Keith Law takes another shot at the O's

[mskrulz]

Everbody is talking about the height and weight of this kid but let's take a look at things from another perspective. Say the kid is a cross between what the article says he is and Keith Law says he is. Let's say we view him as a project with a decent ceiling and a chance to make it to the major leagues. Let's say that chance is somewhere around 20%.

Could it be that we are willing to spend 550K on a kid (really not that much money in the scheme of things) to increase our visibility in that part of the world? I'm not saying that's exactly what happened but it almosts amounts to advertising. In College sports there are many cases where teams offer and give scholarships to teammates of players to try to entice another player to go to their schools. By taking a chance on this kid doesn't that help get the attention of other players in that country who may be looking to sign deals later with us. It is obvious that were have looked to make a proactive splash in the Asian market this offseason. By giving out some money for a kid who may or may not ever make it to the majors we may have opened another outlet for talent into our system.

Everybody has bashed the Orioles (myself included) for not being active in them Latin market. We have been way behind other organizations and have taken a lot of flack in baseball circles. Isn't Duquette smart for looking in this direction? Couldn't this be part of the master plan?

Am I on to something?

[Frobby]

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing, something just doesn't add up there. From the Sun article it says he sits high 80's with an above avg. curve. I can see that being worth the investment if they think he's going to grow some more and they control him for 6 years now. It's REALLY snarky, even for Keith, which is what kinda bothers me though, he usually doesn't take shots like that unless he's pretty sure about what he's talking about.

Honestly, I'm not going to care too much about his opinions about some kid from Korea that he has never seen. If he has an opinion on a top 10 Orioles prospect, or some player they acquired in the majors, I'm more likely to pay attention. His assessment of Vlad and Reynolds last winter was pretty correct, unfortunately.

[SilentJames]

I don't get upset about Law much anymore. He takes shots at all teams and no move ever seems to get anything more than a mild shrug.

For example, even though Chen was one of his top 20 FA's this year when the Orioles picked him up he responded with a "Might work out for them" type response.

[allstar1579]

Honestly, I'm not going to care too much about his opinions about some kid from Korea that he has never seen. If he has an opinion on a top 10 Orioles prospect, or some player they acquired in the majors, I'm more likely to pay attention. His assessment of Vlad and Reynolds last winter was pretty correct, unfortunately.

Yeah, I think I'm right there with you. I'm hoping he was just giving a snarky comment without any actual info on this kid. It is hard to come by, I checked. I do tend to listen when it comes to draft prospects because he gets out in the field and sees most if not all of the top guys himself. I think he's not really likely to have seen anything of this kid though, and I'm going to trust that if the FO is spending such a large amount on this kid that they saw something no one else did, but I don't know how many other teams are scouting Korea too much right now.

[Frobby]

Everbody is talking about the height and weight of this kid but let's take a look at things from another perspective. Say the kid is a cross between what the article says he is and Keith Law says he is. Let's say we view him as a project with a decent ceiling and a chance to make it to the major leagues. Let's say that chance is somewhere around 20%.

Could it be that we are willing to spend 550K on a kid (really not that much money in the scheme of things) to increase our visibility in that part of the world? I'm not saying that's exactly what happened but it almosts amounts to advertising. In College sports there are many cases where teams offer and give scholarships to teammates of players to try to entice another player to go to their schools. By taking a chance on this kid doesn't that help get the attention of other players in that country who may be looking to sign deals later with us. It is obvious that were have looked to make a proactive splash in the Asian market this offseason. By giving out some money for a kid who may or may not ever make it to the majors we may have opened another outlet for talent into our system.

Everybody has bashed the Orioles (myself included) for not being active in them Latin market. We have been way behind other organizations and have taken a lot of flack in baseball circles. Isn't Duquette smart for looking in this direction? Couldn't this be part of the master plan?

Am I on to something?

Astute point, and yes, I do think DD is partially just getting the message out in the Far East, Australia and New Zealand that the Orioles are a team to be contacted when there's a good young prospect on the horizon. Look how Koji helped the Orioles to get Chen and Wada. I definitely think it helps.

But I don't expect the O's to be quiet in the Dominican. That question was raised at Fanfest. Duquette said, don't worry, we'll be signing plenty of Dominican players. He reminded the person who asked the question that Fred Ferreira is the one who signed Vlad, Javier Vazquez, and many others, and is considered scouting royalty in the Dominican. So, I take Duquette at his word that we'll be active there.

[Fan4Life]

Everbody is talking about the height and weight of this kid but let's take a look at things from another perspective. Say the kid is a cross between what the article says he is and Keith Law says he is. Let's say we view him as a project with a decent ceiling and a chance to make it to the major leagues. Let's say that chance is somewhere around 20%.

Could it be that we are willing to spend 550K on a kid (really not that much money in the scheme of things) to increase our visibility in that part of the world? I'm not saying that's exactly what happened but it almosts amounts to advertising. In College sports there are many cases where teams offer and give scholarships to teammates of players to try to entice another player to go to their schools. By taking a chance on this kid doesn't that help get the attention of other players in that country who may be looking to sign deals later with us. It is obvious that were have looked to make a proactive splash in the Asian market this offseason. By giving out some money for a kid who may or may not ever make it to the majors we may have opened another outlet for talent into our system.

Everybody has bashed the Orioles (myself included) for not being active in them Latin market. We have been way behind other organizations and have taken a lot of flack in baseball circles. Isn't Duquette smart for looking in this direction? Couldn't this be part of the master plan?

Am I on to something?

I think the writer of the SUN Article linked earlier in this thread makes this point..

While the signing of Kim appears to be the Orioles’ first high-profile signing of a teenage Korean pitcher, don’t expect it to be the last. The move puts the organization on the radar in Korea and makes it known it is willing to tap into young arms in the country. The O’s are making their name known there very quickly.

[Sports Guy]

It matters whether or not Law has the facts correct. He was bashing the signing based on specific information (which may or may not be true) and then tied that information into a bash of the organization. Sounds a lot like you actually.

LOL...This thread was started and people jumped with no knowledge of the pitcher. It was all about people crying because their little team gets bashed by the same people over and over again. Chaos and others had no clue if his facts were right and quite frankly, they didn't care.

Hopefully you are smart enough to see that..if not, well, that's on you.

[Lucky Jim]

Umm..........yikes.

I assume you mean that's not much of a profile. I certainly wasn't blown away when I read it a while ago (though certainly, if his curve and change are advanced, that's a good start).

That said, if this profile is unimpressive, why use flawed info that makes it look worse?

[TiredofLosing20]

Keith Law had no clue if his facts were right and quite frankly, he didn't care.

Fixed that for you.

[Fan4Life]

LOL...This thread was started and people jumped with no knowledge of the pitcher. It was all about people crying because their little team gets bashed by the same people over and over again. Chaos and others had no clue if his facts were right and quite frankly, they didn't care.

Hopefully you are smart enough to see that..if not, well, that's on you.

But your response wasn't just against the posters making what you essentially call ill-informed comments.. it was once again used to bash the organization... still smarting over Eveland are ya?

[ChaosLex]

@ChaosLex

@keithlaw @pgammo News reports out if (sic) Korea have him topping out at 144kph or 89.5mph. Retraction? #Orioles

@keithlaw

@ChaosLex I have no idea if they issued a retraction. Sorry.

characters

[Conway12]

I have no problem with anybody bashing the Orioles, because as said before it is deserved, however my problem with Law is the way he says things. Whenever he bashes anyone he acts with such a "holier than thou" attitude that I in particularly despise. Its not like he was overly successful in building anything.

[Sports Guy]

But your response wasn't just against the posters making what you essentially call ill-informed comments.. it was once again used to bash the organization... still smarting over Eveland are ya?

Seriously? Just stop conversing with me if this is going to be your questioning because its so awful.

[Stotle]

I assume you mean that's not much of a profile. I certainly wasn't blown away when I read it a while ago (though certainly, if his curve and change are advanced, that's a good start).

That said, if this profile is unimpressive, why use flawed info that makes it look worse?

It's not, and it also reads "org rosy". I don't think the info in the article makes intuitive sense.

Not that it matters at this point -- we'll see how the kid looks this summer in the complex league and then hopefully next year in short-season ball.

[DrungoHazewood]

Hey, Old Hoss Radbourn was like 5'9" and that dude used to pitch 600 innings a season.

I'll be mildly impressed if this kid goes up to Buck in mid-July and says "The other starters on this team are a bunch of drunks. I'm starting every game from now to the end of the year." Then he does it, and the team wins the pennant.