Tonight Tyler Wells is eligible to come off the 10 day IL.

[mlrhode]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The Orioles keep their prospect injury news like the Russians kept state secrets in the Kremlin. My only thought was that was why Elias would leave him unprotected. I think he left him unprotected because he's too focused on spin rates and four seamers while Pop is a two seam sinker sidearmer who gets ground balls instead of strikeouts. I don't think Pop fit the Elias mold so he didn't protect him. 

Or, it could just be  case of wanting to keep a guy you acquired (Mattson) over a guy your predecessor acquire (Pop). I don't know, but if you watch both pitch I don know how any evaluator would pick a 26-year old Mattson over a 24-year old Pop.

Tony, back to Tyler Wells do you think the Orioles tell him to come to spring training next year prepared to compete for a starting job. They took him in the Rule 5 because they thought he had starters stuff originally.

Don't know if pitching more frequently in relief caused the wrist problem but I think his stuff is too good not see what it looks like as a stater.

[Tony-OH]

Just now, mlrhode said:

Tony, back to Tyler Wells do you think the Orioles tell him to come to spring training next year prepared to compete for a starting job. They took him in the Rule 5 because they thought he had starters stuff originally.

Don't know if pitching more frequently in relief caused the wrist problem but I think his stuff is too good not see what it looks like as a stater.

I would think so. He has the repertoire and is built like a starter. I'd certainly give him a look in that role.

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

They were already on the roster. I specifically said players added instead of Pop, not kept on the roster instead of adding Pop. You then claimed there were far superior examples than Mattson. I asked you for them, and you didn't give me one example that met my criteria.

My issue is that you have to say things like "far better options" than the guy I listed but you didn't even thoroughly read why I picked Mattson. 

Perhaps take your time, and use less hyperbole and stop trying to come off like the board know it all. You have a lot of of good thoughts and ideas but you just continue to try and degrade others opinions instead of just sticking to the facts without the hyperbole or denigration of other's ideas or opinions. 

Saying all that, Valika was a 28 year old coming off a .791 OPs season in 2020 with no clear second baseman, so no, he was not going to be DFa'd nor should have been at that time. Sulser was the pitcher I was surprised they kept but then we found out about the knee injury that affected him last year and in a year where they knew they would need a lot of pitchers it made sense to keep him around.

Back to guys added, I would not have added Mattson or Bannon and definitely would have protected Pop had I known there were no reports suggesting he was not healthy. I said that at the time and I still stand by those evaluations.

That’s fine..but I don’t see why we would restrict it to the few guys we added to the 40 man.  Pop being left off the 40 man is impacted by everyone they decided to keep on it.

So yes, I stand by what I said..there were far better options to take off the 40 man in favor of Pop than Mattson and despite your talking about what Valaika did in a SSS of 2020, with his poorish defense, he was one of those guys.  My guess is we could have DFA’ed Valaika and still kept him in the organization and if not, you can shake a tree and 5 more Valaika’s fall out.  As he showed this year, he’s not that good.  

If you want to restrict the conversation to the few people added instead of him, that’s fine..I don’t feel that’s the way to discuss things because this is a bigger picture issue.

That being said, I would need to know (I honestly don’t remember) everyone who was added to determine if Mattson was the best option.  I know it was more than just Mattson and Bannon.

And you say well you don’t DFA Valaika after his 2020 season, well there is no way Elias is going to not protect someone he just traded for and seemed to like, especially a young controllable arm in a system that needs those guys. So, that thought process goes both ways.

[Sports Guy]

On 8/5/2021 at 11:11 AM, Tony-OH said:

Sure you can look at his overall numbers and take that opinion, but if you did a little detailed research you might have a different conclusion.

Over his last 15 appearances and 14.1 IP, he's pitched to a 2.57 ERA and held batters to a .692 OPS. 

His baseball SAVANT numbers shows he has 92 percentile for EV against and 81st percentile for hard hit% which means he doesn't get hit hard. Even though his K rate is not great, he gets a lot of ground balls (58.1%) and has a 90% percentile chase rate. 

This is from a guy who missed almost two seasons and had only 32 innings above A ball.

So while you certainly can make any opinion you want about him, he would be one of the Orioles best relievers right now and would be a rookie. 

Let's put this another way. What reliever on the team or in AAA would you rather have than him when looking towards the future?

Meanwhile, Isaac Mattson, who Elias choose to protect over him because he acquired him in a trade, has a 10.32 ERA in AAA this year. 

BTW, even if you want to use his entire season stats to judge him, batters have slashed .247/.348/.357/.705 off his this season with a 3:1 GB/FB ratio. 

So yes, I am sad that we lost a cost controlled, 24-year old rookie ground ball getting, weak contact inducing side-armer who should have been protected over multiple players who were actually protected by Elias and his crew.

 

On 8/5/2021 at 11:30 AM, Sports Guy said:

I know you like to bring Mattson but there were far better examples of people to let go than him (not that I disagree with you about him but we had older options and/or guys who have already proven they aren’t good that could/should have been cut).  I still can’t fathom that Elias made such a poor judgment on this one and kept the AAAA garbage that he did over him.  

Btw Tony, where in your post did you restrict the conversation to only Players added to the 40 man?  I don’t see you saying that here?

[Sports Guy]

On 8/5/2021 at 11:59 AM, Tony-OH said:

I have been consistently talking about players added instead of him which is why I bring up Mattson. Who are the "far better examples" of older players added instead of Pop?

I realize you believe your knowledge is far superior then us lowly mortals, so please tell me about the far better examples than Mattson so I may try and learn from your infinite and all knowing wisdom.

I see you sort of eluded to it here but that was after my initial post of saying that there were far better options than Mattson.

Are you saying I’m supposed to know/remember what you said in another thread and carry that over to this thread?  
 

All I know is that you have said a bunch of times you didn’t like Mattson being kept over Pop.  I don’t remember you talking about just guys added (you probably did say it but I don’t recall or just hadn’t seen it in other threads)

[Sports Guy]

Btw..is Tyler Wells going to get starts this year?  He really should just to see if his stuff plays multiple times through the order.