Ruzious

I hope the weather holds up. I'm in Bethesda - where there's a nasty loud t-storm coming through now.

The other GM would say "Shirly you didn't call me Sport. We'll give you whatever you want for Mullins. Well, we would have if you hadn't call me Sport."

Meh. If you have 8 prospects doing well on a team, you're probably doing very well in development - assuming those players aren't old for their levels. That's 8 players out of a 25-30 player roster - so the team has plenty of room to be bad while the important players are doing well.

While it's nice to win in the minors, should that really be a priority? I'd be fine if all the minor league affiliates had losing records as long as the real prospects develop well.

If I'm in his shoes (with no bonus and a terrible salary), the one thing that would help my confidence the most is being promoted to AA. I don't want to be 23 in A ball - especially if I have to support a family.

This is probably a stupid/naive question, but if Bauman is able to stay healthy and put in a good amount of innings for the rest of the season, could he have an impact in Baltimore next year like John Means did?

I agree with that logic. Jones hasn't proven he can defend at 2B, and McKenna hasn't proven he can hit consistently, so they haven't necessarily earned a shot in the majors, but if they get it and do well in it, it's a win/win. It's far from a sure thing, but if one of them hits (figuratively and literally), it's an exciting win for the O's.

And Kevin Smith had a 1.04 ERA at Bowie before his debut at Norfolk on 6/16.

There seems to be a belief that it is physically safer for the player to rehab at lower levels. Notice sometimes when a veteran coming off a serious injury starts his rehab at A ball and after a couple games moves up another level for a couple games before returning to MLB. Re McKenna, 47 MLB plate appearances isn't enough to make any kind of evaluation. Remember, most people - especially early in the seaason - were saying last year that Mullins would become - at best - a 4th OFer. I don't think McKenna has shown the kind of pop that Mullins has, but let's see what he does over the next couple of months. Remember, in 2018 - he had an amazing .467 OBP at Frederick in 300 plate appearances. He flopped at Bowie in 2019 and didn't get to play in 2020, so now is his opportunity to show whether or not he should be considered as part of the O's future. The next couple of months - we should get a better idea on him. He needs to be ready and healthy.

And if anything, it shows we were right to speak up.

He's been playing mostly 2B - including 6 of his last 8 games, and how bad's the injury - he's just on the 7 day injured list?

Vavra seems to stand out overall - no errors in 18 2nd base games to go along with an .860 OPS in AA. He's 24, so if they believe in him, promote him.

Great to see that he hit his 4th homer at Norfolk and has an OPS of .974 there in SSS. The pop in his bat will likely always be a question, but right now, I think there's some hope for him. We don't need him to be a power-house, but it'd be great to see him keep this up.

And hopefully the team around him going from terrible now to good at some point - will make him look much better as it improves. Right now, they're making him look worse than he is. And it wouldn't surprise me if his ultimate role is in the bullpen - especially if that leads to an uptick of a couple MPH's in velocity.

I pretty much concur with the analysis. Honestly, from what I can tell - I think they've done a good job with the draft. But none of the very young players have made a mark yet past AA. And there haven't been acquisitions to really bolster the future. No diamonds in the rough. And we know the problems building up international talent. They need to do better, Maybe it'll happen all at once, but things rarely work out that way. We're basically depending on both Hall and Grayson Rodriquez to be stars early in their careers, and it usually takes a few years in the majors for even the most talented pitchers to blossom. C- And they will have to show willingness to spend once they finally start trying to win.

And no doubt that Adley's a special case - and the Baltimore Orioles fans are smart enough to know that. It's frustrating to the fans knowing the O's are playing minor league level catchers at the Major League level while they have a potentially great player performing at a Major League level in the minors.

We have 4 OFers like this that need to be/stay healthy - Diaz, Kjerstad, Hays, and Santander.

They have the 2nd highest rated prospect in baseball stuck in AA even though he's already 23 and dominating both offensively and defensively at the hardest defensive position in baseball - even though they know he's easily the best catcher - both defensively and offensively - in the Baltimore organization. And no matter what he does... he's not going to play in Baltimore this year. They have a 19 year old SS in low A OPSing 1.000 even though they said he stood out like a man among boys last year. - and he is a man among boys considering nobody else on the roster is even OPSing .800.

Correct, but Elias and his people weren't here in 2012.

C'mon Drungo. Do you seriously think the O's would have put him in AAA at 19 years old?

But you've already seen that, I see.

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow blames "sticky stuff" crackdown for injury - The Washington Post The man had to cheat to survive! His outrage is absurd, imo.

Wow - just read this thread - minor league players really need a union, because the Players Association sure as heck don't represent them, and the owners don't give a bleep. Very disappointing situation.

I said in Jones' thread that he looks the part. So does Turchin. His OPS is up to .935 after hitting his 4th homer for Bowie. Stowers and Watson - picked 71 and 79 in 2019 - are both doing well in Aberdeen, but as you alluded to, it's interesting that Turchin was promoted ahead of them.

He keeps this up, and he'll force them to promote him. Maybe he won't succeed in MLB, but he looks the part and seems to have the tools. I'm always going to favor players with speed who seem to work hard.