Valaika makes a bid to become an everyday player

[Sports Guy]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

We'll see.  I think 2021 will be another year of Elias slow rolling promotions.

Nah...I think a lot of these guys would have been promoted this year.

I don’t think this is a legit issue with him.  

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Nah...I think a lot of these guys would have been promoted this year.

I don’t think this is a legit issue with him.  

We'll see.  I've yet to see him being aggressive in any promotion.  He seems content to stockpile minor league assets.

[interloper]

12 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

We'll see.  I've yet to see him being aggressive in any promotion.  He seems content to stockpile minor league assets.

It seems like maybe he's trying to make sure that the farm isn't completely depleted after one big round of promotions. More of a staggered approach maybe, and waiting for guys to percolate to the top of the minors. He's acquired a lot of A-to-AA-ish guys in his 2 years, so that sort of jives with bolstering whatever will be the next wave after Baumann, Kremer, etc. 

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, interloper said:

It seems like maybe he's trying to make sure that the farm isn't completely depleted after one big round of promotions. More of a staggered approach maybe, and waiting for guys to percolate to the top of the minors. He's acquired a lot of A-to-AA-ish guys in his 2 years, so that sort of jives with bolstering whatever will be the next wave after Baumann, Kremer, etc. 

I think he's trying to set things up for a huge wave of promotions at once to maximize the window.  I think he wants ever major piece promoted within two seasons of each other.

[interloper]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think he's trying to set things up for a huge wave of promotions at once to maximize the window.  I think he wants ever major piece promoted within two seasons of each other.

Yeah that could be. And he'll have some assets to trade for big name guys perhaps, a la Houston, assuming ownership opens the wallet again at some point. 

[Sports Guy]

37 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

We'll see.  I've yet to see him being aggressive in any promotion.  He seems content to stockpile minor league assets.

You have to have players to be aggressive with.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

You have to have players to be aggressive with.

Mountcastle, Diaz, Hall, Hall, Rodriguez, and Adley all could have been promoted more aggressively last season.

 

[interloper]

8 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Mountcastle, Diaz, Hall, Hall, Rodriguez, and Adley all could have been promoted more aggressively last season.

 

I spend a weird amount of my time thinking about how they're going to handle Diaz. I really wish he could play CF because Hays would be his easiest path right now. 

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Mountcastle, Diaz, Hall, Hall, Rodriguez, and Adley all could have been promoted more aggressively last season.

 

Mountcastle couldn’t catch a cold..he had to learn a position and it was pointless to waste service time on him by that time anyway.

Diaz was held back by injuries.  Even Elias said he would have been in AAA if not for that.

DL Hall certainly could have moved up to Bowie but the control issues are a real thing, so that doesn’t bother me.

I do agree Adley should should have started higher but I don’t think a few games in Aberdeen represents anything that Elias is doing too slowly.

He had a lot of these guys primed to see the big leagues by Aug 1 for this season.

I don’t think you are seeing some intentional slow down.  I think they have to fix what the former regime screwed up with these kids and they are giving them a little extra instruction.

I just don’t see anything here.  Just some white noise.

[wildcard]

29 minutes ago, interloper said:

Yeah that could be. And he'll have some assets to trade for big name guys perhaps, a la Houston, assuming ownership opens the wallet again at some point. 

Instead of Houston I think Elias will follow a Tampa model.   I could see him adding a Charlie Morton type a some point but not a Verlander type.

[survivedc]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't know that Elias is concerned with being competitive in 2021.

I don’t think there will be disappointment if the record ends up below .500 but the team should be consistently competitive IMO. The rotation could be legit though streaky with 4/5 good options at the back end. 

[murph]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I remember all these guys except Chris Parmelee.  

You remembered Nick Johnson, that is impressive.  I had no idea, looked him up and saw he played for us in 2012 and I was glued to just about every game in 2012 and still didn't remember him. 

[Can_of_corn]

20 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Mountcastle couldn’t catch a cold..he had to learn a position and it was pointless to waste service time on him by that time anyway.

Diaz was held back by injuries.  Even Elias said he would have been in AAA if not for that.

DL Hall certainly could have moved up to Bowie but the control issues are a real thing, so that doesn’t bother me.

I do agree Adley should should have started higher but I don’t think a few games in Aberdeen represents anything that Elias is doing too slowly.

He had a lot of these guys primed to see the big leagues by Aug 1 for this season.

I don’t think you are seeing some intentional slow down.  I think they have to fix what the former regime screwed up with these kids and they are giving them a little extra instruction.

I just don’t see anything here.  Just some white noise.

Mountcastle was adequate in left, in fact more reps, say during a September callup, would have probably been beneficial to his development.  Nice to see you admit service time was a factor.

When he was healthy Diaz could have been in AAA.  I don't think you can say a promotion to AAA would have been rushing him.

I think part of the issue with Hall's command was the lack of competition.  When your best strategy as a hitter is hope the pitcher walks you it impacts the pitcher's walk rate. I think an increase in competition could have been helpful to get a better look at who he is.

Adley didn't start in Aberdeen, he started in the Gulf Coast League.   You know, where they put the kids out of HS, not 21 year olds that go 1-1 in the draft.

While I wasn't hankering for a Rodriguez promotion a case could have been made for it and I'm sure some franchises would have.

Grenier got promoted before Hall despite having inferior numbers and prospect status.

I absolutely think you are seeing an intentional slow down.  Can you name one prospect that was aggressively promoted?

[Can_of_corn]

16 minutes ago, survivedc said:

I don’t think there will be disappointment if the record ends up below .500 but the team should be consistently competitive IMO. The rotation could be legit though streaky with 4/5 good options at the back end. 

I think he'll be fine with collecting another top 5 pick.

I think he'll spin 2020 as a lost season of development to help explain away the lack of progress at the ML level.

[survivedc]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Mountcastle was adequate in left, in fact more reps, say during a September callup, would have probably been beneficial to his development.  Nice to see you admit service time was a factor.

When he was healthy Diaz could have been in AAA.  I don't think you can say a promotion to AAA would have been rushing him.

I think part of the issue with Hall's command was the lack of competition.  When your best strategy as a hitter is hope the pitcher walks you it impacts the pitcher's walk rate. I think an increase in competition could have been helpful to get a better look at who he is.

Adley didn't start in Aberdeen, he started in the Gulf Coast League.   You know, where they put the kids out of HS, not 21 year olds that go 1-1 in the draft.

While I wasn't hankering for a Rodriguez promotion a case could have been made for it and I'm sure some franchises would have.

Grenier got promoted before Hall despite having inferior numbers and prospect status.

I absolutely think you are seeing an intentional slow down.  Can you name one prospect that was aggressively promoted?

I do agree that most of these guys should have been promoted early, but outside of Mountcastle don’t think there is a dynamite case that any of them should have.

Regarding Adley, I believe the rationale for him starting in Florida was his coming off of mono and wanting to build strength back up.

Diaz and DL Hall are both guys that seem like they will play up to competition. I’d also heard that with Hall he was kept down to work on specific pitches which is what led to his command/walk issues