Colton Cowser 2022

[IPlayGM]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Homer was off a lefty.

Well he won’t have to worry about that when he gets to the bigs with Hyde.

[RZNJ]

11 hours ago, Frobby said:

He’s cooled off a bit over the last week, but yeah.  He’s been something to watch in the second half.  

The week wasn’t over.  3-3 with a walk, including single, double, and home run.  If he gets any colder he’ll win your final minor league player of the month.  Current AAA average .364.  Current AAA OPS 1.050.   

[Chaka Garcia]

Hit his 19 homerun, but striking out ridiculously and keeping that OBP at a good rate at AAA.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, Chaka Garcia said:

Hit his 19 homerun, but striking out ridiculously and keeping that OBP at a good rate at AAA.

A mixed bag.

[Chaka Garcia]

12 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

A mixed bag.

Agreed. I wonder if the general consensus here feel he met expectations after being drafted 5th with many wishing for Lawler?

[CharmCityHokie]

28 minutes ago, Chaka Garcia said:

Agreed. I wonder if the general consensus here feel he met expectations after being drafted 5th with many wishing for Lawler?

I think he's met expectations (though the strikeouts are somewhat concerning and not at all what I was expecting after so much was made post-draft about his bat/zone control).

But I think in this question, I'd most certainly rather have Lawlar after the season he had. He's 19 and made it to AA and put up a .900 OPS for the season. Surprised by his speed too, 39 for 45 in SBs. I think in the next 5 years or so the question to be asked is, would we rather have Cowser and Creed Willems, or would we rather have Lawlar. Because Willems got the underdraft savings that would have been needed to sign Lawlar. I'd certainly rather have Lawlar. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by CharmCityHokie

[Chaka Garcia]

I wonder if the underslot game nets any value in the lower rounds. Look at the last two drafts, what did we gain with this strategy? Carter Young and Creed Willems.

We missed out on better talent than Creed/Carter in the early rounds trying underslot.

37 minutes ago, CharmCityHokie said:

I think he's met expectations (though the strikeouts are somewhat concerning and not at all what I was expecting after so much was made post-draft about his bat/zone control).

But I think in this question, I'd most certainly rather have Lawlar after the season he had. He's 19 and made it to AA and put up a .900 OPS for the season. Surprised by his speed too, 39 for 45 in SBs. I think in the next 5 years or so the question to be asked is, would we rather have Cowser and Creed Willems, or would we rather have Lawlar. Because Willems got the underdraft savings that would have been needed to sign Lawlar. I'd certainly rather have Lawlar. 

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Chaka Garcia

[CharmCityHokie]

57 minutes ago, Chaka Garcia said:

I wonder if the underslot game nets any value in the lower rounds. Look at the last two drafts, what did we gain with this strategy? Carter Young and Creed Willems.

We missed out on better talent than Creed/Carter in the early rounds trying underslot.

 

I don't think the '22 draft was an underslot draft. Holliday signed for the most money in the draft class; I think they wanted to spend the rest of their draft pool once McLean's medicals spooked them and offered it to Carter Young since he was a deep reach to start with. 

For '21, I think their draft just got blew up after Cowser, which is why I hate the underslot strategy. Just take the BPA in the first round, they are the surest bet in this massive gamble. They came away with Willems and John Rhodes as overslots, and I think looked at what they had left and threw the rest at Trendon Craig in Round 20 so as to be able to say they spent their budget. I am firmly anti-underslot strategy, especially when you're picking as high as the Orioles have recently been picking.

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, CharmCityHokie said:

I don't think the '22 draft was an underslot draft. Holliday signed for the most money in the draft class; I think they wanted to spend the rest of their draft pool once McLean's medicals spooked them and offered it to Carter Young since he was a deep reach to start with. 

For '21, I think their draft just got blew up after Cowser, which is why I hate the underslot strategy. Just take the BPA in the first round, they are the surest bet in this massive gamble. They came away with Willems and John Rhodes as overslots, and I think looked at what they had left and threw the rest at Trendon Craig in Round 20 so as to be able to say they spent their budget. I am firmly anti-underslot strategy, especially when you're picking as high as the Orioles have recently been picking.

The norm when picking first is that the player selected signs for less than the allotted amount.

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, CharmCityHokie said:

I think he's met expectations (though the strikeouts are somewhat concerning and not at all what I was expecting after so much was made post-draft about his bat/zone control).

But I think in this question, I'd most certainly rather have Lawlar after the season he had. He's 19 and made it to AA and put up a .900 OPS for the season. Surprised by his speed too, 39 for 45 in SBs. I think in the next 5 years or so the question to be asked is, would we rather have Cowser and Creed Willems, or would we rather have Lawlar. Because Willems got the underdraft savings that would have been needed to sign Lawlar. I'd certainly rather have Lawlar. 

Lawlar is clearly the better prospect.  That’s not even a debate.   We will see who ends up the better player of course but as far as a prospect goes, it’s not that close right now.

If Holliday in 2023 accomplishes what Lawlar did this year, everyone would be ecstatic on this site and rightfully so.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Sports Guy

[Frobby]

3 hours ago, CharmCityHokie said:

I think in the next 5 years or so the question to be asked is, would we rather have Cowser and Creed Willems, or would we rather have Lawlar. Because Willems got the underdraft savings that would have been needed to sign Lawlar. I'd certainly rather have Lawlar. 

That’s not quite accurate.  Cowser got $4.9 mm, Lawlar got $6.7 mm.  Willems got $1 mm, about $800 k over slot. So Willems got the biggest share of the savings, but it was spread around to several other players.  

I’d rather have drafted Lawlar, but I’m also optimistic that Cowser will be a good player.
 

[CharmCityHokie]

13 minutes ago, Frobby said:

That’s not quite accurate.  Cowser got $4.9 mm, Lawlar got $6.7 mm.  Willems got $1 mm, about $800 k over slot. So Willems got the biggest share of the savings, but it was spread around to several other players.  

I’d rather have drafted Lawlar, but I’m also optimistic that Cowser will be a good player.
 

Absolutely correct and I should have been clearer, obviously Rhodes and Craig were large over slots as well and a several others got smaller bumps over slot

[Tony-OH]

On 9/15/2022 at 10:06 AM, RZNJ said:

Considering that he was striking out about 50% of the time until his last 3 games, doesn’t need to be on the 40 man this winter, is unlikely to start next season with the Os, I’d say it’s highly unlikely he’d be called up and highly unlikely he’d help that much offensively.   He’s still trying to figure out AAA pitching.

He was drafted in 2021, there was no way he was going on the 40-man roster this offseason.

[nvpacchi]

Cowser's so weird to me sometimes, because everything about his batting profile feels backwards from what we've been told about him.

I was at yesterday's game, and the HR he hit was truly impressive.   He just swatted at it with no oomph behind his swing, and it just kept carrying and carrying to get out of one of the deeper parts of Durham's park.  Wind was calm too.

But he also had some super ugly swings in this game that don't correlate with his current hit tool grade.

Still even if his bat is a 50 and his power/raw power is 55/60 that's a helluva prospect.

He looked comfortable and RF, and cut a ball off nicely in the corner to prevent speed demon Vidal Brujan from stretching a single into a double.

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, nvpacchi said:

Cowser's so weird to me sometimes, because everything about his batting profile feels backwards from what we've been told about him.

I was at yesterday's game, and the HR he hit was truly impressive.   He just swatted at it with no oomph behind his swing, and it just kept carrying and carrying to get out of one of the deeper parts of Durham's park.  Wind was calm too.

But he also had some super ugly swings in this game that don't correlate with his current hit tool grade.

Still even if his bat is a 50 and his power/raw power is 55/60 that's a helluva prospect.

He looked comfortable and RF, and cut a ball off nicely in the corner to prevent speed demon Vidal Brujan from stretching a single into a double.

I tend to agree with this. I'm not sure what he's going to be next year at this point. Are the k's a transition-to-new-swing issue or something that's going to be an issue throughout his career?