Tony-OH

There is a lot of miss in a bat that doesn't generate a lot of power. Defensively he's probably best at second base but I haven't seen him challenged in CF yet. He does not have the arm to play SS effectively. I just don't know what he is at the major league level. Maybe a utility guy?

Well if he can bring his amazing ability to get hit by a pitch up to the majors they might have something. Honestly, I'd have no issues with giving him a shot. I've watched him enough this year to think he's not awful defensively and will get into a ball once in awhile. He's throwing better this year as well. Do I think he's an answer to anything other than potentially a back up option to Rutschman, not but I'd be fine if the Orioles decided to give him the second half of the season at the major league level.

Is today you day to pick apart every comment? Dude, all we did is make a comment about how Kremer and Akin have been disappointing. I really didn't do the analysis of why Watkins did better other than he threw a lot of cutters and the pitch was not hit very hard. i personally don't think his stuff will play long term, but I'm certainly willing to be proven wrong.

Since the age is up for most leagues across the board, it's not really an issue. the Orioles have done a good job of being fairly aggressive with some players this year and especially with the players who it was sink or swim time. Obviously success at AA and AAA weighs heavily vs success at lower levels because that's when the talent gets closer to major league caliber. I really wish the MLB ball was used throughout the minors for pitchers sake since it's tough to know whether these guys will still be able to spin the ball as effectively with the lower seams of the major league ball. The power rankings are really making me stay more on top of players throughout the year and of course the MiLB videos are helping as well.

I don't think his point was that Watkins is better than either of those two, but that it's sad that two prospects like Kremer and Akin have struggled to get to 5 innings in their MLB career. Watkins threw strikes for the most part and that helped.

Bowie is very hard and frustrating when I go to watch a Ironbird game with them playing at Greenville and they have HD and a center field camera. Aberdeen is quite bad as well which is surprising as I wouldn't think Cal Ripken would want his name behind such a poor broadcast.

The good news in all of this is I watch a ton more games on Milb tv now that most teams have a broadcast so it's better for scouting and sometimes the announcers give you clues. The bad news is I used to be able to text the farm director to get tidbits about players health timetables and information on goings on within the system, now I get sent to the PR department and they tend to give "No updates". It's just frustrating but the environment I'm learning to operate in while covering the team for you the fans.

It does put their struggles in perspective. Amazing what changing speeds and throwing strikes can do.

Watkins is a 28-year old career minor leaguer so no, he was not on the prospect list. From what I saw in his first start, I'm not sure it's going to work too often without pinpoint command. He was mostly a fastball (90 MPH avg), cutter (85 avg) with a below average 12-6 curveball (78 MPH). His cutter was his best pitch in first outing with almost slider like movement. He didn't miss a ton of bats but he also didn't give up a on of hard contact, especially off the cutter. He certainly earned another start but no, I do not think he's part of the future but rather a guy who can hopefully eat some innings this year. He's certainly a nice little story after almost quitting last year only to find himself in the big leagues. I'm rotting for him and maybe, just maybe that cutter can carry him for awhile.

I just saw Baumann pitch on July 2nd and he was sitting 93-96 so he looks pretty healthy to me. His problem has been command this is year and I'm not sure why it has taken him so long to find it. Even in his last outing he was pretty good overall, but did have some issues with his secondaries a bit. Knight is a 30-year career minor leaguer who was pitching for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in 2019 but when you watch him, you have to wonder what he's been eating? Knight is interesting for a few reasons, one of which is the fact he does a complete back flip after he gets a save. Yes, I'm not joking, a complete back flip. He pitches mostly backwards off his 78-80 MPH curveball that gets a lot of swing and miss and he's able to get ahead by throwing it for strikes. It rolls a bit too often though AAA hitters tend to miss his hangers. He also has a decent change for lefties that fades and dives away around 80 MPH. Surprisingly, he seems to stay away from his fastball, even though the games I've seen him he's sat 93-95. Is he a closer at the major league level? Well, right now, the Orioles don't have one so who's to say he couldn't? I will say this, if Travis Lakins can pitch in the big league with the Orioles, so can Knight. He's certainly better than Valdez and he's a nice little story. I'm not sure that curveball plays as well at the major league level but he's certainly fooling AAA guys with it. His command can be spotty and the fastball doesn't look like it's got a ton of movement, but the Orioles could do worse than giving him a look in the pen this year if/when the need arises.

No, haven't heard much about the Complex League and with Sarasota getting record rainfall, most of their games have been wiped out. He's a guy I'm keeping my eye on though through the boxscores.

I keep reminding myself that Hernaiz is the youngest Shorebird and one of the younger players in the league. Defensively I like him and although his arm looks about average at SS, he looks like he has good instincts out there and good internal clock on his throws. Offensively, he's still battling right now and I haven't seen a ton of hard contact from him. He has struck a few that were caught on the warning track that might've gone out once he's a little stronger, but I still like the overall package. He seems to have good baseball IQ on top of things, and I would not be surprised to see him have a good second half.

Diaz will drop a bunch this year if he doesn't start producing in AAA. His prospect clock is ticking hard.

I think Peralta has a chance as a reliever although he's improved his secondaries, particularly his change. I could see him as a two inning guy coming in and throwing smoke out of the pen, but don't have an issue with continuing to stretch him out. He'll need to be protected on the 40-man next year no doubt. I'm still trying to get a feel for Watson. He really doesn't do anything great or anything terrible. He just kind of looks like a decent little player with a low ceiling. He has shown a little pop this year and can barrel a ball on occasion, but it still comes with a lot of miss at a level where you'd want him to do a little better out at his age. He's in the 4th outfielder range for me, but he's still interesting to watch.

Jones issue is all about where you play him. He doesn't have the power of a typical corner outfielder so you really want him to play second base, but he just looks stiff over there and though he seems to have the aptitude to work on things and get better, you never really get a feel that he'll be able to play the position effectively consistently. Saying that, if I'm the Orioles, I'm playing him everyday at 2B in hopes he gets better because he's not chasing Mullins out of CF. Bishop has four pitches and he's improved his command a lot. He's getting a lot of swing and miss in AA, but I'd like to see how his stuff plays with the major league ball in AAA before getting too high on him. He's a Zimmermann type guy for me right now but let's see how it plays.

To the Baseball savant for the answer.. lol https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=7/6/2021&gamePk=633413&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=pitchVelocity#633413 Seems to me he kept using his fastball through the outing though it did get harder than his other offerings. His cutter was the more effective pitch though you wonder of it was because of the 4-seam fastball setting it up? It will be interesting to see is tries to go cutter heavy over the fastball in the future of the fastball continues to get hit hard.

Good for the young man to have a great night on his first start. The results were certainly as much as anyone could have hoped for. I don't think his stuff plays long term at the major league level, but he certainly earned himself another start. The good news on his 90 MPH fastball is that he gets pretty good spin in it for the velocity so plays up a bit. Still, he needs to have his command going for him for it all to work since there's not a lot of room for error.

Because I just saw this. I don't live on this board and in case you haven't noticed, I'm short a major moderator so perhaps give me a break. I locked this as soon as I saw this.

Sorry, we are short moderators and when I ask some longtime members, they turn me down so it takes longer to get to these.

Stowers has the best tools and has produced fairly well this year. He's got the most upside for me out of this group.

General time frame? 2-4, 4-6 weeks, out for the year? This information was almost always available in the past. There is no advantage to hiding injury information when fans are following players, potentially of the future. You may not care, but many others do and as someone who gets asked these questions, it sucks that the information is being kept secret or given out to Orioles owned media mainly. Hell, I couldn't even get a Sarasota roster of players, not the actual orange and black rosters, but the actual players in camp still? That's never happened to me in 25 season of doing this.

It's all dumb. No reason not to just say, "Return is unknown or he's rehabbing and hoping to be back in 2-4 weeks or whatever." There is no advantage to hiding injuries or time tables to return. If they were baseball related injuries, there should not be any HIPPA concerns. It's just sad that the organization has decided to go in this direction. Oh well, one more thing to deal with.

I really like Mundy's short, quiet swing that generates good power without over swinging. He's shown the ability to make adjustments and although he'll get fooled on some offspeed pitches at times, he's shown a nice ability to learn even within a bat. I'm trying to temper my excitement over him since we don't have a ton of data on him, but the one thing we do have is that he's hit the snot out of the ball since becoming a pro. If he's able to get to AA and hold his own there this season, I think he's a top 10 prospect. The bat looks real to me but I want to see it against upper level pitching and velocity.

Stowers is an interesting player because he has some tools to work off of and he's starting to tap into his power a little bit more during game time. He seems to hold his own against lefties and he's shown some ability work counts. He runs well, and defensively, he's best suited for corner outfield and arm looks pretty solid. He's probably going to jump Diaz in the rankings here soon, especially since he has the skill of staying healthy. He's definitely a guy that has a chance to be an everyday outfielder in the big league still.

I've tried to keep up with each thread when someone has asked about a prospect, but i thought I'd make a thread where you can ask about any player in the system and I'll give my current thoughts on him. Remember, if you are asking me on the Florida Development League guys I don't have much on them right now.