Tony-OH

Indifferent really. Garcia has a nice arm, but wasn't a prospect for me.

I am not surprised that the Orioles did not lose anyone in the Rule 5 major league portion of the draft.

This is exactly why I was snickering when I saw several media folks say that Sedlock was a lock to be protected. Everyone can have an opinion, but Mountcastle was a lock, Sedlock should have never have been considered a lock. Either they got bad information or they don't evaluate/analyze well.

Gotcha!

Let's be careful about trolling here, ok?

Great job as always. Now I gotta get my read on tonight...

The one difference between Means and Kremer is that Means has a plus-plus pitch that hitters can't hit even when they know it's coming. Kremer's best pitch is his curveball, but I'm not sure it's in the same category as Means' change. I have some concern that major league hitters will be able to differentiate the breaking ball from the fastball and lay off his curve, particularly when he throws the slow one. His curveball reminded me of Dylan's Bundy's curve in the minors. It worked well there but it never was the same pitch at the major league level. Kremer has some talent, but he really needs that slider and change to come around and be consistent pitches for him if he's to stay a starter. If not, I could see him moving to relief, getting a few ticks on the fastball and be a piece out of the pen.

Let's not forget, Richie Martin did slash .296/.333/.408/.741 over his last 107 PAs last year. Grant it, it was mostly against left-handers, but he did make some nice adjustments.

It certainly would be a different way to use the Rule 5 draft. With the 26th man now, maybe that's the way they'll go.

If the Orioles took Javier, basically they would just be stashing him for a year and maybe use him as a utility guy on occasion. Considering the way he hit last year, he might struggle to hit .150 at the major league level right now.

Haha, me too. I'm looking forward to his list and then will look through them and come up with my favorite three!

Yes, I meant this past season, not off season.

Not as long as he's on the 40-man.

Agreed, and good point about the Rule 5 draft kind of guy. This is a Rule 5 kind of guy that we can keep in the minors, so why not? Rather have a guy like this then an Eshelman-type guy.

Sounds like a nice arm, who they just converted into a reliever this offseason. Command and control seem like major issues, but sounds like the kind of arm you take a flier on. Obviously walks are his biggest issue as his BA and SGL against were pretty good: .225/.343/.387/.731. With 40-man space available, why not?

They'll let us know after the pitchers first throwing session in spring training.

Eh, it is what it is. It's not like we were exchanging Christmas cards or anything.

If he was still speaking to me I'd probably get a text telling me to delete this and ban you! But Frobby caused him to go ballistic last off season and he stopped talking to me and unfriended me on everything after I told him I don't suppress thoughts good or bad about anyone. As long as you don't name call you are good here, but he didn't like that response. Just to set the record straight, I still sleep soundly at night.

I'm not sold on Sisco as a long term starter either, but next year he should get a healthy amount of playing time in order to make a final decision on whether he should stay at catcher or whether he has enough bat to play elsewhere.

Nor do I think Elias will let that happen. I agree that next year the catching duo should be Sisco/Severino barring any injuries.

Caleb is like having an extra coach around so I'd have zero issues with signing him to a minor league contract then bringing him in to spring training. Worse case is he's a decent veteran catcher to have with the prospects coming up in AAA. I'd say there is little to no reason to sign him to a major league contract.

The bigger question is, does he want to? by trading away Villar and Bundy, it's clear wins and losses are not a concern for 2020. I think we will see more guys like Wojo sign here and or acquired through waiver claims. I don't think he will rush any prospects or sign anyone unless it's a Nate Karns' type deal under a million where he thinks he may be able to flip that at the trade deadline if they pitch well.

The interesting thing will be to see if he's correct over the next 3-5 years. I find it all fascinating.

Well clearly Elias agree with you. Villar's value could go up with need by a contender and if he continues to play like he did last year. Villar is in his walk year so he has every reason to be in the best shape of his career and at 29-years old and with his skill set, it's doubtful he is going to have a huge regression.

Potentially. I don't really know, but would be much happier with the Villar trade if we knew the money was needed for some kind of investment in the future.