Tony-OH

Let's just say that Mountcastle is no fan of the wind and sunny skies of Florida.

Lopez just can't stop him self from pitching in the middle of the plate,

Nice job by Stewart to drop the head on that curveball. It was certainly a no-doubter with the wind blowing out.

Mattson hitting 96 is nice to hear. That is much higher than I've heard of him pitching in the past.

The video of that homerun showed it was absolutely crushed.

Nice job by the fans and the Pirates as well. https://www.mlb.com/gameday/pirates-vs-orioles/2021/02/28/642138#,game_tab=videos,game_state=final,game=642138

I can understand if a scout doesn't like the guys selected, but Elias' strategy was to get three potential chances instead of one, particularly when there was no "no-brainer" at #2. if there was a Manny Machado-type sitting there I don't think the draft goes down like that, particularly if we were talking about a full draft where the team could have made a few college senior signs at #6-#10 and perhaps would have been able to afford at least one of Baumler or Mayo. Kjerstad is quite the enigma here for several reasons, but the worse may be that the organization hasn't even seen him play since signing him. I've heard a rumor that I won't spread about Kjerstad that it's more than the heart condition that has kept him sidelined. No idea if it's true or not and it's was probably 3rd or 4th hand information so it's nowhere near something I would repeat. But either way, he's a guy the organization really can't afford to miss on. Time will tell whether Elias was right or wrong in this draft, so I can't get on Law for his opinion because it's his opinion. BTW, I liked Asa Lacy the best at #2, but I obviously don't have all the information that Elias has.

Hall's raw stuff certainly gives him a #1 ceiling, but the likelihood of him developing the command to do that is not very good. Of course, they once said that about Randy Johnson. It's nice to hear what he was working on when it comes to command, but I still heard his control not even command, was not very good at the alternate camp. Now, that very well may have been him working on things versus really competing like he would have in live minor league games, but still something he'll need to prove at Bowie this year. I dropped him to #6 because I think he has a high reliever risk profile, but I definitely think his quality of stuff of four pitches gives him a chance if he can find a few pitches that he can command more times than not, including his fastball. If that happens he can stick as a starter. I've also heard that his personality and that "ultra aggressive" approach might also be a better fit in the pen, but we're years away from that being tried. Rightfully so. With his kind of stuff, you are going to try and try to see if he can remain a starter because as was pointed out, there's not a lot of lefties in the major leagues with his velocity and stuff.

Nice to see a young man take this kind of approach to making himself the best pitcher he can be. Obviously he becomes more interesting at 92-95 instead of 88-90, but have to caution a few things here. One, that's still a pretty effort delivery so we'd have to see how he can hold up over multiple innings. I'd like to know the spin rate and of course, can he command and does his fastball have much movement. Either way, this should be taken as a positive development and it will be interesting to watch him compete this year as a professional for the first time.

If my count back is right, John Means should start Tuesday, March 2nd in order to be ready to start opening day on Thursday April 1st.

The B-roll film showed them for about 20 yards or so before they bother appeared to pull up. Mountcastle appeared to be about half step behind at that point but he was keeping up pretty well considering Mullins has top of the scale spring speed.

But that's why the increase of spin rate is so important. When you talk stats from last year people can bring up SSS, but spin rates don't really change all that much from pitch to pitch. When the average jumps up up so much and then you combine that with the better stats, I think it means something more than just a good year alone stats wise over 20 innings pitched.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/02/25/tanner-scott-used-increased-spin-rates-to-dominate-last-year/

Nice find. A really well drafted article.

If Baumann is healthy, I think we see both of them by the second half of the season.

They wouldn't hurt. I remember when I heard about Pop's lack of velocity in 2019 spring training and then at Bowie despite the good numbers, the velo was down. Then of course, boom, pop went the elbow.

I agree with both points here, but I hope such "live" BP session is a step forward and it honestly sounds like he's about where he would be if he's totally healthy. The biggest indication where he's at will be once spring training games start. If he's not in official games or is not stretching out in intrasquad games then it's time to have some concern about this season. From what I heard about last year's alternate camp was that he was head and shoulders above everyone there, including the three pitchers (Akin, Kremer, and Zimmermann) that ended up getting starts. If he had not gotten hurt I'm pretty certain he would have made his major league debut, especially instead of Zimmermann who had really not had a full camp due to COVID-related issues.

Prospect pop up thermometer! lol That would be awesome though!

Is this the first "Looks good coming out of his hand" comment by Hyde? lol

Sceroler supposedly has the better overall stuff than Tyler Wells hence why he was selected with the fifth overall selection in the draft. Saying that, both are wild cards because they didn't pitch last year so who knows really?

I do believe the second half rotation has a chance to be really fun to watch. A Means, Kremer, Akin, Baumann and Lowther rotation might be fun to watch and see how they fare against big leaguers over an extended period of time. Wonder of the Orioles ever had four rookies in a the rotation at one time before? The 1989 rotation had three rookies, but that's probably the record.

They very well could. I think it's all going to depend on how they look and what the Orioles decide is their upside. I don't think they get kept unless the Orioles view them as viable starting pitchers in the future because neither have the big fastballs to fit into the high velocity, high leverage relievers in the modern bullpen.

Mattson is a reliever and I was discussing the rotation.

http://www.orioleshangout.com/2021/02/21/means-leads-a-starting-staff-with-lots-of-questions/