Tony-OH

Well what do you know. I was in front of one this time. lol No idea if he's going to be any good but clearly has more of a chance of helping now and in the future than Valdez. Valdez was a fun story for a little bit. Good for him to finally find a trick pitch that worked for a bit.

He struggles to turn the double play and doesn't really have the range you would like to see there. Saying that, he might be better there than 3B where his side arm throwing motion will end up with a lot of errors.

He's certainly about as hot as anyone can get right now. He's slashing .545/.643/1.682/2.325 with 8 home runs in his last 28 PAs over 7 games. That's almost unheard of. Hell, he's on the 40-man and Franco is the only thing in his way, bring him up while he's smoking hot and DFA Franco.

With Bannon back and playing 3B, Gutierrez, Jones and Valiaka, there was really no place to play him and after 126 major league PAs where you slash .152/.238/.223/.461, you aren't getting any priority play.

Not to be bearing of bad news, but Rom was absolutely awful last night. Not sure if he's tired or what, but he couldn't command anything last night. Looked like thy came into the game trying to work on the slider and changeup but neither pitch was good. The slider didn't have a lot of bite and very little vertical movement minus a few. The changeup was absolutely awful. No feel for the pitch at all. He threw at least two that were Nuke Laloosh like with the only difference being he didn't hit the mascot. His fastball was his best pitch last night though even that had below average command. He did get some swings and misses up with it but it was hit hard in hitters counts when he didn't keep it up. Maybe he's going through a little funk, but the lack of a remotely good changeup is going to drop his prospect status. If I were the Orioles, that has to be priority for him in the offseason is to find a grip that works for him.

High K rate, no power, not good defensive on the dirt and has been out with quadricep strain except for one game on August 12th, since 21 July. I think he was exposed this year in High-A though in his defense, he was hitting better in July before the injury though the K's were still a bit high for a player with little game power.

Probably as bad as Martin just dropping and ball that would have seen the runner thrown out before the Rays then scored two more runs.

Still getting revenge on the Orioles passing him up for three picks (DJ Stewart, Mountcastle and Jonathan Hughes who they didn't even sign) in the 2015 draft despite playing at the University of Maryland.

You are doing great.

You are doing yeomen's work. It's appreciated!

The Rays DFA'd Chris Elliott after his four inning, seven strike out work against the Orioles. Grant it he was facing the Orioles and he's struggled in AAA this year, but the stuff didn't look terrible and he's got a better chance of eating innings now and turn into something in the future than Cesar Valdez. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=ellis-002chr https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/chris-ellis-595939?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb

If it makes you feel any better. Here are their stats thru age 27: Swisher: .244/.354/.451/.805, 103 HRs in 2512 PAs, worth 9 rWAR Stewart: .212/.326/.401/.727, 24 HRs in 573 PAs, Worth 0.5 rWAR Stewart can't hit lefties at all, is a poor defender, and has not performed anywhere close to Swisher prior to entering his prime. I think the chances of Stewart becoming Swisher after leaving the Orioles is about as much as the Orioles not finishing in last this year.

Acevedo and Deson are two guys certainly worth watching in the box scores.

All I can say is Green has a pretty good arm and decent changeup and he was buried in AAA barely throwing on a schedule and then used a few times in the majors than quickly DFA'd. Weird the Orioles felt so little of him yet the Dodgers claimed him and then optioned him like the Orioles could have done. But no worries, we have 275 year old Cesar Valdez and his 80 MPH trick pitch and mister "everything is below average plus a 90 mph fastball" Konner Wade still on the 40-man. Just weird. Maybe Green doesn't listen and have heard he's a little "squirrely" but seemed like an arm a good pitching coach can do something with especially since Greene is still throwing like 5 pitches in relief instead of focusing on perhaps his top 2 or maybe 3 offerings.

Greene is a guy who needs to have a good pitching coach to make him cut down his repertoire. I was surprised how fast they DFA'd him when there were others that could have easily been cut first. Amazingly the Dodgers claimed him, he threw two scoreless innings and they optioned him so they found a way to keep him on the their 40-man and the Orioles couldn't.

I'll have to look at him closely but he's got a very straight fastball that has been lit up by major league hitters despite the velocity. Everything is below average though if he can keep his slider glove side and low and his fastball up in the zone he can have success. Just appears he makes too many mistake in the middle of the plate. Worth a look but will be a good test to see if Holt's system can find something with this arm. Conner Green had a similar arm but wasn't able to find sustained success in AAA or the majors with the Orioles so we'll have to see. Velocity has dropped 2 MPH since last year so that's a concern.

Yeah, I was looking through the organizational stats and saw he has to ABs yesterday. Must've missed that box score yesterday.

Really good arm who has struggled to get anyone out this year in AAA or the majors. Similar to Conner Greene but a former 1st rounder. Worth a look especially when all they needed to do was DFA Hartman for him. Saying that, I'm surprised Wade or Vasquez did not go first.

Willems is making his professional debut today with FCL Orange, starting at DH and batting 8th. Talk about easing your million dollar High Schooler into things.

Hernandez may want to hit DSL pitching before we start giving him positions in the states. Saying that it does appear Hernaiz is going to lose some playing time to Burns, who is only a year older than him. While being young for the league overall, Hernaiz didn't do a lot of special things so far. He'll still get opportunities for sure but his star has faded a bit.

Only downside last night was his misread of a ball that dropped in front of him. It was twilight and we don't know how much outfield he has played during that time in his career. He's actually bigger than I thought. Not Teter huge, but he's built a lot like Gunnar Henderson.

That's how I read it.

Arguing about whether Stewart or McKenna should be on the roster of this team right now is like passengers on the Titanic discussing whether the deck chairs or lounges should be brought in from the deck.

EVERY SINGLE PROSPECT that was in the major leagues have not improved this year. Other than Sulser, every single reliever went backwards. Again, I'm not saying it's all Holt's fault, I'm saying is we can forget the "secret sauce wizardy" that we were told Holt was bringing with him.

But they were sucking before they too that away.