waynebug

DSL season over !!!!!! Prospect- light Orioles 2 beats prospect- loaded Orioles One, 13 to 10. Orioles 1 Stud 3rd baseman De Los Santos rested today. Finished at .321/.415/.477 2 homers , 3 for 4 steals. 15 walks to 18 strikeouts. Speedy Centerfielder Junior Lara goes 1 for 4 with a double. Hits .364/1.033 OPS 1 Homer, all 3 steals were successful. Only had 44 at bats, injured. Slightly more air outs than ground outs Millionaire catcher Basallo goes 2 for 4 with a walk, his 5th Homer and 6th double. Hits .263/.349./.447 Led the team in Homers and RBIs. Earned his 1.3 million dollar bonus. Orioles 2 2nd baseman Angel Tejada pinch hit with a triple. Ended batting .330/398.432. Huge 1st year for the $200,00 bonus 17 year old converting from shortstop. No homers and only 2 for 6 in stolen bases. (Bad) 18 year old, shortstop Frederick Bencosme goes 3 for 4 with his 6th double and 3rd triple. Ends the season .283/.341/.774. 2 Homers. 8 for 9 in stolen bases. 60% of his outs are in the air (good sign). 9 errors at short, 3 errors at 2nd, 2 errors at 3rd. 6'0" 160 lbs bats lefthanded (good) To me, he was the biggest unknown and most pleasant surprise of all. Should be Orioles 2 MVP if they had an award. (All this crap is merely my opinion except the numbers)

I'm going to make couple of suggestions to your Orioles Black off the top of my head. Centerfield should be Gonzalez with Feliciano in right. But Junior Lara could be centerfielder and leadoff hitter. He will definitely start in centerfield for somebody. 2nd base might go to Angel Pena who has been on a tear to finish the season. He's batting leadoff but he's a poor base stealer. I think he got $200,000. Among your starting pitchers might be righthanders Vasquez and Morillo. They will be 20 next year. And Deivy Cruz a small strikeout Lefty will be 18. He got $200,000 in January. We don't know Vasquez or Morillo's bonus in July 2019. When they don't publish it I assume it was 5 figures. I let bonus size help me evaluate players until they have a track record. Just suggestions...........

You're absolutely right. Way worse control than in college. Only walked a little over 4 per 9 innings at T A&M. Maybe Miami was smart to pass on him and take Max Meyer. But I don't prefer short righthanders. For me, I thought he would cut his walks and keep his dominate strikeout stuff when he pitched professionally full time. A reasonable assumption.. The guy is also 6'4" and over 200 lbs. He's a horse. Watch his video.

By the time the Orioles reach agreements with Tavera and Arias they should still have somewhere around $3.5 million left out of their $6.26 million dollar pool of money to fill out the class with another 12 to 15 signees. Their bonus pool was about $5.7 million Jan 2021. Baseball America projects Tavera to get 1.5 to 2 million dollars. Arias was not in their top 30 list. Players outside the top 30 historically get less than $1 million. So I'm hoping they still have $3.5 million to pass out in 6 figure bonuses. That could get them 10 players in the $400,000 to $300,000 range. This January they gave their top 2 signees combined $2.5 million. Then signed 6 more between $400 and 300 thousand. Then still sprinkled in bonuses $200,000 and below. Some bonuses weren't announced so I'm thinking they were 5 figure bonuses The best player, especially at the plate, this year was year de Los Santos who cost them $350,000. Their best prospect, to me, is the 1.3 million dollar power bat and power armed catcher Basallo.

I really liked his article. I take the Athletic also for Keith Law and other baseball articles. This is his breakdown on Hall. Fastball 65 Curve 55 Slider 50 Changeup 60 Control 40 Command 40 Could have drafted Texas A&M lefthander Asa Lacy last year instead of another corner outifielder. College lefthander with lots of Stuff but command issues. Lacy was #6 on Bowden's list. Lacy is MLB's #67 overall prospect.

Next to last day of the DSL season. Orioles 2 wins 5 to 4. Angel Tejada stays hot. 3 for 4 with a triple. Hitting .322/.392./.402 playing 2nd base. I think his bonus was around $200,000. Converted shortstop, of course. Only 4 errors while learning 2nd base. Prospect-heavy Orioles 1 loses again 7 to 4. Millionaire shortstop Maikol Hernandez goes 2 for 4. Millionaire catcher Samuel Basallo goes 2 for 4. Speedy centerfielder Junior Lara goes 3 or 4 with a triple. Now at .375/.475/.600. Missed most of the season, injured ? His sample size is large enough to certify he is for real. Modest $160,000 bonus. More good scouting by Koby Perez and gang.

I looked it up. His WAR is only 0.8 for people who want to know. And yes, he's had injury issues taking away from his value at the plate and the field.

Santander has 0.0 WAR this year ? I still like Santander as an everyday player. Hays looks like a platoon player. Unfortunately neither can stay 100% healthy so they're a little hard to know for sure. Stowers and Neustrom are back in the conversation although they're remarkably similar.

Way to old and expensive for the youthful rebuilding Orioles. And not even that effective since he left the Braves is he ? But I like your aggressive approach. I don't even think the Orioles WANT to win yet. Why ? Because they're not using their early draft choices to select college pitchers that are near major league ready. Look at the last 3 drafts, draw your own conclusions.

Well both teams CANCELLED. The FCL season is over. Hopefully next year there won't be so many unexplained cancellations. Reinforcements from the DSL will hopefully increase the competitiveness of the teams. I would also expect A LOT of returning players with more experience.

There's also the issue that if you extend him you're buying into his age 32 season. Dierkes is the owner and creator of MLB Trade Rumors. He gets 100s of thousands of views every day. Today's Mailbag was for subscribers only. I think I pay $3 a month. "Quint" asked would he trade Means and what could he expect to get in return. He mentioned outfielder Robert Hassell of the Padres currently the #37 prospect in somebody's eyes.

He thinks the return would be about what the Mariners got for Paxton or the Twins got for Jose Berrios. A top 40 overall prospect. The issue with Means is his shoulder issues in 2019 and this year. And his lower strikeout numbers. Whatever they do GET MORE DOMINICANS THROWN IN !!!! This was a subscriber's only mailbag, not on the regular MLB Trade Rumors site.

I appreciate that. I do love short season baseball. I really miss the Appalachian League. I used to ride over to Burlington NC to see the Baby Orioles and the Baby Braves when they came to town. Burlington.was affiliated with the Indians.

Good work Tony !!!! I just noticed you ranked Anderson De Los Santos #47 in your latest update. Gives Orioles 1 three players in your top 50.

Thursday is the last day of the season for Orioles Black and Orange. Lots of fun this Summer checking these box scores. Several outfield prospects on each team and a stud 3rd baseman on each team. Pinto and Rangel for the pitchers on the Black. Better hitters than pitchers, overall I thought They were scheduled to play each other Friday and Saturday and they've already cancelled.

Thanks Tony. Is there any reason Melewski didn't interview Felipe Rojas Alou this year ? Alou gave really good scouting reports on our 2019 DSL and Tricky League teams. Would you consider a telephone interview with Alou in the future ?

I haven't seen any reports on Young. He'll be 23 on Sunday the 19th. He wasn't drafted, signed as a free agent for only the allowable $20,000. At 6'6" and listed at 210 lbs he can add some muscle and some good weight and increase his velocity. Whatever it is. 9 strikeouts in 5 innings for Aberdeen, so yes he's got some strikeout stuff.

DSL ends Saturday the 18th. The Orioles will invite the better DSL prospects to the fall Instructional League. Especially the Dominicans. Last year they brought over 11, none from Venezuela because of the political problems there.

Steve Melewski August 22 2019 masnsports.com Melewski interviews Felipe Rojas Alou Jr, the Director of the Orioles Dominican Academy. They talk about Orioles 1 , including Hector Lopez. The son of the famous Atlanta Braves outfielder. Melewski also interviewed him on August 17. They talk about Orioles 2 and some talk about the "Tricky League" I believe. With the January signing date I don't think there is a Tricky League until they (hopefully) go back to July 2.

Lopez was a starter for Orioles DSL in 2019. Almost all his appearances were starts. He threw a total of 51 innings. His manager down there said he threw in the upper 80s in an 2019 interview. It was in Orioles Minors is how I knew this. Forward to 2021. He has only 2 starts. All the other 8 or so appearances were in relief (I think he is currently injured). For only 18 innings. If I have the time I might try to find those posts. I think Kubatco or Melewski conducted the interviews. Cesar Alvarez is right-handed with 60 strikeouts in 43 innings. He almost certainly throws SOMEWHERE in the 90s. Lefthanders can rack up strikeouts just on their funky deliveries. Right-handers require plus velocity. Until we learn more we can watch his progress. Whether he starts or relieves next year will tell us a lot.

Cesar Alvarez was the winning pitcher for Orioles 1, 6 to 4. The best pitcher in the DSL for either team, Orioles 1 or 2. Alvarez just turned 19. 6'1", 175 lbs. 10 starts, 43 innings, 32 hits, 19 walks, 60 strikeouts. If he throws hard enough they'll leave him as a starter next year in Florida. If he he doesn't throw hard enough they will make him a middle reliever. That's what happened to Hector Lopez. Great results in 2019 DSL but only threw in the upper 80s so converted to the bullpen this year in Florida.

So now Lara is batting .357/.472/.643 with an OPS of 1.115 thru 13 games and 28 at bats. Shame he missed so much time. For some reason. Lefty centerfielder with (some) power and speed.

It seems to me they have to sign a couple of starting pitchers to multi-year contracts this off-season. Or prepare to lose 100 games again in 2022. Tim Dierkes (MLB Trade Rumors) has gone on record saying they won't contend until they spend in free agency , if they even want to contend in 2023. Excuse me if I'm off topic.

Assume they win 54 games this year. That is winning 54/162 or 1/3rd of your games. And let's assume a successful rebuild would be winning approximately 1/2 of their games in 2023. That would be about 81 wins. So it seems like the aim for 2022 should be about 67 which is 5/12 of 162games. 5/12 is Halfway between 1/3 and 1/2.

Sorry, I couldn't provide a link. Please read it, good article. So Pinto may only be 5'11" but he's been up to 97 (they say) on the fastball, his slider is above average and he's working on his curve and change.