Ruzious

I laughed. And their catcher is next - perhaps to the Nats - but the Nats are not going to give them either of their great OF prospects. They did get a nice package for Yelich. I'm a big Lew Brunson believer, and the 3 other prospects they got looked pretty decent.

Wellington gets 2 years guaranteed totalling 15 mil plus a club option for a 3rd year at 8 mil. First person who says "O's dodged a bullet"... just don't.

Yup, there are about 100 of them today as teams set their 40 man rosters. Actually, most of the names today probably aren't as good as O'Rourke.

Instead of a lefty Maddux, I'd "settle" for aTommy Glavine. Maddux actually threw pretty hard early in his career. Glavine relied a lot on umps expanding the outside corner of the strike zone. As technology becomes more prevalent, those types of pitchers might lose that ability.

I could understand that reaction if we make a move like that in late February or March after not doing much the previous months, but mid-November? No. It's a foolish reaction, imo, at this point. The risk is minimal, and organizational depth is something a GM has to get - even it it's boring. There are a lot better reasons to criticize Duquette.

From Ruzious: "My 15 year old nephew could hit Donnie Hart's average fastball."

Hart's got an 85 MPH fastball and nothing else particularly good. I don't care if you throw sidearm, underarm, 360 reverse-toss, or behind the back; it's amazing he's done as well as he has.

And I gotta wonder if Duquette is wondering what the bleep is going on. I doubt he was on board with what they've been doing with Hayes.

Or maybe it's that other teams make the same mistakes in over-playing their veterans.

I think it's maybe exhaustion. Baseball's a fun game for us, and when we were in our 20's and 30's, it was hard to imagine getting tired from playing baseball, but playing it as a profession 7 days a week for more than half the year, it takes a toll - not just physically but mentally. I think Buck should have rested some of his players more - particularly vets like Jones, Davis, and Trumbo - and it's been showing.

Buck's decision to play Trumbo in RF lost the game, quite frankly. I love Buck as a manager, but he's got at least 3 other choices to play RF - including Hays - and playing Trumbo there was simply idiotic on Buck's part. There's just no way around it.

Well, he's only had 54 at bats with RISP, and he does have an .800 OPS - which shows he has done his job pretty well offensively on the season - particularly in getting on base.

One thing I'll say - the O's picks from Hayes through the 6th round were brilliant in 2016.

Heck no. We have Santander and Hayes coming in next season - both RFers. And I'd bet on O'Day having more left in the tank than Markakis - who has no power and can't run.

Good stuff, literally. Gotta figure Harvey and Lowther will start together as teammates in Frederick next season - perhaps having a friendly rivalry to see who gets moved up to Bowie quicker. It'll be interesting to see who else from that Aberdeen rotation starts there. I'm guessing Sedlock repeats at Frederick - unless they move him down. Akin moves up to Bowie.

You'll get no flak from me. I had the same thought. We are stuck with Trumbo and Davis, and that limits Mancini to LF. With his salary being very low, he's a solid trade chip, and the O's are loaded with OF prospects - especially if they move Mountcastle to LF.

It might depend on what they think of Santander - and how they both do in Spring Training.

Wow, I was going to ask those very questions, and you've already answered them. See, this is an example of why this is the best place to hangout. Thank you.

It'll happen, and it'll be fun to see.

I assume he's here to fill the Gentry role - which Buck believes is a very important role.

First win 2 consecutive 5 in a rows, then another, then another...

I think Felipe Rivero's tremendous success this season after 3 somewhat up and down years is a reason the O's need to do everything they can to develop Scott into a significant part of the O's future. The Nats gave up on Rivero, and that's one of the few significant mistakes they made. Though Rivero didn't have as much problems with walks as Scott did, he did have problems with command. As he's tightened up on his command of his fastball, wiff inducing change-up and ground-ball inducing slider, he's become dominant.

But again, he gets SO's when he needs them - such as coming in with the bases loaded in a one run game yesterday. And he averaged 1 SO per inning in the minors and has 57 SO's in his 80 MLB innings, so I don't think there's an issue with SO's. .

Sounds reasonable Tony. Now, if a pitcher has an inverted X, I'd stay away.

Fwiw, people have been calling for Gio Gonzales to have problems from the inverted W (or the M, if you will) since at least 2010, and he's up to over 1,600 major league innings.