O's claim Andrew Velazquez, DFA Richard Urena

[atomic]

35 minutes ago, Philip said:

Meanwhile, I wonder how many 40th guys are monitoring Orioles camp closely, gauging their chances of getting picked up By Baltimore when their inevitable designation occurs?

If you are a bad baseball player currently on a 40 man roster, odds are you will be on the Orioles at some point this year.

[Tony-OH]

5 hours ago, ChosenOne21 said:

Not sure I get this one. Urena is younger and has more ML experience (and probably more upside), but Velazquez has more positional flexibility.

The Orioles likes his flexibility of playing CF, plus SS. They think he has a slight defensive edge at SS to Urena. Add in his speed and think of him as a better, more defensively flexible Steve Wilkerson.

[HowAboutThat]

13 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The Orioles likes his flexibility of playing CF, plus SS. They think he has a slight defensive edge at SS to Urena. Add in his speed and think of him as a better, more defensively flexible Steve Wilkerson.

We can still change our answers on the roster quiz right? Until Friday?

[Tony-OH]

44 minutes ago, Philip said:

We can still change our answers on the roster quiz right? Until Friday?

yep

[sportsfan8703]

Urena Is out of options, Velazquez isn’t. Just gives us more flexibility. Let’s see if Urena clears. 

[sportsfan8703]

Just digging into his stats more.... 

In Velazquez’s one full AAA season(Age 23), he put up a .726 OPS. 12 HR, 29 SB. This was pre-juiced ball. The impressive part is that he started 67 games in CF, 31 games at SS, and 14 at 2B. 
 

So he’s more versatile than Urena.  A Switch Hitter, and he has two options remaining.  Urena had 0.  

He also allows us the flexibility of not having to add Mason Williams to be the backup CF. So that saves us from having to DFA someone off the 40 man. It doesn’t force the issue. 

[MurphDogg]

Good news.

[atomic]

2 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

Good news.

Is it? How many bad infielders do we need?

[MurphDogg]

15 hours ago, atomic said:

Is it? How many bad infielders do we need?

In the minors, off the 40-man roster? Plenty. He could be the utility infielder at Norfolk or start everyday at Bowie. He turns 24 in two days and is still something of a prospect. Certainly more interesting than Angelo Mora who is three years older and the guy he will be replacing at Norfolk or Bowie. Would rather have a guy with a utility infielder ceiling getting playing time at the upper minors than an Org guy like Mora.

Last year Jesmuel Valentin and Anderson Feliz combined for 142 games last year at Bowie and Feliz, Chris Bostick, Zach Vincej, and Jack Reinheimer combined for 355 games at Norfolk. That is a lot of playing time that could be available for fringe prospects like Urena rather than org guys.

[jamalshw]

I'm not sure this was Elias saying he likes Velazquez more than Urena as much as it was him saying he likes the gamble of having both of them with the downside of just Velazquez more than having only Urena.

[atomic]

40 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

In the minors, off the 40-man roster? Plenty. He could be the utility infielder at Norfolk or start everyday at Bowie. He turns 24 in two days and is still something of a prospect. Certainly more interesting than Angelo Mora who is three years older and the guy he will be replacing at Norfolk or Bowie. Would rather have a guy with a utility infielder ceiling getting playing time at the upper minors than an Org guy like Mora.

Last year Jesmuel Valentin and Anderson Feliz combined for 142 games last year at Bowie and Feliz, Chris Bostick, Zach Vincej, and Jack Reinheimer combined for 355 games at Norfolk. That is a lot of playing time that could be available for fringe prospects like Urena rather than org guys.

They have other guys who also passed through waivers.  And guys like Martin who most likely will be in AAA.  You can't keep them all.  

[MurphDogg]

23 minutes ago, atomic said:

They have other guys who also passed through waivers.  And guys like Martin who most likely will be in AAA.  You can't keep them all.  

The bottom line is, I like all the guys that have passed through waivers better than that list of guys who combined for 500 games at Norfolk and Bowie last year. It is an incremental improvement and the cream will have a chance to rise to the top.

[atomic]

51 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

The bottom line is, I like all the guys that have passed through waivers better than that list of guys who combined for 500 games at Norfolk and Bowie last year. It is an incremental improvement and the cream will have a chance to rise to the top.

We have Bannon and McCoy who should be at Norfolk along with Martin.  They aren't going to have room for all these guys at Norfolk anyway you slice it.  I guess you could put some of them at Bowie.  

[MurphDogg]

11 minutes ago, atomic said:

We have Bannon and McCoy who should be at Norfolk along with Martin.  They aren't going to have room for all these guys at Norfolk anyway you slice it.  I guess you could put some of them at Bowie.  

I am looking at 9 spots at AA (Second, Third, Short, Utility Infield), AAA (Second, Third, Short, Utility Infield), and MLB (utility infield).

There are basically seven somewhat interesting players in contention for those 9 spots: 

1. Velazquez

2. Urena

3. Herrera

4. Martin

5. Bannon

6. McCoy

7. Valaika

Beyond that, they have Angelo Mora, Jomar Reyes, Willy Yahn, and Malquin Canelo to compete for the other two spots. You could include Stevie Wilkerson in the mix too, but he is more of a 4th outfielder/DH type that might play the occasional second base.

[OFFNY]

o

 

(vs. PHILLIES, 8/11)

 

With the Orioles leading by a score of 5-3 and 2 outs in the top of the 8th inning, Valzquez made a daring dash for home plate on the catcher's throwback to the pitcher. He was initially called safe, but then was ruled out on the replay.

Considering all of the surrounding circumstances, I thought that it was worth the risk, even though the attempt failed.

 

o