Tony-OH

Awful, awful pitch calling and then execution buy Grod. Dude couldn't hit water of he fell put of a boat.

Wait, how tall are you on a bad day?

From BA: "Menard is an undersized lefthander with a 5-foot-11, 175-pound frame who spent two seasons with Louisiana-Lafayette before pitching for Louisiana-Monroe as a starter and reliever in 2023-2024. This spring he posted a 4.60 ERA over 47 innings, mostly out of the bullpen, with a 26.8% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. He throws a 90-94 mph fastball that touches 95 with above-average riding life and backs it with a slider around 80 mph that features solid horizontal movement and a slower curveball in the mid-70s with more depth. Menard also has a mid-80s changeup that he throws more often to righties."

He does have a great name for sure. I hope he does get a AAA promotion soon so I can see his stat cast info.

Certainly an intriguing guy due to his size and stats he's putting up of late. In he last four appearances, here's what he's done.

Every time I see a great performance by Van loon I go watch the game and can't figure out why he's suddenly K'ing guys. I just don't see it.

EBJ is do fine even though he's not tearing it up like we had hoped. His groundball rate of 50.5% is still too high, but it is an improvement over last year and his 109 wRC+ is fine. His walk rate has gone down as pitchers are challenging him already because he hasn't shown the ability to hurt them, but his ISO has gone up to .100 so there's a little glimmer. He's slashing .338/.405/.400/.805 over his last 30 days so we may see that promotion to AA soon. Etzel obviously has been the guy performing the best and there's a lot to like. He still gives me 4th outfielder vibes because I'm not sure he's going to tap into a enough power to be an everyday guy, but even if he becomes that kind of guy he's a heck of a 10th round pick. Josenberger has grown on me a bit the more I watch him. He's got a more pop than Bradfield, controls the strike zone and has played a decent 2B. I haven't seen him enough in CF to judge his defense there but the Orioles play him a lot more at 2B. His arm is below average though and that could be an issue for him going to his right and turning DPs. Vasquez has the tools to play SS in the majors, but needs more consistency. He'll make some nice plays but boot some easy ones. His hitting has been very streaky but he bares watching as a utility guy. Cunningham just looks like a miss and Urman couldn't hit water if it fell out of a boat, but he's a decent receiver. I can see why the Orioles took a lot of catching because outside of Basallo, I don't see a catching prospect above rookie ball unless you can live with Ardoin's zero bat for his defense.

Forret is the guy with the best stuff out of this group from what I've seen this year. I've been disappointed by Baumeister's lack of velocity and command, but it's still early. German has some reliever vibes for me, but a nice arm for sure. Nothing has jumped out at me by the rest of them.

Oh, 100% they will go to Sarasota. They just may not be placed with Delmarva for now.

Solid points.

Of course they will and of course he will reject it. The only way they don't is for some reason they have already extended him, but that's not happening either.

You very well may be right, but it's going to be interesting to follow both.

Updated with O'Ferrall and Anderson signings. Apparently being in Virginia made it easier to sign these guys! lol

Makes me wonder though, if Overn has similar traits as Bradfield and was acquired in the 3rd round in what most consider a down draft, why was Bradfield taken at #17? It will be interesting to follow which one of them does better overall.

The issue is accept for last year a little bit, he hasn't changed his drafting philosophy at all. Even when he does go for college pitchers in the 1st five rounds, they tend to be guys with stuff (velocity, pitch shapes, spin) that they like over results and they do it by going after college pitchers. Of course it's way too early to fully evaluate anyone drafted in 23 , but other than Forret, who was a 14th rounder and may be an absolute steal, not a ton of guys to get excited about a little more than half way through their first year. Until Elias can move the positional prospects for controllable impact pitching (which he has not done yet), It remains to be seen whether their drafting philosophy of avoiding pitchers is the right way of not. We've seen a lot of 2nd, 3rd and 4th round pitchers make it the majors over some really questionable college bats the Orioles took. Even this year, I didn't really see the Forret kind of guy. Seems Elias double downed on his pre-2023 draft philosophy.

I know you are not trying to say anything wrong, but I clearly stated evaluated, DRAFTED, and developed. I've given the organization credit for acquiring and in some cases, especially Bradish, developing talent acquired in trade, but this is about the amateur drafting and development. I really still don't know if it's the evaluating/scouting process that has struggled, the fact that they rarely spend high draft picks on pitchers, or their development despite the technology is not great. Either way, until guys start to show up at the major league level and have an impact from this process, I'll have my concerns. Elias just completed his 6th draft. At some point they need to find some impact pitching because besides the one year of Burnes, they have not been able to trade for pitching, particular young, controllable impact pitching with their offensive prospects.

I 100% think his arm has been bothering him all season. Watching him lob throws to first on plays he had a lot of time, lobs that were almost comically Little League like, tells me he was babying his arm. Saying that, he didn't have a very strong arm last year either though he does throw well enough and accurately enough on the run to make plays across the middle as a shortstop and to his right as a second baseman. Holliday is an extremely hard worker and will maximize his abilities and undoubtedly continue to improve at all aspects of his game. Hopefully when the lineups are posted for tonight's Norfolk game he'll be at 2B.

Yeah, I imagine all of the college bats signed will start at Delmarva vice getting their feet wet in the FCL this year. It will be interesting to see if they sign a couple of the high school bats and what they do with them developmentally. I'd imagine they would not start them at Delmarva this year but next year it will be interesting to see if they play them in the FCL or straight to Delmarva. I'd imagine it depends on how they look next spring, but the Orioles have aggressively pushed their young 18-19 year old International players at times to Delmarva with varying results.

I think any injury where the guys throwing has been off all year and now he's DHing still is a bit of a concern. It feels like they are nursing something with him. It will be interesting now that the all-star break is over (They need to stop taking the minor league all-star break at the same time as the major leagues) to see if he's back on the field at 2B. Hopefully he will be.

Good information @Frobby. I do want to clarify that I don't necessarily think the Orioles do not know how to scout, draft, and develop pitchers, just that I'm not going to think they have some special way to do so because the results are just not there. You can look at the power rankings and see that I like several pitchers enough to put them in the top 40, but I just wish I'd have a guy to get excited about. Maybe that will be Forret? Maybe it will be somebody else. I'd just like to see the pitching version of a Mayo which would require them to go after more upside high school arms, something they've been very reluctant to do. Either way, Allsup certainly fits there mold of a guy with good stuff, but inconsistent stuff that they hope they can unlock more consistency with. I'm looking forward to seeing him pitch next year.

I don't think he'll be an average defender at 2B. Is he playable? Maybe. But he'll need to really hit well to make up for his sub par defense. Maybe he can still improve, I don't know, but he's just so inconsistent over there and his range to his right is not good at all. I like him better in the corner outfield positions.

I completely agree Roy. My only hope is that the uniforms this year were so hideous, so terrible, such an abomination that owners will finally force MLB to let their players where their uniforms again. As a kid, the best part about watching the All-Star players was watching the Orioles wearing their glorious uniform on the national stage. Plus it was always cool to see an Orioles turning a double play with a Yankee or Red Sox only because they wanted to beat the "hated" National league. I'm not sure I've watched an entire All-Star game in a long time and I didn't watch an inning of the last one because once I saw those disgusting uniforms, I had no intention of watching an entire game in them.

It's an oversimplification by a few on here so don't fall for that. Some people around here love to generalize "the board" as one way when they are allowing a few to manipulate that opinion in their heads. I see it all the time and usually by the same people who seem to believe they are so much smarter than the "dumb board" members. Go read any orioles Facebook or "X" and then come back in here. It's like night and day. They are typically the same people who scream that all Republicans or Democrats believe (add in your extreme view) because they saw some far right or left person's view highlighted in a meme.

I think you are generalizing way too much here. Sure, there are people who think players are who they are, but for the most part, people understand that players develop at different stages and under different circumstances. Sure, there are the "what have you done for me lately" crowd, but in their defense a little bit, the Orioles are no longer about developing at the major league level. You have to produce at the major league level to be on a championship caliber team. Now, does that mean that a player in a slump must immediately be banished, of course not, but you also can't have the "there's nothing more for them to learn in the minors" attitude any more because it's about wins and losses now. In Cowser's case, his defense, including the fact that he plays CF is keeping him in the majors as well as the fact that this team is still on 100+ win pace. For Holliday, he doesn't have that yet because he's DHing and has elbow issues. Sometime I think if you say that you'd be ok with trading a player that it means you don't like the player. When you start going after extreme talents like Skubal, you have to be willing to give up extreme talents. I don't want to trade any of the Big-3, Cowser or Kjerstad. BUT, I realize that if the team is going to get a talent like Skubal, guys like that are going to have to be included.

Well, if he's not traded, I hope you're right.