LookinUp

Oh boy.

Heyman's getting every inch of this Franco deal, lol. In that line of work, you get the big scoops, and the Franco's of the world.

I sure hope this kid gets on the field and starts producing relatively soon. Every story is about what he isn't doing instead of what he is doing. I'm not assigning blame. I just hope the story changes soon because it hasn't been good to date.

Hernaiz was being hyped a bit before the world stopped for a bit. Welk also had a nice sprint from that class. I love following the minor leaguers. Can't wait to care about the guys in the majors as much as I do the guys in the minors. That time is coming, right? Please tell me that time is coming. lol

A lot of people had that feeling, but he was made available for a reason. Doesn't mean it was smart, but he wasn't protected for some reason.

Not that I expect it, but there was hope that Stowers would be a power hitting CoF for us when he was picked. Hasn't played a ton because of Covid since then. Could be a break out candidate, or could be JAG.

My answer is the guys with the highest upside. D.L. Hall reigning in the walks would be a breakout. Gunnar Henderson, Coby Mayo, Kjerstad and Diaz with a very high OPS. 1-2 international guys that we've kind of heard of but who haven't done much in organized ball would be awesome. It would be awesome if we have a high upside arm (like Baumann) who has a break through season. I'll take guys like Rom, but would love a power guy to do it. Oh, and the always forgotten Toby Welk. That'd be real cool.

Wasn't it Eddie Murray who always had terrible springs? I'm not sure if the stats prove that true, but it was the narrative IIRC. He turned out decent.

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No matter what he needs a certain amount of time (90 days?) on the ML team to be kept, right?

I think that was Mattson throwing last. Not sure if it's who he hit a dinger off of, but I liked the way one of those pitches looked for sure.

Realistically speaking, I don't think Pop has the profile of a guy that you play serious games with just to keep. If he's good, they'll want to use him. If he's not that good, they'll send him back. If he's legit injured, sure they'll work with him. But while I know we didn't like to lose this guy, we're not talking about an Andrew Miller type of profile here. He's a minor league reliever with some upside if healthy. That's not worth gaming the system to keep.

I don't think we're talking about 2-3 IP guys. I think it's more that we'll have guys who can go 4-6 IP, but few if any taking us into the 7th (assuming Felix/Harvey don't get their stuff back). It's a staff of #3-5 starters, but potentially with depth there.

Right. Akin is a perfect example. So is Kremer. They have some swing and miss stuff, but not a deep 4-pitch arsenal that gets them through the lineup a 3rd time. With enough good arms like this, you can manage your way through lineups pretty effectively.

I follow this account on Twitter and thought this was a very interesting tweet that they sent yesterday. Note that they are not an Orioles account. It's a baseball account in general, so their observations about the Orioles aren't exactly Homer McFanboy types of observations. Anyway, I thought this might be an interesting discussion.

And I think a fair amount of that is posturing, but that assumes MLB and Union leadership are competent, which admittedly might not be the case.

I think the odds of a work stoppage are quite low. Too much money is everywhere right now, and bank accounts are not as full as they were because of Covid. I don't think they stop work when the world is open again.

This following post is speculation by me... Davis, IMO, likely put up big numbers because of PEDs. He happily took a contract on the back of those numbers. Then he stopped PEDs. It's a bait and switch, but the O's can't complain because they should have known what helped him get those stats and you obviously can't force a player to take PEDs. In the business world, this might be fraud, but only if the investor wasn't in on it. If the investor was in on your fraud, then they're frauds too and there's a conspiracy. But this is sports, and the DOJ isn't cracking down on this type of fraud. This was a conspiracy where one party took the money and ran and the other party can't cry foul because they're frauds too. Still, Davis is a fraud and fans have every right to treat him like one.

Agreed. I don't think Davis is quitting or taking a deal. I think the team will cave and cut him. That's my hunch right now.

I honestly think this might be the beginning of the end and that he won't come north this year. They've figured out how to handle Covid in sports. Teams will play. No salary relief this year. I doubt they bet on a strike. I think this little injury might be it for him. Am I crazy?

There are a couple of guys in there that are really cutting edge. I like this group. Have a very loose link to Ryan Fuller. Interesting guy. Patrick Jones has a great podcast too. Thoughtful young dudes on the hitting side for sure.

I'm not sure how you can rank him ahead of Paul Fry.

That is truly incredible.

He didn't homer. Wander Franco did. We're doomed.