7Mo

Thousands sign petition seeking removal of Vick... https://www.nbc4i.com/news/u-s-world/thousands-sign-petitions-demanding-nfl-remove-former-qb-michael-vick-as-pro-bowl-captain/ I'm not the moral police. I understand people change, grow, deserve second chances. I'm all in favor of that. But I think it ignores today's climate to think there wouldn't be significant negative attention.

JJ Cooper likes Rojas. https://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2019/12/a-look-at-the-upcoming-rule-5-draft-with-baseball-americas-jj-cooper.html

Thank you. Much appreciated.

There's a lot of good stuff in your post. I'll look forward to the rest. Thanks.

Excellent. Thanks for the detailed response.

I know. I was joking. I appreciated him asking for questions. It just struck me as funny that he asked for questions over an hour ago and he hasn't posted since. Maybe I asked bad questions.

@Luke-OHSo when you said you'd be happy to answer any questions.....

Expound on the electric Wandisson Charles. What holds Hever Bueno back? If Cody Thomas and Buddy Reed haven't figured it out by now, why should we be able to fix them? Steven Fuentes is described as "statistically dominant" and blah stuff. Not likely to translate at MLB?? Trevor Megill seems like a safe add but with limited ceiling?? Is it likely the O's are looking for 2-3 inning relievers? Not quite a starter profile but a guy who can hold stuff for 3 innings at a time? Maybe with the idea of using an opener?

You've mentioned the difference in taking a guy who can fill in for the time being as opposed to a guy who has ceiling, a developmental guy. There's talk on the board about Hechevarria. You've described Alemais as an outstanding glove who isn't likely to hit much. Without knowing, they seem pretty similar, Alemais likely to be a superior defender. You're inviting questions about specific prospects and I appreciate that. But my questions, for now, are: 1- are Hechevarria and Alemais pretty similar and if so 2- why use a Rule 5 pick on Alemais if you can get basically the same guy (Hech) on the open market? It seems likely there will be a bullpen guy available that might help the O's in 2020 but isn't a long term difference maker. And in the same vein as above, there should be some free agents that do the same. I'm looking forward to your list and will have questions then but I'd guess my focus is on who has value over and above available free agents. Going one step further, you've talked about the Angels 4 return as guys with tools for the Holt staff to develop. Would you think those tools likely telegraph who the O's focus on in the Rule 5?

Michael Vick is still hoping people will move on and forget.

Completely agree with this^^^

I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. I think Rolison is going to be really good. But Colo can't sign free agent pitchers. I think they'd do everything possible to avoid trading pitching prospects.

That article also speculates on younger arms instead of MLB ready talent, mentioning Justin Steele or Ryan Jensen. I'd vote no on Jensen since he's 44 years old.

To be fair, that's a world class albatross.

Agreed. But it might deflect criticism from Jeter, although it's contrary to building an organization. Short sighted at the least. Subtle moves show Derek Jeter may be sick of Marlins embarrassment https://nypost.com/2019/12/03/subtle-moves-show-derek-jeter-may-be-sick-of-marlins-embarrassment/

Agreed and it could also be as simple as the Angels viewed their guys differently than we did. Maybe we like what they call their #30 better than the guy they call their #20.

From what we've seen so far, Elias appears to be very transparent with his quotes.

From what I've read the last week, my guess is Elias told Maier to do it.

I agree. While not exactly in line with what you're saying, when the Red Sox hired Chaim Bloom, I read what I could find on him and the thing that struck me was the idea he was constantly in touch with about every other team regarding who they were willing to trade and who or what type of range they wanted back. It just struck me that these trade negotiations sometimes go on for months and months, sometimes reaching a deal but more often than not, no deal being reached but information shared throughout. Looking at the Eppler and Elias comments, it looks to me like Elias had fairly serious negotiations with a few teams that extended over months. That would be in line with what I seemed to pick up from the Bloom articles. Maybe that's obvious, or common sense but I just hadn't thought about it that way before.

Eppler said almost exactly what you're saying here. Baltimore had a number of names in mind. Those are the players they had targeted. As we kind of worked through the deal, that is how it evolved. “If their approach was quantity, we were open to that. If their approach would have been one player and aiming somewhere different, we would have entertained that too. We kind of worked through the deal and this was ultimately where it went. We didn’t have a target list of guys we wanted to utilize in this trade. Those guys are talented. Quite frankly, you give up players you just recently drafted, that can go in a number of directions. Every deal hurts. This one is no different.”

The dreaded "broken injury" strikes again. Tough to get over.

Would you guess the O's would want to see him/them pitch for a few months before moving to the pen or do you think its already clear?

I like it. Gotta trust the developmental staff now.

I hope he has a really good ST just to see how they handle it.

And we were SO close.....