Paganosfan

Any idea on how Mayo’s infield chances are compared to Mountcastle’s? His MLB Pipeline scouting report mentions that he may have to move to LF or 1B in the future. I feel like Mountcastle played the minors almost entirely out of position at SS and 3B and I cant help but wonder how much better defensively Mountcastle (and perhaps Mayo) would be long term to have more experience in the minors playing the position(s) they are ultimately suited for at the MLB level. Also, Im kind of new to following minor league performance. Is it normal for MLB SS and 3B to have struggled defensively in the minors before they figured it out? I did a historical look back at Nolan Arenado’s scouting report and saw some skepticism about his defensive play, but he ended up becoming a very good MLB defensive 3B.

Is anyone else starting to get a little skeptical about how effective this process is of annually flipping solid starters for prospects who have the future upside of being fringe to average players? Don’t get me wrong, it was fully necessary over the past few years to restock a depleted farm system. But other than Means, who might be our best trade chip since Machado, I don’t see anyone on the roster returning any top 100 prospects. Id expect Harvey and Valdez could fetch us a package of top 30 guys in the caliber of Akin, Vavra, or Jones. Those types of guys may turn out to be solid starters on our next winning team, but that is probably their upside and the more likely scenario is that they are a “cup of coffee” type player. The problem i think we have now is that we have a log jam of similar quality OF and IF prospects, but not enough playing time to go around. If our competitive window is in two years, what are your thoughts on keeping/extending the quality starters that we have now and using the depth in our minors to start trading for other teams’ Mancini’s, Santander’s, Means’, etc.? Teams don’t trade prospects for prospects, so that way we could send a package of our top 15-30 guys and return proven starters for the next several years. As ive gotten older ive had to accept that prospects are exciting due to their potential. But the chances of any top 30 prospect turning into even a Gausman, Bundy, Castro, Schoop, Santander, etc. is not as high as we like to believe. I’m thinking it might be a good idea this season to trade begin trading certain prospects while we can and try to get a few solid starters in areas of weakness so that we can more quickly compete when Rutschman, Rodriguez, Kjerstad, Hall, and Henderson are ready. Thoughts?

I see your point. Taking that at face value, the answer has to be no. I think for Rutschman, we have to consider his prospect pedigree, age, the lost minor league year, our competitive window, and team control. If he made low A ball pitchers look ridiculous in his pro debut two years ago, I think it might be one of many factors influencing in the decision. It's my optimistic belief that there's not too many things that he would need to work on in the minors (unlike a HS kid). So it's mostly a matter of testing how he does against major league pitching.

I think that Rutschman should be up sometime this year (I voted for September). I'm fine having Severino and Sisco split the reps for most of the year in the meantime. There's an outside chance that they both perform reasonably well and we can trade one of them at the deadline. Had Rutschman come out on fire in his first pro season in 2019, I might be more aggressive. But I do think that it would be good to let him have a track record of minor league success, if nothing else but for his confidence. I'm of the belief that there probably isn't much else he needs to work on, and instead could benefit from seeing major league pitching. As others pointed out, less-heralded prospects have made their MLB debuts by 22. However, imagine if he starts on opening day, looks over-matched, and gets sent down to the minors to "work on things." It's not the end of the world, but it would be pretty disappointing for everyone involved. That may still ultimately happen, but having a track record of minor league success would soften that blow. Sure, he could come out the gate firing. But we are still maybe three years away from competing, so I think it would be in the Os best interest to save an extra year of team control.

Chris Davis’ comment that ownership “knew what they were getting themselves into” is wrong bc he has operated at below replacement level for most of his contract. That is certainly NOT what everyone had in mind when they paid him all that money. It would be different if he has any sort of success in the early years of his contract. But Davis has not held up his end of the bargain at all. At this point, I think several things can be true at once: 1) Davis has the right to earn every penny owed to him. 2) The organization has the right to pressure him to retire given that he’s been the worst active MLB player for a few years now, and 3) Os fans who buy tickets to the 2021-2022 games have the right to boo Davis at every at bat.