Who will be the "pleasant surprise" for the O's in 2020?

[wildcard]

11 hours ago, oriole said:

I’m going to assume “pleasant surprise” means something along the lines of “unexpected surprise” so that counts out Hays and Harvey for me. My choice will be DJ Stewart since it seems he has lost the confidence of most people I talk baseball with. I think he could be sneaky productive with a high OBP and a little power. If I remember correctly (not guaranteed) he is also quicker than you’d expect so maybe he can turn some long singles into doubles and steal a few bases while he’s young. 

There is no certainty the Hays or Harvey will have good years.   Harvey has hardly played above AA.  He has electric stuff but can he control it?  And Hays has had an up and down minor league career.

[Enjoy Terror]

Going with Hays as the player that’s going to drag this team to the finish. Hunter Harvey is going to settle in as a real nice closer by year end.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Enjoy Terror said:

Going with Hays as the player that’s going to drag this team to the finish. Hunter Harvey is going to settle in as a real nice closer by year end.

Or they both end up on the IL.

Could go either way.

[jeffkleger]

I'll go with Dean Kremer. He isn't likely to be subject to service time manipulation, so he has as good a shot as anyone to pitch every 5 days. Why waste a year of development. He  reminds me of Mike Mussina in alot of ways, especially in terms of  intelligence and pitch sequencing. I think he's vastly underrated, and will win a stating job.

 

 

[jeffkleger]

It might make sense for our 3rd, 4th and 5th starters to be three of Baumann, Kremer, Akin or Loether.

With no minor league season, I'd argue that it may be worse for the team for these pitchers  to lose a year of  development time than for the team to lose a year of service time. 

By pitching every 5 days, three of our better mature pitchers can get 12-13 starts before hopefully fall league. 

[tntoriole]

Travis Lakins, Sr.   Whoever the heck he is. 

[survivedc]

Hopefully Santander. I don’t think any of the upper end prospects would be a “surprise.” Santander is young enough that another good season from him could be a big boost for the rebuild.

[Beef Supreme]

8 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm a little surprised the NHL still calls them rookies.  Aren't there a fair number of Europeans who come over to the NHL after playing professionally there?  It's a little like soccer, where you could play 14 years in Germany, make tens of millions and be a worldwide star, then be a rookie by MLB definitions in the Premier League or MLS or something.  That's why they have awards for the best young players instead of rookies.  And, yes, at least in England several players have been young player of the year more than once.

Think Ichiro.

[DrungoHazewood]

5 hours ago, Beef Supreme said:

Think Ichiro.

Right.  I think rookie and I think of a 22-year-old kid who's whose 200 ABs in AAA is his only experience in high level baseball.  Not someone who's played professionally for eight or 10 years and was one of the best players in the world years before he got to MLB.

[Babypowder]

In a 60 game sample it could be basically anyone not named Davis.

[Frobby]

I’ll say David Hess, just to be provocative.   He used the same group that John Means had used to retool his arsenal.   I’ll take a flyer and say it will work, at least over a 60-game sample.    

[scOtt]

5 minutes ago, Babypowder said:

In a 60 game sample it could be basically anyone not named Davis.

ehhh..... In 60 games, if Chris could hit 20 HRs, hit .270, OPS .800, it would be a REAL pleasant surprise!

I mean, hit the heck out of the ball in ST. It IS something...

[Babypowder]

3 minutes ago, scOtt said:

ehhh..... In 60 games, if Chris could hit 20 HRs, hit .270, OPS .800, it would be a REAL pleasant surprise!

I mean, hit the heck out of the ball in ST. It IS something...

Yes, it certainly would be. I see it as so unlikely that I've removed it from the realm of possibilities. I don't consider 26 PAs in spring training to be indicative of anything. Especially when the player in question hasn't had a good 60 game stretch in what seems like a decade. 

[oriole]

12 hours ago, wildcard said:

There is no certainty the Hays or Harvey will have good years.   Harvey has hardly played above AA.  He has electric stuff but can he control it?  And Hays has had an up and down minor league career.

No, definitely not certain that Hays and Harvey will be any good but I think they’re at the top of most people’s lists of Orioles prospects who are ready to make the jump to MLB and could have success. I just wanted to stray from the obvious answer since it wouldn’t feel like a surprise if either of them did well. 

[Sports Guy]

47 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’ll say David Hess, just to be provocative.   He used the same group that John Means had used to retool his arsenal.   I’ll take a flyer and say it will work, at least over a 60-game sample.    

That would be a miracle.