deward

I think he was guessing something else and just got fooled. It was frustrating that he didn't swing at a hittable pitch though. I would think we're another week or so away from him going back to Norfolk for a bit, if he doesn't show signs of improvement.

As recently as early last year, I would have said that it wasn't likely, just based on historical outcomes. Based on right now though, doesn't it seem possible that all of this current premium group at AAA is going to succeed? I fully expect Holliday, Kjerstad, and Mayo to become long-term regulars. Even Norby seems like a good bet to have a career somewhere. You can't account for injuries, but I don't see any performance-related reasons not to expect that outcome at this point.

I'm not sure what you're defining as "fetishization" in this context, but the track record of prospects deployed recently has been pretty impressive (leaving Holliday aside for the moment). For a club that hasn't yet established that it's going to operate as anything other than small-market, I can understand people valuing 5-6 years of those guys vs a lesser number of years of whoever they'd bring back in trade. Some around here have mentioned the "fantasy" of a home-grown line-up, but it's already nearly in place - swap out Santander and ROH with Kjerstad and Mayo and you're there. Like I said elsewhere, I'm not opposed to trading someone like Kjerstad for the right return, but I'd very cautious about it until Elias shows that he can backfill this currently group of prospects as effectively as he built it, and/or Elias and Rubenstein prove that they can deploy some financial resources to extend/acquire talent.

Would you be proposing the Holliday/Skenes deal if Holliday was off to a hotter start?

Which prospect has the crowd been wrong to be excited about, so far?

I'm not opposed to trading Kjerstad (assuming Santander is then re-signed), but trading him for a reliever of any stripe seems like a waste of resources. There should be more economical ways of building a strong bullpen, and Kjerstad is a big enough talent to be the centerpiece in a trade for a cost-controlled starter. That seems like the more impactful move to me.

Dreckman is awful.

That still seems fair. I've liked him since watching him play for MSU, and was excited that the O's drafted him, so I've been an ardent Westburg supporter since day one. This has been a good couple of weeks for me.

I don't expect a 900+ OPS over the course of a full season, but a guy who put up a 939 OPS in AAA at age 24 should be a decent bet to be a solid player in the big leagues. And while all 1st round picks are more likely to fail than they are to succeed in the pros, their odds improve dramatically if they show consistent success in the minors. Anyway, I'm just glad he's playing as well as I'd hoped he would, and hopefully he'll continue to be an important part of the club.

Suarez it is...

It's a little perplexing to me to see so many people surprised that a player with a first-round pedigree and a strong minor league track record would be finding success in the big leagues. What were your expectations?

I didn't take it as anything other than Brown screwing around after reading an article about a place he'd never been to; in the same vein he was teasing Big Ben about not having heard of the fashion designer mentioned in the article before admitting that he had never heard of him either.

He might at least drive up the pitch count a bit.

It's easy to dream when it's a top prospect going on a heater like this. Sure, this may turn out to be the best week of his career, and he might settle in closer to the mediocre platoon bat that some skeptics have predicted, but what's the fun in thinking like that right now?

Wait, I thought he wasn't a good baseball player anymore.

I doubt Kjerstad is ever allowed to play LF in Camden in anything other than a one-game emergency. They barely let him put a glove on when he was up last year.

Agreed, it wouldn't be the easiest trade to pull off. I'm just laying out the parameters where I'd consider extending Santander. If there's no dance partner for the trade I'd want, then Kjerstad is the O's starting RF in 2025. It works either way.

Trading Kjerstad is what we're talking about, in this scenario. For Kjerstad, I would expect a top young guy, either already in the bigs or close to it. If that's not out there, then my plan would change to keeping Kjerstad to replace Santander.

I'm sure he'll be fine, it just made for an interesting contrast watching Gunnar, Westburg, and Cowser? (I think that was the third person) stretching together and joking around while Jackson was 15 ft off to the side by himself (after they all ran out of the dugout at the same time). Probably nothing.

Burnes is great, but six years of a potential MOO bat like Kjerstad for one year of anybody seems like a bad deal to me. I don't want to see Elias get in the habit of dumping premium prospects for rentals, that's not a sustainable approach.

Watching him from the stands last night, he definitely looked tense. One thing that jumped out at both my wife and I, during pre-game stretches, he was mostly off by himself while the other infielders were chatting with each other. Maybe that's just how he likes to do things, but the impression that we got was that he's still on the outside looking in when it comes to bonding with the team. I was hoping to see a little more signs of someone like Gunnar taking him under his wing. I might be over-analyzing it, but the whole game he came off as nervous and awkward. Even on his high-five with Gunnar after the HR in the 10th. Hopefully things will loosen up a bit after he gets a couple of hits and feels like he's contributing.

I wouldn't trade Kjerstad for a rental like Burnes. I'd be aiming for a top pitching prospect, or someone with less than two years of service time. If that kind of deal isn't out there, then he'd stay and Santander walks, in the alternate universe where they put me in charge.

The scenario where it might make sense involves trading Kjerstad for a premium, cost-controlled pitcher. You'd have to have the right deal on the table for Kjerstad, agree to the right terms with Santander, and have some reassurance from the analytics team that Santander is a decent bet to maintain his performance over the next 3-4 years, but it would be a scenario that I'd at least put some thought into, were it my call. I'm not saying that I wouldn't ultimately decide that letting him walk is the best move, just that I don't see it as an automatic decision.

What if you could trade Kjerstad for the next Cole Ragans?

"He's definitely shown plus raw power in the minors, we just have to see if he can tap into it regularly against major league pitching without sacrificing his contact rate." Better?