Is Grayson Rodriguez our no. 1 prospect now?

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Bobby Witt has over a 1.000 OPS in both June and July.   That warrants a promotion.   Adley’s performance doesn’t scream that he needs a promotion right now.  

Yes because clearly a few bad weeks greatly diminishes his abilities, accomplishments, upside and age.  
 

[Tony-OH]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

I’m about ready to say yes.   Dominating AA at age 21 while Adley is having his struggles right now.    Put it this way: if I was going to promote one of them right now, it would be Rodriguez.  

You're good Rick. This was going to be my big surprise for the power rankings tomorrow. Rutschman is back in a funk where he's missing very hittable pitches. He really seems to swing through a lot low 90s fastballs and although he's patient, I think the guys gets two strikes on him in 80% of his PAs.

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yes because clearly a few bad weeks greatly diminishes his abilities, accomplishments, upside and age.  
 

If we didn’t know his reputation, nobody would be clamoring for a promotion right now.   I expect players to get promotions when they are playing at the top of their game, not when they’re ice cold.  

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Frobby said:

If we didn’t know his reputation, nobody would be clamoring for a promotion right now.   I expect players to get promotions when they are playing at the top of their game, not when they’re ice cold.  

So, if he was promoted 2-3 weeks ago, that would have been fine but now, not so much?  That doesn’t make sense to me.

And yes, his reputation as the guy universally thought of as the best prospect in the game and one of the best college prospect in a decade means something.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

If we didn’t know his reputation, nobody would be clamoring for a promotion right now.   I expect players to get promotions when they are playing at the top of their game, not when they’re ice cold.  

Oh I would, you know I would. 

In fact I would say that if he was a nobody more folks would be clamoring for a promotion, since service time wouldn't be as much an issue.

Who wouldn't want to see more of a plus defensive catcher with more walks than strikeouts when we've had Pedro and Chance this season?

[Sports Guy]

15 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Oh I would, you know I would. 

In fact I would say that if he was a nobody more folks would be clamoring for a promotion, since service time wouldn't be as much an issue.

Who wouldn't want to see more of a plus defensive catcher with more walks than strikeouts when we've had Pedro and Chance this season?

As a matter of fact, I think it’s the opposite effect with Frobby.  He acts like Adley has to have a 1000 OPs to be promoted and when he did have a 1000 OPS before, it was a SSs, so let’s give him more time.  
 

The expectation is really absurd imo.

[Aristotelian]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

I was talking about a promotion to Norfolk, not Baltimore.   

As to Adley, I’m not saying he’s not a top prospect but I don’t watch him and think he’s the no. 1 prospect in the sport.  He is in more than a “mini-slump.”   He’s been pretty bad the last three weeks, and even in June wasn’t playing at “best prospect in baseball” level.   
 

Ha, seems like most people on the board want Rutschman in Baltimore right now so Norfolk didn't really cross my mind. The fact that he is a catcher with strong defense is huge in his favor even if he does not have 1.000 OPS. The plate discipline indicates a pretty high floor. Unless Franco still counts as a prospect I'm not sure who would be above him. If he is not the No. 1 prospect, who would you trade him for right now?  

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Ha, seems like most people on the board want Rutschman in Baltimore right now so Norfolk didn't really cross my mind. The fact that he is a catcher with strong defense is huge in his favor even if he does not have 1.000 OPS. The plate discipline indicates a pretty high floor. Unless Franco still counts as a prospect I'm not sure who would be above him. If he is not the No. 1 prospect, who would you trade him for right now?  

Grayson Rodriguez of course!

[Tony-OH]

50 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Ha, seems like most people on the board want Rutschman in Baltimore right now so Norfolk didn't really cross my mind. The fact that he is a catcher with strong defense is huge in his favor even if he does not have 1.000 OPS. The plate discipline indicates a pretty high floor. Unless Franco still counts as a prospect I'm not sure who would be above him. If he is not the No. 1 prospect, who would you trade him for right now?  

Let's put it this way, if Grayson Rodriguez had gone to college and was drafted this year, with the stuff he has right now, he would have gone 1-1 in this draft. 

I'm not down on Adley, but just think that much of Rodriguez. He still needs to find consistency with his slider a little bit more, but he's got special TOR written all over him.

As for Rutschman, I've watch him a lot this year and the more I watch him, the more I think he has a lot of tools to be a very good player, but I'm not convinced he's going to be an impact hitter at the major league level quite yet. I think he will be very good hitting catcher when it's all said and done, but I would like to see him really barrel up hittable pitches more often. I've seen him swing through a lot of hittable low 90s fastballs. 

Is he better than what the Orioles have right now, absolutely, but the Orioles would be dumb to start his clock this year. If they wanna send him to AAA, they can feel free, but he just needs more PAs.

I think Rutschman is going to be like Wieters offensively at the major league level initially, but has the upside to be better in his peak years.

 

[NCRaven]

With the possibility of a work stoppage next year, there’s no way in hell I’d put a top prospect on the 40 man roster and make him a member of the MLBPA before a new CBA is agreed to.  If the majors are out, I want Rutschman playing every day that he can next year.

Also, Rodriguez didn’t pitch a single inning in 2020.  Limiting his innings this year makes sense.  You don’t purposely break fragile assets like future #1 starters.

[Jammer7]

It’s a fair question. And it’s a great problem to have. It is not as simple as statistical analysis for me. 

I think I still go with Adley because of what he has been, and will be for many years to the Baltimore organization. He plays nearly every day, whereas Grayson pitches about five innings every five days. Adley is probably banged up pretty good by now. I wonder how much Adley has helped Grayson and the rest of the Bowie pitchers this season. To what degree has Adley helped Grayson achieve what he has become this season? And it isn’t like they have figured him out and shut him down. He will be a dominant force in the lineup again soon. 

[wildcard]

So 52 at bats is all it takes for Adley to lose his #1 status?  Really?  He was hitting well for two months up to June 30th.  

I hope he gets promoted to Norfolk today along with Grayson.

[Sports Guy]

I can’t put Grayson ahead of Adley for one big reason, which is mostly out of his control.

He is only throwing 70ish pitches per start.  He is dominating in those pitches but what does he look like throwing 75-100 pitches?  We don’t know that.  I’m guessing he will be fine but without knowing that, I can’t elevate him about Rutschman.

[Frobby]

25 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I can’t put Grayson ahead of Adley for one big reason, which is mostly out of his control.

He is only throwing 70ish pitches per start.  He is dominating in those pitches but what does he look like throwing 75-100 pitches?  We don’t know that.  I’m guessing he will be fine but without knowing that, I can’t elevate him about Rutschman.

That is the biggest point “against” Grayson, I agree.   I think he will answer that question resoundingly when given the opportunity.   

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

So 52 at bats is all it takes for Adley to lose his #1 status?  Really?  He was hitting well for two months up to June 30th.  

I hope he gets promoted to Norfolk today along with Grayson.

The season is now 11 weeks old.   In how many of those weeks has Rutschman hit .300+ for the week?   Two.   He’s hit two homers in the last five weeks.

I don’t mean for it to sound like I’m really down on Adley.   But he is underperforming my expectations and Grayson is exceeding them.   It’s that simple.   The season is more than half over.