Should Rowell Go To Frederick Next April?

[DrungoHazewood]

I don't think we're taking the thread off direction by talking about Snyder at this point. The decisions concerning his and Rowell's assignments go hand in hand. Where does Snyder play? Do they both play in Frederick? Does Snyder leap to Bowie? Am I correct in my instincts that Rowell should be playing 3B just about every day?

Please don't bother blindly responding that they should both be in Frederick without giving your 2 cents concerning where they get their at bats. Thanks.

They should both be in Frederick. Rowell plays pretty much every day at third base. Snyder plays almost every day split between 1B, DH, LF, maybe a few games behind the plate. Players who are considered to be lesser prospects (i.e. almost everyone else in the organization) gets to fight for their own playing time, or plays somewhere else.

[Tony-OH]

I agree here. I'm not sure when it became necessary to make sure a player dominates a league before he moves up. It certainly wasn't that way throughout history, including for many (probably most) current major leaguers. I'm not sure when ballplayers became so mentally fragile that a couple months of adjusting to high A pitching is a huge risk to a guy's entire career. Probably about the same time folks started saying that every 9th inning 3-run lead was the mental equivalent of the Bataan Death March.

Put the kid in Frederick, let him play. I'm betting that even if he's hitting .197 on May 15th he's not going to be reduced to sobbing incoherently in the dugout.

Every situation has to be looked at individually since every player's situation is a little different. The Orioles will look at his spring training performance, temperment, last season's performance and where other prospects need to play like Snyder. It's not as simple as saying "I'm not sure when it became necessary to make sure a player dominates a league before he moves up. It certainly wasn't that way throughout history...Put the kid in Frederick, let him play."

I really don't have a problem with him starting at either place as long as he's healthy and gettting his at bats. He did nothing to force his way to a promotion and he'll only be 19-years old next season, so going back to Delmarva and putting up some good numbers might be the success he needs to get him back on track.