[2017 4th round pick (128): Jack Conlon - RHP - Clements HS (TX)]

23 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

You sound like you should be his agent. Hey, by all means, have any opinion you want. I see a terrible system and lack of real athletes and dearth of starting pitching prospects. The Orioles aversion to signing international players is certainly part of the issue, but not part of this discussion so we won't get into it, but even the guys you point out have done what for the Orioles?

Mancini was a nice pick, but he made major adjustments with the development staff after his Delmarva signing. Gausman was a miss for the 4th overall pick. Hader was a flier on a local kid on the behast of local scout Dean Albany, so let's not act like their was some amazing plan there. Even Albany will tell you he never saw him becoming this good and besides, Albany has basically been set aside by Rajsich so if you wanna give credit to the O's scouting for Hader, realize the scout that found him is no longer has much if any say in amateur scouting now.

Mullins, most people still think he;s a 4th outfielder, Sisco? If you like platoon catchers who can't control the running game and without much power then he's your guy.

Sure, Hays and Mountcastle look good so far, but both are nothing more than prospects who have some holes in their games, not guaranteed impact players.

Where are the shortstop prospects? Who are the pitchers that he's drafted that are legitimate starting pitching prospects? He's had six years and the system doesn't have one sure fire legitimate starting pitching prospect. Even Akin, who I like a bit is seen as a reliever by some scouts.

Look, as an Orioles fan, I want to be positive and I want the players to become solid major leaguers, but as an evaluator and guy who talks to many people in the industry, this system is not very good and Rajsich's drafting is part of the problem.

It's nothing personal. I don't really know Rajsich. I talked to him after his first and 2nd drafts and after he basically told me every pitcher were three and four pitch guys with plus pitches, I realized he was either throwing my fluff or over evaluates guys terribly. I realized it wasn't really worth my time to dicuss the players anymore so I wait until I see them or guys I know and trust see them before evaluating them.

That's a depressing summary of the state of the farm.

[Cody Sedlock (Merged with: Sedlock sold to Tigers in July 2022)]

Matt had it all at one time. Glad to see he is doing well:thumbsup1:

Yes he did. He was friendly when our fast pitch clubs matched up. I think he got roped into coaching the girls due to a shortage of coaches. His roster wasn't all that great but he seemed to enjoy it. I'm not sure he's going to be coaching his daughters club this fall which is about to start.

[Cody Sedlock (Merged with: Sedlock sold to Tigers in July 2022)]

Matt Riley could come out of retirement, pitch right handed while drunk and still be better than Ubaldo.

Wonder whatever happened to that guy. And Billy Rowell.

Matt Riley lives in Franklin, Tennessee. He coaches some baseball at the youth level and is involved in some baseball camps. I coached against him this past spring in 10U girls fast pitch as well.

[2015 2nd (68) - Jonathan Hughes - RHP - HS (GA)]

Melewski noted on draft day (or shortly thereafter) that the club had Hughes rated top 50 and DD personally observed his workout at Camden Yards. If true, he wasn't viewed by the club at 4th round talent. Sounds like the kid had a change of heart and has decided to head off to college. No blame needs to be assigned and I don't really see where any was.

[Tracking Ex Oriole Thread]

Bud Norris had a bad outing too.

He pitched 24 innings with 17 ks and 6 walks in the majors.

I have been critical of the Norris trade at times, but I have been impressed with his efforts thus far other than the one start. It's a long season so we will see how he holds up.

[Tracking Ex Oriole Thread]

I know I'm not supposed to root for good things to happen to our direct Wild Card competition, but I feel bad for JJ. Having to watch an ex-Oriole (one who was a good teammate and a good guy) go through this is just brutal.

Reminds me of watching Koji's performance with Texas in '11 and how everyone in that city and organization just wanted him to go away.

I agree with you here. I don't like that JJ is struggling. However, as much as I like Koji I wish he would struggle a bit.

[Tracking Ex Oriole Thread]

I agree with weams here on the Johnson front, not necessarily about the tickets, but the guy had a fantastic season that year. We can say oh, he was subpar in a couple playoffs games, I think we need to dump him. But a GM can't really afford to make that deal and give up on a valuable closer who was a big part of a winning team based on just a feeling like that.

Who said anything about dumping him? I think the premise is more along the lines that he had a huge season that he was unlikely to ever duplicate so flip him while his value is high so you can add another asset to the mix.

[Tracking Ex Oriole Thread]

I don't think the presence of a particular guy in the bullpen is going to drive ticket sales.

I agree. The success of 2012 drove ticket sales. JJ's success was a big part of 2012 but roster management never ends. I doubt the Tigers wanted to trade Fister but you have to make budget driven moves.

[Tracking Ex Oriole Thread]

I simply said that it was not appropriate for the team at that time. You would never have sold the tickets you did last season had you traded their closer after finally winning. There was not proper way to handle that. The result proved your guess to be correct. It was not a possible situation.

Plenty of people would have been happy and plenty of tickets sold if JJ was flipped for Porcello like some of us talked about since we heard Porcello was being shopped and the Tigers needed a closer. You did know the winning lottery numbers as they were 1/11, but DD chose not to play. Plenty of GM's out there would have made such a move, we chose status quo last offseason. It's history and time to turn the page but DD missed an opportunity to sell high. I hope its a rare miss.