Tony-OH

This I agree with, but I also have little faith that the player's union will fight too hard for this as they are placating their base of players now and those players still want those early 30s pay days.

If the Orioles need to start Akin next year, they are either decimated by injuries or Elias failed. It's also about learning whether he can be used as reliever. Don't need even 30 innings to find out.

I thought you wanted to start winning next year like I do? Why not try him now when it doesn't matter then run him out there next year in a role no one knows he can handle?

Stewart always seems to have one stretch of extreme hot hitting. It still doesn't take away from the flawed player that he is at the major league level. Maybe he can get and stay scorching hot and have some trade value this offseason? That's really the best case scenario.

This article sounded like it was written by the players union. Very player friendly stuff in there. Most was non sense except the part about paying players earlier and allowing them to become free agents in their prime. This seems like a no brainer.

The guy is getting all of his money. Basically the Orioles paid him to just go away. His legacy will be as the guy who signed the biggest contract in Orioles history, suddenly got small, and stopped hitting. He did what he needed to do to get his big payday and Boros took advantage of an elderly sickly man to get this monstrous payday. The best I can say about this situation is I'm glad it's over and I hopefully don't have to hear Davis' name again.

I think you over estimate the chances of finding a quality big league player in the 3rd round. As Frobby has pointed out, the Orioles have actually been pretty decent over the years in the 3rd round, and yes, I'm sure the team would like more than a 4th outfielder with all of their picks, but it's not going to happen. You get a guy like Watson with some pop and speed in the 3rd round and you see if your development guys can get him to be a better hitter. I don't have a problem with the pick when I look at the tool set Watson carries. Even though he was a senior sign guy and 24 now, he still has time to improve.

I even tweeted about that. That was a good one. Agreed on his Cabrera talk. We're a bad team that he talks about 98% of the time. If he wants to spend some time gushing over a future HoFer who could hit a milestone during the game, I'm fine with that.

Back strain supposedly but he had back issues in the early part of his college career as well I believe. Second base is his best position overall but they were trying him in center.

My biggest concern with Kremer is he hasn't had any sustained success when using the major league ball in the majors or AAA. His curveball was weapon in AA and below and the bite just doesn't look the same.

I think Akin and Kremer could have reliever futures. I'm kinda down on Wells after looking at the statcast data. Just not a lot of room for error and no go to strikeout pitch. He really needs a good changeup to have a chance. Diaz? No plan at the plate, and injuries have softened his tools. I hope he saved his bonus money because for me, his best case scenario is as a 4th outfielder somewhere or as a cheap starter on a lower Division team.

We've had this discussion. We don't agree. You think its easy for starting pitcher to just one day wake up and be a reliever, while I think learning to change your warm up routines, finding out how long he takes to recover, and whether he can pitch often are things you can only find out when tried in relief. Not every failed starter can pitch in relief. It's time to find out whether Akin can.

I really don't know. Seems like more, but I haven't done the research.

I never said it was crazy, just that they're injuries took a toll a bit.

i wouldn't give up on Lowther. I'm not sure he was ever right this entire season. I know his stuff never looked like it did in 2019 and his command was pretty bad, something that's never ben a big issue for him.

Losing Hall, Vavra and Jjerstad for most or all of the season is probably 3 of the top 10 prospects, so year, I'd say they took a hit.

Since I really don't follow other systems, I wonder if others have been hit as hard by injuries and if the missed year last year is contributing to a rise in injuries for minor league players.

i agree. I've seen much, much worse 3rd round picks come through the system. He's at least interesting.

No, I did not personally scout Strasburg in the minors.

The only thing I can go off of is the stuff towards the end of his outings, how does it look? I don't see any drop off in the stuff including the velocity which was still 97-98 closing in on 80 pitches today. He's built like a guy who won't have an issue holding his stuff to 100 pitches.

The only thing I see if is he's still uses too many pitches to get batters out. Grant it most hitters take close pitches with him because they can't hit him anyways, but he has been at 80-90 pitches while pitching in the 5th inning his last few starts. He was better today than in his last start, but I'd like to see him start using the MLB ball in AAA.

Of course if he keeps hitting 442 foot home runs he could change my mind about his bat. lol 3rd one in two days. He's not missing many fastballs right now.

Ok, let's stop the DFA talk. As you can see in flashes, Akin can get major league hitters out with quality stuff. The thing is, he's miscast as a starter because he's always had the ability to show four (on different days) plus pitches. The problem has always been the same for Akin. He takes a lot of pitches to get guys out and he's inconsistent with his command, sometimes, batter to batter. He's doing exactly what I saw him do in the minors which is cruise through a few innings then suddenly implode. He's actually pitched decently at times which is why his xERA is 5.35 compared to his 8.23 ERA. So what do you do with a wildly inconsistent pitcher? Most smart teams will try them in a different role and see what it looks like there. Now, I'm not saying Akin's inconsistencies may not continue out of the pen, but I will say you lesson the chance of you burning through your bullpen because you have to pull him after three innings. With Zimmermann coming back, hopefully they can send Akin to the pen and not back to the minors unless the plan is to send him back and work in relief. While SG and I disagree on whether to use him as starter or not, I do agree with him that there is nothing more for Akin to learn in AAA. The Orioles need to put him in his most likely role and see what he looks like this year and probably next. I think he can become a Paul Fry type of reliever and who could occasionally bridge a starter for three innings before giving it up to the closer in the 9th (ala Arthur Rhodes).

I will say this. In the 25 years I've been covering the Orioles minor leagues, Rodriguez is the best pitching prospect I've seem come through pitching in the Orioles organization. He literally has the complete package of velocity, off-speed, and the ability to throw four pitches for strikes. Can his command improve some, sure, but he's head and shoulders better than anyone I've scouted. I've always said that Josh Beckett was the best pitcher I ever scouted in the minor leagues and Tim Lincecum was the best I have scouted as an amateur. Grayson Rodriguez may now have eclipsed Beckett in my mind as the best I've seen in the minors.

I posted this in another thread but thought it's more relevant here. I haven't caught a broadcast that showed Bradish's velocity the whole time since early this year, but in that one his velocity really falls off after the 2nd or 3rd inning. It was interesting that they brought him out of the pen after being a primary starter all year. In his previous nine starts he pitched to a 6.14 ERA with a 21 to 42 BB t K ratio over 36.2 IP. Batters slashed .280/.364/.460/.824 of him over this stretch. Now I will say the biggest difference I saw yesterday was his command was much better. they had him at 96 in his first inning of work, but not sure after that. I did see he was working in his change more though it's not good. He definitely has a reliever vibe for me.