The battles I want to see in ST

[Aristotelian]

I don't care much whether Valdez is in bullpen or rotation, I just want him to succeed and make the team.

I don't see Mullins as a threat to Hays. The only threat to Hays is Hays (i.e. health). If Mullins makes the team because of injury he is still a backup/4th outfielder. 

Could not care less about Abad or Lopez. I haven't done any roster crunching but I'm not convinced either one needs to make the team. 

Who do we have at 3B? Ruiz vs door number 3? To be honest, that is more interesting to me than any of the above, if only because Ruiz is so bad. 

 

[wildcard]

53 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Fair point.   I admit I did not know any of that.   Still, he isn’t LeMahieu and his major league track record going into 2019 wasn’t overwhelming.   

Bottom line is now Valaika will have an opportunity to show he deserves to play more than Sanchez or Jones does.   We’ll see how that shakes out.   
 

I don't know what you consider overwhelming but after the 2018 season McMahon had a 337/379/577/956 with 104 RBI in 513 at bats at AAA.  Yes, its the PCL but I would say he earned his promotion to the majors.  And the Rockies were not going to let Valaika get in the way of that.  Valaika was blocked yet again.

[Sports Guy]

2 hours ago, wildcard said:

I will be surprised if Jones makes the jump from AA to the majors out of ST.   I do think his future is 2B.   But so far he makes too many errors there.    And a 234/308/324/631 at AA does not scream I am ready for the majors.  If says I need to show I can hit at AAA first.

We are trying to win.  Jones getting playing time almost immediately is fine.

The issue is, how much of a drop off is there defensively between him and Sanchez.

[Sports Guy]

14 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I don't know what you consider overwhelming but after the 2018 season McMahon had a 337/379/577/956 with 104 RBI in 513 at bats at AAA.  Yes, its the PCL but I would say he earned his promotion to the majors.  And the Rockies were not going to let Valaika get in the way of that.  Valaika was blocked yet again.

Valaika gets blocked because he’s not good.

[Frobby]

11 minutes ago, wildcard said:

I don't know what you consider overwhelming but after the 2018 season McMahon had a 337/379/577/956 with 104 RBI in 513 at bats at AAA.  Yes, its the PCL but I would say he earned his promotion to the majors.  And the Rockies were not going to let Valaika get in the way of that.  Valaika was blocked yet again.

I said his major league track record was not overwhelming.  To that point, 108 games to a .670 OPS (69 OPS+).   If that blocked Valaika, well I guess the Rockies didn’t think much of Valaika.   

[rudyrooster]

2 hours ago, interloper said:

My take is Jones wins 2B out of ST, Sanchez takes over 3B, and Ruiz is DFA. Valaika makes it as the super utility. 

That's a bold prediction.

[Can_of_corn]

9 minutes ago, rudyrooster said:

That's a bold prediction.

I'm looking forward to hearing certain people complain about Jones' defense at second.

[Just Regular]

I didn't know Valdez was starting well this winter, but had seen that stellar 2019 in Mexico.

It feels like making all 9 of the other guys watch the dead fish any given game could be good strategy, so I hope he gets a run at the Rodrigo Lopez type year to start.

Hoping Jones can Pipp all the 2B placeholders.   If Week 2 Adley is off limits, maybe at least there can be Week 2 Jahmai, plus of course those few games last September.   Jones like Baumann strikes me as the tier of guy if owners want to throw players a couple bones for November maybe GM's have one or two "Advance to Go" cards to pass out.   I wouldn't even complain about rest if Jones could take 162 game reps.

[DrinkinWithFermi]

A Valaika/Sanchez platoon at 2B seems like a decent idea based on their career splits:

Valaika vs. RHPs- .618 OPS

Sanchez vs. RHPs- .670 OPS

Valaika vs. LHPs- .786 OPS

Sanchez vs. LHPs- .626 OPS

[Sports Guy]

32 minutes ago, DrinkinWithFermi said:

A Valaika/Sanchez platoon at 2B seems like a decent idea based on their career splits:

Valaika vs. RHPs- .618 OPS

Sanchez vs. RHPs- .670 OPS

Valaika vs. LHPs- .786 OPS

Sanchez vs. LHPs- .626 OPS

Until he shows he’s Pat Valaika and we don’t really play him much, if at all, I do think you will see him vs lefties quite often.

[DrinkinWithFermi]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Until he shows he’s Pat Valaika

Pat Valaika appears to be a perfectly reasonable candidate for the RHB half of a 2B platoon- over the last 2 years, he's put up an OPS of almost .850 vs. LHPs. 

I don't really see any reason to think he's incapable of handling that role pretty well while Jahmai Jones continues his development in the minors for at least a few months.

[Sports Guy]

24 minutes ago, DrinkinWithFermi said:

Pat Valaika appears to be a perfectly reasonable candidate for the RHB half of a 2B platoon- over the last 2 years, he's put up an OPS of almost .850 vs. LHPs. 

I don't really see any reason to think he's incapable of handling that role pretty well while Jahmai Jones continues his development in the minors for at least a few months.

He has less than 100 PA vs lefties the last 2 years.

[DrinkinWithFermi]

4 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

He has less than 100 PA vs lefties the last 2 years.

Sure, but he also hit .289/.333/.605 in 83 PAs against LHPs in 2017 so I don't really see much reason to think his success against lefties is a mirage and that he couldn't handle the RHB side of a 2B platoon just fine.

I'd honestly be far more worried about whether or not Sanchez can handle the LHB side of the platoon at a passable level than Valaika not being able to hold up his end of the arrangement.

[Tony-OH]

I'll be honest, I think the SS-2B combo is going to be Galvis-Sanchez unless an injury occurs. I don't really think there is an actual "battle" for second base although I expect they are going to want to take a look at Jones but more towards seeing what he looks like for the future. Sure, Valaika, Urias and Martin may get some time there (Martin will probably mostly play SS), but second base is Sanchez's job for no other reason than his defense is going to be head and shoulders above the other candidates.

I also don't think the Orioles are looking at Valdez as a starter. He's almost like a knuckleball pitcher in that he has a pitch that few batters see often, but I would imagine the second time through the order players would make some adjustments. 

WC made some interesting thoughts about the pen and if the Orioles start looking at a 3rd left-handed reliever Abad makes some sense. Saying that, I think he needs some injuries to make the pen unless he's totally lights out.

As for outfield, the team is at it's best defensively with Hay-Mullins-Santander is out there, but with Mountcastle needing to be in LF with the return of Mancini, I see Mullins as the 4th outfielder spelling Hays and or Mountcastle against tough right-handers (Hays moves to left when Mountcastle gets a break). Hays will be the everyday center fielder if he stays healthy, and yes, I know that's a BIG IF!

[NCRaven]

8 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

As for outfield, the team is at it's best defensively with Hay-Mullins-Santander is out there, but with Mountcastle needing to be in LF with the return of Mancini, I see Mullins as the 4th outfielder spelling Hays and or Mountcastle against tough right-handers (Hays moves to left when Mountcastle gets a break). Hays will be the everyday center fielder if he stays healthy, and yes, I know that's a BIG IF!

Agree with all this.  But, I still hold out hope that Mountcastle will improve enough defensively that he doesn't have to come out in the late innings.