Toronto in First

[25 Nuggets]

Yea...ok. You do realize they are significantly better STILL after trading all that talent in the minors than us?

Pretty much anyone who evaluates talent has us in the bottom 3 organizations now post deadline.

One example.....

http://thefirstweekofsummer.mlblogs.com/2015/08/07/power-ranking-every-mlb-farm-system-after-the-trade-deadline/

Hard to understand. Really. Just not right.

23. Toronto Blue Jays – Despite being the last “Average Farm System” on our list, the Blue Jays could have been ranked as highly as a “Good Farm System” just days ago. That was until they traded away top prospects Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro, and Daniel Norris for Troy Tulowitzki and David Price at the trade deadline. Now the Jays are left without any prospects with superstar potential since Norris is gone. They do have still have two prospects with star potential in Dalton Pompey and Jonathan Harris, they would have had one more with Hoffman. After Pompey and Harris are six other guys who have the potential to be good big leaguers, this group is lead by guys like Anthony Alford, Max Pentecost, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and would have included Castro.

30. Baltimore Orioles – The Baltimore Orioles’ farm system doesn’t look too bad to start out with. They have two potential star pitchers in Hunter Harvey and Dylan Bundy leading the charge. Other than those two guys they have only one, just one other prospect with the potential to have a solid MLB career, that would be D.J. Stewart.

Really, Stewart is the only one from this summer's draft with potential? Just so we all understand, 30th is last.

[SteveO]

Hard to understand. Really. Just not right.

Really, Stewart is the only one from this summer's draft with potential? Just so we all understand, 30th is last.

Pretty sad. Pretty consistently in just about every minor league talent evaluation post trade deadline, the Orioles are at or near dead last now.

I realize that some guys can surprise us but every team comes up with a player or two like that who exceed expectations.

There are two ways to bring talent to your MLB roster, either you draft/develop it or your buy it...period the end. Clearly developing your own talent is the most economical way to go. All trades require talent for talent.

It should really concern O's fans that we have such a barren farm system. This franchise has shown that it is not willing to overpay for top tier talent on the free agent market. You don't get top shelf talent in FA without paying for it. We have no MLB ready top tier talent in the minors. Unless the O's rethink tjeir approach to FA and are willing to overpay some to acquire that talent I am not sure where its coming from.

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[Frobby]

So, for the first time officially, the Orioles are chasing the YANKEES (and the Halos) for a wild card spot. And I don't think that's going to change much for the rest of the season.

We are also chasing the Rays now - they passed us yesterday. Not good.

[Ruzious]

I buy that the O's system isn't real good, but saying Stewart is the only positional player to have even the potential to have a solid ML career sounds over the top. Guys like Cisco, Jomar Reyes, Mountcastle, and Mancini all seem to have very reasonable chances to be solid MLers.

[abbott]

If its not the Orioles who win, I really don't care who does. What really concerns is that Toronto made a concerted effort to try and win this year and made winning a priority. They were as mediocre or worse than the Orioles thru the trade deadline. They made something happen. Are those players the ones making the difference now? It doesn't matter. Whatever it took they did and it worked.

I don't see any flame or urgency in the warehouse or on the field and its hurts. How long does this franchise go without a LF and DH? Does anyone notice that since June 1 Adam Jones his hitting a robust .250 and once again the starting pitching lacks quality, even from quality personnel.

Ding dong the witch is dead and the Yankees are not in 1st Place. But if you look at the Orioles, they are not wearing the Ruby Slippers either.

[webbrick2010]

and because the O's draft and develop players so poorly it was critical that they were sellers at the deadline. If we would have traded Chen, Davis, and O'day we would have had acquired talent that already had potentially 3-4 years of professional experience right not in July 2015. Instead we will get compensatory picks, meaning we will turn over several 18-20 year olds with no professional experience to a player development system that has been an epic fail for 3 decades. And these new draft picks won't be playing until August of 2016. In addition the picks will be more expensive as we will have to pay draft bonuses to completely unproven players.

Beginning with Arietta/Strop for Feldman, continuing thru the Hardy extension, and then this year with the 20+ million flushed down the toilet on DFA'd players while giving away more prospects DD has decimated this organization.

[Frobby]

and because the O's draft and develop players so poorly it was critical that they were sellers at the deadline. If we would have traded Chen, Davis, and O'day we would have had acquired talent that already had potentially 3-4 years of professional experience right not in July 2015. Instead we will get compensatory picks, meaning we will turn over several 18-20 year olds with no professional experience to a player development system that has been an epic fail for 3 decades. And these new draft picks won't be playing until August of 2016. In addition the picks will be more expensive as we will have to pay draft bonuses to completely unproven players.

Beginning with Arietta/Strop for Feldman, continuing thru the Hardy extension, and then this year with the 20+ million flushed down the toilet on DFA'd players while giving away more prospects DD has decimated this organization.

I don't think there is much evidence that we have drafted and developed poorly over the years that Duquette has been here. If that's true, then I guess EdRod, Hader, Davies et al. were just a waste of our time anyway, so we may as well have traded them for a chance to win now.

What's pretty undeniable is that DD has traded away a lot of prospects, picks and international signing slots over the last four years, and that the system wasn't that deep when he arrived. Plus, the Bundy and Harvey injuries are really hurting us.

[EagleOriole]

and because the O's draft and develop players so poorly it was critical that they were sellers at the deadline.

If we develop players so poorly why would we want to sell the good players we have for prospects that we would need to develop. We can't develop according to you so those players sold would be lost for nothing, because if we have to develop them they won't help us in the future anyway.

[TINSTAAPP]

At least it's not the Yankees or Red Sox.

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[webbrick2010]

If we develop players so poorly why would we want to sell the good players we have for prospects that we would need to develop. We can't develop according to you so those players sold would be lost for nothing, because if we have to develop them they won't help us in the future anyway.

because we would be trading for players with several years of professional experience under their belts which would reduce the risk of development. It would be an interesting study but I would bet that trading free agents to be for minor league prospects vs. waiting for compensatory picks would on average always yield more value and certainly returns the value faster, which is what the O's really needed as they head toward the abyss that will be 2016.

[OFFNY]

o

Afternoon game today for the Blue Jays.

The Orioles are idle.

The Yankees play the Indians later tonight, as the Tribe for the sweep.

OAKLAND ATHLETICS

Billy Burns - CF

Mark Canha - 1B

Brett Lawrie - 2B

Danny Valencia - 3B

Josh Phegley - C

Billy Butler - DH

Josh Reddick - RF

Coco Crisp - LF

Marcus Semien - SS

Jesse David Chavez - RHP (6-11, 3.73 ERA)

TORONTO BLUE JAYS

Ben Revere - LF

Josh Donaldson - 3B

Jose Bautista - RF

Chris Colabello - DH

Dioner Navarro - C

Justin Smoak - 1B

Kevin Pillar - CF

Ryan Goins - SS

Cliff Pennington - 2B

Mark Alan Buehrle - LHP (12-5, 3.34 ERA)

http://www.baseballpress.com/lineups

[JR Oriole]

If its not the Orioles who win, I really don't care who does. What really concerns is that Toronto made a concerted effort to try and win this year and made winning a priority. They were as mediocre or worse than the Orioles thru the trade deadline. They made something happen. Are those players the ones making the difference now? It doesn't matter. Whatever it took they did and it worked.

I don't see any flame or urgency in the warehouse or on the field and its hurts. How long does this franchise go without a LF and DH? Does anyone notice that since June 1 Adam Jones his hitting a robust .250 and once again the starting pitching lacks quality, even from quality personnel.

Ding dong the witch is dead and the Yankees are not in 1st Place. But if you look at the Orioles, they are not wearing the Ruby Slippers either.

In an ironic way, I am actually pulling for the Jays because they actually made an effort to get better and to win now. I respect that tremendously....much more than whatever the hell it was we did this winter and beyond. As a fan, I care about winning a World Series....everything else is secondary. O's leadership does not pay me one cent to care about their annual balance sheet, so I choose to only care about winning. The 1998 comparisons are so awful because that is exactly what I feared once we lost to the Royals. 1997 and 2014 were equally amazing seasons and I can't believe we may be on the cusp again of a lengthy period of darkness.

[Going Underground]

Blue Jays winning again and fans are idiots.

Susan Slusser ‏@susanslusser 17m17 minutes ago

Susan Slusser retweeted

Been getting these kinds of remarks from Blue Jays fans all day about Sonny Gray. Kind of tired of this nonsense: https://twitter.com/BradMorrison19/status/631887676245807104 …

https://twitter.com/susanslusser

[Herman]

Can anyone remind me what did the Church of Sabermetrics said about Tulowitskis' WAR?

[Herman]

*what the Church of Sabermetrics said