LookinUp

6 IP, 0 Runs for Zimmerman today. 6 hits, 2 walks and 7 K's.

No idea if it's comparable, but Britton even had that problem with a great defense behind him in the majors. It's hard to set a defense up for the equivalent of a swinging bunt.

It seems like one of two things is happening re: Orioles fans right now. Both are made worse by the failures of the ML team. 1. People are over rating spring training performance. It's a small sample size when pitchers are rounding into form. It's next to meaningless, but the impressions were made. 2. People are less interested in minor league production than they are projection. I actually think this is a fair point, and I'm guessing more where hoosiers comes from. For Hays, I think a lot of people think he's a dynamic player who would already be in the show if he weren't derailed by injury. They may be right. I'm personally with you on this though. Show me the production in the minors. Identify what else needs to be worked on and do it down there. I hate to say it, but I don't want the best team the O's could field today. I want them to take every day they need to fix every issue they can fix in the minors, save on service time where it's potentially useful, and gradually build the best organization that way that they can. It's what we haven't done for 40 years, and the results show.

Me neither, but I'm just not sure. I'd like to see him do what LTO's said, which is just be healthy and establish what type of player he actually is. Some people are acting like they're expecting him to be the O's CF in the second half this year. I guess that could happen, and it might even work, but I'd be hesitant to reward him with a ML promotion before I saw him start to master AAA. I'd like to see 3 sold months there, which essentially means the rest of this AAA season.

Ahhh. I did not know that.

No. That's the non waiver trade deadline. After that date, teams can put all players through waivers. If they're not claimed (which entails someone taking the contract), you have until the end of August to trade the player and for them to be eligible for the post season. Nobody will claim Trumbo, so we're likely stuck with him through August at least.

Assuming there's no way you can get anything for him prior to August 30, then you cut him. I bet they give it until almost that time though. Because of his salary, he'll clear waivers so he has an extra month to produce. On the bright side, there actually is a rationale to cut him. The reason is to let him have a chance to sign with a contender who won't otherwise trade for him. It would be a nice thing to do. I do think that there's a chance that the lack of roster flexibility actually aligns with Elias' plans. It holds people back (service time) and likely contributes to a worse record (draft slot). I hate to be cynical, but a cold, calculated front office is likely valuing those things more than how much a player can develop in 1-2 months of ML time when you really won't even cash in on that development for another couple of years anyway.

The OH's prospect write-up says he'll slot into the back of the rotation. If the velocity is up since then, maybe he has the upside of a #3? Just my guess. Seems like a very useful arm to have in any case, even if he isn't the guy that you ride through the post season.

I just accidentally came across this post from Luke that I hadn't seen yet. It was on 4/5 of this year, and in the minor league game summaries tab in the Orioles Talk forum. It pre-dates this thread. I'd be curious to know how/if the profile has changed since just 6 weeks ago. I sure hope this was a relatively bad night for the kid, because it does temper my enthusiasm.

Which, for context, is essentially "very good" for AAA, but not dominant. I randomly saw that Luke and Jon Shepherd had some back and forth on twitter about Akin the other day. Seems like his profile might be improving (Luke's more recent observations) over what Shepherd saw/heard (which seems like older observations). So hopefully he's still trending in the right direction.

No doubt, but it also doesn't seem like Hall handled the situation well. From what Luke (and Law, slightly) have pointed out, the profile is still awesome. However, the results haven't been great and now there's some adversity. I suspect this is all part of growing and am not worried, but it's not exactly ideal either.

Interesting perspective that does align with his FIP.

Yep and then he gets tossed. Not a good look.

Saw this last night. Surprised it wasn't posted.

I agree that two can/probably will get starts this year, but really doubt that Kremer is one of them. I think he'll start to accrue service time after whatever the cutoff date is next year.

Not sure about the others or where the spots are available. Some moves are more necessary (like Knight/McCoy's promotions). The other poster mentioned Sedlock and Grayson. I can see reasons not to promote either very soon, but both are trying to force the issue for sure. However, I'm not sure that Elias is all that motivated by production. He obviously cares, but might care more about getting Sedlock healthy, relatively low stress innings, for example.

I agree. Am in no hurry to see Akin in Baltimore. I like the kid from what I know, but he's still developing. Why rush it when you don't have to?

He made two fantastic plays in RF last night.

So is the ongoing process for MASN to go through disputes like this every 5 or so years? Or is the theory that this decision, once settled through all of the courts, will create a predictable environment that would really only have a chance to change if the established methodology becomes quite obviously flawed?

Breaking the Union: Why only Merit Matters -- Chris Davis

The minors forum is the place to be this year. Some excitement. A lot of intrigue.

Gray Rod, Hall, Kremer, Lowther, Baumann, Knight and Akin. And John Means is in that conversation now too. It gives us the possibility of having a strong, home-grown staff. I think it's also worth noting that Bundy, Gausman, Davies and E. Rodriguez wouldn't have been a bad home-grown staff, particularly if they hit anything close to their upsides. So we have to hope for few setbacks. The good news is I think it's quite unlikely that we go trading away our pitchers this time around. Elias will be adding to this inventory, and hopefully developing them better than we have in the past.

If our farm system produced two solid-average MLB regular middle infielders this year, well let's just say that would be a pleasant surprise compared to what we were thinking at this time last year. Still a long way to go before that happens, but it's nice to have hope in a couple of guys.

I love the enthusiasm, but he hit for a .700 OPS in Delmarva last year, and he was old for the level. As encouraging as his start is, we're still in relatively small sample size territory. You never know though. Sometimes the bats can click.