Tony-OH

I wouldn't put anything out of the question at this point. How can you trust an organization to do the right thing when they do something like this?

As I wrote more in the other thread, this move is absolutely embarrassing. As an organization, everyone involved in the decision should be ashamed of themselves. To release one of your best players because of potential arbitration award that is maybe a 3 million difference when you already are carrying a ridiculously low payroll is a slap in every paying customer's face. I'm not going to defend this move at all. Unless there is something we dont know about, this move is indefensible by any competitive standard.

This is an awful descion by the Orioles. They already have a low payroll and now they are DFAing one their best players because his Arbitration number? This is a middle finger to their fans. We all understand this is a rebuild, but you dont just release players who are good. This is an awful competitive and fan move. It's actually quite embarrassing to do this as well as you just made yourself the laughing stock of baseball. This is a major warning sign that Elias is not being given the money to put out even a respectable product. If they had traded him I would have gotten the move, but to just DFA him after the year he had is embarrassing. Its embarrasing to baseball and slap on the face to their fans, even the ones who understand they are in a rebuild. I have been completely onboarding with what Elias has been doing with this rebuild until this move. I'm now embarrassed as a fan and can give no reasonable excuse for this move as a person who has covered this team for 24 years.

It's not just the Hangout. I read a lot of other sites and the non fan boys and Turgeonites also see a team that has not played very well against sub par competition. Now it could be they are just trying to gel, or it could be they are just limited by an unimaginative offense, a lack of responsibility for dumb mistakes, and a head coach that is typically outcoached by his opponent. I'm hoping it's the former and that they will be over overcome the rest with their depth and talent, which is clearly there.

I didn't see the GM game, but the team did not look like a top 25 team against Fairfield. I saw the same concerns that have of every Turgeon team and that's a disorganized offense, turnovers, and bunch of guys who under performed to their abilities. This team is pretty deep with talent and perhaps they will put it together and be the special team they should be, but they will have to overcome Turgeon to do so. The last time the Terps had a top ten team this early they under performed early against their gimme games, and that's what this team has done so far besides the GM game, which by most indications was their best game of the year. I'm hopeful this will be a special year but before this GM game, they certainly have not played like a top 5 team in the country.

I'm starting a much needed vacation today and won't be around much but wanted to say a few things. First, let me thanks everyone for their thoughts, words of gratitude, and ideas. Just wanted to clear up a few things. I had full season credentials to Camden Yards last year so the PR department has not denied me anything until the strange incident in Sarasota last year. They have always been supportive up until then so it was more of a surprise and disappointment. As for the message board, I can say right now that I ave decided after reading all these comments that I will not shut down the board no matter what, so let me alleviate any concerns there. Thanks again and sorry for any concern I caused.

Law might want to go look up Hays defensive stat cast information. To say he has "no chance" at being a decent everyday means he didn't do his due diligence in looking at his burst speed, route and jumps as well as his sprint speed. If he did, he either he doesn't believe in those metrics or his personal metric for a "decent defensive CF" is pretty high.

I'd say it's probably someone drafted last year or a DSL player that made it to the states next year and put up a big year as the best generic candidates. Hernaiz, Stauffer, and Stowers have that ceiling that suggest they could make a big jump with a great year. Outside of the top 30? Zebron comes to mind, but Luke and I will be putting out additional list with some comments of guys that just missed the list or have some upside, but were too inexperienced/raw to be put on the list yet.

The fact that Luke is the only person I've ever allowed to really affect the rankings and allowed him to have his take on every profile speaks to how highly I think of him. I enjoy the back and forth with him and he's been a great add to the site and hopefully for many years to come!

Thanks, but one of the reason I never moved to one of those networks is that I didn't want to charge people that kind of money. Trust me, I feel bad enough about plus memberships and prefer to have ads make this place completely free. There is a just a lot behind the scenes that goes on with ad networks bugging me with e-mails, our ad networks adding in crap ads that cause people problems (and then I get hammered for them), upgrades and patches on the message board constantly, and then add in we have a ton of new people in the organization and I'm not sure I have the time and energy to renew my contacts and sources. Mike Elias has been great with allowing me access to him (More access I've had with a GM since Flanagan/Duquette) but last year was a struggle to get information out of the minor leagues with some people ignoring my texts and others telling me to go to the PR department for easy information. Last year, I spent my own money to spend an extra day to go down to Sarastoa to see the GCL players about a week before their games started and was told to go through the PR department who then told me I could have "fan access" to the players. After doing this for 24 years and having full season credentials to Camden Yards since 2002, that was a slap in the face and told me what the new PR folks think of me and the site. Some times you have to read the tea leaves to understand when your run is up. Typically when I would get ignored I'd work doubly hard to develop a relationship elsewhere, but honestly, I just don't have that drive anymore when it comes to this. I'm at a point in my real career where I have a lot of responsibility and influence over very senior people in the government (The part not effected by poisonous politics) yet the PR team is treating me like a fan? Maybe it's a bit of ego or maybe it's because I feel like I've earned more respect than that, but that has left a major bad taste in my mouth. I guess I feel my time, like many people in this organization over the years, may be up. I really don't know. I'm just trying to be as open and honest with you all since I respect each and every one of you. Weams has always made things as easy as possible for me and Luke has been breath of fresh air for me and the site, and has taken a lot of burden that I felt to keep you all up to date and answer questions. Without them, and Shane from a technical side, this site doesn't continue. Honestly, the business and technical side is more of the pain then anything else. I can do a ton of scouting at home on my laptop sitting in my recliner while watching the Orioles game, but I feel like I'm not doing my due diligence if I don't get out more and talk with more folks like in the past. I just need to work through all of these things and also realize I usually get more excited come spring time. Thanks again for the notes of support.

Thank you all for the comments and words of support. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and will take them all into consideration. The Hangout has never been about making the most money we could make as it's never been my primary source of income. I realize i started this off by talking about ad blockers and the lack of revenue, but I don't want people to get the wrong impression and act like this is a financial decision. There are lot of factors going into this decision and trust me, knowing how much this place means to so many certainly is a plus one for keeping it alive. Thank you again and I will try to have a final decision by the new year.

2019 has seen a steep drop in our revenue for the site, particularly our ad revenue and membership requests. While I realize ad blockers can make some experiences better on the internet, we strive to not add intrusive advertising like pop up ads or videos that cover our content. Unfortunately we are seeing a rise in people using this site that use pop up blockers which in turn means you are using this site for free. Unfortunately it's not free to bring you this site since we have to spend money on servers, licenses and trying to give folks like Michael, Luke and Shane some money for their time and effort. So what does this mean? I've been producing this site since 1996 and that makes us the longest running site to cover a professional team. It's been a great run. At some point though you have to determine whether the juice is worth the squeeze. The internet has changed immeasurably since I started up this site and the amount of information available for free has made a lot of what we've provided over the year redundant. About the only thing we provide at the point is this message board, where you can talk about the Orioles and other things in an adult manner that's different from the wild wild west of social media, and the scouting reports that Luke and I provide. While many sites have popped up and some have gone away, I have to ask myself do I have the energy and desire to keep up? I've personally covered the Orioles for the last 24 seasons (minus one year in Afghanistan where I had to do it from afar through boxscores) and I've enjoyed the vast amount of the experience, but as I'm coming up on my 50th birthday next year, it's time for me to seriously re-evaluate the future of the Hangout. While I still love scouting and evaluating prospects, along with talking about them on the radio, I have to seriously consider whether I have a 25th season in me. This is not a fund drive effort nor have I made a final decision one way or the other, but I wanted to keep those of you that have been part of the Hangout for so long in the loop. It's hard to believe that I started this site when I was 26 years old and now have two children older than that. As John Coffey once said, "I'm tired boss!" I always thought I would be able to parlay my experiences into professional baseball when the time was right, but by the time was right, baseball has changed and old guys like me aren't valued or wanted. Sure, I've been an associate scout for a couple of AL teams and had an offer once to join a National League team, but now they have young guys with a lot more time and energy ready to step in and do these kinds of positions and they rather surround themselves with their buddies. No one cares about some retired military guy no matter how many hours I've spent doing what they do or how much I've kept up on analytics and new technologies. As we finish up our Top 30 prospects for 2019 and start looking at 2020, I want to make sure I'm able and have the desire to do this for another year. Maybe I'll take some time off or maybe I can find someone willing to take over the reigns and continue, but I also have to consider whether it makes sense to shut down completely and allow the Hangout to fade into history. Whatever I decides over the next few months, I'll still be around and putting in my two cents. I'm sure Luke and weams will be here as well. Regardless of how this ends up, I do want to thank you all for all of the support over the years. Whether the Hangout in this form is done after this year or sticks around for many more, I'll always be eternally grateful for what this site brought to me because of all of you!

This is just one game, but my expectations for this Turgeon-led team has dropped. I'll be surprised if this team is in the top 25 by January. Jalen Smith an All-American? He can't create his own shot and can't even dominate an awful low Div-I team full of little and skinny guys. Turnovers? Sure, Terps still love turning the ball over like it's skillset. You want poor defense? You got it. You want poor shot selection with Turgeon just standing there with his hands on his hips? Check that one off too. They have an 8 point lead in the 2nd half against Fairfield. This is ridiculous. Turgeon wonders why no one comes out to these games? Because you can't coach, your teams are always undisciplined and they never have an offensive identity.

Wow, this team is in BIIIIIGGGGGG trouble if they play this way against good teams. So disappointing. I wanted to be impressed by the team but they really look like hot garbage overall. They play like a pick up team. No flow to the offense, just athleticism plays because they are much bigger and more talented. No wonder a Turgeon led team can not beat good teams with good coaching like Izzo and Michigan state. Terps lead by 6 but this first half is U.G.L.Y.

Watching the first 5 minutes so far this is such a classic Turgeon team. Lots of talent, no offensive identity, dumb shot selection with no ramifications, sloppy with the ball and just general malaise early in the game. Terps will pull away from this team, but I see a lot of things that make me remember to temper my excitement because this is a Turgeon coached team.

Watson could end up better than Stowers, but we liked the tools a bit better overall with Stowers overall. Both have a lot of work to do on their swings but I won't argue too much of one over the other because I got a preliminary look at both. We'll see what adjustments they make this offseason and next spring and have a better feeling next year.

It's not just about ultimate upside. Basically if you make the assessment a player will not be able to stick with another team, you don't include them under protection because why burn an option this spring if you didn't have too? You also don't want too many "early add" guys because at some point you may need roster space and it's easier to get Wilkerson through the waivers system then McKenna, when all a team has to do is put them on the 40-man vs the 25-man all season.

Yes, because of impact closer ceiling.

Way too early for that. I'd give him more of an incomplete. I like him more than our #30 I can tell you that!

He just missed on mine as well. 4th outfielder comp without a lot of pro stats to back it up one way or the other. Long swing without the power of Stowers but similar swing problems.

Haha. Typically Luke is higher on guys than me, but this is one of the cases where we reversed opinions. I think there's some real upside there and in the start I saw live and a couple that I saw on video, I thought his fastball command was decent. I really think if he goes to the pen, adds about 20 pounds to his frame, that we could have a power fastball-slider pen guy.

Yeah, it makes sense and yes, we'll have to get ourselves down there if this happens.

Etch was one of the managers in the Orioles system when I started to go to games and really started to scout guys in the system. He was an intimidating guy to deal with as "press", no doubt, but the more I got to know him and him me, he started to open up on how he felt about players to me. I'll always remember the time when he was managing at Bowie and he had a catcher named Jayson Werth (You might know him, haha). Werth used to piss Etch off all the time because he wouldn't listen to coaching. He would tell me that Werth had to stop hitting off his front foot because he would never tap into his natural power, but that Werth refused to listen. He also told me flat out that Werth would never being a major league catcher (this is back before anyone had reported or suggested he needed to move). Werth of course was traded by Syd Thrift for minor league league run of the mill lefty John Bale (one of the dumbest trades Thrift ever made and that's saying something) after that season with Etch. Sure enough though, as Etch knew, Werth wasn't a catcher (he was converted by the Blue Jays to outfield) and someone finally convinced him to stop hitting off that front foot and he ended up a good power hitter in the major leagues for a long time. I always appreciated the time Etch took with me back when I was starting out. He was a good man, and hell of a player and baseball man.

Yes, yes he is and I can't seem to shake him of it, but appreciate his persistence! I believe he had three guys I did not have on my list at all and we ended up including two if I recall. Honestly when we get into the late 20s area, arguments can be made for the guys that just missed.

So do I, so you can understand that I don't think that's his ceiling. This is one of those situations where Luke and I disagree on a the ceiling though we both agree on the most likely. While I suppose if everything worked out perfectly for McKenna that he has the tools to be an everyday guy, I don't think he shown anywhere near the production or consistency outside of his time in Frederick to really think that will happen. McKenna does flash you the tools in games that keeps you interested in him, and I'll admit when he hit a right-center home run that went about 420 feet this year it was intriguing, but I just see his struggles against spin and I'm not sure he'll be able to overcome them, particularly if he keeps trying to lift the ball. This was one of these situations where Luke would probably have McKenna a little higher than here, but I had him lower so we kinda met in the middle. Luke did the profile so he gets to put his ceiling in, but that's why we added the "other take". If I take off my scouting cap and put on my fan cap, I hope Luke's right. If I'm going to be wrong on a guy, I hope I'm wrong because I undervalued them.