7Mo

And Sean Gilmartin.

11.7 baseball scholarships which means a good player, a good player is likely at a one-third scholarship. And I agree nothing would change in terms of more college money since they can't get close to approving a third assistant coach. And that 33rd round pick is likely looking at a signing bonus between $1,000 and $5,000. That kids decision between whether to sign a pro contract or go to school likely wouldn't be affected but his "term" in pro ball would. Lots of guys sign with the team taking an attitude of "lets see if he develops and surprises us". I think those guys get way less time to develop before they're released. Then their choice is an indy league or start working for a living.

And the Whittlin Jamboree is must see.

Not sure there's much of a story that's been made public. Here's all I've seen: Mullins, who began the season in center field but was dropped to Triple-A Norfolk, then Double-A Bowie, was just 6-for-64 with the Orioles in the seasons’ early weeks. The Orioles are sending Mullins to a private batting school in California in an attempt to remake him as a hitter. https://www.baltimorebaseball.com/2019/10/01/elias-first-year-orioles-qualifed-success/ But, IMO, this is the sort of thing that will happen with a lot of players. I don't think it's an outlier. I'd imagine just about everyone is sent home with suggestions/directives about what to do in the offseason to improve.

I'm guessing there will be month long arguments about what number Mountcastle will wear when he's called up and what his walk up music will be.

Sorry, a couple of weeks is about 10 days beyond my memory capacity.

2019 marks first season as Angels pitching coach after working in the Houston Astros organization for the previous six years...Promoted to Houston's bullpen coach in 2018 which followed two seasons (2016-17) as the organization's Minor League Pitching Coordinator...In 2018, the Houston relief core paced the Majors in WHIP (1.06), runs allowed (175 R...56 fewer then any other team in the Majors), opponents batting average against (.214) and K/BB (4.28) and finished second in SO/9 (10.56)...Served as the organization's roving pitching instructor in 2014-15...Joined the Astros organization in 2013 as pitching coach for Single-A Tri-City...Prior to time with Astros, spent five seasons (2008-12) as a minor league pitching coach in the St. Louis Cardinals organization...During the 2009-12 campaigns, was the pitching coach for St. Louis' Rookie Level Johnson City, winning back-to-back Appalachian League Championship titles in 2010 and 2011 http://m.mlb.com/hou/roster/coach/534449/doug-white “I think he’s very good,” Ausmus said. “He’s definitely learning the in-game stuff just because he hasn’t done it as much. But the pitchers’ practice plan, the development [part], he really excels at. He’s got a ton of passion in what he does and toward the players he’s teaching.” https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2019-09-22/angels-pitching-coach-doug-white-analytics-lauded Maria Torres of the L.A. Times tweets that “numerous” pitchers had trouble adjusting to White’s ideas, including younger arms like Jaime Barria and Jose Suarez. 3:00pm: The Angels have fired pitching coach Doug White, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (via Twitter). His dimissal comes one day after the team announced that Brad Ausmus would not return as manager in 2020. Like Ausmus, White’s tenure with the Angels will last just one season. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/10/angels-fire-pitching-coach-doug-white.html White, who was Strom’s bullpen coach with the Astros last season before leaving for the Angels, is from the same mold as Johnson – fluent in the new language of pitching and facile with Trackman, which provides ball-tracking data, and Edgetronic and Rapsodo, which offer advanced camera and radar technology. They are the outsiders turned insiders. The sons of Brent Strom.

Rea seems to be recovered from a few injuries, having made 26 starts this year. I saw him pitch at Indiana State so I'd like to see him do well. Seems like a good gamble to take if we could sign him. The 2018 season was reminiscent of Rea’s early career in the minors as he struggled to come back from surgery and dealt with an additional lat injury that slowed his rehab. He had a 5.73 ERA over 75.1 IP, but did strike out 70 batters. This year, however, something seems to have clicked for Rea at Iowa. Maybe it’s just having a renewed confidence in himself after putting the elbow issues behind him. https://www.cubsinsider.com/2019/07/07/chicago-cubs-prospect-profile-colin-rea-looks-like-possible-plan-b-guy/

They're making smart choices and developing well. Look at the post above yours. They did a great job with Didi, Voit and LeMahieu. Didi was available for years and they changed Voit after trading for him. I understand the animosity. But they're a smart organization.

Agreed, unfortunately.

Right now, I doubt that Andy knows if he has a role either.

Personally, I hope they can add a few guys from the Rays, a few guys from the Dodgers, a few guys they've worked with previously, maybe like Mike Fast who was with the Astros and is now with the Braves, Jaron Madison with the Cubs that they knew with the Cards and some guys outside of pro baseball. The Rays and Dodgers are loaded with bright people, some of whom might be interested in a promotion that isn't available with their current team. I'm anxious to see player development, similar to what Means just talked about but I'm more interested in seeing who they bring in as coaches, analysts, coordinators, etc. Elias didn't have time last year. This year he does, and he's had a year to make contacts and set a plan. And bringing in Matt Blood should be a huge help too. Rule 5 will be interesting but the hires from now until then should set the path going forward. That's what I'm anxious to see.

“With K-Motion Baseball’s precise and personalized 3D swing data, the Orioles’ coaches can objectively identify opportunities for improvement in players’ swings, train the exact solutions and track progress through a centralized cloud dashboard,” the statement read. “Through the dashboard, coaches can now easily see relationships between different data points to uncover trends that will facilitate improved outcomes across the entire organization. K-Motion will also assist the Orioles with processing 3D swing data to detect potential injuries before they occur.” The Orioles, who had little data-driven infrastructure in place when Elias and Mejdel arrived in November, began using Edgertronic, Rapsodo, K-Vests and Blast Motion bat knob sensors in the Minors this season. Elias and new player development director Matt Blood are looking to fill the organization’s upwards of 30 vacant positions in player development, scouting and baseball ops with instructors who are data-fluent and tech-proficient. Elias has said he hired Blood, who has ties to Driveline, for his connections and experience in those areas. https://www.mlb.com/news/orioles-k-motion-player-development-partner

That's the playbook: Rebuilding, in this case (and most), means trading veteran assets as they get expensive for young, cheap talent in the form of prospects. Prospects, by nature, are unpredictable. We don’t know how any of them are going to turn out. But the fault here, if this rebuilding process doesn’t result in a competitive team, will be fall at the hands of the scouting department that gave the recommendations as to which prospects to acquire, not at the philosophy itself. The Astros have broken things all the way down. The mistake many teams make is to trade some valuable assets, like the Astros did with Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence, but then hold onto other assets to keep from having to field a completely uncompetitive teams, like the Astros did not do when they traded Carlos Lee and Wandy Rodriguez this past season. https://tht.fangraphs.com/houston-astros-show-how-to-rebuild-the-right-way/

I'm pretty sure Elias knows precisely what they did.

Good point. Hope that works out. Padres system is loaded.

Other than his mother, no one ever accused Steve Kline of being smart.

Totally agree. It'd be more fun to believe Elias and Mejdal are smarter than everyone else and have magic tricks to where every trade they make is a big winner but with the exception of maybe a few teams, every organization has significantly improved their operation and evaluation of players. And that'll look like collusion during the not so hot stove period but it's just a newer means of evaluating talent.

There's an article on how the Astros trade for Greinke came together (that I can't find right now) and what stood out to me was how the D'backs and Astros valued the same prospects almost exactly the same way. To me, the idea that "we know our guys way better than another team does" is kinda gone now.

Right. Not yet determined. Furthermore, the number of pitchers a club can carry on the active roster will be capped at a certain number, to be decided by the aforementioned joint committee. To adhere to that rule, clubs will have to designate each of their players as either a pitcher or a position player prior to each player’s first day on the active roster for a given season https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rules-changes

I'd rather go all in as do it halfway. I don't see any reason to try to become an 81 win team. And you could say "it's one guy, likely $6-7 million. They have the money" which is true but it's still not an all in approach. I hope Elias gets an offer he wants for Givens, Mancini and Villar and all are gone, even though I know what that will do to the MLB record next year. And if that's what Elias is trying to do, how does it make sense to bring in an incremental improvement at short when that guy is gone in a year or 2? What seems more possible is finding some guy languishing in the minor leagues who takes advantage of an opportunity like some guys did this year.

I think the focus is more on development rather than bringing in a stop gap. I understand the idea that fans would feel better winning a few more games but IMO, if the choice is to bring in a guy who won't be here in 2 years OR bring in 2-3 guys in A+ or AA who might be a part of the future, I think Elias is going to go the second route 100% of the time for now.

How did Hyde do that? Not doubting you, just not sure what you're seeing.

Russell Wilson is using a mental conditioning coach. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27754778/mental-conditioning-driving-force-russell-wilson-success