Tony-OH

But that's a managerial and roster management decision that every team faces. The rule has nothing to do with imbalances but because baseball somehow thinks this will shave two minutes off a game which is not going to help get young fans. Maybe stop starting your playoff and World Series games at 8PM during the week? Regardless, this is completely goofy.

Managing your bullpen full of assets is definitely strategy. Do you use your lefty now who hold on to him? Has he pitched three straight days? On the other side, do you pinch hit for your starter because of the matchup now or do you let him face a bad matchup and use your pinch hitter in a higher leverage situation later. I just think it's goofy to start telling mangers how long they have to pitch someone.

So you are fine with dictating that a pitcher must face three batters even if he's gone over his prescribed pitch limit for that game? It's an absurd rule that will not help speed up the game.

I get that, but I'm not sure Akin is a guy you worry about team control of, but either way, I would be pleasantly surprised because it probably meant Akin looked great in the spring.

That's what makes this rule absurd. What is going to stop pitchers/teams from faking "injuries" if they have a better matchup for a key part of the game? This sounds crazy, but what if you have a guy who is rested enough only to throw about 20 pitches and uses them up in two batters? Are they going risk injury by forcing the pitcher to stay out there?

Or the high end $10 million/yr plus setup relievers.

If he's healthy, and all indications are that he should be by next spring, he'll be in the rotation. He's as close to writing down in ink as any pitcher minus the injury risk.

Buehrle is certainly Wells' ceiling comp, but he'll need a major improvement to his changeup to get there. I'd love to have Wells try and throw Means' changeup. Saying that, Wells is probably the most enjoyable pitcher to watch pitch because of how fast he works and his ability to throw strikes. He's not afraid of contact and so far has found a way to limit it.

I agree that the tools scale leads to subjectivity when it comes to pitches, especially when we are giving one grade for each pitch and not breaking them down into velocity, movement and command. Saying that, you really didn't know we do our own scouting? I don't even read scouting reports from other sites. I do my own, then talk with other scouts and current/former player development people in the industry, then discuss with Luke (who does his own scouting).

He has a fairly mature body so you typically don't see a ton more velocity from these guys. Saying that, with all the technology that helps maximize guy's deliveries now and Rom's willingness to learn, I would not be a surprised if he ends up throwing a little harder.

That's a good question. In my mind Rom's offspeed pitches are further along than Wells were at the same time. Wells was mostly a fastball, curveball guy and Rom's change is better than Wells. Rom could very well be better than Wells as they are similar prospects, but Wells gets the slight nod because he's already had success at AA.

Those four are pretty solid for starting 2020 in the rotation in my opinion. Brooks and Akin are probably the current leading choices to battle for the 5th spot, though a 6-year guy or more likely a waiver claim could be in the mix as well. I expect Elias to sign a healthy amount of good six-year minor league free agent pitchers because of the opportunity that exists on the pitching staff in 2020 and beyond.

I don't repeat direct conversations that I've had with people, and when it's something that could be considered disparaging, I typically tend to generalize the situation. I would hope you would know that I don't judge a guy by what he looks like and just assume he's not in good condition. These are still young and maturing young men, and the light goes on for them at different times. There are also other things you can look for. I really don't care of Akin can run a marathon, but I do care if he's getting tired out there around the 5th inning and starts to labor. So even without inside information, there can be concerns over his conditioning.

I wouldn't be shocked, but I guess I'd be pleasantly surprised. He has better stuff overall than John Means, but doesn't have that plus and sometimes plus plus pitch that Means lived off of last year that can get swings and misses when he needs them. If I had to guess though now, he starts 2020 in AAA.

Not really. He might be one of the best five starters and he might be better next spring. There were starts last year that he would have graded out as a 50, but he just wasn't consistent enough. I'd like to see him be more consistent before going into the major league rotation, but who knows what he will look like next spring?

Lol. Do you think we don't have additional information and just use our sub conscious bias to put out concerns like that? New around here? Honestly, this takes a shot at my credibility and I honestly don't like it. If you wanna disagree with our take, feel free, but don't try and disparage our information by saying we are using some kind of subconscious bias. That's disrespectful and I think we've earned the right not to have people take shots like that on this site.

Who will be the #15 and #16 prospects?

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2019/11/12/orioles-14-prospect-drew-rom-lhp/

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2019/11/12/orioles-13-prospect-alex-wells-lhp/

Wow, that's a pretty aggressive shot across our bow. The ratings are up to date but you can decide if you think they are accurate. They are as accurate as hundreds of hours of scouting will make them.

I don't necessary disagree. They are all similar but in that their ceilings are 3rd probably 4th starters. I do think Bauman and Akin have the best chance to go to the bullpen and be good pieces out there due to their velocity and one plus pitch,

This is the difference between Luke and I. I think Luke is a little high on is scouting grades for pitches in this particular case. If Akin was throwing three average pitches, two above average he would be pitching effectively at the big league level vs putting up a nearly 5 ERA in AAA. While Akin will show you average or even above average pitches, I take consistently of that pitch into consideration. Akin and Kremer are pretty close as prospects but I probably would have taken Akin over Kremer. Luke and I probably should have switched here because I think he's higher on Kremer and I'm higher on Akin. Not everyone is going to agree and that's why this year we added "Another Take" so you can see the differences when there are some.

Here's my theory on this. When you are a starter, you get four days knowing you are not going to pitch so you eat and drink what you want. If you know you could pitch on just about any night, a player might not relax as much and take care of himself a bit more.

The reason he's still as high as he is was because of the numbers he still put up. I saw him multiple times and honestly the more I watched him the less I liked the stuff. I also talked with scouts and other baseball people and they were down as well, conforming my concerns. the curveball can flash plus at times, but the velocity was too slow and it got real soft at times. I watched his AAA starts and although hes till got some swings and misses on the curveball, I saw more taken for balls and I saw his fastball get barrelled up. Those are not good signs. I saw a few video's of Kremer's "new slider" and was less impressed. I still think he has some tools to work with so he can still improve, but that fastball that got so much swing and miss in the zone last year wasn't this year, and I'm not sure why.

Lol, I'm not going to play this game with you. I've said me piece, I've wrote my scouting report. You can disagree all you want. At the end of the day Mountcastle will prove one of us right. Feel free hate on him and disregard our scouting report. Free world.