Tony-OH

Dude, I have tickets in. I'm as damn frustrated as you, even moreso. Trust me. they are supposed to be working on it.

Well there's a little fire from Hyde. Maybe that will motivate them.

Westburg's range to his left has really gone backwards this year. It's part of the reason why Mayo is still in AAA.

I'd like to say that run mattered, but we all know it didn't with this offense right now. Funny how the Yankees take pitches and walk and get on base while the Orioles continue to flail away trying hit homers.

Just a team in a bad streak. What a sad way to go into the All-Star break. Maybe this will motivate Elias to do something, but really these guys need some time off.

Basically hit that to the deepest part of the park. Anywhere else and it's 4-1. Then again it feels like 100-1 with the way this team is hitting.

BA has always weighed where a player was drafted heavily into their rankings. I'm not saying a necessarily disagree with the write up, because honestly, it's still probably his profile, but I don't know of 29 guys in the system ahead of him a a prospect.

He's much heavier than that now and he looks like he's grown a couple of inches.

Good to see him back to pitching well since the concussion.

Saw that and wasn't sure. Bares watching to see if he's in the lineup tonight.

Agreed on all points. It will be interesting to see what they do in this draft.

I'll be honest, I'd be ok with trading Hays and bringing up Norby in his place as the right-handed corner outfielder who can fill in at 2B occasionally.

One of my concerns is that the Orioles teach their pitchers so many pitches. When you look at some of these guys when they reach AAA and we get statcast data on them, some like Povich and McDermott throw everything but the kitchen sink. then we wonder why they are not consistent. I'd personally rather see them focus on no more than 4 pitches so they can learn to master and command them. then when they get to the big leagues, let them tinker once they've had some success. And for some of these guys, give them the two best pitches, develop them as relievers, and get them up the chain quickly. It seems like the Orioles are intent on developing almost all of their pitchers as starters when you can tell by several factors that their most likely role will be as a reliever. Training a pitcher to be a reliever is a skill. they have to see if the recover fast enough, can pitch on back to back days or in the Orioles case, sometimes 3 or 4 out of 7 games. Fruit doesn't need 5 pitches. If he's going to be a starter he needs three good pitches. If he's going to be a reliever, he needs two pitches, three maybe.

Great post BTW. I'd like to comment on your 3rd point where Elias likes to trade for pitching prospects already in minor league systems. Yes, and he and his pro scouts have done a good job targeting Bradish, Povich, Cano and McDermott and maybe even Seth Johnson still. The problem is the Orioles have done that by trading away at the deadline or back when they were selling off useful major league pieces. They've yet to complete a position player prospect for pitching prospects. So in that regard, I'm not sure how many more trades to get those kinds guys can he make now? Maybe he will surprise us and trade away a Hays or a Mountcastle along with maybe Stowers, Norby kinds of guys to get that pitching, but that remains to be seen.

The development program is absolutely leap years ahead of where it was. No one should or can argue that with any merit. Saying that, until we start to see pitching develop and make an impact at the major league level for the team, it will remain a disappointment. What we do know is that they have not been able to develop the lower drafted pitchers into anything yet despite the "pitch shapes and spin rates" that they treasure. Last year they spent a 2nd, 4th and 5th pick on pitching and the best guy they look like they drafted is Forret (14th). It's early on these guys of course, but usually guys that are going to be special tend to do special things early on or at least flash that promise. I'm interested in seeing the route they go in this draft.

I agree that they have done a great job in the 1st round and early 2nd round drafting college hitters. After that though, there decision to draft college hitters mostly has been a pretty big bust and you can look around the major leagues and look at major league pitchers drafted since 2019 from the 3rd round on. They've literally only hit on Joey Ortiz (4th round, 2019). Meanwhile, the Orioles spent millions of dollars and draft capital on 2019: Zach Watson (3rd) 2020: Hudson Haskin (2nd) and Anthony Servideo (3rd) 2021: Reed Trimble (2nd), John Rhodes (3rd, overslot), Donta Williams (4th) 2022: Beavers (1st, 33rd overall), Fabian (2nd), Wagner (2nd), McClean (who they didn't sign and turned into Josenberger in 2023), Silas Ardoin (4th). Just a side note, I was shocked at Ardoin and thought he was a underslot to save up money for someone later but nope, they actually thought he was a 4th round pick even though he couldn't hit water falling out of a boat) 2023: Mac Horvath (2nd) ten rounds before Baumeister. Not the book is not written on Trimble who's been hurt and all of the guys from 22 and 23 drafts, but none have exactly stood out as guys. Now I don't have time to find all of the pitchers they could have drafted who are helping major league teams right now had they not been so myopic on drafting college bats. So far, the only college bat drafted after early 2nd round that has done anything for this 2024 team is Joey Ortiz who got us Corbin Burnes for a year. So we have to pump the breaks that the Orioles draft philosophy has worked after the 1st or early 2nd rounds. They've obviously hit on Gunnar, Rutschman, and Westburg who are all helping this team right now. They have Mayo (HS), Holliday (HS), Stowers (2nd rd), and Norby (2nd rd) ready to help in various ways. But I think it's valid to question the Orioles drafting philosophy after the 1st round and definitely there ability to evaluate/scout, draft and develop pitching. Again, Elias has done a great job putting this team together and keeping it doing well (let's just forget the Cubs series) through a ton of pitching injuries. But the fact that pitching is so volatile might be the reason why its better to have MORE arms available then less because the idea that he's just going to trade his extra bats for pitching has really not worked out except for one year of Burnes. Now this team has pitching issues and backlog of hitting prospects. Now we'll see if he uses them to acquire what he needs at the trading deadline and also, can they evaluate the right guys to get. After seeing Flaherty and Fuji as this trade deadline deals last year, I have some questions there too. But that's another thread.

I think we also have to look at the 2nd round where they've spent a lot of money the last few years on guys like Fabian, Beavers, Wagner and Horvath instead of going after a pitcher with upside. Even in last year's "pitcher heavy" draft they took Josenberger who doesn't have a ton of upside and the very next pick the Mets took Kade Morris. Now Morris may never make it either, but watching him sit 93-94 and touch up to 97 with a nice slider that garners whiffs makes me rather have him in the system. Even the guys they took last yeah have had "meh" results. Jackson Baumeister's walk rate has been bad and has been much worse in the pros then in college, so where's the development? Kiefer Lord (3rd round)? Does he even exist? He pitched 2 innings in the FCL last year never to be heard from again. Levi Wells (4th) and his 7.20 ERA and 5.7 BB/9 excite anybody? I think everyone knows me knows that I try to be fair, but I evaluate on what I see, read and what the stats tell us. Now the book is not written on any of these guys, but I'd be lying if I said I was overly impressed with any of the top picks. In fact, the only guy I am impressed with Michael Forret (14th rd) who really has a nice three pitch mix. Whoever scouted him did a great job of finding him in junior college and getting him to sign. With the stuff he's showing this year, had he gone on to a 4-year college, he would have been a pretty high draft pick this year so unfortunately, he cost himself some money, but fortunately, he's gotten his pro career started more quickly and could end up in the majors quicker so hopefully it all works out for him. I'd like to see the Orioles go more with upside arms and maybe, just maybe, take guys with good numbers in college and stop thinking they are smarter than what the stats tell them. I'll be honest, I think the SIGBOT system is overly reliant on "what they looks for" and don't consider there may be a reason why these guys have less than stellar results against college hitters and that's usually consistency. A pitcher can throw the greatest shaped curveball or spin the best fastball on occasion to wow the metrics guys, but if he's unable to do it consistently and offsets that with "cookies" that's why they struggle to put up good stats. I guess the Orioles think they have some system that can help them with consistency, but I don't see the results. Even Povich and McDermott, two guys with good stuff, are still inconsistent.

Not trying to pick on you, but what does the major league team's ERAs have to do with pitching development? How many Orioles pitchers were drafted and developed by the Orioles on their current staff? Zero. No one is holding anything against Fruit, just pointing out facts. Just like the fact that despite all his development, he's having a hard time getting High-A right-handed hitters out consistently. Now, maybe he'll continue to develop and maybe he'll end up guy, as Orioles fans, we sure hope so, but I think if you are going to tout a guy to show off your development system, maybe not pointing out a 24-year old in High-A ball who's stats or stuff really don't scream out, "Wow!" I've watched Fruit pitch a few times and came away not very impressed. Now guys do improve and I'd never call anyone who can touch high-90s a non prospect when they're 24-years old, but I think there's still a long road ahead. Again, I'm not rooting against the guy at all.

Since Elias has not spent much early draft capita on pitching until last year, I do want to hold off on being too upset at the development side. I would not be upset if the Orioles did go in a different direction with their pitching development folks, but I also think this comes down to how they scout pitching too.

That's a good take on him. Pretty much on par from what I've seen lately. He got stronger coming into this year and showed more pull side power than in his pro debut last year where he looked like he was just trying to keep his head above water. He's becoming more interesting as utility guyish/4th outfielder type, but even though he's a switch hitter, he hasn't shown the ability to hit left-handers yet so that could limit his usefulness to a team like the Orioles that will most likely be left-handed hitting heavy in the outfield.

Thanks. BTW, I'm not really picking on Fruit who does have some pitches to work from and considering his awful college stats is a nice development just to get to this point. I'm certainly not rooting against nor do I no one develops, it just the who "Orioles are masters at drafting and development" really holds no weight when it comes to pitching so far. Are they learning from past mistakes and finding better pitchers? Are they now going invest early draft capital more often, maybe even their first pick since it's late 1t round on pitching? Could they decided to take on more risk/reward High School arms early in teh draft? Perhaps. I know that Elias and Sig are smart guys. I think Holt is a good development guys given the right guys (Bradish, Kremer and even Grayson come to mind), but this organization is in need of pitching on a really good major league team and there's not a lot to bring up because they have not been good and drafting and/or developing their minor league pitching. I'm hopeful like with anyone else, they've learned from their mistakes and will take a more balanced approached in the draft because as I've also shown, they've haven't exactly hit too often after the 1st round with college hitters since 2020 (Can't really judge Norby).

I'm going to go grab a beer and sit out on my deck and watch the boats go by. My blood pressure is too high watching this embarrassment.

Nah, not when we can run out Mateo at 2B. And Besiedes, how do you take away that outstanding defense Westburg has been giving at 3B? Like when he let that ball eat him up that put men on 2nd and 3rd?

And yes, I know about the 403 errors. I hope they have fixed this.

Game over Man. Cubs are the daddy of the Orioles. Every Orioles player should have to call them Mr. the rest of this game.