Tony-OH

At the same age as Mountcastle last year (22), Mancini slashed .284/.326/.409/.735 between Low and High-A ball. So yes, I think Mountcastle has an excellent chance to hit as well or better than Mancini in the big leagues next year during his rookie season. I realize he has a few doubters on here because of his plate discipline, but I am not one of them.

I think there is little doubt he makes the OD roster. He has nothing left to prove at AAA beside getting better defensively and there is no reason he can't do that with the Orioles coaching, especially since winning is not priority yet. I have no idea what he's been doing this offseason besides what was reported.

Solid backup catcher option. At 32-years old, he's no threat to needing playing time, but he can effectively backup a starter if an injury occurs with Severino or Sisco. He's coming off his best offensive year last year but historically doesn't bring much value with the stick. Overall, he's probably a bit better than Wynns but having both if AAA increases the depth.

I've always thought he cheated on fastballs to offset his less than stellar bat speed.

Probably Angelos after reading BA's Prospect handbook.

Yeah, it was pretty clear that Sisco was trying to pull the ball more for power. That approach has hurt his average and caused him to strike out more. He was a much better all fields hitter, but I guess baseball is getting away from that approach and wants dingers, so dingers he will try for!

I think he'll be up shortly after they gain the extra year of controllability. Mountcastle will play most of 2020 in the majors unless an injury or some strange poor performance occurs.

Urena is a toolsy former top Blue Jays prospect who has largely failed to develop into the player they thought he would become. He'll compete for a utility job with the Orioles, but can play a legitimate defensive SS, so it gives him a bit of a leg up on some of the other competition, particularly if the Orioles decide to send Martin back to AAA to start 2020. Looking at the statcast numbers, it suggest he has a good arm and is much better going into the 3B-SS hole than Martin was, but he has struggled a bit gloveside and coming in on balls. Saying that, these are limited numbers to go off of but his previous scouting reports have discussed his strong arm. Offensively he has shown occasional pop in the minors, but little plate discipline and and not a lot of speed. Statcast shows well below average exit velocity and and his xBA is lower than his actual BA suggesting he's been lucky to put up a respectable BA at the major league level. A switch-hitter, he's actually hit righties a little bit better than lefties at the major league level but was significantly better hitting from the left-side against righties in AAA last year and typical better over his career. He could help spell Hanser Alberto against some tough righties and or give Iglesis a day off. As for Pat Valaika, I could see him making it through waivers and coming back and competing for a utility spot in the spring as well but Urena brings a little more upside offensively.

Yes, the Hangout will continue. I was talking about the opening left by Luke.

In the world of nutty ex-Yankee farmhands!! https://www.nj.com/yankees/2020/01/in-bizarre-lawsuit-yankees-failed-prospect-says-derek-jeter-ruined-his-career.html?fbclid=IwAR0iK0jhJdPsB6YmqcxLy_hH8UGWhq2dj0O3asYDINQKvahem9OPnOf4f-U

Haha, that's the limitations of using a wordpress type of CMS. We have the same problem on portrait-style pictures. sometimes it's all you have though.

Well there's obviously an opening!

I'm always happy to attend something like this if the day works. I'm going to be doing some travel in February and March for work but should be able to do Friday or Saturday nights.

In addition, while this will be a big loss on our site, I want to thank you for not only all your hard work, insights, and loyalty, but also for making me up my game once again. Having someone to bounce things off of was refreshing and stirred my scouting analysis juices once again. The only thing I'll take credit for is identifying good young talent. I'm not sure how long you posted here before it was obvious to me that I need your writing for us, but it couldn't have been long. I feel like a proud pappa that sees his boy go off and do great things. While I shared a few things with you personally when you told me, I wanted to make sure to publicly congratulate you and wish you all the best as you identify talent for this organization and help Mike make this organization the model for others to copy one day.

I'd love to say the logical move is to remove Davis from the roster, but the Orioles are not handling Davis logically. I would not be surprised to see Mancini moved, but if not, I think Mountcastle goes to left, Santander to RF, Mancini to 1B, and Davis to the bench.

First off, thanks for showing me the infield metrics are finally available! This is awesome.. Saying that, the -5 OAA for Richie Martin shows that the statcast metrics agrees with the traditional metrics on his defense last year. At first glance of the data, it appears his arm side (in the hole) was his weakness which is honestly a little surprising based off my eye test. This explains why they went out and got Iglesis for defense. Interesting stuff though. Now my evening will get wasted looking over this new data!

It'll be even more watchable to you as soon Mountcastle joins the team somewhere in mid-late April.

The pitch black dark days of Orioles shortstops!

This was really a good win for the team and this makes me feel a little better about them. While Ohio State helped by not shooting well, part of this was the Terps defense. either way, They played well overall on both sides of the court.

It's just really weird how bad this team plays for the first ten or so minutes of every game. They literally buried themselves in their two losses because of that.

Say what we want, and I've said it a ton, but as bad as this team plays early in game, it plays that well in most second halfs! Really nice game all around.

I'd like see Marial and Stix out there at same time letting Stix go to the 4.

Wesson dominated Stix on that play. He's gotta man up more in there.

Nice hustle by Cowan. He really is the heart of this team.

Sticks and that poor inside contested offensive game. If he could make 50% of them he'd be money!