Tony-OH

Sure, there are some pitchers having nice season and wildcard pointed most of them out, but my question goes back to him, what did Holt do that made them successful? Who has improved because of Holt? Sulser is the only answer at the major league level. In the minors, Grayson Rodriguez has crazy talent. Did Bautista just grow into his body and finally harness his stuff or did Holt and or his pitching coaches do something? Rom, his command has always been really good and he can throw four pitches well, but with a 88-90 MPH fastball, he needs a changeup that moves right to left for right-handers at the major league level. When i watch him pitch he barely uses the changeup. WHY? I don't care if he gets hammered a bit for awhile, he needs to develop that changeup more because that's going to be a key to him having success in the big league long term.

No, Holt is the pitching coordinator for the entire organization. From what I hear, managers and coaches are told what to teach and pitches to use or work on. As for your last comment, for longtime major leaguers or veterans I agree, for developing pitchers I do not agree at all. Again, I'm not saying Holt is terrible, I'm saying that I haven't seen any marked improvements from someone. You know, someone suddenly using a Means career defining/changing changeup or a pitcher that says I'm completely different because of what I've learned with the Orioles. I'm also not happy that every single rookie pitching prospect failed this year at the major league level. Why did all of their command fall off? Why did none of them improve? Why did Scott, Fry and Tate all go backwards this year? Besides Sulser, who has improved?

Hey, you want to look at things through orange colored glasses that's up to you. So tell me, what has he done to help any of those pitchers and how many of them do you think will be impact guys in the major leagues?

His statcast info concerns me. He had very low EV in 2019 and has a very low EV now. Hard to have consistent success when you aren't hitting the ball hard that often.

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ While there hasn't been a lot of talent to work from this year, when every one of your minor league prospects pitchers come up and fail, you have to start wondering what's going on. Meanwhile in the minors, besides Rodriguez who has a much talent as anyone in the minors, what pitchers have taken a big step forward? How good is he at identifying talent? Afterall, one of the few pitchers he helped jettison this spring was Zach Muckenhirm, a lefty with a mid-90s fastball that's pitching to a 1.45 ERA this year in AA for the White Sox. I see lefties like Wells, Lowther and Rom all with below average changeups even though they are the exact kind of pitchers that need a good changeup to have success at the major league level. Call me crazy, but I'm not sure i see what Holt has done for this organization so far that makes me thinks he's some difference maker.

No real surprises here other than Ryan Ripken found a way to stay employed. I'd take Majias-Bream over him due to his versatility at AAA. Kehe can now go focus on his mining career even though it was cool to have someone drafted from the Colorado School of Mines. Lewis is the guy you want if you need someone to beat up FCL pitching but he will always have that 442 foot home run in Delmarva to remember. Litscher and Zebron were guys who's velocity just never came. Erwin had a nice org career as a 23rd round draft pick.

Although my information from the FCL is spotty, I've heard he's the best prospect pitching there right now. Tell and lanky and already hitting mid-90s on a occasion, there is certainly hope for more velocity as he fills out.

It truly is a wonder that we will never understand. Saying that, Stevie had a good run. He gave us some fun memories.

Well, he's a more steadier defender than Martin and has more pop. But until he can learn to stay away from the slider away he's going to struggle offensively.

His Savant information shows him to have very low avg EV and has been slightly below average defensively in the outfield. He looks like he's struggled to hit good fastballs. While we only have small sample size, there's nothing in his numbers besides a high MAX EV that suggests he should be looked at. Saying that, if the Orioles wanted to give him a shot over the last month and half, why not?

Updated as of today..

They've been piggy backing all year and every level? Why would this be different?

I hope they start doing this with their priority prospects. This jumping positions to position has been ridiculous. You don't develop a future starting SS or 3B by playing him half the time there.

Not a fan of Mullins bunting with runner on 2nd and 3rd and one out. He needs to try and drive them in. We ended up scoring just that one run after Hays and Mancini failed. This is part of the reason why this team stinks. Just dumb baseball even from there good players.

I feel like that may be so deep, that only a reincarnated Confucius would be able to decipher this one.

Mateo is the exact kind of guy the orioles should be trying out. He has the tools to be very good player and has never really been given a major league opportunity to play every day until now. He's going to be a low OBP guy for sure, but his speed, power, and ability to play several positions could make him a very good utility guy if he doesn't work out at SS or 2B. He's definitely got plenty of arm for SS.

Yeah, he's been conspicuously absent so far. Hopefully he'll get on the field soon.

Lowther made a rehab appearance in the FCL today, pitching 2.1 scoreless innings with 3 K.

Lots of good points here that i agree with, but I want to pull the string on this one a bit. I think what the national pundits are looking at is how bad this team really is at the moment. I think we all agree we knew this team was going to be bad for a while, but finding some cheap replacement level talent has not been a strength of Elias and company. I would argue that on the 2021 team, Urias and Sulser are the only two that would fit this category or cheap replacement level players that have performed adequately. Mateo, Watkins and Diplan are still too new to really say one way or the other, but that's not a lot. Here are the other guys that fit that category but failed: Franco Leyba Harvey Plutko Lopez Valaika Eshelman Anderson LeBlanc Greene Jannis Gutierrez Meanwhile there are the players they brought up from the minors this year for chances: Wilkerson Wynns Nevin Mattson It's just a lot of zeros from the Orioles talent evaluators.

We can hope it is, but I'm not sure we can be positive that it is completely. We won't know that for sure until players from the system that he acquired either make it to the major leagues or are traded for players that start impacting the major league club. Until wins start happening, all we can do is hope that they are laying the right foundation and have the right evaluators bringing talent into the system. I do see some good things, but have questions about others.

Agreed. I know it's easy for some to get defensive, but let's face it, no one is lying in these articles. The jury is out on Elias and his crew. Are there things that look promising when it comes to using the technologies to help our player develop, sure, but until we see a player make a breakthrough in the minors and then perform well at the major league level, it doesn't mean anything. We have no idea whether he's able to field a good major league team yet because he hasn't even tried. I don't know what his timeline is, but I can say this, this team is going to need a major, and mean major influx of free agency or trade talent to compete anytime in the next 3-years.

Not sure i call that media bashing, but more of a truth bomb. Eckersly has been around the game a long time. the question really comes down to is the organization too focused on spin rates and analytics and missing the fact that pitchers need to be able to command the ball first? Both Lopez and Akin are pitching in roles that they are not designed for. Is this out of need or does the organization think they can really turn them around? I watch the minors and I'm absolutely flabbergasted how they take priority guys and bring them in as relievers instead of allowing them to remain in a routine as a starter. I know they are piggybacking guys, but they should have priority starters and then piggyback guys who are lesser starting pitching prospects but who might be relievers. The pitching in the minors outside of Grayson Rodriguez and maybe Mike Baumann is really, really questionable especially with DL Hall on the IL. Could Rom and Bradish end up a starters? Sure. I feel better about Rom sticking despite his lesser stuff because he commands better, but they don't seem to be forcing Rom to his changeup much and that will limit him at AAA and the major leagues if he doesn't learn to use and command that pitch. When I watch the major league pitchers this year, particularly the guys we thought were prospects (Akin, Kremer, Lowther, Wells) I see guys that either can't make quality pitches consistently enough, or guys who have very marginal stuff (Wells and Lowther - though I'm convinced whatever should soreness that put Lowther on the IL has been around a all season because his stuff looked so much better in AA). The organization is playing its prospects in different positions every night and drafted a S-ton of outfielders after drafting an s-ton of SS in 2019. Meanwhile it's hard to find a pitcher that you really like as a starter at the major league level. Add in one of their top prospects has been exposed a bit in High-A both offensively and defensively (Henderson), their second best pitcher missed most of the season, and their 1-2 pick for 20202 may never being able to play again, and you have to ask ourselves, "Are we really on the cusp of being good again?"

There's a number of org outfielders that can go including those two. Also Harris, Janvrin, Cespedes and Yahn could all go. At Bowie, Turchin could go.

There's a number of org outfielders that can go including those two. Also Harris, Janvrin, Cespedes and Yahn could all go. At Bowie, Turchin could go.

My guess with Rodriguez is they want him to use less pitches. His pitch counts has been climbing into the 80s in his 5th inning of work against AA hitters and I'm guessing they like to see him get there needing less pitches. He does seem to get into deep counts, but I think it's more because he's been throwing all four of pitches and with that comes a little bit of command issues at times. He doesn't walk many because the thing is he can go to different pitches that he has a good feel for down in the count and is able to throw them for strikes. Saying that, I would like to see him use the major league ball in AAA so I'm hopeful they will move him for at least a few starts in AAA before the year is out. Honestly, he's going to start 2022 in AAA regardless, so it probably doesn't matter overall.