Kjerstad still hasn't reported to alternate site [UPDATE: He's reported]

[Frobby]

So the O’s chose Rutschman and he came down with mono.   Then they chose Kjerstad and he developed myocarditis.  I hope this year whoever they pick can actually play baseball right away.   

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

Sounds like he has a long way to go to regain the strength and conditioning to play. It found it it interesting that Blood still says they haven't seen him play which tells me he's doing mainly strength and conditioning stuff.

I doubt we see a lot of him this year and may not see him until July or maybe August. 

One thing I found odd about this was they are acting like he lost a lot of weight and strength.

We don’t know enough about what he went through to know for sure what’s going on but how bad off could he be if it takes 2-3 months to get his conditioning back?  It’s not like we need him to go and compete in a triathlon.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

One thing I found odd about this was they are acting like he lost a lot of weight and strength.

We don’t know enough about what he went through to know for sure what’s going on but how bad off could he be if it takes 2-3 months to get his conditioning back?  It’s not like we need him to go and compete in a triathlon.

I guess it depends on what he was doing. If he wasn't allowed to do anything over the last year, then I could see it taking some time to get his strength back. 

[Legend_Of_Joey]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

So the O’s chose Rutschman and he came down with mono.   Then they chose Kjerstad and he developed myocarditis.  I hope this year whoever they pick can actually play baseball right away.   

Just put whoever the Orioles are even considering in a bubble right now.

[Sports Guy]

Connolly believes there is a good chance he doesn’t play for any affiliate this season.

https://theathletic.com/2560674/2021/05/03/looking-at-six-key-minor-league-questions-for-the-orioles-as-seasons-begin-tuesday/?source=user_shared_article

[Can_of_corn]

That would be brutal.

[Tony-OH]

47 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Connolly believes there is a good chance he doesn’t play for any affiliate this season.

https://theathletic.com/2560674/2021/05/03/looking-at-six-key-minor-league-questions-for-the-orioles-as-seasons-begin-tuesday/?source=user_shared_article

Just judging by the fact he hasn't really had any baseball activity since arriving tells me he is a long way from being in baseball shape.

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

I didn’t want my first post to be negative but got something to get off my chest.

I love what Elias has done with rebuilding and player development in particular. We actually have faith in developing players now. What a tremendous change and sign of hope.

I also equally don’t like how blindly people support him (or anyone for that matter but I digress). He can make mistakes too. Just ask Yaz.

Regarding Kjerstad: I have a few friends that were scouts for MLB for various clubs in the NL so I am always intrigued by the draft. I was simply irate when we skipped on Lacy/Martin this past year. And yes, I fully understand the underslot strategy. But what jumps out to me is this: when Kjerstad was asked if he had any indication the Orioles were considering him prior to the phone call, he said no, he was surprised. Does this sound like the careful due diligence a major league club should be doing on their first round pick? Particularly when you tanked on purpose to get that pick? Quite frankly, that disturbs me. I truly hope they don’t go underslot again and go with BPA.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by NelsonCruuuuuz

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

9 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Due diligence?  I guess this will sound like blind loyalty but does Elias sound like a guy who would not do exhausting research on the draft and his #2 pick?  This article in the Sun suggests it was more than throwing a dart at a draft board.  

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-heston-kjerstad-draft-rise-20200612-df74njh7zfbqpbp3vgqzimyiqu-story.html%3foutputType=amp

I am quite familiar with your posts and I know you love a good fight. I am not interested in a fight. This is a message board on the internet, I posted my thoughts. 

Regarding your referenced article, do you believe then the Orioles got a deep understanding of what makes him tick & overall background from that single zoom call? I guess you do.

[LTO's]

20 minutes ago, NelsonCruuuuuz said:

Regarding your referenced article, do you believe then the Orioles got a deep understanding of what makes him tick & overall background from that single zoom call? I guess you do.

I believe that, yes. That was the height of the pandemic and there weren't any in person meetings/scouting going on. I think it would be foolish to think they didn't do their due diligence. The decision was also probably primarily made based on their internal statistical projections and not based on what "makes him tick." They had a very clear plan. They went underslot in round 1 to maximize the value of their draft given it was significantly shrunk.  Some have praised it (Fangraphs/ MLB) and others have sort of trashed it (Keith Law). You may very well be right but to call it a mistake now is very presumptuous. We won't know for a long time. And I say this as someone who also wishes they had made a "safer" selection with #2

[Tony-OH]

26 minutes ago, LTO's said:

I believe that, yes. That was the height of the pandemic and there weren't any in person meetings/scouting going on. I think it would be foolish to think they didn't do their due diligence. The decision was also probably primarily made based on their internal statistical projections and not based on what "makes him tick." They had a very clear plan. They went underslot in round 1 to maximize the value of their draft given it was significantly shrunk.  Some have praised it (Fangraphs/ MLB) and others have sort of trashed it (Keith Law). You may very well be right but to call it a mistake now is very presumptuous. We won't know for a long time. And I say this as someone who also wishes they had made a "safer" selection with #2

I'm not saying whether the Orioles did this or not, but understanding "what makes a guy tic" should be very much into the scouting process when you are dropping that kind of money on a guy. Statcast numbers and statistics are great, but good scouting gets to know a player well in all aspects.

[TheWall]

We obviously only know what they tell us / what's reported, but I would be absolutely shocked if Elias and team didn't do every ounce of due diligence possible on that number 2 pick. That doesn't mean it was the right / wrong pick, but nothing about their approach to this rebuild shows us that they'd make a move like that impulsively. 

[baltfan]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm not saying whether the Orioles did this or not, but understanding "what makes a guy tic" should be very much into the scouting process when you are dropping that kind of money on a guy. Statcast numbers and statistics are great, but good scouting gets to know a player well in all aspects.

It’s a little presumptuous to think this is about his heart, except in the physical sense.  The suggestion that this is a motivational issue is speculative at best. 

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

On 5/5/2021 at 6:41 PM, baltfan said:

It’s a little presumptuous to think this is about his heart, except in the physical sense.  The suggestion that this is a motivational issue is speculative at best. 

For me (and just my opinion from some guy on a message board) it was just not a smart pick. Elias is great but that was not a great pick there, I am sorry. And as a fan, when your enduring year after year of a crap product to get a high pick…don’t get cute, just take the BPA and due your due diligence on the complete player, not just analytics. When he took him, I had flashbacks to Joe Jordan and that is not a compliment.

[Tony-OH]

On 5/5/2021 at 6:41 PM, baltfan said:

It’s a little presumptuous to think this is about his heart, except in the physical sense.  The suggestion that this is a motivational issue is speculative at best. 

I think you totally misread what I meant. I never said either of those things.