Where do Adley and Gunnar start the season in 2021?

[Frobby]

Our 2019 top two picks, Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, both played at the alternate site this summer.    Adley has not played MiL ball above Delmarva, Gunnar hasn’t played above the GCL.    But both have now faced a lot of major league/AAA pitching.   

When asked about how Adley had done at the alternate site, Matt Blood said he thought Adley and Gunnar had benefited the most of anyone there.   It was notable to me that the question was about Adley, but Blood volunteered the information about Gunnar in his response.    He added something like, “imagine the challenge of being 19 and facing major league or AAA pitching, but after a couple of weeks Gunnar was right with those guys.”

Mike Elias echoed the praise for Rutschman.  “He caught and hit every single day in Bowie and had a tremendous summer camp,” executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias said during Saturday afternoon’s Zoom conference call with the media.

“He’s a very exciting player. He’s got some special abilities all the way around and I’m glad that we have him. And he may have more activities later this year if we’re able to do something late this year.”

“I think for everyone the Bowie experience was good, but for him in particular,” Elias said. “He faced basically nothing but Double-A, Triple-A major league arms and to do that and adapt to it is something that’s hard to replicate and it was good to see. He looks good..”

https://www.masnsports.com/school-of-roch/2020/09/orioles-move-back-into-offseason-phase.html

So that begs the question of where these two start their season next year.    If the 2020 MiL season had been played, I would have expected Gunnar  to start the season at Delmarva.    HIs normal progression would then have been 2021 at Frederick.    Now, even though he hasn’t played above the GCL, I’d normally say they need to skip Delmarva and send him straight to Frederick.    But with the minor leagues probably contracting this winter, there may not be a Frederick.    Instead our A+ team might be at Aberdeen.   So let’s just call it the A+ team.   I’m figuring Henderson starts there, and it wouldn’t shock me if he plays well enough to earn a promotion to AA during the year.

As to Rutschman, I had figured him to be on the Wieters plan this year, splitting time between Frederick and Bowie.   But I think he just jumps to AA next year and gets promoted to AAA at some point.   I won’t rule out a second half call-up.

Anyway, it’s good that these guys saw a ton of advanced level pitching this summer.    That could accelerate their development.

[Jagwar]

Not sure on Henderson, but I'm right there with you on Rutschman. 

And don't forget... the O's have to plug in all of the players from last year's draft and all of the players from the 2020 trades. It will be interesting to see where they land, and I have to think there will be some strong roster competitions in our system. 

[Sports Guy]

Yea, Rutschman in AA makes sense to me although it wouldn’t shock me if they started him at Frederick, just to play in 10-20 games.  Rutschman never seeing AAA wouldn’t be surprising to me, so they could take this route of Frederick first to get his feet wet and then move to Bowie for most of the season.

Gunnar probably starts in Frederick.  If he held his own at this camp, I don’t see why you have him in Delmarva.

[Just Regular]

I sort of feel like Bowie might get a bigger piece of the pie chart of the remaining development of all the guys who were there this summer as 2020 got them oriented to the motels, restaurants, grocery stores, etc.   AA was already the proving ground for blue chips anyway.

This is my code for saying I have nary an objection should Adley/Grayson never see Frederick unless they're maybe pouring beers at a caravan stop.

[DrungoHazewood]

Very interested to see how this new minor league setup might mesh with the new CBA.  I'm hopeful for faster promotions, less reliance on slow-rolling everyone due to service time.

[Sports Guy]

It’s irritating to me that they are getting rid of Frederick.  

[NCRaven]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s irritating to me that they are getting rid of Frederick.  

Agreed.  But it would irritate me if it was Delmarva or Bowie too.

 

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

Agreed.  But it would irritate me if it was Delmarva or Bowie too.

 

Should be Norfolk imo.

Bowie moves to AAA..Frederick AA..Delmarva A.

Keeps all the prospects close.

[DrungoHazewood]

44 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Should be Norfolk imo.

Bowie moves to AAA..Frederick AA..Delmarva A.

Keeps all the prospects close.

I'm not sure PG County Stadium meets AAA standards, or where the money would come from to upgrade.  And I'm not a big fan of ceding all the territory south of Annapolis to the Nats and Braves.  There are a fair number of Orioles fans in Virginia, especially around Norfolk.

I'd rather not dump any minor league teams, but it seems we've come to a reckoning.

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm not sure PG County Stadium meets AAA standards, or where the money would come from to upgrade.  And I'm not a big fan of ceding all the territory south of Annapolis to the Nats and Braves.  There are a fair number of Orioles fans in Virginia, especially around Norfolk.

I'd rather not dump any minor league teams, but it seems we've come to a reckoning.

Well, I’m not sure about the AAA stadium requirements.  That certainly could be in play there.

There are no perfect solutions.  I don’t mind the idea of getting rid of some teams but I’m not sure I like how it’s being done either.

[weams]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

It’s irritating to me that they are getting rid of Frederick.  

It's a close one to me. So I wish it were Norfolk that went. 

[Sydnor]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'm not sure PG County Stadium meets AAA standards, or where the money would come from to upgrade.  And I'm not a big fan of ceding all the territory south of Annapolis to the Nats and Braves.  There are a fair number of Orioles fans in Virginia, especially around Norfolk.

I'd rather not dump any minor league teams, but it seems we've come to a reckoning.

As someone who lives part-time in VA Beach, my impression (I haven’t conducted a survey) is that in the Tidewater region, Orioles fans and Braves fans outnumber Nationals fans. I haven’t been to a ton of minor league parks, but Harbor Park is pretty solid. I think it’s a good move to keep a presence in the region.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Sydnor said:

As someone who lives part-time in VA Beach, my impression (I haven’t conducted a survey) is that in the Tidewater region, Orioles fans and Braves fans outnumber Nationals fans. I haven’t been to a ton of minor league parks, but Harbor Park is pretty solid. I think it’s a good move to keep a presence in the region.

When I was there you had a lot of military folks that were just baseball fans or looking for a night out going to games.  For instance I'd go and at the time it was a Mets affiliate. 

[DrungoHazewood]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

When I was there you had a lot of military folks that were just baseball fans or looking for a night out going to games.  For instance I'd go and at the time it was a Mets affiliate. 

But at least some of the folks are local and they keep going and then they get at least a little invested in how guys like Hays and Mancini and Akin do and before you know it they're following the Orioles.  I've been in the Norfolk area many times and it's always good to see MASN on and I can watch the O's game.

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

But at least some of the folks are local and they keep going and then they get at least a little invested in how guys like Hays and Mancini and Akin do and before you know it they're following the Orioles.  I've been in the Norfolk area many times and it's always good to see MASN on and I can watch the O's game.

Sure, I just don't recall many Mets hats.