Tony-OH

You have to remember two things here. One, the adrenaline of making his major league debut can add some velocity, and two, he knew he was only going to pitch an inning. Saying that, he's not far off what I've seen him at in the minors. He'll be 88-92 on most days. The thing is his extension to the plate allows his fastball to play up a bit. I'm happy to see Lowther get his major league feet wet, but I hope he goes into the rotation. He's a tick better as a prospect than Zimmermann and even though he doesn't have seven AAA starts under his belt like Zimmermann, if he's going to stay in the bigs he should be used as a starter as that's his future role. Even if they want to bring Kremer back, and I'm not they do since he struggled with his command in the alternate game he started, they can move Lopez back to the pen where he has a better chance to compete well.

Palmer has been a bit out of it all year. He doesn't seem to be too into this team (hard to blame him) and just a little out of sorts so far.

I rewatched the play on my DVR. He jogged about halfway until he saw the ball bounce back to the catcher and then got up to his slow 6% percentile "speed".

Right, and then he jogs half the way.

I swear Orioles can't slide into bases without getting hurt. They are such poor fundamental sliders.

Terrible job by Hays on that ball.. He misjudged it.

Well when you have a talent like LeBlanc on the team, why not use him?

I've actually heard the same thing about Ortiz this spring and no, my source is not Matt Blood. lol But, like Frobby said, I'm just ready to see these guys in action.

There are no rosters out currently so not sure what rosters you are talking about. Either way, you also have to remember the Aberdeen is now the old High-A Frederick, so I would expect McLarty to be battling for a job in Delmarva this year.

Well that's fairly depressing. Hopefully with Elias building from within and their serious expansion into the Latin American market the Orioles will turn it around soon.

His EV has been better than last year and XWOBACON is better than last year too, so he's been pretty unlucky overall. Like I said, I believe in the bat and he'll come around, but if he's still struggling he might need a mental break if it's still happening by early May when the AAA starts up.

At -0.8 rWAR he's been one of the worse players in MLB so far. There are slow starts to season then there is totally crapping the bed through the first 18 games. Obviously this is disappointing to everyone and I'm not going to let an early skid take away from my belief in his bat, but if he doesn't get it going by the start of the AAA season, he may need to be sent down for a bit to figure it out.

Moutcastle can throw effectively when he can use his long arm action to throw, but anything that requires him to make a quicker throw will be well below average. He has the athleticism and foot speed to be a decent outfielder but he doesn't look like he comfortably tracks balls. Even when he makes catches it looks awkward at times. He's probably going to end up being Mancini's replacement at 1B but he has more value if he can just be an average LFer.

Well he was before he was put on the taxi squad. Which BTW, is just a stupid overreaction by MLB.

It is hard to give up on him playing left field effectively, and maybe his early mistakes were just that, early mistakes, but basically he's been awful outside of 1 star catches.

Agreed, which is why I said I expect it to come around.

Well, they aren't playing everyday in the alternate camp, but he is getting simulated at bats to go with his work in games.

18 games into the season I thought it was a good idea to look at some early returns on the Orioles defense this year. Note Outs Above Average is a culminative stats so the more a player plays the better chance they have adding or being negative with OAA. The two surprises for me is how well Ruiz has done at 2B with no experience basically, and how poorly Hays has done so far, albeit in limited play. I expect Hays to even out as the year goes on if he stays healthy. Franco and Mountcastle have been unmitigated disasters at their positions with Mountcastle already moved to DH or 1B before Santander injury. The catchers are just as poor as we thought framing wise. They are two worse catchers for strike percentage (in those edge zones) so far if you go with 150 pitches caught or more. Above average fielders Player POS Runs Prevented OAA Success added Santander RF 1 1 4% Mullins CF 1 1 3% Mancini 1B 1 1 3% Ruiz 2B 0 1 1% Average Fielders Urius 2B 0 0 0% Galvis SS 0 0 0% Below average Fielders Stewart OF -1 -1 -6% Hays OF -1 -1 -8% Mountcastle OF -2 -2 -18% (Worse success added in MLB) Franco 3B -3 -4 -7% (2nd worse in MLB at 3B for OAA, tied for worse in success added) Catcher Framing Runs extra strikes Strike percentage Severino -1 (Tied for worse in league) 40.8% (Worse in MLB for catchers who have caught 150 or more pitches) Sisco 0 41.7% (2nd worse in MLB for catchers who have caught 150 or more pitches)

I do think Elias has his sights set solely on the future, but he will bring up guys when he thinks it's best for their development and readiness to contribute to a winning team in the future. I do believe we will see Diaz this year in Baltimore but it won't be until he can get everyday PAs.

I don' think it's about service time with Diaz but it more about whether he can get every day PAs. Hays will now go to RF, Stewart to LF and Mullins in CF everyday. McKenna is better as a 4th/5th outfielder anyways so it works out. Mountcastle can DH and play some LF when Stewart needs to sit for a tough lefty. Now if/when Hays goes down, then Diaz is coming up to play RF everyday.