Tony-OH

I won't argue that one bit. Just reporting what I was told.

I was told yesterday that Hunter Harvey is considered healthy at this point and has passed all tests and is pain free. He will begin the same throwing program as all Orioles pitchers, starting in December and is expected to be a full go this spring.

Mountcastle is not able to play an effective major league thirdbase. He doesn't have the arm. I mean you can put him out there like the Blue Jays did with the catcher, but major leaguers will take advantage of that all day long. What I can't figure out with Nunez is whether he's Craig Worthington or Leo Gomez without the walks. Barring an injury, he should get the bulk of playing time next year at 3B for the Orioles. I'm fine with that as this gives the Orioles a chance to see if he's a nugget or not. My infield next year would be: 1B: Mancini 2B: Wilkerson SS: Villar 3B: Nunez UTL: Valera

I feel bad for the kid. All that talent and his body can;t hold up. As a father of a young man who's body gave up on him before he could perform at the highest level, I understand what he must be going through. At least he got that big bonus.

Flaherty at one point had value to a winning team because he could super sub just about anywhere and play passable defense and occasionally hit a homer or go on a small hit streak. Unfortunately for him, he got too expensive for his value and his game slipped from its marginal skills in the first place. Luckily for us O's fans, we get to still watch Flaherty. He's just called Jace Peterson now.

Wilkerson is better at 2B than 3B. I could see them manning 3B and 2B next year (Villar moved to SS) since they will be cheap options.

Nunez is definitely better and has a 3B. His defense has been improving and although he doesn't look like a plus defender, he also doesn't look like a liability over there.

Fry's stuff is much better than Hart and he certainly has a much better fastball. Hart sits 87-89 while Fry sits 91-93. Hart was effective when he was commanding his good left-on left slider but he lost that consistent command of the pitch and that's when his ability get batters out consistently left as well. Fry may not be a stud out there (he was last night until he almost gave up the game winning home run), but his slider has improved enough for him to have some success.

You have been and props to you. I saw him a couple of times when he was first acquired and was less than impressed, but his slider has really improved from what I saw and his fastball command has improved while gaining a tick or two. I think he's got a real chance of being a piece out in the pen.

I really feel bad for the young man. He just can't seem to catch a break.

Gotta do some research on these guys, but it appears they got only one top-10 prospect for Machado and a whole lot of C+ guys. I don't want to be too down before researching these guys but man, I was hoping for Mays and Lux along with Diaz.

Well I've seen Orioles pitchers before get the go ahead to start throwing again and after they still aren't fixed, the inevitable happens. Perhaps Harvey will be different, but I won't be convinced until i see him throwing mid-90s again with a hammer curve in game action.

Haha, no idea. I will say this though, I don't like to blame coaching, but who has McDowell actually made better? Same thing with the hitters. Didn't we all wish we could have jobs where there is no accountability?

Good, aggressive organizations don't wait until February/March to sign free agents unless it's a strange circumstance. This was a slow market this year, but the fact that Cobb was still there in late March suggests either his price tag was way out of whack, or that the aggressive teams that needed a starter had concerns for some reason or the other. The thing is, his velocity has been as good or better than ever in his career so it doesn't seem to be an injury. He's been absolutely awful at getting left-handers out who are tagging him at a .390/.416/.667/1.083 clip although righties are doing ok against him as well .319/.358/.536/.894. It seems like none of his pitches have been very good this year but his split seems to be the pitch he can not get going. His curveball has been hit much harder than in his career as well. I honestly don't know what's wrong with him, but I don't think he's hurt.

He was acquired in a trade for Scott Klingenback.

Kevin Brown was only a one year contract and did decent but not amazing. Jimmy Key gave us one great season, got married in the offseason, and was never the same again. We historically have had bad luck with free agent starters. Maybe that's why we are drafting pitchers like they are going out of style in the drafts the last few years.

You know what can cause shoulder instability? A torn labrum. Let's hope it's not because that the death nail for a pitching prospect.

I'm trying to think. Have the Orioles ever signed a MLB starting pitcher as a free agent to a significant contract and he ended up performing well for them? Chen may be the best free agent starter they ever signed.

What's worse? That the Orioles signed Chris Tillman this year? Or that the Orioles signed Chris Tillman part two to the highest contract ever given to a pitcher by them? There are no excuses left. Alex Cobb has just sucked this year. He's been worse than Ubaldo Jimenez.

Thanks. Luke should be putting out his thoughts on the draft soon.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish this was Chris Davis getting caught again. It does however make you think this might have been part of the reason the Orioles showed no interest in resigning him.

Hey doc, good to see you. We have closed down all options but through ccbill on here now. We haven't scrubbed out old members lately so you may still be good, but if you are interested, the directions are at the beginning of this post. Hope all is well. Tony

Thanks for finding that. I haven't read that in years. I still stand by my way forward. Unfortunately it appears Mr. Angelos didn't agree. Haha

Think about it, he's basically at Mar 20th readiness level. Any other starters ready to pitch in the major leagues on Mar 20th? It was silly for Buck to let Cobb decide on his minor league starts or not. A good leader says i understand, but we want you to go down and pitch a few games to make sure. Maybe Buck was trying to create another Buck guy.

Analytics are used. now you can argue whether the right people are providing those analytics.