Montanez Hits for the Cycle by the 6th Inning!!!

[oriole from cal]

Tony, do you really believe there is a chance that we won't have room on the 40-man for Lou?

That would be hard to take.

If they don't put Montanez on the 40-man roster, that would the biggest mistake for the Orioles Organization. That's like not put Spoone, Hernandez,or Bergesen on the 40-man!!! If you can have 3 shortstops hitting a total .200 on the 40-man, than you have room her Sweet Lou!!

[Tony-OH]

If they don't put Montanez on the 40-man roster, that would the biggest mistake for the Orioles Organization. That's like not put Spoone, Hernandez,or Bergesen on the 40-man!!! If you can have 3 shortstops hitting a total .200 on the 40-man, than you have room her Sweet Lou!!

Agreed. All of those guys plus Reimold will need to be added to the 40-man this off season which is one of the reasons I don't mind seeing Wieters not brought up to the majors this year.

The good news is we have a lot of guys who we can take off the roster:

Payton, Castro, Cintron, Aquino, and Millar will come off due to free agency and Jeff Fiorentino, Eider Torres, Oscar Salazar, Adam Loewen, and Fredy Deza can all come off without concern of loss although I would try and resign Salazar to a minor league contract.

That enough open spots to easily add Montanez, Reimold, Bergesen (who may be on the 40-man soon anyways), Hernandez, Spoone, Berken, Mickolio and possibly Erbe. Hopefully the Orioles will have either Tex or Dunn and a new shortstop on the roster as well.

[orioole28]

Agreed. All of those guys plus Reimold will need to be added to the 40-man this off season which is one of the reasons I don't mind seeing Wieters not brought up to the majors this year.

The good news is we have a lot of guys who we can take off the roster:

Payton, Castro, Cintron, Aquino, and Millar will come off due to free agency and Jeff Fiorentino, Eider Torres, Oscar Salazar, Adam Loewen, and Fredy Deza can all come off without concern of loss although I would try and resign Salazar to a minor league contract.

That enough open spots to easily add Montanez, Reimold, Bergesen (who may be on the 40-man soon anyways), Hernandez, Spoone, Berken, Mickolio and possibly Erbe. Hopefully the Orioles will have either Tex or Dunn and a new shortstop on the roster as well.

Erbe has one more before we have to worry about putting him on the 40-man. He was drafted the same year as Hernandez, Spoone, Berken, but Erbe came from high school therefore he gets 5 years from that 2005 draft.

[Crazysilver03]

Agreed. All of those guys plus Reimold will need to be added to the 40-man this off season which is one of the reasons I don't mind seeing Wieters not brought up to the majors this year.

The good news is we have a lot of guys who we can take off the roster:

Payton, Castro, Cintron, Aquino, and Millar will come off due to free agency and Jeff Fiorentino, Eider Torres, Oscar Salazar, Adam Loewen, and Fredy Deza can all come off without concern of loss although I would try and resign Salazar to a minor league contract.

That enough open spots to easily add Montanez, Reimold, Bergesen (who may be on the 40-man soon anyways), Hernandez, Spoone, Berken, Mickolio and possibly Erbe. Hopefully the Orioles will have either Tex or Dunn and a new shortstop on the roster as well.

Our free agents will be Payton, Millar and Castro (if he is still on the roster.

Alex Cintron still wont have enough professional time to be considered a free agent. He was non-tendered by the White Sox at the end of last season and thus why he was a free agent.

Aquino will be arbitration eligible again. He only has 3+ years of service time. Lance Cormier is in the same position.

In terms of additions, Reimold, Bergesen, Spoone, and Hernandez must be protected. Costanzo is another option to be added.

Erbe signed at 17 so he has 5 years of protection so he has to be protected at the end of 2009.

Mickolio is only in his 3rd professional season so he doesnt have to be protected until after 2009. Berken is in the same boat.

Obviously I hope Montanez is protected as well.

[Jenius]

Jimenez wasn't even close to what Montanez is doing!! If the season ended now Sweet Lou would win the Triple Crown!! Not only that he leads in OPS, SLG, Runs, H, TB and 2nd in 2B's. Jimenez couldn't even sniff at that. Not even close. Two different animals, what Montanez is doing is what you call a monster year and Jimenez had what you call a great year!!!

Sorry, this is just wrong. Did you actually look at what Jimenez did last year or did you just assume? Here's a fun game...look at the two stat lines below and tell me which one is 2007 Jimenez and which one is 2008 Montanez:

Player 1: .328/.399/.591 (.990 OPS)

Player 2: .330/.383/.591 (.974 OPS)

Next time please check the facts before you embarrass yourself.

The one advantage I will give Montanez in terms of how the O's might view him is that he can play the outfield reasonably well, whereas Jimenez was a 1B/DH type with some conditioning issues.

Oh, and for the record, I am very much in favor of the O's giving Montanez a shot...I just recognize that history hasn't always been kind to guys like him, and particularly in this organization.

[orioole28]

Sorry, this is just wrong. Did you actually look at what Jimenez did last year or did you just assume? Here's a fun game...look at the two stat lines below and tell me which one is 2007 Jimenez and which one is 2008 Montanez:

Player 1: .328/.399/.591 (.990 OPS)

Player 2: .330/.383/.591 (.974 OPS)

Next time please check the facts before you embarrass yourself.

The one advantage I will give Montanez in terms of how the O's might view him is that he can play the outfield reasonably well, whereas Jimenez was a 1B/DH type with some conditioning issues.

Oh, and for the record, I am very much in favor of the O's giving Montanez a shot...I just recognize that history hasn't always been kind to guys like him, and particularly in this organization.

I'm sorry for you!! There is no comparison in the 2 and so what about Player 1 vs Player 2, the fact remain that Montanez leads in in Batting Ave. (.330), HR's(25), RBI's(94),Hits(146), extra base hits(61), slugging %(.595), OPS(.974) and is 2nd in doubles with(31). Basically I don't know how you can compare the 2.

[Lucky Jim]

I'm sorry for you!! There is no comparison in the 2 and so what about Player 1 vs Player 2, the fact remain that Montanez leads in in Batting Ave. (.330), HR's(25), RBI's(94),Hits(146), extra base hits(61), slugging %(.595), OPS(.974) and is 2nd in doubles with(31). Basically I don't know how you can compare the 2.

This is silly. Obviously they can be compared. They played in different years, so there's some variation in quality of competition. But they succeeded at roughly the same rate. There's a strong comparison.

Doesn't mean they're equal prospects. But there's a strong comparison.

[minnesotaoriole]

Lou Montanz is a triple away from his second cycle of the series!!!!!! Its only the sixth inning, so he should get atleast two more plate appearances.

[Ruzious]

Lou Montanz is a triple away from his second cycle of the series!!!!!! Its only the sixth inning, so he should get atleast two more plate appearances.

Holy spit! But back to the Jimines comparision - offensively yes, they're numbers are similar. But it's comparing a DH to a guy who apparently can play some CF. That's a big difference. Also, even though it was back in Y2K, Montanez was the 3rd pick in the draft. That tells you he likely had some big-time talent that he was just late in developing.

[Lucky Jim]

Holy spit! But back to the Jimines comparision - offensively yes, they're numbers are similar. But it's comparing a DH to a guy who apparently can play some CF. That's a big difference. Also, even though it was back in Y2K, Montanez was the 3rd pick in the draft. That tells you he likely had some big-time talent that he was just late in developing.

I'm all for distinguishing. We just need to distinguish on the right terms. And one "leading the league" and the other not is not the right terms.

[PapaRick]

Lou Montanz is a triple away from his second cycle of the series!!!!!! Its only the sixth inning, so he should get atleast two more plate appearances.

Only a Sac Fly on the 8th - no cycle today, but now has 97 RBI in 115 games.

[snatch311]

Montanez has done it in a lot more at bats.

[mikezpen]

He was drafted a SS and moved to OF in '04. Ok, maybe he can't play short well enough, who knows. But give him his shot as an outfielder/DH this summer. If he shows promise, send him to PR this winter and have him work at first or third.

Seems athletic enough to play there.I mean, what earthly thing do they have to lose? If he hits anything like he has, he's a real find.

[33rdst]

This is getting ridiculous. This guy is totally dominating his league, Didn't MacPhail say that these were the guys that he sould promote? Maybe, if Jones is hurt, we should bring him up and give him a shot?

[mikezpen]

I think the problems here are:

perception that he's a career minor leaguer who failed at higher levels and his probably just having a career year. That label is huge.

No place to play him w/the big club

taking him away from Bowie hurts their post season chances and they don't want to antagonize the management by taking away their best player when he isn't really needed up here.