2019 GCL Orioles

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, weams said:

https://twitter.com/weamsgirl/status/1237511615551082509?s=20

 

I am glad we won the GCL, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that we had the oldest team in the league by a wide margin.   Our hitters were the second oldest, averaging 20.9 compared to league average 19.5.    Our pitchers were the oldest, 22.1 compared to league average 20.3, and 0.6 years older than the second oldest group of pitchers.    

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, Eric-OH said:

Good perspective.  Also appropriate that they won in such dominating fashion.  This year the ages will be more in line with the other teams.  We’ll see how they perform for Alan Mills and company.  

Previous two years:

2017:  Batters 20.6 (19.5), Pitchers 21.1 (20.4)

2018: Batters 20.7 (19.8), Pitchers 20.6 (20.4).  

The GCL O’s have tended to skew older due to lack of flow from the DSL.    Last year was more extreme because Elias only drafted 8 players out of high school, of whom only two (Henderson and Hernaiz) signed.     We’ll see who he drafts this year, but I think the team will skew at least somewhat old because our DSL flow still will be below average and there aren’t likely to be any high schoolers repeating the GCL, as a few guys (Jake Zebron, Andrew Jayne, Yeancarlos Lleras) did last year.    

I do think there was some decent talent on last year’s GCL team, but the age difference was a big factor in the team’s success.    I’ll be interested to see which players from the GCL team make the jump to full season ball this spring.    

 

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, Eric-OH said:

I’m curious to a large degree about the DSL group coming over this year and focusing on age is just one aspect.  This is really just the first part of a multi-year push for international talent so I’m not stuck on 2020.  It will serve as a better template for the future, but I cannot get over how much they won when I expected them to win.  There was maybe one instance where I just thought ‘they didn’t execute’ or ‘they were caught off guard’. That’s what I’ll remember about the group and yes, I’m even more curious to see who gets the full season opportunity.  We’ll be able to know and not guess in a few weeks.

That speaks well of Alan Mills and his staff.  

I’m guessing we’ll have a few more younger DSL graduates on this year’s GCL squad, but we are still probably 2 years away from having the typical flow that most teams have.    The players coming this year are the ones Duquette signed in his last year or that Elias and Pérez were able to sign late in the cycle.    There hopefully are a few nuggets there, but not a full complement.    I’m interested to see who is sent over.