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Tides 2015 rotation: Wright, Wilson, Davies, Berry, Jones?


Frobby

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Pretty good guess. As far as I know, Gamboa is still a minor league FA. I would not be surprised to see him signed later on. He's having a very good winter league season, the O's didn't seem that upset by his suspension last year, and they are the ones who started the knuckleball experiment.

I agree with this completely. Frobby, you're list is spot on but I think they'll sign Gamboa (or another veteran). My guess, like RZNJ, would be Gamboa. It's hard to believe they would have five starters all under 27 years old and only two of which have spent an entire year at AAA. I'd love to see it though, those five look mighty good to me.

To answer a few other questions:

I think Dylan Bundy will chiefly be at Bowie. It's hard to believe they would start him at Norfolk right off the bat.

I think MacFarland is close to a lock for the MLB bullpen.

I feel Yoon's days of starting may be over.

There is nothing I can see that says Givens is ready for AAA. He did OK, but certainly not great, at Bowie.

They are signing other pitchers who may end up in the Tide's pen, including: Kasparek, Gustafson, and O'Brien.

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It seems to me that Jones' future in the majors is in the bullpen, so I wouldn't mind seeing him there (though I know he started some last year and had some success). I know some have speculated that Wright could be a big league bullpen pitcher as well, but it seems more certain on Jones. If he can help the big club as a lefty out of the pen, let's give him that work to begin the year at AAA (assuming, of course, he doesn't make the big club out of camp).

I would bet Yoon gets a chance to start at the beginning of the year, with a relatively short leash. Don't know enough about him to know if the pen is even a legit possibility for him.

Bundy will start at Bowie, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to Norfolk in a few months if he is having success. There may not be room for him in Baltimore; I'd expect that, unless he is completely lights out in the minors, he could be a late season call up with the intention of slotting him in the big league rotation next year. Have to hope he returns to near his pre-injury production, obviously, before any of that happens.

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We will sign six pitchers to pitch from that pen.

Agree, and I'm curious to see who they'll be because right now other than McCoy, no one projected for the Norfolk staff has thrown a major league pitch. I have confidence DD will find some good pick ups though.

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Its going to require an injury or a non tender or a trade to get McFarland on the Orioles roster. Tillman, Chen, Gausman, Gonzo, Norris and Jimenez as starters. Britton, O"Day, Hunter, Brach, Webb and Matusz as relievers. McFarland options makes him the most likely to go to AAA to begin the season.

There could be a non tender or a trade. But until there is I have McFarland in the AAA rotation.

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Take Winter League stats with a grain of salt, but Eddie Gamboa leads the Mexican League in ERA and WHIP and his second in IP and strikeouts. He just went 8 strong innings last night. Hopefully, the O's and him have a gentleman's agreement that if no one signs him to a ML contract, that they'll resign him to a minor league contract after the rule 5.

http://www.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=l132&t=p_pbp&pid=543195

Love me some Eddie. Good to hear. I was hoping he might get recalled last September after suspension but my guess is they wanted to keep him under the radar. I hope he resigns too.

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Take Winter League stats with a grain of salt, but Eddie Gamboa leads the Mexican League in ERA and WHIP and his second in IP and strikeouts. He just went 8 strong innings last night. Hopefully, the O's and him have a gentleman's agreement that if no one signs him to a ML contract, that they'll resign him to a minor league contract after the rule 5.

http://www.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=l132&t=p_pbp&pid=543195

I remember that Gamboa put up gaudy winter league stats last year, too, mixing his knuckler with his more conventional stuff. Despite that, the Orioles seemed intent on forcing Gamboa into relying almost exclusively on the knuckler. I'm wondering if Gamboa will look to join a team that is more willing to let him go with the approach that has worked for him, rather than rejoining a team that wants him to take an approach he is not comfortable with.

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Well Frobby and Play, you got your wish. He even got a ML deal.

They wanted him to throw the knuckler as much as possible to get a feel for the pitch as quickly as he could. From what DD said about the signing (per Roch), he has gained command.

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  • 1 month later...
"When I went to Mexico, you have to do well or go home," said Gamboa, who is now at the Orioles minicamp in Sarasota. "I went with what felt comfortable, with kind of a hybrid mix (50 percent knuckleballs) pitcher. Fortunately, things went well and I kept working on my craft.

"Not only have I been working on my knuckleball, I worked on all my pitches. Kind of perfected some little details of my mechanics and movement of the pitches. Obviously, Mexico is not the big leagues, but they are hitters and they can do damage."

Now he waits to find out what mix of pitches he'll be using in 2015. He knows the Orioles really want to produce a knuckleballer, but also that when his knuckler percentage goes up, his effectiveness goes somewhat down.

Are the O's OK with a 50-50 mix?

"I know they want me to be a knuckleball pitcher and I've kind of become this hybrid pitcher that obviously is unheard of," Gamboa said during a recent telephone interview. "No one really does that. Either you become a knuckler because you can't throw 90 (mph) or you become a dominant pitcher like a Kevin Gausman and guys like that. I am kind of a mix between that.

"Last year, maybe they were not a big fan of that. But after pitching so well with that mix for two years now in Mexico, I was able to talk to (executive vice president) Dan Duquette about it and we are trying to have a plan for 2015. Hope to sit down with the staff during minicamp and figure out what is expected of me for this year. I feel comfortable and confident right now.

"When I threw a no-hitter and one-hitter in Bowie, I was 50-50. I am able to get outs and that is the big key. If I can throw a knuckleball 100 percent of the time for a strike, I see no reason to do anything other than that. But it is difficult."

http://www.masnsports.com/steve-melewski/2015/01/will-gamboas-long-road-lead-to-the-majors-in-2015.html

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