Tony-OH

It's nice way to tell the player he's not being demoted, just informally rehabbing at a lower level.

Eh, seems like semantics to me, but anyways, at the end of the day Wells' stuff and command need to improve. Now that I have statcast data on him, it's hard to be too confident that he's a real part of the future. But, no reason not to send him back to AAA and see what he can improve.

Since this comment, Rizer has struggled in AA slashing .199/.265/.318/.583 over his last 166 PAs. He does have a .259 BAbip so he run into some bad luck, but he's just not hitting the ball as consistently as he was.

I guess I don't get how saying a player has failed so far equates to never giving him any more chances? Wells' stuff and command has not been good so far in the majors and it needs to improve for him to have success. As we both agree, Wells needs pinpoint command, change speeds, and some good luck to have longterm success in the major leagues. He has a 7.64 ERA and a 1.87 WHIP at the major league level. That is failing overall. If someone suggests he should be DFA'd then that would be premature and an overreaction to the situation. Perhaps it's semantics, but I didn't see anything besides his poor choice of saying "you fools" in his comments that were that wrong.

Akin was able to keep his slider down and he threw it for strikes which allows his fastball to play up. He's a reliever and I hope they keep him in that role. Here were some highlights last night. https://www.mlb.com/video/00u7jzgkdtP9kH55c356/reels/akin-yanks

I'm guessing Leyba and Gutierrez will be DFA'd. The Orioles still need to cover innings so they probably don't want to DFA pitchers unless they have to or they thin they won't lose them. Saying that Plutko has pitched to a 6.31 ERA in 26.1 IP and has been scored upon in 9 of his 15 outings since June 1st so if they want to DFA him, I doubt anyone not related to him will be too upset. Anderson is a dime a dozen AAAA reliever too, and although Conner Greene has a good arm and needs to have repertoire trimmed down, his results have been pretty awful in AAA and not exactly stellar in his two major league outings. I'd also consider DFAing Mattson who never should have been put on the 40-man in the first place and Cesar Valdez can't get righties out. So Elias has smorgasbord of options.

It's too early to say he can't stay on the left side of the infield and he does have very good athleticism, but he's made a lot of errors since becoming a pro and I just saw him botch as routine a ball a they come on a grounder right to him while in a shift standing at SS. He's young and there is no way I'd move him, but I do think they need to decide what position they want to develop him at and keep him there so he can gain some comfortability instead of bouncing him back and forth between 3B and SS.

Very informative article and yes, it was also entertaining. I feel better about Hall's chance of recovery without surgery after reading this. Darvish has returned and has been very good so while Hall will most likely miss the rest of this year, he should be 100% next spring if he heals like some others. Here are some of the key point from the article.

You should use rWAR like 99.9% of the rest of the baseball community. I know they've gotten closer, but any WAR that ranks Heim at over 1 WAR with his 87 OPS+, -1rotot, 24% CS in just 54 games really has to be scrutinized. As for Heim, I'd be fine with him as a backup but he's on his 3rd team since being traded away.

Gotcha. If I ever need a Monday morning quarterback with 20 20 vision I'll give you a call. We have nothing more to discuss with this.

I did the game log analysis back then and showed Hyde almost completely exclusively played him against left-handed pitching in September.

Well you are consistent in telling us things that were "obvious and common sense" to no one but yourself. No team is trading away their All-Star closer with two years left of control when they fancy themselves contenders in the next season unless they had a replacement. They had what looked like three good starting pitchers returning (Tillman, Gausman, Bundy) a superstar in Machado, Schoop, Trumbo coming off a 47 home run season. They could reasonably have expectations that Davis would rebound, Wieters and Jones still in their 27-31 peak years and Hardy coming off a solid year and a young Mancini looking like he was ready for the big leagues. Add in an aging owner who was certainly not going to rebuild, and it was not common sens to rebuild. In fact, 2017 was a season that was a series of bad things that took a contending team and made them into an afterthought. Tillman was awful, Gausman and Bundy underperformed, Britton got hurt, Miley and Ubaldo were terrible, Davis did not rebound and started look like the bust he was, everyone they brought in to try and right the ship stunk including making a dumb trade for Hellickson. So no, it wasn't obvious and common sense then to trade Britton or anyone else. Now should a selloff started after 2017 or even at the All star break of 2017? Sure, that made more sense but you are never going to convince me that it was obvious and common sense over the winter of 2016 to start a selloff.

With all the drama getting these guys signed, it shows that Elias may have had a pretty solid plan in getting a guy in at an agreed upon number (Cowser) that allowed him get some overslot talent later thus giving him more opportunities to hit upon an impact player. Now it doesn't explain his outfielder heavy approach, but his cap work approach made a lot of sense. Time now will tell whether he was right or not but you can't really argue that it was not a solid approach.

You should probably market that Sports Guy crystal ball to the highest bidder. I'm sure teams would love to have a ball that has 20/20 hindsight knowledge of the past.

There was no doubt that that deal was all about dropping salary which of course limits the talent coming back. Funny thing is, Zimmermann may end up the best pitcher we got sent back in all of the trades if he can get and stay healthy. He's probably not more than a 4th or 5th starter, but there's value in that.

Maybe.. lol

Stewart would have dove two feet short, then the ball would have taken a weird bounce and hit him in the head.

Lopez still has the no-no.. lol

Really nice play by Hays there..

FB 87-92 T 93 Curveball mid to low 70s, loopy. Slider 80, occasional good bite but not great Change not a lot of command, some fade Mostly below average stuff overall, but able to have some success at the lower level due to having four pitches. He'll have to prove it as each level on his way up.

It's a power ranking and not a final prospect list of course, but Henderson's struggles defensively is giving me some pause about his future position and his K rate remains pretty high with good, but not great power in Aberdeen. Henderson very well may go back up to #3 by the end of the year depending on how he finished the year and how Cowser does once promoted to Delmarva. But, I ask myself, would Henderson if he was available to be drafted, be drafted ahead of Cowser? Henderson has more raw power but Cowser has shown to have tremendous plate discipline and hits for a high average in college. As for Hall, stress fractures in elbows two months after he was sidelined scares me.

Lots of movement and the addition of the Orioles top two draft picks this year onto the power rankings.

This was from the other post on the major league board suggesting Jones may be recalled soon to take over 2B. "Seems like a strange time to promote Jones considering he's been in a slump for the last few weeks slashing .160/.208/.280/.488 over his last 14 games and 54 PAs. While Jones has held his own at AAA this season, he's hit just .238/.347/.420/.767 in 168 PAs this season against AAA right-handers. He's mashed left-handers which reminds me a bit of Richie Martin. Defensively, I see a guy without great hands who doesn't turn a double play that great. Pat Valaika is definitely a steadier second baseman overall and has a stronger arm than Jones. His best position may ultimately be in left field, but I'm not sure he has the bat to profile there unless it's in a 4th outfielder type role and while his bat may be better than McKenna's, I don't think he's going to bring the defense and speed McKenna brings to the 4th outfielders role. Ultimately, he's on the 40-man roster so if they want to take a look at him at 2B over Valaika that's fine since Valaika is not the future nor does he have trade value and is most likely a DFA candidate after the season. But saying that, I prefer to see guys promoted when they're hot, not cold."

He homered in his second at bat. CoC is now demanding potential legal action if he's not immediately recalled to the Orioles 26-man roster.

The rankings will be out tonight now that they have played their first games. Cowser will be higher than 5...