Analysis of 2020 Rule 5 Eligible players

[scbalt52]

6 minutes ago, Jammer7 said:

I feel the same. Maybe they want to see what he does in this off season as far as conditioning. Lopez has stuff, but cannot maintain it and lacks physicality. This group obviously embraces conditioning. I think it would help Lopez greatly. We'll see if he does the work.

Agreed. Hoping we start/continue to be a team that can turn things around for guys that have some talent but haven't had much success. How many times do you see other teams pick up someone who we would qualify as "not good" and they revamp him to be a piece on a contending team? I feel like it happens a lot but not as much for us over the last 10-20 years. Hoping the next 10-20 years we're one of those teams that turn some of these flyers into contributors.

[wildcard]

Right now I see the O's with 4 starter.   Means, Cobb, Kremer and Akin.  And 5 starters that need to begin the season in AAA including Zimmerman, Baumann, Lowther, Wells and Smith.  Lopez right now is a placeholder starter.   Elias says he is going to add a veteran starter to two.   If he does maybe then Lopez moves to the pen or moves on.  But I would not get rid of Lopez before we see who Elias is able to sign.

[HowAboutThat]

I’d like to know what is the logic behind acquiring Sanchez, and then letting him go? Presumably they wouldn’t have acquired him in the first place if they weren’t willing to tender him a contract?

If they don’t, he’ll be a free agent and can sign with anybody, but that would be the case regardless.

[Frobby]

59 minutes ago, Philip said:

I’d like to know what is the logic behind acquiring Sanchez, and then letting him go? Presumably they wouldn’t have acquired him in the first place if they weren’t willing to tender him a contract?

Happens all the time.   People get picked up on waivers, then dropped.  Maybe they negotiate with him and if he meets their number, they keep him, but if they may need to go to arbitration, they don’t keep him.  

[Sports Guy]

2 hours ago, Philip said:

I’d like to know what is the logic behind acquiring Sanchez, and then letting him go? Presumably they wouldn’t have acquired him in the first place if they weren’t willing to tender him a contract?

If they don’t, he’ll be a free agent and can sign with anybody, but that would be the case regardless.

As simple as, we will pick him up but if he doesn’t agree to what we want to pay him, he can go elsewhere.

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

As simple as, we will pick him up but if he doesn’t agree to what we want to pay him, he can go elsewhere.

Exactly, not like they can call him up and talk numbers while he's officially working for another team.

[VaBird1]

13 hours ago, wildcard said:

Right now I see the O's with 4 starter.   Means, Cobb, Kremer and Akin.  And 5 starters that need to begin the season in AAA including Zimmerman, Baumann, Lowther, Wells and Smith.  Lopez right now is a placeholder starter.   Elias says he is going to add a veteran starter to two.   If he does maybe then Lopez moves to the pen or moves on.  But I would not get rid of Lopez before we see who Elias is able to sign.

Is Lopez better than Eschelman?

[Roll Tide]

24 minutes ago, VaBird1 said:

Is Lopez better than Eschelman?

I think so ... Eshelman has. Mediocre stuff. Lopez has potential due to his stuff. Hopefully he can figure it out here.

[Roll Tide]

Quote

No. 8: outfielder Yusniel Diaz
No. 9: right-hander Michael Baumann
No. 11: left-hander Zac Lowther
No. 19: left-hander Alexander Wells
No. 25: infielder Rylan Bannon
No. 26: right-hander Cody Sedlock
No. 27: right-hander Brenan Hanifee

The 40-man roster is holding 35 players and more room can be created, but the Orioles aren’t going to protect everyone from the above list. And there are others outside the Top 30, including relievers Isaac Mattson and Zach Pop and infielder Mason McCoy, who must be considered.

This is from Roch in his morning column. I just to understand why we would keep the.  AAAA fodder on our roster over protecting these guys.

[Sports Guy]

26 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

This is from Roch in his morning column. I just to understand why we would keep the.  AAAA fodder on our roster over protecting these guys.

Well, you do run the risk of losing these guys as the offseason and season goes on.

You are, in theory, correct.  The problem is, if you protect all of them but then make roster additions as the season goes on, you now just expose them to waivers and they can be picked up and stored in the minors.

If you leave them off the 40 man right now, they can only be chosen in the Rule 5 and if they don’t stick with the big league club that takes them, they get sent back to us.  In other words, it’s far more likely you lose them if you keep them and waive them later than if you expose them right now.

Of that list, I would think Sedlock and Hanifee are definitely left unprotected.  I don’t think McCoy is someone they would consider but I think they should protect Pop.

 

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, VaBird1 said:

Is Lopez better than Eschelman?

Eshelman is a control pitcher without much velocity.  He has to hit his spots to be effective.  When his control is off he gets hit hard.  Lopez has decent stuff but lacks consistent control.    Lopez has a higher ceiling but a lower floor.

They are both struggling fringe major leaguers.  But Lopez has the stuff to be a good major league pitcher if the O's coaching staff can help him find consistent control.  They have already simplified his deliver.   He is still a work in progress going into his age 28 season next year.

[Tony-OH]

On 11/10/2020 at 8:47 PM, Roll Tide said:

Yeah ...Clevengers numbers look very similar. I’d take a Trumbull type as long as we don5 make the mistake of signing him long term

I knew an Orioles scout who told me when Sisco was in AA that he was basically Clevenger. I was like, "Really? you don't think he will hit better?" He thought the bat was slow and he would never hit for power. I do think he was wrong a bit on the power, but Sisco seems to have sold out any average for his new found power.

[Obando]

I think Elias will protect Diaz, Baumann, Lowther & Mattson, with an outside chance he could protect Bannon as well since he is close to the majors and can play 2B/3B.  Bannon did well in his brief trial at Norfolk at the end of 2019, and I could see another team taking him in the Rule V because of his versatility & gamer style.  Losing Bannon wouldn’t be a huge loss if he gets picked, but he’s a good guy to have around for depth, so I don’t know if I’d risk losing him.  I don’t think anyone will pick Zach Pop because he’s coming off the surgery and no one has seen him pitch in 2 years.  Otherwise, he’s someone we’d definitely have to consider protecting because of his upside as a late inning reliever when healthy and success he’s had so far in his short career.

[Roll Tide]

I can’t imagine Elias not protecting Mattson if he really believes he’s ready this coming season

 

Quote

“I would say Mattson was the one with whom I was the least familiar,” Elias said on the day of the trade, “but you look at his numbers, he’s been really dominant across the minor leagues and especially lately just dominant wherever you send him, including the Arizona Fall League. We feel that he might be somebody that we can see up here to help our team next year.”

From MASN

[weams]

On 11/16/2020 at 1:07 PM, Obando said:

I think Elias will protect Diaz, Baumann, Lowther & Mattson, with an outside chance he could protect Bannon as well since he is close to the majors and can play 2B/3B.  Bannon did well in his brief trial at Norfolk at the end of 2019, and I could see another team taking him in the Rule V because of his versatility & gamer style.  Losing Bannon wouldn’t be a huge loss if he gets picked, but he’s a good guy to have around for depth, so I don’t know if I’d risk losing him.  I don’t think anyone will pick Zach Pop because he’s coming off the surgery and no one has seen him pitch in 2 years.  Otherwise, he’s someone we’d definitely have to consider protecting because of his upside as a late inning reliever when healthy and success he’s had so far in his short career.

I agree with you.