Roster move: Akin optioned

[weams]

32 minutes ago, jamalshw said:

I'm not sure service time is a consideration for Akin. He's already 25 and not expected to be an elite pitcher. He's a back-end of the rotation/swing-man type. Certainly there is value there during his pre-arb years, but I'm not sure buying that seventh year is relevant. 

Ultimately, there are things for Akin to do in Triple-A to polish his game and his demotion (to me) was more about keeping the depth. We are going to cycle through a ton of pitchers this year and we will undoubtedly see Akin in 2020.

Understood. 

[webbrick2010]

He was bad in AAA last year and horrible in ST. I'm not sure it is a given that he ever pitches in ML outside of a cup of coffee, 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

He was bad in AAA last year and horrible in ST. I'm not sure it is a given that he ever pitches in ML outside of a cup of coffee, 

He was not bad in AAA last year.     He just wasn’t exceptional.   4.73 ERA in a league where the average was 4.90.    I think it’s highly likely he’ll pitch in the majors.    Whether he’ll have any success remains to be seen.    It really boils down to whether command of his offspeed stuff improves.   

[weams]

10 minutes ago, webbrick2010 said:

He was bad in AAA last year and horrible in ST. I'm not sure it is a given that he ever pitches in ML outside of a cup of coffee, 

Try watching a game. 

[Tony-OH]

5 hours ago, Chuck A said:

Service time grasshopper.  I read the "he needs to refine his approach in the stretch" as being "we need to control his service time like we are doing with other youngsters".   No need to rush anyone and lose a little control when this is another lost season.

I don't think Akin is a service time concern. I think Akin needs to refine his command and show consistency. 

[Tony-OH]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I think it's more like that.

If the service time and option rules were such that you became a free agent at 28 no matter when you were called up the average age of the Orioles would immediately go down by three or four years.  Guy like Akin are pretty clearly among the best 12 or 15 pitchers in the organization, but no sense burning service time. I guarantee he'd be a better 6th reliever than (insert random body here), but nobody does that because CBA.

Right, but the organization wants to continue to develop him as a starter and it doesn't make a ton of sense for him to go into the bullpen to pitch when they want to get him more innings as a starter. Personally, I think he's going to end up in the pen, but i can understand continuing to run him out as a starter to see if that will work.

[Moose Milligan]

2 hours ago, Mr. Chewbacca Jr. said:

I don't really see the need to manipulate the service time of guys who aren't even remotely Top 100 prospects. We're talking about a guy who will be 25 in a few days.

This isn't Kris Bryant or Vlad Jr, everyone. It's Keegan Akin. A guy with a 1.513 WHIP in AAA last year.

This is where I'm at.  Manipulate the time for stud prospects.

Let's be real here, Akin is organizational filler.  I think people here are sort of enamored (for lack of a much better term) with him because he's popped up on top prospect lists for the organization for years now.  But the depth of the minors isn't great and he's not in the top 5 prospects of what's traditionally been an organization with slim pickings.  

There's not much to get worked up about here, although many posters will for some reason.  Despite the fact that I'm not hopeful about Akin being anything better than a 4th starter at best, I'm confident we'll see him in Baltimore this season.  I don't see the need to manipulate the service time for a guy like this, I also don't see the need to whine about manipulating service time for anyone, really.

We're going to see these guys when we see these guys.  I know we all want to see some rookies in Baltimore to get our hopes up, only to have them come crashing down when we realize a guy like Akin has middling stuff, but whatever.  It'll happen.  Might happen in April, might happen in June.  Hell, might happen in August.  He'll arrive when he arrives and until then, hand-wringing about it is a fools errand.

[HowAboutThat]

I’m with @Moose Milligan

Akin has been the fair-haired boy because we haven’t had hardly anyone. Now he’s crowded by other guys who have more potential than he does. He’s not terrible, but he’s hardly exciting. We’ll see him this year, I’m sure. Hope he does well.

[esmd]

It's my hope that Akin can break in to the majors this year.  I was hoping maybe he'd force his way onto the team out of ST.  But with an ERA over 7.00, he sure hasn't done that.  He's a prospect, yes, and I still hope he might break in and do something of note performance-wise, but it sure seems like he's not as highly regarded now as he maybe was 2-3 years ago.

His job now is to go pitch well in the minors, figure out how he can get better (i.e. refine things), and force a callup based on his performance.  We'll see if he's able to do that.

[rudyrooster]

I'm pretty sure that Akin will never be a top of the rotation pitcher, but I can really see him as a serviceable back-of-the-rotation starter in the not too distant future. Who knows, he could turn out to be another Dallas Kuichel--stocky built lefty who took a few seasons to figure it all out.  Wouldn't that be a nice surprise.

[orioles22]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

He was not bad in AAA last year.     He just wasn’t exceptional.   4.73 ERA in a league where the average was 4.90.    I think it’s highly likely he’ll pitch in the majors.    Whether he’ll have any success remains to be seen.    It really boils down to whether command of his offspeed stuff improves.   

He was one of the better starters in the league last year overall, so I could have seen him in the Orioles' rotation to start the season, but I always wish these guys could force their way to the rotation by dominating at AAA. I hope Lowther and Kremer and company are a little better at Norfolk this year than Akin was last season.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

Right, but the organization wants to continue to develop him as a starter and it doesn't make a ton of sense for him to go into the bullpen to pitch when they want to get him more innings as a starter. Personally, I think he's going to end up in the pen, but i can understand continuing to run him out as a starter to see if that will work.

Agreed. I was only saying that in an alternate universe where a player became a free agent at 28 no matter when he was called up a lot of young pitchers would throw 60 innings in the pen and make some spot starts for a while before becoming starters because you could call them up at 20 or 21 without worrying about starting the clock.  Someone like Akin could work on his stuff in relief or as a spot starter in the majors rather than spending two years in AAA facing mainly organizational guys.

[fitzi22]

I believe this regime wants guys to earn their way onto the MLB squad and not have it given to them because they hoped they would be better at this point in their development.  The exception are cheap AAAA guys with options who you can use and abuse on the Norfolk shuttle.  I believe the Orioles brass thinks more highly of Akin (at this point) than to stick him on the shuttle and he certainly hasn’t pitched well enough to be on the MLB squad so back to Norfolk he goes.

[Moose Milligan]

22 minutes ago, fitzi22 said:

I believe this regime wants guys to earn their way onto the MLB squad and not have it given to them because they hoped they would be better at this point in their development.  The exception are cheap AAAA guys with options who you can use and abuse on the Norfolk shuttle.  I believe the Orioles brass thinks more highly of Akin (at this point) than to stick him on the shuttle and he certainly hasn’t pitched well enough to be on the MLB squad so back to Norfolk he goes.

I believe you're partially correct. 

The thing is, I'm not sure what separates Akin from being a AAAA type.  I'm too lazy to look up his stats and peripherals, but from what I've seen and the scouting reports I've read, he doesn't seem to be too far removed from that profile.  If someone can explain to me what significantly separates Akin from an Eshelman/Wojo type, I'd love to hear it.

[ChuckS]

8 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

This is where I'm at.  Manipulate the time for stud prospects.

Let's be real here, Akin is organizational filler.  I think people here are sort of enamored (for lack of a much better term) with him because he's popped up on top prospect lists for the organization for years now.  But the depth of the minors isn't great and he's not in the top 5 prospects of what's traditionally been an organization with slim pickings.  

There's not much to get worked up about here, although many posters will for some reason.  Despite the fact that I'm not hopeful about Akin being anything better than a 4th starter at best, I'm confident we'll see him in Baltimore this season.  I don't see the need to manipulate the service time for a guy like this, I also don't see the need to whine about manipulating service time for anyone, really.

We're going to see these guys when we see these guys.  I know we all want to see some rookies in Baltimore to get our hopes up, only to have them come crashing down when we realize a guy like Akin has middling stuff, but whatever.  It'll happen.  Might happen in April, might happen in June.  Hell, might happen in August.  He'll arrive when he arrives and until then, hand-wringing about it is a fools errand.

Yeah, I don't think you understand the meaning of organizational filler.  Organization fillers are guys who are used to fill out minor league rosters and will be lucky to get a cup of coffee in the majors. 

Akin is a real prospect.  Not one of our better ones, but has a solid shot at being some type of contributor.  Whether that is as a starter or multi-inning reliever out of the pen remains to be seen.