Big Mac

I agree with this. I would, however, promote Grenier to push him a little bit similar to what we did with D.J. Stewart a few years ago. After a poor April he's put up a .790 OPS in May and currently has a .796 in June.

Obviously do it subtly. He has been having issues with blisters, seems like a good enough excuse for me.

I went from watching Matthias Dietz pitch live to watching this, not exactly a day of good baseball.

I'm just going to start watching Mancini bat in the first inning and then otherwise move on with my life.

So let's skip him a couple of times coming up then if that seems like a legitimate concern?

I saw Dietz pitch today and it was as bad as the numbers indicate. Warming up in the bullpen he airmailed the catcher several times, causing the ball to ricochet off the outfield wall and onto the field of play. It was Nook Laloosh-esque but with poor stuff. The velocity was non-existent. He sat 92-93 and t94 (both on the stadium gun and multiple scouts' guns, so it's accurate). He occasionally mixed in a fluttering 84-85 breaking pitch that I think was supposed to be a slider, but it didn't really move and was up in the zone every time he threw it. Obviously, control/command was awful. He needs to go down to extended spring for a complete overhaul, they need to get him out of A+ ball. It was difficult to watch.

Knight didn't make his scheduled start today, does anybody have any idea why?

They have Hanifee in the rotation too, so they certainly don't need to promote a starter to replace Baumann.

Baumann to Bowie and Tim Naughton to Frederick per Steve Melewski on twitter.

Thank you. It looks like Hanifee tomorrow, Bishop saturday and Knight on sunday. Interesting that Baumann is not pitching this series, maybe he is on his way to Bowie?

Does anyone know the starting pitchers for the Keys this upcoming series against Wilmington? I saw that Sedlock is starting tonight but can't find any other information, I'm hoping to catch some of the games this weekend.

I think it's clear Hess belongs in the bullpen. Replacing him with a guy with an 8.51 ERA in AAA while giving up 14.1 H/9 and 2.9 HR/9 is...interesting.

I personally think this is the best argument against Rutschman...and I want them to draft him.

Comparing what a guy is doing in AAA to what a guy who is only one year younger is doing in the pac-12 is just completely worthless. I'm sure Mountcastle would be walking plenty in the pac-12 right now too. I guess I also just made the comparison so maybe disregard as completely worthless?

If nothing else, I expect Stewart to get on base at a decent clip. I am not sure if he is a part of the next contending team but I think he will at least be a valuable ML piece for a few years before he gets too expensive.

28 walks to 26 SO indicates to me that he's mastered that level of play, more so than his overall slash line. I'd be working to find a way to get him up to the majors, he should get 250+ ABs this year up there this season to give us a better idea of what we have. This is an "inventory" year after all.

I agree with this. I'd just let Ynoa or Ramirez eat some starts for a couple of months until Akin gets some more time.

I see your point but Neustrom is 22. He was also a 5th round pick, I'd like to think that nobody is basing a pick that high on building a strong minor league team.

Per the Baysox instagram account Kremer is starting for Bowie tonight.

I don't know that I agree a full season of AAA is necessary, but I'd certainly like to see him comfortably eclipse the 9 starts and 45.2 IP that David Hess got at Norfolk. For comparison's sake, Akin is now at 8 starts and 40 IP for Norfolk on the season after today's start. The reports of his velocity from Luke and others are certainly encouraging, if he accumulates another 6-7 starts and continues to pitch well I wouldn't be opposed to bringing him up.

I don't disagree with this at all. Any pushback on the notion of Nunez was not directed your way, I just feel some posters think we have something there that we really don't. He's an all bat, low OBP, no glove player that every organization has filling AAA rosters. He was available for nothing for a reason. Buy yeah, he can hold his own at the ML level I guess and lets not rush a top prospect to replace him. I'm completely on board with that rationale.

I'd like to agree with both of you here. While I wouldn't base this decision on 26 ABs, I'd base it on the nearly 400 ML ABs that have produced a .712 OPS, .302 OBP and a minor league track record that doesn't inspire optimism for improvement. Couple that with an inability to play a position, and I'm not sure I am basing any decisions on our top prospects based on the presence of Renato Nunez. That being said, I'm in no hurry to bring Mountcastle up. The idea that Nunez is somehow an impediment to the call up is baffling to me though.

Both players have pretty similar minor league numbers, doesn't seem unreasonable to me that some in the organization may have preferred Wilkerson.

The mistake wasn't bringing in Wright, it was pulling him after 1.1 IP and having to bring in your second baseman to pitch. His potential value to the team yesterday was to pitch 3 innings, get shelled and save the pen. The game was over, who cares if he gives up 10 runs in 3 innings? That was his chance to provide value and Hyde botched it.

Well then it's unfortunate I could've told you to back off the keyboard months ago!