It's Time to Promote Trey Mancini

[Can_of_corn]

I generally don't like promoting players directly from AA to the majors. Mancini is no exception. I'm glad he's having a good year at Bowie, but I want to see him hit AAA pitching before throwing him into major league competition.

Why not?

[DrungoHazewood]

I generally don't like promoting players directly from AA to the majors. Mancini is no exception. I'm glad he's having a good year at Bowie, but I want to see him hit AAA pitching before throwing him into major league competition.

I do remember this time that the O's had a guy fielding, like, .840 at third base in a pennant race and they had this teenager who seemed to be playing a fairly good shortstop in AA...

[DrungoHazewood]

Why not?

I've always wondered if the current minor league setup was the end result of an iterative approach that slowly zoned in on something close to an optimal setup for most players. Or if it just kind of stumbled together and ended up the way it is without a lot of thought about whether 6 or 8 small, incremental steps is really the best way to develop young talent. Baseball did exist for a century with a much more haphazard method of promotion, often with guys being purchased from some Class C team in Walla Walla and then spending three years on the MLB bench from age 19-21 then becoming stars, or alternately becoming insurance salesmen.

[Frobby]

I do remember this time that the O's had a guy fielding, like, .840 at third base in a pennant race and they had this teenager who seemed to be playing a fairly good shortstop in AA...

I was OK with that move, right from the jump. But you're talking about a very special talent there, and as you indicated, there was no real doubt we were upgrading the defense.

I'll hedge this much: I've never watched Mancini play, so maybe a scout would say his hitting is major league ready. I do know that Christian Walker put up an .884 OPS at Bowie last year in 411 PA, and even though he also got in 188 PA in AAA, he was overmatched when he got called up to the majors. That is why I'm skeptical that 186 PA at Bowie is enough to pronounce Mancini major league ready.

[incubus]

The guy is on an absolute tear. The guy has a .963 OPS in Bowie after putting up similar numbers in Frederick. He was a 4 year college guy. He's 23. Promoting him wouldn't hurt his development. We're currently playing Parm and Flaherty at 1B. It's not uncommon for top prospects to skip AAA. You're seeing teams all around baseball call up guys like him. Prospect lists don't really matter at this point of the year. This guy has performed. 350/377/586 slash line for a .963 OPS. Here's some highlight videos of him http://www.milb.com/search/media.jsp?player_id=641820

One correction, I am almost positive he was drafted after his Junior year of college.

Give him some time at Norfolk and see how he does.

[Just Regular]

Duquette said on the radio that in Cooperstown this past weekend, Biggio surprised him by asking about Mancini. Dan asked how Biggio knew him and the answer was Biggio's son and Mancini were multi-year teammates at Notre Dame, where Craig saw him a lot.

So Dan asked Biggio if he thought Mancini's power was good enough for 1B in the show, and got a thumbs up, saying even as a RHB he had enougn out to right/right-center.

[weams]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Craig Biggio talked with Dan Duquette extensively in Cooperstown about Trey <a href="https://twitter.com/TreyMancini">@TreyMancini</a> 105.7 TheFan</p>— Orioles Hangout (@OriolesHangout) <a href="

">July 28, 2015</a></blockquote>

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

[weams]

Duquette said on the radio that in Cooperstown this past weekend, Biggio surprised him by asking about Mancini. Dan asked how Biggio knew him and the answer was Biggio's son and Mancini were multi-year teammates at Notre Dame, where Craig saw him a lot.

So Dan asked Biggio if he thought Mancini's power was good enough for 1B in the show, and got a thumbs up, saying even as a RHB he had enougn out to right/right-center.

If you listened, try to go fill in in the other thread on Duquette. There were some golden nuggets. Thanks.

[hoosiers]

These are case by case decisions and a major league failure by Christian Walker has little to do with whether Trey Mancini is major league ready - or at least better than some guys we have performing poorly right now.

I think based on the opportunities given in the past, it would appear that Mancini is ready for his first crack at major league hitting. I would have no problem with Mancini getting to Norfolk for 100 or so at-bats or if he were brought up to Bmore for at least a few days right now.

[clapdiddy]

These are case by case decisions and a major league failure by Christian Walker has little to do with whether Trey Mancini is major league ready - or at least better than some guys we have performing poorly right now.

I think based on the opportunities given in the past, it would appear that Mancini is ready for his first crack at major league hitting. I would have no problem with Mancini getting to Norfolk for 100 or so at-bats or if he were brought up to Bmore for at least a few days right now.

I'm for this, to be honest with you. As hot as he is, maybe he could come up and give us a spark for a few games. If he struggles after that, send him back down. At this point, with the way our offense is struggling, I'm not sure you have anything to lose outside of that 40-man roster spot.

[Frobby]

These are case by case decisions and a major league failure by Christian Walker has little to do with whether Trey Mancini is major league ready - or at least better than some guys we have performing poorly right now.

I think based on the opportunities given in the past, it would appear that Mancini is ready for his first crack at major league hitting. I would have no problem with Mancini getting to Norfolk for 100 or so at-bats or if he were brought up to Bmore for at least a few days right now.

Yes, they are case-by-case decisions. Having watched baseball for a long time, I'd say that in most cases, jumping a hitter from AA to the majors does not work out. There are exceptions -- Manny was one, and so was Nick Markakis (though he was overmatched for his first two months). Maybe Mancini would be an exception, but I am skeptical.

[LookitsPuck]

I generally don't like promoting players directly from AA to the majors. Mancini is no exception. I'm glad he's having a good year at Bowie, but I want to see him hit AAA pitching before throwing him into major league competition.

Same. The O's rush prospects. They don't let them mature. It's been one of the biggest problems with our development staff.

[clapdiddy]

Same. The O's rush prospects. They don't let them mature. It's been one of the biggest problems with our development staff.

Like who?

[Ruzious]

I was OK with that move, right from the jump. But you're talking about a very special talent there, and as you indicated, there was no real doubt we were upgrading the defense.

I'll hedge this much: I've never watched Mancini play, so maybe a scout would say his hitting is major league ready. I do know that Christian Walker put up an .884 OPS at Bowie last year in 411 PA, and even though he also got in 188 PA in AAA, he was overmatched when he got called up to the majors. That is why I'm skeptical that 186 PA at Bowie is enough to pronounce Mancini major league ready.

This is a great discussion - which I find myself changing sides on as I read the good posts. I'm thinking at this point - What do the O's have to lose by moving Mancini up. I think we know that the choice on our ML roster are poor ones.

I never thought Walker was much of a prospect and think Mancini is much better because of one factor - strikeouts. I've learned from Drungo's posts that minor leaguers with very high strikeout rates rarely make effective MLers. Mancini doesn't have that issue. He's much less likely to get over-matched at the ML level.

[Can_of_corn]

Like who?

That Machado kid.

Markakis.

Schoop.