Keegan Akin 2019

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Cy Bundy said:

 

 

What an excellent article.   Thanks!!!

[orioles22]

Great story. I hope/think he will be our No. 4 or 5 guy next year and will be followed by several others in the next 2-3 years.

 

[TheDeau52]

20 hours ago, orioles22 said:

Great story. I hope/think he will be our No. 4 or 5 guy next year and will be followed by several others in the next 2-3 years.

 

Agreed, and I think that’s a very reasonable expectation. Here’s to hoping.

[baltimore_chop]

Referencing that article though, it seems like baseball players (especially pitchers), of all the sports, take conditioning the least serious. I know that pitching is as technical a thing as you will do in all of sports, but I also feel like if strength and conditioning was taken more seriously, it would add strength to other parts of the body (legs, core), take a little stress off the arm, and thereby reduce injuries.

Maybe it bothers me more than it should, but it just seems weird that some of the guys seem sorta nonchalant about conditioning and what not. I feel like it's helped guys like Arietta and Verlander stay injury free throughout their career. It boggles my mind to see guys like Chris Tillman and even now with Luis Ortiz not placing S&C at the top of the list in terms of becoming a ML pitcher.

Anyways, this was just a minor quibble, but it stuck out to me.

[Moose Milligan]

On 5/17/2019 at 11:26 PM, Cy Bundy said:

 

 

From someone who's missed his share of big league fastballs, I'm not impressed by that quote coming from Sisco. 

Whatever, kid deserves a call-up.  Lets see if Sisco's take is for real or not.  Tired of seeing Straily and Hess.

[Frobby]

17 minutes ago, baltimore_chop said:

It boggles my mind to see guys like Chris Tillman and even now with Luis Ortiz not placing S&C at the top of the list in terms of becoming a ML pitcher.

Ortiz lost a lot of weight this offseason, but it doesn’t seem to have helped him at all.     That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have done it, I’m just pointing out it’s not always a magic solution.    

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Moose Milligan said:

From someone who's missed his share of big league fastballs, I'm not impressed by that quote coming from Sisco. 

Whatever, kid deserves a call-up.  Lets see if Sisco's take is for real or not.  Tired of seeing Straily and Hess.

I’d be patient with Akin.    Wouldn’t mind seeing him sometime after the all star break if he’s continuing to have success in AAA, but I’m in no hurry.    This season’s a bust anyway.   

[Moose Milligan]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’d be patient with Akin.    Wouldn’t mind seeing him sometime after the all star break if he’s continuing to have success in AAA, but I’m in no hurry.    This season’s a bust anyway.   

IMO, the season is all about someone like Akin getting a shot in Baltimore to see if there's anything there.  We know there's nothing there with Straily.  We know there's nothing there with Hess.  Same with Ramirez.  

He's 24.  Granted, he just turned 24 on April 1st but there's no reason to keep him down.

Fitting that the Orioles have a pitching prospect with an April Fool's birthday.

[Jammer7]

26 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Ortiz lost a lot of weight this offseason, but it doesn’t seem to have helped him at all.     That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have done it, I’m just pointing out it’s not always a magic solution.    

From what I’ve read, seems like he hasn’t really worked on strength and conditioning. I remember his quotes referring to eating better or healthier habits. Granted, pitchers have a whole different type of workout they do when compared to position players. But Ortiz sure could stand to do some planks and some kind of low impact cardio and stretching program. Pilates...something. 

[Flash- bd]

46 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Fitting that the Orioles have a pitching prospect with an April Fool's birthday.

[Ruzious]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

IMO, the season is all about someone like Akin getting a shot in Baltimore to see if there's anything there.  We know there's nothing there with Straily.  We know there's nothing there with Hess.  Same with Ramirez.  

He's 24.  Granted, he just turned 24 on April 1st but there's no reason to keep him down.

Fitting that the Orioles have a pitching prospect with an April Fool's birthday.

Totally agree.  The fact that this season is lost, and he's already 24... I mean, not every prospect needs a full year of both AA and AAA, and he's logged a lot of innings.  Poor guy - with that birthday - especially for baseball player.        

[orioles22]

Not every pitcher needs a full season, but there's no reason to push it, in my opinion. We've moved pitchers up fast to the majors and it rarely seems to pay off. I'd like to see them dominate at every level.

[baltimore_chop]

2 hours ago, Jammer7 said:

From what I’ve read, seems like he hasn’t really worked on strength and conditioning. I remember his quotes referring to eating better or healthier habits. Granted, pitchers have a whole different type of workout they do when compared to position players. But Ortiz sure could stand to do some planks and some kind of low impact cardio and stretching program. Pilates...something. 

Yea, that's exactly what I'm thinking. If I was a pitcher, the only things I'm thinking about in terms of my body is having really strong legs, a really strong core, and being incredibly flexible/pliable. Unless you're David Wells, you don't deserve to be a big leaguer if you can't excel at basic stuff like body composition. It's insane to me.

Edited May 20, 2019 by baltimore_chop

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

IMO, the season is all about someone like Akin getting a shot in Baltimore to see if there's anything there.  We know there's nothing there with Straily.  We know there's nothing there with Hess.  Same with Ramirez.  

He's 24.  Granted, he just turned 24 on April 1st but there's no reason to keep him down.

Fitting that the Orioles have a pitching prospect with an April Fool's birthday.

To me, what this season is all about is developing the younger players and promoting them (whether within the minors or up to the majors) when the organization is confident that they’re ready, rather than just throwing people out there and seeing what happens.     Akin has moved pretty quickly — player his first full season at Frederick without a stop in Delmarva, and despite a somewhat mediocre season there, was promoted to Bowie for 2018.    He’s doing fine in AAA but it’s not like he’s dominating the league.   I defer to Elias & co. as to exactly what they want him to accomplish/master before coming up to the majors, but to me, you bring him up when you think he’s as ready as he’s ever going to be, and when you think he has a good shot at staying in the bigs.    If that means that a guy with less long term potential is taking some lumps while keeping the spot warm, so be it.    

I don’t want to pick on David Hess, but he was brought to the majors with about as much AAA experience and success as Akin has right now.    I don’t want Akin to have the same rough ride that Hess is experiencing.   

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

To me, what this season is all about is developing the younger players and promoting them (whether within the minors or up to the majors) when the organization is confident that they’re ready, rather than just throwing people out there and seeing what happens.     Akin has moved pretty quickly — player his first full season at Frederick without a stop in Delmarva, and despite a somewhat mediocre season there, was promoted to Bowie for 2018.    He’s doing fine in AAA but it’s not like he’s dominating the league.   I defer to Elias & co. as to exactly what they want him to accomplish/master before coming up to the majors, but to me, you bring him up when you think he’s as ready as he’s ever going to be, and when you think he has a good shot at staying in the bigs.    If that means that a guy with less long term potential is taking some lumps while keeping the spot warm, so be it.    

I don’t want to pick on David Hess, but he was brought to the majors with about as much AAA experience and success as Akin has right now.    I don’t want Akin to have the same rough ride that Hess is experiencing.   

I think we're mostly in agreement.  Obviously, Elias knows what's up.  

I'm not sure if we disagree here or not but IMO, either a player has it or not.  I am sure being shuttled back and forth between the majors and minors isn't great.  But at some point they've gotta get it together.  I'll pick on Hess, his stuff isn't that great.  Unless he develops better command or another pitch that makes batters have to account for something else, I don't see how he's going to stick.