Tony-OH

Ruiz could be optioned, but most likely would be DFA'd at the end of spring training since he doesn't have the versatility to be a utility player and the team may need a roster spot. I could see him passing through waivers and ending up as depth in AAA, especially with Bannon bombing hard this spring.

Well he pitched on Kremer's day and Kremer is currently set up to be the #2 starter. The Orioles may prefer to go L-R-L so I could see the rotation ending up 1. Means 2. Kremer 3. Zimmermann 4. Harvey/Hernandez/Lopez 5. Akin Akin has been a traditional slow starter in spring training but he needs to step up or could end up in the pen as a long guy if two of the three right-handers pitch well.

Teams gotta love seeing the Orioles on their spring training schedule. Nothing like gaining some pitchers confidence after facing the Orioles hitters this spring. Honestly, all of the young players minus Rutschman and McKenna have looked really bad. Really disappointing to see them unable to compete. We may want to take a step back before we start claiming the Orioles hitting instruction has really made strides because I see a lot of upper cut swinging without a lot to show for it.

Westburg and Henderson have looked totally over matched this spring. Was hoping to see some good ABs from them but they've got talent but a long way to go.

When you score one run, you don't have a lot of room for error. This team has hit horribly this spring outside of a few guys and this was certainly not the major league squad sent to Lakeland.

Hard to imagine Zimmermann not in the rotation this year.

This could be the end of Lakins. He doesn't provide length and his stuff is just below average overall. I'd much rather have Greene in the pen or keep Wells.

i agree and I'm not worried, but I think in college he was able to watch pitches because few had stuff he couldn't hit with two strikes. In the majors though, guys can throw to your weaknesses with multiple pitches so it's not a good idea to always get behind. One he jumps on a few early pitches, they'll start being more careful. For now it appears they come right at him early on because he's taking the first few pitches.

.070 OPS better is not insignificant. At the end of the day, Franco could potentially be trade bait if he has a good year. Ruiz is who he is and has no trade value. Neither are part of the future so if one guy has the potential to bring back a piece and is not expensive, you go that route.

I will say this about Rutschman, he may need to be a little more aggressive early in counts. He has a pitchers struggling to throw strikes enough that the pitching coach comes out and he lets him throw two fastballs for strikes to put himself in a 0-2 hole. not good. Then he fouls off a meat fastball on 2-2 before getting rung up the ladder. While he does have good at bats, the amount of strikeouts this spring does suggest he's got some work to do on his approach at the major league level. Seems like every time I watch him he's behind in the count or fouling off good pitches to hit. The talent is clearly there, but some one needs to work on him to get more aggressive early in counts especially when those early pitches may be the best pitches he gets all at bat.

Yeah, he just looks like belongs.

The way this team has hit this spring minus a few players, someone could pull Chris Tillman out of retirement and he could get them out.

Well sorry to hear that, but from a listeners experience, it's unlistenable.

Good Lord, no one should ever complain about the Orioles announcers after listening to the Tigers' awful monotone, droning color analyst? Is this Gibson? Whoever this is may be the worse announcer I've heard in some time. Saying that, I may tape his voice and use it when I can't get to sleep.

The plan was to do both in one article but I got lengthy by going through the bullpen in a little more detail than I expected.

http://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/03/14/mid-march-orioles-spring-training-review-good-news/

No, and it's a little concerning.

Yes, I was never a Phillips guy. He just will never have the command to be consistent enough to be a good major league pitcher. He'll always show flashes, but in the end, there's a reason his results have been sub par at the major league level. I'd like to see the Orioles give Harvey's spot to Wells and see how he looks over the first month of the season. If good, then they can make another move when Harvey is ready to return.

Moose, you have dug yourself so far of a hole with nonsense that it just might be time to just take a deep breath, and realize some of your statements do border on the ridiculous in this argument. I'm fairly certain you would even argue with yourself in this thread. lol You have every right to not like Rutschman because he's a catcher (hating on catchers is one of the most insane things I've seen on here, but then again, we live in a crazy world right now), but to suggest a sure fire #1 overall selection out of college has the same risk factor as an 18-year old 5-foot-10 Dominican who has never even played an inning in the DSL takes the cake for exaggerated statements to support an argument. Saying A-ball stats mean nothing is also borderline crazy. Do AA stats mean more, certainly, but to suggest players can't be evaluated before AA is just not true. Obvious all success before the majors are just indications of what they will do in the majors and not 100% sure fire results. But the fact is we have seen Rutschman play against major leaguers in SSS and not look out of place. We have reports that he was the best hitter in Bowie last year against pitchers who have pitchers in the majors or did pitch in the majors. We have a lot of information that makes Rutschman's risk factor much, much lower, which is why he's the #2 prospect in all of baseball by every major prospect ranking outlet. It's 100 percent fine to have the opinion that it's a "no-brainer" to trade Rutschman for Dominguez, but realize you are in the very small minority that think that way and I doubt any GM or scout would say the same thing.

Well I'll lose sleep tonight knowing you don't like my argument. lol

I feel bad for the young man. He just has been very injury prone. Unfortunate for the Orioles and him, but it does open up a spot for someone else for opening day. This could allow Wells to stick around for opening day.

Why did he not command the entire Yankees cap then? If he really was worth $8.1 million, then I think he would have commanded all of the someone's cap and maybe over. Basically you are saying that you think Dominguez would have been the first overall selection on the draft in 2019. He was given the amount of bonus that put him around #8 overall. That seems to be right for an high risk, high upside 18-year old 5-foot-10 outfielder with above average, but not top of the scale tool grades. I do think the Bonus pool money teams can spend probably does hurt the players' value a bit now. It's probably why they should be made available in the normal amateur draft and get away from all this BS underhand deals with buscones stuff. At the very least, maybe they should have a similar draft. But that's for another discussion. As for Andujar, I do think that he is someone the Orioles should target if they could find a way to pry him away from the Yankees.

Good point on both. I agree that it's doubtful the Yankees would want Severino, but I do see Sisco as a guy they might want to try because of the upside of his bat in that park. Whether they are willing to live with his well below average defense is the real question.

i don't think anyone is in baseball outside of the Yankees or Dodgers thinks that way though. Money is always part of any deal whether it's contracts involved or bonuses already given out. Basically to trade Rutschman for him, he would need to convince ownership that Dominguez was worth $8.1 million. I'm not sure anyone thinks that about Dominguez or he would have gotten even more money.

Well you are certainly allowed any opinion you like buddy, but I think there would be very little major league baseball evaluators that would agree with this statement. Let's also remember that Rutschman signed a $8.1 million dollar bonus so they would be losing $3 million in value (Dominguez signed for $5.1 million) with this trade. Basically this would be like trading Rutschman and $3 million for Dominguez. Would you do that?