Tony-OH

Supposedly the game will only be found on You Tube. Some kind of BS MLB has done.

I'll look at the statcast data after tonights start. He does a nice job of mixing speeds and working on the edge of the zone.

The rule for the power rankings is that a player must play in a game before he can be added.

I never understood why second base was not his once they parted ways with Sanchez. He's a better defender at 2B than SS overall, but he's been adequate while filling in for Galvis. Urias is the guy that the Orioles had the least data on and the only guy who had not had a real chance yet so it just seemed strange they decided to dump him into the minors and even brought up Valaika over him. Glad to see him finally getting a chance. He's probably not quite as good as he's been hitting overall, but he's better than Ruiz, Valaika and Wilkerson, all of which for some reasons got shots over him as an everyday second baseman.

Glad to see Thorne is back doing baseball somewhere. I certainly miss him although I do agree with those that say Kevin Brown is good and getting better. On the radio, I think Arnold and Hollander do a real good job together and Brown is good there as well. I'm fine with Newman as long as she's not calling the game action. She understands the game as an analyst, but is basically like listening to Siri with her blandness no matter how big the event is in the game. Plus, she really struggles to define the action. If you don't think so, watch a condensed game when they show the action on the field but use the radio broadcast and she how poorly she describes the action. In one play a ball was ripped into left field between the third baseman and shortstop on the ground to score a run. She said, "The ball is hit into the gap into left field, bringing the runner in around third..... to score and make it a 5-1 lead for the Orioles." I don't know about you, but the gap to me is between outfielders. She never even mentioned what gap she was talking about. There were many others but there is just not enough voice inflection to get across the importance of the play and the fact that she doesn't really describe what is happening as it's happening is frustrating to listen to on the radio. She's also a bit slow like Manfra was in which you can hear the crowd reaction to know what happened before she can describe the action because she is so deliberate. I listen to a ton of minor league broadcasts and there are several announcers that are doing radio while the game is broadcast on MiLB TV and they do a much better job of keeping up with the action. Saying all that, she's smart and understands the game including proper use of statcast information. I also feel she's very good at the pregame and post game shows when she fills in for Rob Long. That's probably her sweet spot there!

Feliz was touching mid 90s a few starts back and the results speak for themselves. I think there is a some major reliever risk with him but he deserves to be watched. Neustrom has really been impressive with his plate discipline and occasional pop. He's improved a lot from 2019 and is a nice story!

Damn, I'll have to take a look at that for sure. Thanks for the heads up. I already knew his left-handed hitting has not been what was expected, but it would really not be good if he struggles to hit while catching in the heat. Something to keep an eye on.

We're already having the discussion elsewhere on the board, but I've moved Grayson Rodriguez into the #1 spot. Big movers elsewhere as well with Kyle Stowers getting a big jump into the top ten and some other movers if you look around.

The more I watch of Stowers, and I've been basically watching most of his PAs of late, the more he just looks like a guy for me. Is there miss in the bat, yep, but he'll go the other way at times and take his base hits and then also sit back and just absolutely murder a pitch. The 0-2 curveball he hit for a home run to right center yesterday had to be over 400+ feet. Like a lot of hitters he can be taken up the ladder with a good 4-seamer but he has plenty of bat speed. While he can get better at his jumps, he's pretty solid in the outfield and has plenty of arm for RF. He's a mover for me this year.

I'd have zero issues with him getting a chance at AA. The Orioles need to see if his pitchability translates at higher levels.

And the level of stupidity between MLB leadership and the union leadership certainly does leave room for something awful to happen.

After watching his last start, I think moving Rodriguez to AAA makes sense. He needs to get used to spinning that major league ball that they use in AAA. Right now he's basically having his way with AA hitters. Libertore is already there and having some hiccups but until MLB uses the major league ball at all levels, that jump to AAA is important because of the different ball.

This makes some sense since they will need to make room for the new draft picks here shortly with no NY-Penn League anymore. The Tides have been starting NPs in the outfield so moving Neustrom there is a good thing. He's very controlled the strikeszone this year and tapped into his power during games more this year. He's ok defensively though he made one of the worse plays of the year in the outfield yesterday when he misplayed a ball that eventually hit him in a the glove only to drop for an error. I'm guessing the org is hoping a promotion will jump start Haskins and especially Watson since neither have dominated their levels. Sometimes hitters hit better at a high level because the pitchers are around the plate more. I haven't seen much of Watson, but he's coming off his worse appearance of the year. He's getting long in the tooth so they probably want to see him against high level hitters sooner than later. Feliz, the youngest of the promotees at 21, is interesting as he's been throwing harder as the year has gone on and has dominated the Sally League. Peek at 23 needed to move up as well though I haven't been thrilled with the stuff or consistency this year. I expect Noah Denoyer, 23, is probably on his way to Aberdeen at some point soon too. Conroy is an org guy to fill innings at Bowie at 24 years old.

You don't judge a player by any hot or cold streak but how the numbers all shake out. At the end of the day, Rutschman is doing fine, but certainly not dominating with his .269/.394/.476/.869 at 23 years old in AA. He's also thrown out 33% of his runners (fine but not dominant) and while he's a very good receiver (I think he'll be a very good framer if that matters by the time he's in the majors) his blocking is average, but he's not a wall back there. Overall I like what Rutschman has done, but I was hoping for more from him offensively. Matt Wieters slashed .288/.340/.412/.753 at the major league level after slashing .305/.387/.504/.891 in AAA at 23 years old. Yes, Rutschman has a lost season (though he did have Alternate camp time) but if he had dominated AA like Wieters did, he's be in AAA right now instead of trading water in AA. You also want to see players get better at a level. Over Rutschman's last 28 days, he's slashed .225/.319/.375/.694 with two home runs in 92 PAs. These stats hardly scream out "I'm ready for promotion". I've been purposely trying to watch every Rutschman and Stowers PAs lately and Rutschman swings through a lot of very hittable low 90s fastballs. Now maybe he's just not seeing the ball well right now, but I don't see pitchers afraid to challenge him in we're talking AA pitchers with 90-92 MPH fastballs. When he was hot and seeing the ball well from mid-May to mid-June when he slashed .337/.437/.582/1.019 with seven of his 12 homers, he was barreling the ball up well and was locked in, but he's really struggled to find that consistency since. They seem to be getting him with high fastballs and then changeups away when batting lefty where's he's slashed just .241/.365/.425/.790 against righties this season. He has a tremendous eye which gets him in trouble sometimes when umpires call balls that are probably just off the plate strikes occasionally. I swear I've never seen a guy who seems to bat with two strikes in every count whether it's because he takes very hittable pitches, fouls them off or swings through them. He swing rate is probably pretty good overall because he rarely swings at pitches out of the zone or gets totally fooled, which is a good thing, but he does swing and miss or foul off more than I would like with very hittable pitches in the zone. Basically I see a guy who is very much still learning at the plate.

He's thrown 83 pitches three times this year, including yesteday and I didn't see any drop off of stuff from him in the 6th inning when he was over 70. We also have 15 starts in 2019 where he threw over 70 pitches. Sure, we don't know whether he can consistently throw 100+ pitches while keeping his stuff yet, but he's built like a guy who can maintain his stuff and I haven't seen any changes in stuff after 70 pitches this year. The Orioles are limiting all minor league prospects pitches this year, plus, we don't know how he will spin the major league ball yet so those are two things that are unknowns. Saying that, Rutschman has some unknowns as well. Can he hit consistent high velocity? Can he hit major league breaking stuff? Rodriguez is doing better against AA competition than Rutschman is and Rutschman is two years older. Since they would both have the same pedigree had Rodriguez gone to college, I'd actually go with Rodriguez right now. Let's remember, when Rutschman was 21, he didn't even put up good numbers against Low-A competition. Either way, regardless, I think they are 1a and 1b and I'm glad they are both in the organization.

I didn't even think of that angle but your right. Though I can't imagine with baseball as fragile as it is that they won't come up with some agreement that will avoid a work stoppage.

Let's put it this way, if Grayson Rodriguez had gone to college and was drafted this year, with the stuff he has right now, he would have gone 1-1 in this draft. I'm not down on Adley, but just think that much of Rodriguez. He still needs to find consistency with his slider a little bit more, but he's got special TOR written all over him. As for Rutschman, I've watch him a lot this year and the more I watch him, the more I think he has a lot of tools to be a very good player, but I'm not convinced he's going to be an impact hitter at the major league level quite yet. I think he will be very good hitting catcher when it's all said and done, but I would like to see him really barrel up hittable pitches more often. I've seen him swing through a lot of hittable low 90s fastballs. Is he better than what the Orioles have right now, absolutely, but the Orioles would be dumb to start his clock this year. If they wanna send him to AAA, they can feel free, but he just needs more PAs. I think Rutschman is going to be like Wieters offensively at the major league level initially, but has the upside to be better in his peak years.

In his last 11 games prior today, he's slashed .279/.326/.558/.884 so he's started to make adjustments!

You might want to check that again. He's put up a .309/.417/.605/1.022 line in 81 AA PAs. His K rate may be high but he'll draw a walk, work counts, and he's shown plus power. Stowers for me is one of the highlights to this season so far.

You're good Rick. This was going to be my big surprise for the power rankings tomorrow. Rutschman is back in a funk where he's missing very hittable pitches. He really seems to swing through a lot low 90s fastballs and although he's patient, I think the guys gets two strikes on him in 80% of his PAs.

I heard this guy is going to take overslot to sign. Plus power and speed but has not been tested against good competition.

Joltin' Joe!!!

I really wish I knew why they do what they do. The way they've treated Lowther while giving Akin every opportunity in the world tells me they care more about analytics then actual minor league success.

No, I just think they are too focused on spin rates sometimes. They've been in love with Akin because analytically he looks like he should have success. But, I've watched this guy throughout his whole career and the problem is he's always struggled to have his command from inning to inning. It's always taken him a lot pitches to get through innings. He was usually around 90 pitch after five pitches and that's not good in AAA.

The hope was if he could just become a fastball-slider guy and focus on those two pitches in short stints that his stuff would play up, but right now he has no command of anything.