luismatos4prez

Cedric deserves more respect. 15th OF in baseball by fWAR this year. He may not be a 30/30 guy, but he's a stud.

There have been only 4 catchers selected since 2009, none since 2016. They were worth -1.3, -1.0, -0.9, and -0.2 fWAR respectively in their first ML seasons (all better than Chirinos this year though). The -0.2 was in only 36 PAs. I have a hypothesis that catching at the ML level is significantly more mentally demanding than fans realize. All this doesn't necessarily apply to Handley, but it's a trend. I'd leave him unprotected and let this Cam Gallagher guy back Adley up next year.

The thread is up to date now! I project 5 guys being protected but could be 1 or 2 more. And there is considerable 40-man roster space. There are 12-15 guys on the 40-man roster right now who would not be missed.

End of minor league season thoughts Protect: 1. Grayson Rodriguez 2. Joey Ortiz 3. Drew Rom 4. Seth Johnson 5. Noah Denoyer Don't Protect: 6. Maverick Handley 7. Ignacio Feliz 8. Garrett Stallings 9. Brennan Hanifee 10. Zach Peek - This is my final answer. It was fun to track how the list changed throughout the year in this thread. Joey Ortiz went from bubble to lock and Noah Denoyer went from unknown to protection-worthy. I think I'll start this thread in spring next year to track the rise and fall better. I didn't mention guys like Adam Hall or Robert Neustrom, because I think there's no chance. But, I would have said the same about Logan Gillaspie last year. We'll see if Mike agrees with me or throws another curveball. I still go back and forth on Handley, but ultimately think it's unlikely a team selects a catcher who's never played at AAA. Any disagreements?

September Thoughts No Brainers: 1. Grayson Rodriguez 2. Joseph Ortiz 3. Seth Johnson 4. Drew Rom 5. Noah Denoyer On the Bubble 6. Maverick Handley I'd be stunned: 7. Ignacio Feliz 8. Garrett Stallings 9. Adam Hall 10. Shane Fontana Some of you may disagree about Noah Denoyer being a lock, but he had a great year at Bowie with a lot of strikeouts and low walks. He'll be selected in the Rule 5 if he's not protected. I'm not sure about Handley. I doubt anyone takes a catcher who's never caught at AAA but maybe his defense is special enough to make up for that. I don't think any of us even considered Logan Gillaspie a candidate last year, so who knows?

It’s a very difficult play for the defenders with extreme speed on 3B. If they make an incredible play or get a perfect ball to field, more power to them. Most of the time, they won’t

Terrible pitching by Baker. He had an extreme free-swinger down 0-2 and was just pumping fastballs right over the middle. Did it twice in a row. I'm sure Adley wanted that high.

None of you seem to understand. We're not locked in here with them. They're locked in here with us!

Option A has been eliminated. If you had to choose today, would you pay Lyles 10M for next year or let him walk?

You’re the man, Tony! Thank you for keeping this site going.

Jim Palmer is hysterical. "I don't know if you could make a worse pitch. If you said, I want to throw the worst hanging slider in the history of baseball, you just saw it."

I agree in theory, but I’m worried that Mike is getting addicted to rebuilding. We could compete next year and the year after and Lopez would have helped. Trading an all star closer for a meh return with years of control left doesn’t inspire me that he’s thinking about building a contender.

This is a Bundy-style quantity over quality trade. Unexciting, I thought we'd get more for a controllable all-star closer. At first glance, Povich seems like a Drew Rom level prospect. The two young guys, Nunez and Rojas, have great numbers but are very young and far away. Cano seems like a waiver wire type pickup.

Assume Hays, Mullins, and Stowers is the OF next year. Would you rather have Santander or Mancini at DH? In my mind, they're roughly equal players, except Santander is 3 years younger, has more defensive value, and has 2 years of team control left after this year. Of course, Mike will probably trade Santander tomorrow and make this a moot point.

Gunnar has already spent about equal time in Norfolk as he did in Bowie. With almost equal success. Mike has already implicitly declared that 200 PAs is enough of a sample to deem a player ready for promotion. It's time.

Here's a fun fact: Diaz only recorded one extra base hit in July (on July 3rd) in Norfolk despite getting everyday ABs all month. The only explanations I can think of are Stowers is hurt or Diaz was already here due to some taxi squad situation.

That was a fun read! I was certain Mancini would be the next Joe Mahoney, shows what I know. And Andrew Triggs ended up carving out a career for himself in Oakland's bullpen for 3 years.

I'm surprised to see folks leaving Drew Rom off. He's a virutal lock for me: Tony's #17 prospect and having a good year in Bowie at just 22 years old. 3.88 ERA, 3.74 FIP, 10.98 K/9, 2.84 BB/9.

August thoughts No Brainers: 1. Grayson Rodriguez 2. Kyle Stowers 3. Drew Rom (3.92 ERA, 4.72 FIP for Rom in July. He's not lighting the world on fire in AA, but he's been quite good and that's enough to get protected for a 22 y.o.) On the Bubble: 4. Noah Denoyer (Having a strong year, but hasn't pitched since 7/14 and is on the injured list. Not sure what the injury is.) 5. Joey Ortiz (Finally broke out this month with .404/.438/.674 and low strikeouts. If he hits the rest of the year, I'd protect him.) 6. Maverick Handley (.217/.357/.478 in July. I still find it hard to imagine a catcher with no AAA experience getting selected, but he's turning himself into a real prospect). 7. Ignacio Feliz (6.30 BB/9 in Aberdeen this month. Feliz is interesting and gets a lot of Ks, but probably not worthy of protection until he throws more strikes.) Unlikely: 8. Garrett Stallings (I totally wrote Stallings off, but he had an outstanding July. 1.46 ERA with 31 Ks and 2 BBs. Probably doesn't get protected since his ERA is 7.23 this year, but he's worth paying attention to again.) 9. Adam Hall (I like Hall but he can't seem to put it together. Injuries and inconsistency.) Other thoughts: Bishop retired and Peek got TJ. Neustrom and Grenier are Org guys at this point, although Neustrom's career mirrors Mike Yastrzemski's well through this age.

Impressive AB. But I’m concerned he’ll go the way of DJ Stewart and Chance Sisco. Some guys have great eyes but can’t catch up to ML pitching. Pitchers learn to go right after them and they can’t adjust. The warehouse doesn’t seem to think much of his defense either.

Assuming Mancini and Santander are traded, do we have enough offense to contend next year? If the lineup includes Mullins, Rutschmann, Hays, Mountcastle, Henderson, Stowers, Westburg, Urias, and Mateo, is that a lineup that can contend? There's a lot of uncertainty there.

That return is similar to if the Orioles gave up Gunnar Henderson, Connor Norby, Jean Pinto, and Carter Baumler.

They traded for Tyler Naquin?!?! We should see if they'll trade prospects for DJ Stewart if that's the caliber of player they want.

Mountcastle is Adam Jones at the plate. He'll go through a stretch where he swings at every slider in the dirt and we'll all say "This guy can't hit" and then he'll go through a stretch where he mashes and we'll all say "He's finally turned a corner and learned how to hit" and repeat. The end result is an above average hitter though. Mounty's career wRC+ is 115 which plays at 1B as an average regular, but certainly not the straw that stirs the drink.

Tremendous comeback win! Bullpen continues to dominate. Urias and Mateo were outstanding tonight.