Tony-OH

Duquette bares most some of the responsibility from what I've heard as the player development folks wanted him off SS or 3B for awhile. I do think they were thinking first base though more than LF but with his overall decent athleticism, they should have thought LF first to get more value. But, its kinda like Ruiz. Why was he not sent to 2B after Franco was signed if they were thinking he was an option there? Ruiz has been ok at 2B, but his DP turns have been a bit slow because of his long arm action.

I think they go with a bullpen game. Akin pitches today at the alternate camp and Lowther pitched yesterday. Heard Sulser and Mattson are on the taxi squad and could be activated to help the bullpen game out.

It's more crazy that Mountcastle didn't spend his minor league seasons in LF for most of the last three years. He was never going to play on the left side of the infield. They would have had enough time to know whether or not Mountcastle could play LF effectively of not instead of watching him try at the major league level. The statcast numbers on his jumps, burst and feet/covered are awful, but he hasn't had a ton of chances overall. This year he's had more tough chances as it's highlighted his struggles unlike last year when he really didn't get a lot of tough chances.

Sure, but that's not what this conversation is about, it's about the current group on the 26-man roster. As I've said, Elias still has a major incomplete and part of that is because there was no minor league last year so we haven't seen any of his acquisitions even play in the minor leagues yet.

I will say this, I do have some concerns over this aspect. Maybe it's just today's players and I'm sure Hyde has a better grasp on them then I do, but he is certainly a player's manager and he's changed from being a good interview who would tell it straight to a guy who just throws out fluffy feel good quotes. I also heard a story that Davis was always messing around and screwing up the focus of drills in the spring before he got hurt and nobody would say anything to him. Now perhaps that's why his "back injury" occurred, I don't know, but it's clear Hyde is a player's manager and rarely do you see him pull a player or not start them the game after they were not putting out a full effort.

I will say this, the biggest disappointments so far have been Akin pitching his way off the team, Kremer trying to pitch his way off the team, Mountcastle and Santander's slow starts and injuries to the fragile twins, Harvey and Hays. On the bright side Mullins has played very well since going to a left-handed hitter only and Zimmermann has been competent. I actually thought the top of the order would be decent and they still may, but only Mullins has hit. The better news is this team will not continue to hit this poorly all season, but I do have to agree that this group is missing that superstar prospect to build around. Mountcastle has the potential to be that impact bat, but he'll need to be moved to first base at some point before he doesn't hurt you defensively, and even there he'll probably be below average.

https://twitter.com/FG_Prospects/status/1379879149096026116/photo/1

Of course the Orioles would take him back.

Please, for the love of God, don't bury new moves in other threads. “He’s just got some shoulder soreness,” Hyde said. “I think we’re encouraged by the test results and that we’re hoping it’s not going to be too long.” “He’s a young guy that was trying to manage it,” Hyde said. “He did come in after his outing and said it was a little tight.”

Please make these kinds of posts their own thread. Why biuy it in a thread titled was none of the players involved?

Literally Tettleton did what we hoped Davis would do and Davis cost us Harnish, Finley and Schilling. It was two trades that set the organization on it's road to irrelevance in MLB for most of the last 30 years.

This is actually a true statement. While Elias is doing a great job in investing in Latin America and technologies that should help get the most out of our minor league talent, we have no idea whether his trades are effective or not. Heck, we don't even know how well he drafts yet as his #1 overall pick hasn't exactly wowed people in his SSS of pro ball and no one even knows where his second overall pick is at the moment. One of his two lottery ticket high school kids last year is already undergoing TJ surgery and none of the minor league pitchers, who've had two years under Elias' technology and coaching have provided impact at the major league level yet (Both Akin and Kremer actually have seemed to have regressed). Now, it's too early to say how good or bad he is at any of this so far, but it's true that any evaluation of Elias should start with incomplete for effectiveness at the major league level. Really, other than his investment in Latin America where he's spent on two million dollar plus players already, he's an incomplete on everything.

Man, that was bad two days of trades in Orioles history.

Funny thing about Tettleton. If we want to give the Orioles credit for signing him after spring training in 1988 after the A's released him, then we have to get on the Orioles for trading him away to the Tigers for Jeff Robinson who pitched to a 77 ERA+ for the Orioles in his one and only season. Meanwhile Tettleton went on to slash .247/.385/.480/.864 with 168 homers over the next six season with the Tigers and Rangers. I think he was a product of average being a key component of evaluation back then. I also think he was smack down in the middle of steroid baseball. Tettleton in 1987: https://www.amazon.com/1987-Donruss-23-Mickey-Tettleton/dp/B07GBYCYQT Tettleton in 1991: https://www.ebay.com/itm/029-MICKEY-TETTLETON-C-TIGERS-TOPPS-GOLD-BASEBALL-CARD-1992-/371826783563

His command this spring and through his first two starts has been downright bad. He has the stuff to miss bats, but while he has struck out some guys, he's getting hit very, very hard. His 93.8 EV allowed is in the 1st percentile of all pitchers which means he's going barreled up often which is no way to go through life if your walk rate is going to be 16th percentile. He's not getting anyone to chase out of the zone (7th percentile) and his Whiff rate in a poor 16th percentile. So basically you have guy who can't get major league batters to chase or miss pitches much in the zone and when they do hit him they are hitting him very hard. I looked at the statcast number and tried to find something I liked, but I see a guy who's velocity is a bit down, his spin rate on his fastball has fallen, and he's getting behind hitters way too much. He's gotten behind 1-0 on 19 of the 32 batters he's faced (59.2%). Those batters have hit .467/.526/1.000/1.526 off him compared to the 12 batters he's gotten ahead of 0-1 who hit .100/.250/.100/.350 off him afterwards. It's just two games, but it appears getting behind has been a big issue. He's also been absolutely terrible after 25 pitches with batters hitting .429 with 4 BB and 3 Ks in 16 PAs after those first 25 pitches. Not sure if he's getting tired for some reason really quickly this year because this wasn't a problem last year or in the minors.

Watching Franco run and looking at his numbers, there is no doubt he''s a below average runner. Of course, I would say the exact same thing about Ruiz which is my main point here.

Anyone remember when the Orioles thought so little of Yermin Mercedes that they left him exposed to the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft? I remember wondering why he was left unprotected when at least he could hit a little, even if his defense at catcher was well below par. Only the lowest organizational level players should be left expose to rule 5 and for one to make it to the big leagues is a pretty big hit on the evaluators at the time (Most if not all are out of the org). Now I'm not even saying his DH only work would have place on this team with Mountcastle needing to DH most of the time right now anyways, but just interesting to see a guy do well when given an opportunity after another organization gave up on him. He's doing pretty well for the White Sox now at 28-years old. https://www.mlb.com/news/yermin-mercedes-485-foot-home-run-for-white-sox

i think both Hollander and Arnold have been pretty solid on the radio the few times I've heard them. Brown and Arnold can be a good listen as well.

Like I said in on Twitter and the game thread though, the best thing about using Ruiz as a pinch runner is that Hyde didn't use him as a pinch hitter for Urias again.

They already mentioned the myocarditis so there's nothing HIPPA related to them updating if that's the issue. Again, I'm not faulting the Orioles here because none of us know what's going on, but I just reject the people who think they know what's going on and it's perfectly normal for a high profile prospects to not show up when the GM said he would and then doesn't. It's not normal standard operating procedure for this situation to occur. Again people can feel free to take any stance they want to include just assuming they know what's going on and getting snippy with those that just believe it's all strange. There have been times over the years where players have disappeared due to suspension or off the field issues, and I can remember everyone being quiet about Chris Smith after he arrived and couldn't throw back in the day after being drafted (talk about a wasted pick), but this is a weird situation because the GM appears to have been caught off guard now twice (invited him to major league spring training and then his comments about him ready to get started and would report to the alternate camp). At this point though, we are all in the wait and see mode. Hopefully he'll show and ready to play soon.

Clearly, but there are a lot of variables including the speed of the runner that collected the single, where the ball was hit, the outfielder's speed to get to the ball, the outfielder's arm, the EV of the single just to name the things I can think of off the top of my head. It is defensible, but I still disagree with the decision since it was risky and Valdez was the better option to win the game in my opinion. Hyde was worried about having Valdez for an extended period for today's game instead of playing to win that game. He made comments that he was hoping to be able to save Valdez and didn't expect a two-run homer by Plutko by the low order hitter. Over his career, batters have slashed .370/.452/.630/1.081 the 2 PA against him as a reliever. Grant it it's only 31 PAs, but it just seemed like an unneeded risk. The batter that homered against him was the 2nd time he faced Plutko. Meanwhile, since reinventing himself with the dead fish, in the 14 games Valdez has pitched as an Oriole he's allowed more than one earned run in an appearance 1 time. (Sept 17th last year). Whether Valdez is your "pure" closer or not, I think he's the best option to win a ballgame with a two-run lead in the 9th. Considering the team really needed a win, pushing Plutko to get a 3 inning save while taking him out of his reliever comfort zone of facing a guy once wasn't the best decision in my mind. Defensible, sure, questionable, for sure as well.

Way too many variables for those numbers to have any meaning. I'll stick with actual foot speed. They are both slow so I honestly don't get changing them out unless Franco has some kind of injury we aren't aware of. It's not like he put McKenna out there. It's just surprising to see a guy with 7% percentile speed used as a pinch runner.

Ruiz has been terrible all year and you takeout a guy who hit a two-run homer in the game? if you want to use Ruiz, you replace the guy who has been overmatched all year coming up next. It was a bad decision regardless of the fact neither hitter was Tatis. I don't even understand your second point before? Why in the world do you pinch run a guy with slower spring speed when he's the winning run at second? Grant it they are both slow as molasses, but it just seems strange. Hyde has some kind of weird obsession with Ruiz. He's not a good major league player.

Ruiz was 25.2 ft per second last year, and he's 23.7 this year. Franco was 24.6 last year, 24.2 this year.

Sprint speeds compared to major league players.