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Orioles seem to prefer Cruz to Morales


Greg

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Yes, worried about a 55, you still have to keep adding young people to the minor league system.

FWIW, BA has our farm system ranked 12th in baseball, Law I believe has them 10th. Included in BA's top 30 prospects are 2 international guys signed by our current Int'l team (Peralta and Alvarez) and 6 players drafter in 2013 by our current drafting team that were picked 98th or later overall in the draft.

So you can (this one year) give up your first couple of picks, and still hopefully add some quality young people to the organization. Hopefully you get those picks back over the next few years through additional competitive balance picks, and comp picks for Hardy, Wieters and Davis (should it come to that).

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For what it's worth, the 15-19 picks in the draft have produced 149 major leaguers who have amassed 1,286 rWAR. The 53-57 picks in the draft have produced 100 major leaguers who have amassed 717 rWAR. So, roughly speaking, our 2nd round pick is about 55-67% as valuable as our 1st round pick.

Good analysis-thanks for sharing.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>1 reason <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Orioles&src=hash">#Orioles</a> sacrificed 17th overall pick for Ubaldo was they felt like got 1st-round talents by signing teenagers 1b Carlos Diaz (con)</p>— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) <a href="

">February 18, 2014</a></blockquote>

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

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>out of Mex, 3b Jomar Reyes out of DR recently. And Balt not done, definitely in on Cruz, Morales, even looking trades for DH-type bat</p>— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) <a href="

">February 18, 2014</a></blockquote>

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

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Buck had Cruz in Texas, I'm sure he prefers him.

And Cruz actually hit pretty well last year when he was healthy enough to play - with a 123 OPS+ (better than his career average). It's not surprising that they'd prefer him over Morales - especially considering they're not set in LF.

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I think because of PEDs and Cruz, could be a reason for many.

I think this is a big part of it. In actual production, Cruz is probably better and has more flexibility since he can play the OF as well. Either guy is fine for me since I care more about onfield performance than good character guys.

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With the 17th pick in the draft, the Baltimore Orioles select Carlos Diaz.

With the 55th pick in the draft, the Baltimore Orioles select Jomar Reyes.

Exactly-these people uneasy about losing a 2nd round, 55th pick are puzzling to me. We haven't been competitive in a decade and a half and they are hung up on a 55th pick? C'mon...

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I bet a Davis bomb followed by a Cruz bomb would probably break a record for most total feet by back-to-back home runs.

Not that that is worth anything. Just musing.

Surprisingly, Davis doesn't hit very many long home runs. He was 24th in average HR distance last year. The raw power is so insane that he doesn't even swing hard most of them time and really doesn't get into that many.

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I thought Morales was much better in the OBP department, but they are actually pretty similar there career-wise.

Both have had injury issues, but Cruz more of a lock to go on the DL every single year.

His problems are solely hamstring related, which could be a huge problem because that's a lingering issue (see: Trent Mummey, Tyler Townsend). If they keep him firmly tied to DH, he'll have less chances for a DL stint. I also suspect that our ties to the Texas organization (which netted us Strop, Davis, O'Day, Hunter) might play into how we feel about Cruz.

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Not sure why everybody likes Morales more than Cruz. Their productivity seems very similar. Morales is younger but at this point we're probably not talking about a huge deal for either guy.

On base percentage.

But neither is worth a big contract.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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