Promotions by June 1

[Sports Guy]

26 minutes ago, UMDTerrapins said:

I agree with the names being mentioned here. Here’s a not so sexy suggestion....Mason McCoy. Release Ruiz and give McCoy a look at 2B. With Vavra and Jones getting closer to Baltimore, McCoy has a small window to play. I’m not suggesting he’ll turn into a tradeable asset, but he could settle into a utility role and the experience would be good for his development. 

On a team that wasn't spending money or anything like that, I was surprised he didn't get more attention to be in Baltimore from Day 1 this year.

[MurphDogg]

35 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

McCoy can play SS on a fill in/utility type role at the major league level but you would not want him there everyday. He reminds me a bit of Bordick before Bordick's power surge made him a major league star.

If he keeps you from having to carry an Urias on the roster, that is enough. As a backup 2B/3B only, I'm not sure he has enough pop.

Interestingly, he got a start on May 13th at CF with Norfolk. As a super utility player, he would be much more interesting.

[MurphDogg]

32 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

On a team that wasn't spending money or anything like that, I was surprised he didn't get more attention to be in Baltimore from Day 1 this year.

He was mediocre in Bowie in 2019, would rather he get playing time at AAA than sit on the bench up here. Especially as he shifts to playing all over the diamond. He had never played third before this season and he had fewer than 60 games at second coming into this season.

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

He was mediocre in Bowie in 2019, would rather he get playing time at AAA than sit on the bench up here. Especially as he shifts to playing all over the diamond. He had never played third before this season and he had fewer than 60 games at second coming into this season.

No doubt but that didn't stop them from fielding the players on the 2021 team that they did either.  All of them are mediocre players.

[Frobby]

We probably should add Kyle Brnovich to the list of players to be considered for early promotion.  He’s pitching another strong game today, 1 run on 2 hits through 5 IP.

[Three Run Homer]

Patrick Dorrian should not be too far behind Terrin Vavra on the train to Norfolk if he keeps hitting well at Bowie.   The O's need a 2B and 3B in 2022, and Dorrian and Vavra have a clear shot at those jobs.  

[Sports Guy]

I find this to be a pretty interesting dynamic this year.

First of all, you have one less MiL team.  That impacts promotions in a big way.

Secondly, you have the idea of needing to start being a real ML team soon.  I am of the opinion that Elias hasn’t necessarily been slow to promote guys, just that he is trying to get everyone on the relative same page by the time the team is ready to start being a lot more competitive.  That time is rapidly approaching, so I think it’s time we start to see more aggressive promotions.

On top of this, we have guys that we just have to see how they handle different positions.  Obviously Westburg and Henderson can’t both be the starting SS in Baltimore.  But can either of them?  If they can’t and you don’t believe you have that SS in the minors, does that impact this coming offseason?    
 

Dan Connolly is of the belief that this team won’t start being really competitive until 2024.  Thats just an absurd timeline to me.   If that is the case, that either means the talent we have (the same talent that is rated highly) just isn’t good or we will see a lot of injuries.  Otherwise, if these guys are as good as scouts and the rest of us think they are, 2023 should be a year where you are contending for a wild card and maybe even 2022 you have an outside shot depending on how immediately good these young kids are in the majors. 

By July of next year, if things go right, Hall and GRod should be in the rotation and Adley should be catching them.  
 

Henderson and Westburg are either in the majors or knocking on the door.

Kjerstad sounds like he won’t be in the picture until 2023 but all of the other top guys should be in play in 2022.  
 

Get these kids moved up and let’s see how ready they are.  

[UMDTerrapins]

18 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Dan Connolly is of the belief that this team won’t start being really competitive until 2024.  Thats just an absurd timeline to me.  

Wow.....that's pretty conservative. I'm not saying we'll make a playoff run next year, but I'll be disappointed if we're not a much more competitive team. With Santander back, we're currently only badly deficient at a few offensive positions. Our trajectory is primarily dependent on two of our pitching prospects emerging as high quality starters, and Rutschman finding himself with the bat. I think Rodriguez/Hall are our #1 and #2 prospects and aren't terribly far away. I'm more concerned about Rutschman. You can see there's a good hitter in there, but he's not close to being ready for ML pitching until he makes some adjustments. But the trio of Henderson/Vavra/Westburg is really solid, and fill our other holes on the ML roster. And we have a slew of guys to fill out the back end of our rotation after Means/Rodriguez/Hall. With Davis' contract coming off the books after next year, if we're not supplementing our youth movement with a few targeted signings it would be criminal. Our realistic target should be a WC berth in 2023. But I digress a little.......agree with everything you said. 

[ChuckS]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

I find this to be a pretty interesting dynamic this year.

First of all, you have one less MiL team.  That impacts promotions in a big way.

Secondly, you have the idea of needing to start being a real ML team soon.  I am of the opinion that Elias hasn’t necessarily been slow to promote guys, just that he is trying to get everyone on the relative same page by the time the team is ready to start being a lot more competitive.  That time is rapidly approaching, so I think it’s time we start to see more aggressive promotions.

On top of this, we have guys that we just have to see how they handle different positions.  Obviously Westburg and Henderson can’t both be the starting SS in Baltimore.  But can either of them?  If they can’t and you don’t believe you have that SS in the minors, does that impact this coming offseason?    
 

Dan Connolly is of the belief that this team won’t start being really competitive until 2024.  Thats just an absurd timeline to me.   If that is the case, that either means the talent we have (the same talent that is rated highly) just isn’t good or we will see a lot of injuries.  Otherwise, if these guys are as good as scouts and the rest of us think they are, 2023 should be a year where you are contending for a wild card and maybe even 2022 you have an outside shot depending on how immediately good these young kids are in the majors. 

By July of next year, if things go right, Hall and GRod should be in the rotation and Adley should be catching them.  
 

Henderson and Westburg are either in the majors or knocking on the door.

Kjerstad sounds like he won’t be in the picture until 2023 but all of the other top guys should be in play in 2022.  
 

Get these kids moved up and let’s see how ready they are.  

I agree 2023 is when you can reasonably expect to compete for a Wild Card.  They have enough pitching that is close to the majors to be better next season but I think a 90+ loss season is still likely taking our division into account.  Too many of the impact players you mentioned are more than a year away.   I would expect both Hall and Rodriguez to spend most if not all of 2022 in the minors just based on their age and where they are now.  Henderson and Westburg probably have an ETA of 2023 assuming they can handle the higher levels, particularly Henderson who is still only 19.   Henderson may spend all of next season in Double A. We've yet to see Elias skip anyone from Double A to the Majors to my knowledge.  Of course that doesn't mean it can't happen if he thinks we are ready to compete but I would temper expectations. 

I think 2024 is too conservative but I think you are jumping the gun a bit in your expectations for 2022, promotions, and of course some of these top prospects can and will struggle at times when they get tested at higher levels.  

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, ChuckS said:

I agree 2023 is when you can reasonably expect to compete for a Wild Card.  They have enough pitching that is close to the majors to be better next season but I think a 90+ loss season is still likely taking our division into account.  Too many of the impact players you mentioned are more than a year away.   I would expect both Hall and Rodriguez to spend most if not all of 2022 in the minors just based on their age and where they are now.  Henderson and Westburg probably have an ETA of 2023 assuming they can handle the higher levels, particularly Henderson who is still only 19.   Henderson may spend all of next season in Double A. We've yet to see Elias skip anyone from Double A to the Majors to my knowledge.  Of course that doesn't mean it can't happen if he thinks we are ready to compete but I would temper expectations. 

I think 2024 is too conservative but I think you are jumping the gun a bit in your expectations for 2022, promotions, and of course some of these top prospects can and will struggle at times when they get tested at higher levels.  

There is zero reason for Hall and GRod to be in the minors for all of 2022.  She doesn’t matter.  We need to stop worrying about that.  Young players are coming up and dominating at a young age.  If they are ready, they are ready. 
 

Henderson and Westburg shouldn’t be until 2023 either.  If they continue to perform at a high level, they will run through the system.

[ChuckS]

5 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

There is zero reason for Hall and GRod to be in the minors for all of 2022.  She doesn’t matter.  We need to stop worrying about that.  Young players are coming up and dominating at a young age.  If they are ready, they are ready. 
 

Henderson and Westburg shouldn’t be until 2023 either.  If they continue to perform at a high level, they will run through the system.

You are assuming they are going to keep pitching and hitting the way they have in A ball at the higher levels.  That is a big assumption.  If their performance warrants a promotion to the big leagues sure.  But I don't see them rushing GRod and Henderson to the bigs in mid-2022 unless we are over .500 in July AND they are dominating higher level competition. 

[Sports Guy]

14 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

You are assuming they are going to keep pitching and hitting the way they have in A ball at the higher levels.  That is a big assumption.  If their performance warrants a promotion to the big leagues sure.  But I don't see them rushing GRod and Henderson to the bigs in mid-2022 unless we are over .500 in July AND they are dominating higher level competition. 

Well yes, I am expecting them to keep performing at a high level.

Obviously if they are struggling, you aren’t bringing them up.  
 

But if they are performing well, there is zero reason for them not to be up soon in 2022, maybe even on OD.

[UMDTerrapins]

Our top prospects had the benefit of the Bowie camp in 2020, so it wasn't the lost year we tend to think of it as. For example, Rodriguez at A+ is almost silly....he's not being challenged, even though his last stop was low A in 2019. Henderson at low A at 19 years old would seem about right since his prior experience was rookie ball in 2019, where he didn't set the world on fire. But has clearly developed a HUGE amount since then. He will play at Aberdeen in 2021.....no doubt at all. That camp may have even accelerated his development a bit, because he was facing pitchers well beyond what he would have encountered in a normal 2020 season at low A. Going from facing Hall, Rodriguez, Kremer to facing low A pitching is a huge step down, and you can see isn't very challenged at Delmarva. I'm a big fan of taking your time with pitchers, but with hitters, if you're not challenging them you're not developing them. 

[ChuckS]

19 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Well yes, I am expecting them to keep performing at a high level.

Obviously if they are struggling, you aren’t bringing them up.  
 

But if they are performing well, there is zero reason for them not to be up soon in 2022, maybe even on OD.

You are talking OD 2022 for two guys just getting their first taste of low A pitching and a pitcher getting his first taste of high A batters.  It's not impossible but what you are talking about is HIGHLY improbable. 

[Sports Guy]

19 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

You are talking OD 2022 for two guys just getting their first taste of low A pitching and a pitcher getting his first taste of high A batters.  It's not impossible but what you are talking about is HIGHLY improbable. 

GRod will be in AA this year, maybe very soon.

The other 2 should move up this year as well.  Remember, Henderson was in the alternate camp last year and Westburg is out of college, playing in the best conference in the country.

They should move fast.

Once you get to AA, if you are performing at a high level, you are a candidate for a call up.