Tony-OH

Outside of Ruiz 5th, which is a real headscratcher even for a L-R lineup guy like myself, the lineup actually isn't that bad in my opinion. If Hays was batting 5th, I'd like the 1-5. Elias's failure to to find adequate catching and second base are really the only holes offensively and defensively. Severino is a steaky as a hitter and still could be ok for a bit and Ruiz has looked good early on before reality checks in and he becomes his normal below average self. Galvis and Franco could be ok offensively.

Trust me, it's not that I think Valaika or Urias is so good they should be the full-time 2B, but the Orioles knew they needed a second baseman all winter and spring. Once Franco was signed, there is no doubt Ruiz should have started to play 2B more often if this was a possibility. Ruiz has two innings of major league experience at 2B, never played the position in the minors, and then gets two starts at the end of spring training and now he's the starting 2B? Seems like a poor plan if you ask me. This is the first time I have to question the leaderships foresight. This is almost like when Buck put Steve Pearce at 2B out of nowhere. Guess that whole defense up the middle thing can be put to bed now. Elias/Hyde just put a guy with almost zero experience at 2B on opening day. If this doesn't tell you that even Elias realizes his team is not going to be very good then I don't know what will tell you. It's just very rare to see a major league team do something like this, especially as quickl as this has come together. It's pretty clear Elias gets an "F" for finding a 2B this offseason since he released Sanchez and has to put a slow third baseman there to start the year.

Wow, Ruiz at 2B. I can't for the life of me understand why Ruiz was not given more opportunities at 2B during the spring if this was an option. I like L-R balance but not a fan of batting Ruiz before Hays, especially when you just have two RHB back to back anyways with Hays and Franco. Much rather have Hays behind Mountcastle though I would have put Mancini there and Hays at #2. I'm sure Ruiz must've of been doing some work at 2B behind the scenes, but could me as surprised that the Orioles had all spring to try Ruiz there and then decide at the very end to make him at least the left-handed part of a platoon at 2B. I'm not sure Ruiz has the quickness to cover a ton of ground but I guess with the positioning nowadays that's not as important.

https://www.mlb.com/news/how-teams-will-manage-innings-in-2021 We all know the Orioles are going to have to catch serious lightning in the bottle from guys like Matt Harvey, the Rule 5 picks while hoping for the development of rookies Bruce Zimmermann and Dean Kremer at the major league level for them to be decent. Obviously this article is only one projected way for teams to get through the season, but it does show how untested most of the Orioles pitching staff is this year. The Orioles are relying on veterans like Matt Harvey, Jorge Lopez, Wade LeBlanc, and Adam Plutko as well as a couple of pitchers who have never pitched above AA to get through the approximate 1,458 innings this year. Now it would be of no surprise if the Orioles set a record for pitchers this season, in fact, it's almost a sure thing. Afterall, if they are going to try and manage the starters innings this season, they are going to need a lot of starters and long relievers to do that job. Now, the orange color glasses folks might want to pitch out that Harvey through the ball well this spring and looks to have regained some velocity and spin and the statcast numbers looked pretty good for Wells and Sceroler. John Means looked good at the end of last season and Zimmermann and Kremer should at least be decent as rookies. Akin, Baumann, Lowther and potentially Wells could only be a phone call away and all could the last three could all make their major league debuts this year though it's expected their innings will be monitored very closely as well. I don't want to be a bummer on opening day, but the Orioles will need a "Why Not?" type of perfect storm to not be pretty bad this year pitching wise. The good news is the top and middle of the lineup looks very solid and the lineup potentially has a good chance of being good top to bottom. So if you like offense, this might just be the year for you.

Amazing how his command got better when he stopped facing high level hitting and then faced low-level hitters, liked the kind he dominated in Delmarva. We can hope it comes around but his Bowie season this year will tell us a whole lot more than some reports from instructs.

I don't see it as the end of the world either. Dumb, but if he was an upgrade, I'd take him on the team.

Was he convicted? Either way, I did a little research on him as a player and I'm not sure he helps out. He seems like a slow bat, low EV guy who struggles to hit fastballs. Defensively he's not great at throwing out runners but seems to be an average framer which is better than Severino or Sisco. His actual production up until last season small sample size has always outperformed his expected production. Now he could be the Hanser Alberto of catchers, but at first look, I'm not sure he's an upgrade over Severibo and/or Sisco which is not a high bar to cross.

Mountcastle is the obvious answer for me. Hays if he can stay healthy, and I'm really interested to see how Kremer and Zimmermann pitch in the rotation.

Those guys are interchangeable and optionable and will be up and down all year as extra bullpen pieces.

Ah, makes sense because I was starting to think Sulser has incriminating photos of Hyde or Elias.

https://thedynastyguru.com/2021/01/15/second-base-prospect-spotlight-jordan-westburg/

I don't think some you appreciate the disfunction within the warehouse with competing visions and factions vying for Angelos' ear and influence. While Dan was certainly not a visionary for bringing in cutting edge technology and using analytics, when he was allowed to do what he did best he had the Orioles as a true World Series contender in 2014 for the first time since what, 1997? The whole Toronto fiasco was the beginning of the end as Duquette lost influence and then tried to make up for it by making stupid trades in hail mary attempts to make the playoffs and perhaps catch lightning in a bottle and win a World Series. The other, and probably the more important thing, is this organization was not built on a solid ground of cutting edge developmental tools and their international efforts were laughably behind most franchises. When you don't have the finances to compete for top free agents, and then choose to basically cut off any meaningful efforts in a significant talent pool such as Latin America, and you are not built for long term success in today's baseball. What the Orioles actually did pretty good was draft decently under Rajisch who drafted Means, Scott, Mancini, Hays, Mullins, Stewart, Sisco and some of the current top prospects in G. Rodriguez, Mountcastle, Hall, Baumann, Lowther and Akin. While it's debatable when the "powers that be" should have recognized the team needed to be rebuilt, it's even doubtful who those powers that be really were and if anyone was going to be able to convince Peter Angelos with his fading health to completely rebuild. That decision was made when Peter Angelos was no longer able to make those decisions and that's when his sons decided to build from the ground up by hiring Elias. Elias has done everything right to build a solid foundation for this organization to compete in MLB. The question that won't be answered today, tomorrow or even by the next two years is whether Elias can take that foundation and build a successful major league team on the field. That will be the next and most important step in his job of rebuilding this organization.

Some think the White Sox are the team to beta in that Division. If we could say the same thing about the Orioles, I might have been more interested in Rutschman getting a real look at making the team, particularly since the Orioles catching situation is one of their weaknesses right now. Alas, the Orioles have a better chance of losing 100 games than competing so it makes no sense to start Rutschman in Baltimore when he hasn't shown he's ready yet.

This may be the best analogy for what it going to go on this year that I've seen. Well done! But not the steak!

Thanks for doing a little research. I thought that OppQual was off particularly in a year where so few young prospects played in spring training because of the later start date for them and COVID rules.

I wouldn't bother Frobby my man. CoC has some kind of hardon for players going directly to the majors without passing go or Elias is just holding them back for financial reasons. lol It's goofy, but he's entitled to his goofy opinion.

Biggest take away I had from him this spring is the no walks. The walks were some of his biggest problems throughout his career.

He didn't say that. He said "They're (pitchers) throwing it by him right now!" I don't know what he meant by it or what he was using to come to that conclusion, but I felt his plan at the plate was lacking in several ABs that I saw this spring and he's always and I mean literally, almost always hitting with two strikes. i don't think it's a bat speed issue, but his need to develop a better plan of attack against professional pitching. I'm sure it was easy to take pitches until you got to two strikes against college guys because they didn't have the put away stuff that he's going to see in pro ball, particularly as he gets to the upper level. I'm not a fan of his extreme upper cut swing either. I know the game has changed but he has a pronounced upper cut swing that leaves him little room for timing errors and will lead to him fouling off a lot of hittable pitches and striking out.

Update with latest news. Still awaiting final cuts.

You had some time on your hand this day, didn't you? Nice recap.

Maybe. I just don' think it's like Rutschman just completed a year in AAA and is starting AAA again because of finances. He hasn't played a whole season of minor league ball. He still has issues with his offensive game. Let him get that experience in the minors and then come up. Being better than Severino or Sisco is not a high bar.

The evaluation is in on Sisco. He'll always be sub par defensive catcher who will actually lose games because of defense at times. He's going to be low AVG player who sells out for occasional pop and who has an unique skill of attracting baseballs to his body to help out his OBP. Severino should be backup, but he has shown stretches of being a competent hitters, and although he makes some bone headed defensive plays, is not a good framer, and will make his share of throwing errors, he actually will do some things behind the plate to help a team. You could cut either tomorrow and I wouldn't bat an eyelash. Neither will help the the team in the future through their play or trading value. They are mere place holders.

Ok, let's take finances out of this. Rutschman has 46 PAs above Short Season A-ball. He struck out 11 times in 30 PAs this spring and put up a .711 OPS. Is he probably better than Severino right now? Maybe, but it makes little sense to start him off in the majors without some sustained success in the minor leagues. Watching Rutschman a bit this spring did not show me a guy that was ready to be successful at the major league level, He needs work on his approach and swing path. Could certain players be pushed and challenged a little more quicker, sure, but I don't think it's because of financial reasons Elias has promoted like he has. I do think we will see some players skip levels because of the missed year last year and there could be some aggressive promotions this year, but there' a lot of unknown. Keeping Mountcastle down as long as he did last year was the only time I've been a little frustrated. But if it gains the Orioles an extra year of control it makes sense when he knew the Orioles weren't playing for anything last year anyways.

Who do you think is being held back this year due to financial reasons?

There are people they do not agree with tanking to help a rebuild and I get that. As we're going through it, it's certainly not fun from a fan standpoint. But, at the end of the day, unless you are willing to spend your way through the down years, you have to tank for a bit in order to have a better chance of getting a lottery ticket draft choice vs the more crap shoot of the later 1st round picks. All the while the organization has to draft and develop very well, while also spending all of their cap in the international market. It's pretty expensive and in a world were there is no salary cap and the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers can spend unlimited amounts of money, it doesn't make a ton of sense. As several have already stated, we've been through the mediocre years and knowing every year you need to catch lightning in a bottle to compete is not fun. I'd rather the organization be built for sustained success and by using the latest technology and analytics to help stay on the cutting edge. Not all of it will work, and there will be missteps and failure, but i at least feel like the organization is going in the right direction. and being built on a solid foundation now.