Orioles plan to select the contract of INF Manny Machado

[Brendan25]

I was SHOCKED to see this. Really thinking about going tonight.

[waroriole]

Wow, tonight's game is gonna be epic. I don't know how he'll do, but I like the boldness of the move.

[NewMarketSean]

Wow, awesome news. Sucks I won't be able to watch tonight...

[weams]

Dan Connolly ‏@danconnollysun

The Orioles say he will be making his major-league debut on Thursday. So looks like he'll be starting. He'll play third

- that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

[Abadie]

I just took an old Koji free give away tee shirt and cut out Machado to glue over the name. I'll be wearing that all day today, don't even care about the number. Oh and I'm in a NY beach town....can't wait to tell the Yankee fans..."footsteps!" when they ask who Machado is.

Great move by DD.

[Ampontan]

Going from any other infield position to short is a very tough transition. Moving a shortstop to third is not as tough a task.

True, but that's not applicable to Brian Roberts. He was drafted as a shortstop and played short throughout his minor league career for the Orioles until he reached Bowie. He also played at AAA the year that he switched, and played at short there, and part of the time the next year as well.

When Roberts played short in Baltimore, he wasn't making a transition. He was playing his original position.

[jamalshw]

I turned on my radio for my long commute to MLB Network and as I did, I heard them talking about a surprise call-up of a player that wasn't completley beating down the door at AA, but likely called up because of the void at 3B and I started to wonder. I thought "could it be Machado?...no, can't be..."

What a surprise. Here's hoping he succeeds and doesn't need to be sent back down.

[TiredofLosing20]

So the cynic in me wonders if the timing of this promotion has anything to do with the Ravens playing tonight. Could this be a PR move, an attempt to grab some headlines on a Thursday against the Royals on the night the Ravens open up their pre-season and the traditional start of the O's taking a backseat for the rest of the season. Of course they wouldn't have done this if he wasn't hot. Not suggesting that they would promote him if he were stinking up the joint in AA, but given his recent hot streak it made it an option.

Part of the problem I have with this is that I just don't see the baseball logic to bringing up a barely turned 20 year old who is OPSing at .789 at AA (coming off of a July where his OPS was .711) and start him at a position that he has played in exactly two games in his minor league career (committing 1 error) in the middle of a 5 game winning streak during the teams first playoff chase in 14 years. This makes no sense to me. The only thing that makes it remotely logical if they are planning on platooning him with Betemit against lefties. But then you are taking ABs against your best position prospect and I am not sure that makes a ton of sense either.

Maybe he is ready, The O's would know a lot more about that than me and I don't necessarily think bringing him up is the wrong decision (we will find that out shortly) but honestly it smells a bit like a PR move to me.

(NOTE: If he doesn't play tonight (which I would bet my paycheck that he will) then disregard this post)

[Brendan25]

So the cynic in me wonders if the timing of this promotion has anything to do with the Ravens playing tonight. Could this be a PR move, an attempt to grab some headlines on a Thursday against the Royals on the night the Ravens open up their pre-season and the traditional start of the O's taking a backseat for the rest of the season. Of course they wouldn't have done this if he wasn't hot. Not suggesting that they would promote him if he were stinking up the joint in AA, but given his recent hot streak it made it an option.

Part of the problem I have with this is that I just don't see the baseball logic to bringing up a barely turned 20 year old who is OPSing at .789 at AA (coming off of a July where his OPS was .711) and start him at a position that he has played in exactly two games in his minor league career (committing 1 error) in the middle of a 5 game winning streak during the teams first playoff chase in 14 years. This makes no sense to me. The only thing that makes it remotely logical if they are planning on platooning him with Betemit against lefties. But then you are taking ABs against your best position prospect and I am not sure that makes a ton of sense either.

Maybe he is ready, The O's would know a lot more about that than me and I don't necessarily think bringing him up is the wrong decision (we will find that out shortly) but honestly it smells a bit like a PR move to me.

(NOTE: If he doesn't play tonight (which I would bet my paycheck that he will) then disregard this post)

I wondered that also, but I HIGHLY doubt that that would be the main reason for doing this. I'm sure they think he is ready regardless.

[EagleOriole]

Wow, I need to sleep in more often. I am SO PUMPED UP! Five straight wins. 20 year old promoted to play 3B. Four straight games against KC. Let's Go O's!

[DrungoHazewood]

Just woke up to the news of Machado being promoted TO THE MAJORS, this is crazy! I guess we know why we didn't push harder for Headley.

Me, too. This is nuts. Calling up Machado is one thing, but calling him up to play third base? Interesting. I assume MacPhail would have done this only after heavy doses of experimental drugs.

In case nobody mentioned this, and surely to jinx him, ARod's numbers from the year he turned 20 in July: .232/.264/.408 with 5 homers in 150 PAs. Retroactively figured -4 defense, for a -0.4 WAR. I guess that's the goal to set, beat ARod's age 19 season numbers.

[DrungoHazewood]

So the cynic in me wonders if the timing of this promotion has anything to do with the Ravens playing tonight. Could this be a PR move, an attempt to grab some headlines on a Thursday against the Royals on the night the Ravens open up their pre-season and the traditional start of the O's taking a backseat for the rest of the season. Of course they wouldn't have done this if he wasn't hot. Not suggesting that they would promote him if he were stinking up the joint in AA, but given his recent hot streak it made it an option.

Part of the problem I have with this is that I just don't see the baseball logic to bringing up a barely turned 20 year old who is OPSing at .789 at AA (coming off of a July where his OPS was .711) and start him at a position that he has played in exactly two games in his minor league career (committing 1 error) in the middle of a 5 game winning streak during the teams first playoff chase in 14 years. This makes no sense to me. The only thing that makes it remotely logical if they are planning on platooning him with Betemit against lefties. But then you are taking ABs against your best position prospect and I am not sure that makes a ton of sense either.

Maybe he is ready, The O's would know a lot more about that than me and I don't necessarily think bringing him up is the wrong decision (we will find that out shortly) but honestly it smells a bit like a PR move to me.

(NOTE: If he doesn't play tonight (which I would bet my paycheck that he will) then disregard this post)

Nothing to do with that at all. There is no way on God's green earth that even an Angelos-led team would call up their top prospect before he's ready in order to get a relatively minor one-time bump in publicity and attendance.

[TiredofLosing20]

I wondered that also, but I HIGHLY doubt that that would be the main reason for doing this. I'm sure they think he is ready regardless.

I think the PR could be the main reason for the timing. I would have guessed if he had continued to be as hot as he has been that he would have been a Sept call-up anyway. I guess I just find it curious to say the least.

[Frobby]

Well, that is big news to wake up to!

I don't see a big downside to this move. I look at it this way: assume Machado had broken a toe in last night's game. Would you really be concerned that his development had been hampered by not playing the final 26 games of the AA season? Of course not. And then, next spring, where would he be? He'd probably be given a shot to make the Orioles out of spring training, with the more likely outcome being that he'd start the season in Norfolk (no way he'd be going back to Bowie, right?), and then he would get called up some time next year.

So now instead of nursing his broken toe, or playing 26 more games for a team he has already played 82% of a season for, he will spend some time in the majors. The Orioles will get a chance to see, in real game conditions, at a time when he is in game shape and playing well, just how ready he is or isn't to play at the major league level. So, both over this winter when decisions have to be made about player acquisitions, and also when he comes to spring training and the team is deciding who goes North, the team will be in a much better position to evaluate whether Machado is ready to make the major league roster or not, than they would be if he had just stayed in AA and they had to make these decisions purely on projection (for the winter decisions) and spring training games. And, if he's not quite ready, there's absolutely no shame in starting next season in AAA, as players like David Price and Mike Trout did after their first taste of the majors. He's no worse off from a developmental standpoint, and arguably better off from having had a little major league experience and seeing what he needs to work on.

Now to the next question -- how much can he help the Orioles now? My best guess is, he may help them a little, probably not a ton, and he won't hurt them. Defensively, I expect him to play 3B better than Betemit and not as well as Andino. Offensively, I expect him to hit as well or better than Andino has this year (.227/.292/.318), and not as well as Betemit (.263/.323/.427). Certainly he should do better than Flaherty, whose spot he is effectively taking (.205/.242/.308). It will be interesting to see how Buck deploys him, and whether he plays every day, most days, or only occasionally. My guess is he'll be a "most days" player, but I suppose it depends how he looks.

So, I am excited about the move, think it makes reasonable sense, and I'm praying like hell that Machado helps us win some games.

One last thing -- I do not expect a huge attendance bump tonight, and I don't think this move was made for attendance reasons. We on the OH are very excited about this, but out there in Casual Fan Land I don't think Machado has received nearly the hype that Wieters had received. If the pennant race isn't enough to get a fan to the park, I doubt they are going to go to see Machado. I'm sure there will be a couple of thousand extra fans for his debut, but that's about it, I expect.

[weams]

Me, too. This is nuts. Calling up Machado is one thing, but calling him up to play third base? Interesting. I assume MacPhail would have done this only after heavy doses of experimental drugs.

Maybe Dan got one of these along with the Bloomberg package.