State of the System: Outfield - Grade A

[ScGO's]

Outfield

 

Current Roster: Thanks to the Duquette front office, the OF options on the parent club are abundant with Anthony Santander, Austin Hayes, Ryan Mountcastle, DJ Stewart, and Cedrick Mullins providing quality innings. Stewart and Mullins have the most work to do to ensure they have a spot through next season, but any one of these 5 could potentially be on the next playoff team.

 

Future Outlook: A starting OF of Mountcastle, Hayes, Santander is probably how 2021 starts if everyone is healthy, but Yusniel Diaz and Ryan McKenna may start pushing for MLB time early next season.  Heston Kjerstad will be a factor in a couple seasons.  Zach Watson, Kyle Stowers, and Hudson Haskin are three more high draft picks that have the potential to develop into quality MLB regulars as well.  The depth here is great as there are a lot of quality, toolsy options that could develop from our minor league crop.

 

Players of Note: Dwight Smith Jr, TJ Nichting, Robert Nuestrom, Jaylen Ferguson, Zach Jarrett, Johnny Rizer, Lamar Sparks, Shayne Fontana, Mason Janvrin, Davis Tavarez, Christopher Cespedes

 

System Grade: A

 

Top to bottom, the system is teeming with OF talent.  Not all of these guys will stick, but I believe Elias has enough potential OF talent and depth in the system that he could use the surplus in trades for quality MLB ready talent right around the time we are stepping into contention.  Elias’ goal is probably  to construct the rest of the system to resemble the OF and Pitching pipeline; the talent just keeps on flowing.

[Can_of_corn]

I can't give them an A since I'm not convinced they have an everyday ML Centerfielder on the roster or in the minors.  Mullin's glove isn't enough to compensate for his bat and Hays can't stay on the field.

For me to give an A I would have to be looking at, at least, ML regular players at all positions.

They do look to be in good shape at the corners.

[Philip]

I don’t disagree but I still think MC’s defense best suits him for 1B.

[Frobby]

I think overall you are proving to be a very easy grader.  

Starting pitching: A

Relief pitching: B

Corner IF: B+
 

Middle IF: C+
 

OF: A

CA: A-

That’s a B+ organization overall in terms of talent.   I don’t see how we’re anything near that yet.    

[Sports Guy]

The problem with this grade is what grade do you give the teams with a better OF profile?  The Twins, Mariners, Angels, etc..several teams have much better ML OF and have young MiL talent to go with it.

 

[Philip]

40 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think overall you are proving to be a very easy grader.  

Starting pitching: A

Relief pitching: B

Corner IF: B+
 

Middle IF: C+
 

OF: A

CA: A-

That’s a B+ organization overall in terms of talent.   I don’t see how we’re anything near that yet.    

I think it is far more important to consider the state of the organization than the current prospect content.

The quality will come, what’s important is that now we have an organizational set up that will more reliably produce it.

[ScGO's]

Just now, Philip said:

I think it is far more important to consider the state of the organization than the current prospect content.

The quality will come, what’s important is that now we have an organizational set up that will more reliably produce it.

What he said.  Looking at where we were, and now, where we are going, these grades reflect the plan, talent, depth, and philosophy.  The overall talent at the MLB level is not an A when compared to all 30 teams, but the grades reflect the O's efforts, plan, and talent throughout the entire system judged only against themselves and what the front office has be able to do within their capabilities, limitations and resources.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, ScGO's said:

What he said.  Looking at where we were, and now, where we are going, these grades reflect the plan, talent, depth, and philosophy.  The overall talent at the MLB level is not an A when compared to all 30 teams, but the grades reflect the O's efforts, plan, and talent throughout the entire system judged only against themselves and what the front office has be able to do within their capabilities, limitations and resources.

Well, if your grades are meant to assess the amount of progress we’ve made in two years at the various positions, I can see them if I squint hard enough.    If they are meant to assess where we are vs. other teams, I think they’re considerably too high.   We have a grade D major league team and a grade B farm system, so I’d call the state of the organization roughly a C.   I do think our development group deserves high marks, though it’s tough to be sure given that we have no 2020 MiL data to look at. 

[hoosiers]

Our minor league OF talent is relatively thin IMO.  We can get excited about Janvrin internally, but he was a later round pick and is not popping up on many prospect lists.  The only investments we have made recently in the OF is Stowers.  We did trade for Diaz and the only name really of note otherwise IMO is McKenna.  Considering there are three OF positions, I think we are pretty thin here in the minors.  Jaylen Ferguson is a fun guy to watch play and cheer for if you watch our minors, but he is hardly a prospect of note.  

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, hoosiers said:

Our minor league OF talent is relatively thin IMO.  We can get excited about Janvrin internally, but he was a later round pick and is not popping up on many prospect lists.  The only investments we have made recently in the OF is Stowers.  We did trade for Diaz and the only name really of note otherwise IMO is McKenna.  Considering there are three OF positions, I think we are pretty thin here in the minors.  Jaylen Ferguson is a fun guy to watch play and cheer for if you watch our minors, but he is hardly a prospect of note.  

Elias did use the second overall pick on Kjerstad.

[Frobby]

6 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Elias did use the second overall pick on Kjerstad.

That was a rather major omission by hoosiers, and I’m sure unintentional.   He was thinking of guys who’ve actually played MiL ball.  

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

That was a rather major omission by hoosiers, and I’m sure unintentional.   He was thinking of guys who’ve actually played MiL ball.  

I'm sure it was unintentional, it just needed to be pointed out.  I don't think I was rude about it.

[hoosiers]

Thanks for comment, Frobby.  Otherwise, I don't see what corn posts.  It was an oversight.

Kjerstad is a huge investment in the OF though I would still consider our current OF minor leaguers to be somewhat strong at the top - with really Kjerstad and Diaz, then McKenna, Stowers and Janvrin - with very poor depth IMO.   Remember that while Hays and DJ Stewart and Mullins are young in terms of ML service time - it took them both a while to get to the majors - Hays for injuries and Stewart with mediocre production.  And Mountcastle wasn't part of our OF depth until he was moved there relatively recently.

In a couple of years, if we had had normal international investments in the last five years, we could probably add three to five prospects to the above list and it would be considered strong at the top and with depth.

[InsideCoroner]

Is it already a foregone conclusion that Mancini won’t be back by next year? Mountcastle looks comfortable at the plate but I’m not sure he’ll remain an outfielder, and none of the others are proven commodities yet. I like these guys, and even if Mancini comes back it’s still a B grade, maybe a B- without him. It just remains to be seen which of these Not Ready For Primetime Players can stick it out for 400+ ABs.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, InsideCoroner said:

Is it already a foregone conclusion that Mancini won’t be back by next year? Mountcastle looks comfortable at the plate but I’m not sure he’ll remain an outfielder, and none of the others are proven commodities yet. I like these guys, and even if Mancini comes back it’s still a B grade, maybe a B- without him. It just remains to be seen which of these Not Ready For Primetime Players can stick it out for 400+ ABs.

If he comes back I don't think it will be as an outfielder.