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Orioles select 3b Michael Almanzar of the Boston Red Sox in Rule V Draft


Sanfran327

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>More Duquette on Almanzar: "He has a good bat, 16 home runs in the Eastern League shows significant power."</p>— Steve Melewski (@masnSteve) <a href="
">December 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

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Starting to feel sorry for Dan here. Trying to sell us on him.

I feel more sorry for him when he's trying to sell us on Francisco Peguero.

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The other thing that's puzzling that even if he's underperformed and had high upside, I'd expect to see him on a top 30 prospects list for the Red Sox. I've gone back to 2011 and no sign of Almanzar.

If a player is a highly rated player in an organization, and progressed far enough to be considered in the major league portion of the rule 5 draft, wouldn't he most likely be on the 40-man roster? Are most MLB portion rule 5 draftees highly ranked in their former organization? I don't know, that is why I am asking.

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The sad part of this is that this appears to be a yearly event for the Orioles to fill one roster spot. Of the eight other teams that selected a player' date=' four finished last and two finished one spot from last. The Rule V draft wasn't exactly devised as a tool to get you over the top.[/quote']

Well, we finished one spot from last... and I'm pretty sure that the National pundits (and me) have the O's projected to finish last in the AL East in 2014.

So why not keep another Rule V pick on the ML roster??

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So a guess hitter with gap power, average speed and an average eye, who apparently is just slightly more effective at third base than setting up a pitchback over there (.912 fielding average there last year), which leaves a RH 1B without the power or discipline you want to see from that position. Let's see you recover from that loss, Boston! Jeez, at least Ishikawa was a solid fielder.

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There is a lot to pick a part in his swing. But as you know, Dominican's don't have the best mechanics when it comes to hitting. What concerns me is he's been in pro baseball since he was 16 years old and up until this year still has a lot of work to do on his swing. From the O's perspective, he's got grown man power that hasn't necessarily translated to games yet. So they're taking a chance on the power aspect, since that is one thing you can't teach in baseball.

I can reach out to one of my guys over at the Red Sox who works with the minor league guys and get his take on Almanzar.

Let's keep perspective here guys. There is a reason they're exposed to the Rule 5 draft.

Right, but it just seems strange if the Orioles see themselves as a contender, that they would pick a guy like him as a Rule 5 guy. If we were the Astros I could see taking a flier on him, but not a contender. Maybe DD really doesn't see us as a contender next year?

Either way, you said all of those flaws are correctable but he's been in the minors for six years and still looks like this. Some guys can't correct those flaws. Honestly this is no big deal overall, but this off season is not exactly inspiring from a fan's perspective.

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I see no reason not to like this pick. It's a rule 5 guy. Bring him to ST and see what happens. Carrying a rule 5 guy didn't hurt our team last year as much as carrying 3 2nd Basemen all year. Obviously Almanzar has figured something out the last two years. With Fred F now in the organization I have faith in our international guys in the minors now. At least he's not Julio Morban or that catcher we took a few years ago.

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Right, but it just seems strange if the Orioles see themselves as a contender, that they would pick a guy like him as a Rule 5 guy. If we were the Astros I could see taking a flier on him, but not a contender. Maybe DD really doesn't see us as a contender next year?

Either way, you said all of those flaws are correctable but he's been in the minors for six years and still looks like this. Some guys can't correct those flaws. Honestly this is no big deal overall, but this off season is not exactly inspiring from a fan's perspective.

I can't argue that picking someone up like that is a head scratcher for a team that claims they're contending. I'm just going off a technical standpoint. Those flaws are easily correctable. With that said, I can't take in account willingness to correct flaws. Some players have the mindsets at a young age, that this is what got me here, i'm sticking with it. Not saying that's the case here, but as I mentioned I'm concerned that he's been a pro player since 16 and he still has a lot of flaws in his swing. You would of thought some hitting instructor along the way would of gotten him to cut that swing down and worked with him keeping that front side closed and less movement in the hands. It seems long, and inconsistent from the two videos I've seen of him. That swing wont even play in big league camp. Once they see he can't hit the inside fastball with any sort of velocity he will get hammered in the kitchen.

I agree, these types of moves aren't inspirational at all for a team that says they're contending. I'm sitting down here in Miami just beside myself trying to figure out if I should get my ass back in shape so I can play baseball, cause I know the O's are signing anybody with a pulse to play :D

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>More Duquette on Almanzar: "He has a good bat, 16 home runs in the Eastern League shows significant power."</p>? Steve Melewski (@masnSteve) <a href="
">December 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Starting to feel sorry for Dan here. Trying to sell us on him.

Me too. Except he's getting paid good money to sell us this kind of bognaisia. It wouldn't bother me much if it wasn't implied in prior reporting that the O's were spending quite a lot of time in preparing for who to pick in the draft. Coming away with a guy like that is not a good use of time and probably should have been delegated down a few levels, imo.

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"Michael's dad, Carlos, has played in the big leagues," Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said. "Michael has had two good years and he showed good progress at Double-A this year with the capability to hit, drive in a run, play a couple of positions and steal a base. So that tells you he has all the tools and capability to be a big league ballplayer.

"You can see, year over year, his progress with the bat where he has matured and is a little more selective. We're glad to have him and take a look at him."

Almanzar is a career .250/.302/.373 hitter in six minor league seasons.

"He plays multiple positions and just turned 23," Duquette said. "He has a good bat - 16 home runs in the Eastern League shows significant power, particularly at his age. He signed young and got a healthy bonus. He's made good progress with all areas of his game the last two years.

"It is a challenge for him to go to the big leagues and perform, but he performed all year in Double-A with the bat and we'll see how me matures between now and spring training."

source - Steve Melewski
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The only reason this might be costly to us now is that it could force us to drop someone from the 40 man roster and lose him to a waiver claim that we would like to keep.

I think the reason some people are leery is that the O's have a recent track record of keeping guys who they pick in the Rule V draft, and carrying a rule V guy does limit your roster flexibility somewhat. Flaherty looks like a useful utility player at this point, but he didn't contribute much in 2012 until the homestretch/playoffs. MacFarlane mostly got garbage innings last season, and in my view was not very effective in long relief. A bad team has nothing to lose by sacrificing some current roster flexibility to get a player in their organization for the long haul, but the O's are in a position where they should be trying to win now.

Question: Can you drop a Rule V guy from your 40-man roster before spring training? That is, if we sign enough free agents where we need to clear a roster spot, do we have the option of dumping Almanzar, or is it required that we dump someone else? I guess technically we'd have to offer Almanzar back to the Red Sox, I just don't know if that's something you are allowed to do before spring training begins.

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