makoman

I think the mere fact that Sisco, who is one of the slowest players in the majors, has led off a couple times shows that they know what they're doing and aren't tied to old school ideals. I would assume (or hope) with Mullins it might be as simple as "this guy is kinda hot, let's throw him a bone that we think he's good enough to do this and try and keep his confidence going." As for Alberto, if you think he's a 305 hitter like last year he is probably also a 330 OBP guy like last year, which annoyingly is probably one of the higher expected OBPs on the team, this year's actual results so far notwithstanding. If you think he's one of the better hitters but also one with the least power he'd be ok at first I guess. If Sisco/Santander/Nunez are really 330-340 guys then it's not a big difference and maybe you are fine with the higher power down lower, but if any of them are really 380 guys then no, go with them and just push Alberto down somewhere else.

The balk, man. That’s some excitement right there, and a good example of umpire discretion. Can’t deceive those runners.

There are plenty of people that claim football has been ruined and today’s players are a bunch of pansies because you can’t hit anymore and players generally don’t get a concussion per game like the Real Men of old.

I’d guess it helps some, but I’d think things like sleeping in your own bed, not being on the road, knowing the field, and batting last, are more useful. Don’t know.

Manny hit 245 with a 692 OPS in Frederick, then went to Bowie and had a 789 OPS. He didn’t prove anything but it was still the right move to bring him up. He developed in the majors while contributing to playoff contenders.

He was a 2nd round pick and had an 8 inning no hitter in the majors. Definitely has the pedigree to do something, though who knows if it’ll work out. ETA: that certainly wasn’t good.

He’s 5th percentile in sprint speed. That’s why I’m skeptical whenever someone wants to put him at another position. Doesn’t seem athletic enough. edit: what happened. I was so late with this info.

Yeah, I mean, if i thought Santander was for real I’d probably need something like a good young starter, better than Means, probably more of a need. And probably not available. I’m still not sure if I’m sold yet but I’m definitely open to believing.

Ha walk

True, and if we have an excess of anything it’s probably outfielders so that’s what you want to deal (although all of ours our still uncertain). As always it just depends on if you can get what you perceive is good value.

Yes agreed. Depends what you think of him. IIRC Luke said he was obviously the best player on the field watching his minor league team that had I think Hays and Mountcastle (my memory could be off), so it’s not like this is totally crazy.

I thought Bundy was already on the 40 because he signed a ML contract. edit bah too late!

But if you think this is real this is the kind of guy you keep.

That’s not necessarily a plus. Though $4.5M is deferred till the 30s (10M if he misses the innings incentive).

Nolan Ryan was the first million dollar salary in 1980. $1M then is worth a little over $3M today. They've slightly outpaced inflation.

He'll get a few PH opportunities till Hays is back. Just need to get him a taste of the bigs so he knows what to expect when he comes back next May.

Only 223 PAs in AAA, what were they thinking?

They'll probably ease him in by letting him sit on the bench a few days like Akin.

Yes, good and great players come from college all the time and no one said otherwise. That's irrelevant to the idea that when evaluating prospects age is incredibly important. Manny doing ok at AA at 19 is way more impressive than Lou Montanez being AA MVP at 26. Mountcastle being far more advanced than Mancini at an earlier age is an indication that he has a good chance to be better. Of course it might not happen as Mancini has basically gotten to his expected ceiling and we have no idea if Mountcastle will approach his.

That's why you don't DFA guys who miss tons of bats but just need to gain a little consistency. Sometimes they gain it and become good pieces.

But I thought his primary problem was arm, not athleticism? Again, much lower bar in left to be averagish.

He's not good against Houston so apparently it's not orange that he likes so much. In an odd twist, they've had much better pitchers than the O's lately.

Maybe next he will try to learn catcher. That should take a few years. We need that all important control of his age 38 season!

Yeah, you gotta go year to year with him and just see how it goes, there is a ton of uncertainty with him. Even if he comes back fully healthy it's tough to miss a year and he might not come back to the same level, really it all depends on if he's really a 2-4 WAR guy or a 0.5 WAR guy and that's still not clear. I'm not sure how arb is going to work with this situation but he may not get that expensive so there's that. Also, it will be easier to let him go from a casual fan perspective if the team is doing well at that point and you have some good players in the OF/1B. People got over losing Markakis after his age 30 season.

From the 25 man roster for the divisional series against the Yankees in 2012, only 7 were with the organization opening day 2010. (other notables: Markakis was injured, Arrieta and Britton were omitted from the roster).