for average since he was in the Dodger's system, he's an average at best runner, has a good arm but his accuracy is questionable, and he doesn't get great jumps in the outfield.

I'll give you one thing, you are consistent. I mean there is no basis in reality to your anti-Duquette rants, but you are consistent.

I'll be honest, I thought 2019 would be awful, 2020 would be bad, and in 2021 we'd start seeing some bright lights due to players like Mountcastle, Hays, Santander, Mullins, Sisco, Harvey, Akin, Kremer, Lowther, Baumann, and Diaz making a difference at the major league level. That has partially been the problem this year is that the guys we could have reasonably expected to be performing well at the major league level by now in large have not. Obviously Mountcastle and Mullins have played well, but Hays and Santander have been hurt once again and have not performed to their capabilities for most of the year when "healthy." As for the others, they have all failed to provide any positive impact though COVID and an injury has kept Baumann in the minors. Basically the upper level prospects have mostly failed and the guys that Elias used as "depth" were the cheap guys that ended up being DFA fodder more than actual quality depth.

Let's not turn this into a DD bashfest. We have discussed him ad nauseum and people's thoughts on him have been well noted.

Looks on point to me.

I try not to take too much from these videos because you have to remember they are like 14 and 15 years old in these videos most of the time. It was certainly not the quickest swing and he certainly is going for loft, but again, the team is probably going more off his EVs and other measurables.

MLB pipeline on Tavera: Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 55 | Run: 55 | Arm: 50 | Field: 50 | Overall: 55 Tavera is one of the most well-rounded players in this year’s class so it’s no surprise he has a chance to be a five-tool player with above-average grades in the future. At the plate, the lean and athletic teen shows a good approach and sound fundamentals with improving pitch recognition. He has a good feel for hitting. Like most prospects his age, Tavera’s swing is a work in progress, but he already has good bat-to-ball skills and emerging power that projects to be a plus tool. He can run now, and the run tool is also expected to be a plus tool if he continues to develop at a normal pace. Tavera trains at the Zorilla Baseball Academy in the Dominican Republic. The Orioles are the favorite to sign him. https://www.mlb.com/video/top-int-l-prospects-tavera-of?t=mlb-pipeline

Were they delusional or were they under marching orders to continue to try and compete even though most could see the window was closed? We also have to remember the dysfunction of the three headed regime with DD, Anderson and Buck all via for some kind of influence with an aged owner who probably should not have been making major decisions at this time in his life.

I never said he began the stripping down, but he traded every player of value that he could and replaced them with AAAA guys. Not only did he trade the three you mentioned, he also trade away the three effective relievers (Bleier, Givens and Castro). So no, I'm not wrong at all. He did strip this team down to bare bones and didn't even replace them with marginal ball players or players just needing a shot somewhere. Along with the fact that he's in the toughest division in baseball with a ridiculous unbalanced schedule, and this is how you become historically bad.

Diaz looks like a player who is very bored with being in the minor leagues. He doesn't play like he's having any fun and is the epitome of a guy who looks likes he's going through the motions. At the same time, he still has no plan at the plate and and has never learned to have one. He still swings at the bad sliders away in situations where he should know that pitch is coming. He might be a guy that needs a change of scenery again, but honestly, I think he's just a guy who was overrated all along and who is injury riddled.

I think this amount of ineptitude is why some people have become frustrated with the rebuild. I think 98% of people new this team needed to be rebuilt and losing was going to be a part of it. I'm not sure anyone thought they needed to be historically bad to do so. Elias stripped this team down until it was an embarrassment in historical ways, and while I don't believe he meant for the team to be this bad, at the end of the day, it was that bad. It's a little disheartening to know your team has sunk to this kind of low and even if the team returns to some kind of winning consistent ways, this stain will never go fully away.

We can always hope that he gets and stays hot and maybe can be moved this offseason, but I still see him DFA'd before the rosters are set for the Rule 5 draft.

Peek is a 23-year old four pitch righthander. His fastball sits 91-93, with a T94 on occasion. He has pretty decent command of the pitch but surprisingly uses it lower in the zone more than up like most pitchers nowadays. It doesn't have a ton of run. He's throw a low to mid 70s curveball (occasionally will slow it down to low 70s) that has a big break and low 80s slider. He struggles with the command of both pitches at times, but gets chases for swing and miss by the young inexperienced A-ball hitters. He throws a low 80s change that has a little drop and run. He does have the feel to throw it low and away to lefties and down in on righties but it probably has below average movement overall. He reminds me a bit of Dean Kremer before he started to throw the cutter in AA with a better changeup and a little less velocity. He mixes his pitches well and if he can develop better command of his breaking pitches, he could become interesting as a back end starter.

Thing is, with COVID, being 21 in Low A ball is not old at all this year. Average hitters are 21.3 and average pitchers are 22 this year in Low-A East. So they are on par age wise but behind in professional PAs than most. Them doing well is a good initial sign.