Heston Kjerstad 2022

[RVAOsFan]

On 11/16/2022 at 3:03 PM, btdart20 said:

Kjerstad was on today's MLB Pipeline podcast with Jim Callis.  It was a great interview that covered a lot of ground.  Kjerstad sounds like he's got a good head on his shoulders.

Callis asked about things Kjerstad learned or needs to focus on to be successful in the bigs.  Kjerstad's response "I always have to keep an eye on" spraying to all fields and working the counts to get into a hitters count/get your pitch.

Callis made a comment about Kjerstad going for a certain pitch/location.  Kjerstad said he does "hunt" pitches.  Kjerstad said the velo/off-speeds in AFL were consistently better than he's faced before.  Every AB is a new game-plan and it changes by pitcher.  This is where scouting metrics comes into play.

Kjerstad called out Andrew Painter as the best pitcher he's faced.

Some interesting 2020 draft chatter as well.  Speaking of the O's FO "They're great at what they do and they have a format."  And Kjerstad believes it's a fit.

Kjerstad spoke with great passion about his personal expectations and drive.

Kjerstad called out Ortiz being unreal athlete.  And generally praised the talents' work ethic, competitiveness, and sharing approach.

Kjerstad realized how much he likes the O's "super simple" scouting reports compared to AFL scouting reports.  O's give a post-game check on swing decisions.

Thanks for posting this.  I don't want to derail the Kjerstad thread but this isn't the first time I have seen teamates of Ortiz go out their way to call out how impressed they are with him.  I believe the last time I saw it Norby made a comment about wishing he had his defensive skills.  I know we are all pretty high on Ortiz around here but I am starting to think he might be even more special than we are thinking.

[jrobb21613]

Anybody else here besides me thinks it’s a good chance Kjherstad will turn out to be the left handed power bat we need this year and be up by June? 

[ChosenOne21]

7 hours ago, jrobb21613 said:

Anybody else here besides me thinks it’s a good chance Kjherstad will turn out to be the left handed power bat we need this year and be up by June? 

He hasn't played above A ball. No way he's up by June. If he destroys minor league pitching, maybe he's up in late August/early September

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, jrobb21613 said:

Anybody else here besides me thinks it’s a good chance Kjherstad will turn out to be the left handed power bat we need this year and be up by June? 

I have to ask, what makes you think that?   Kjerstad hasn’t played a day of AA baseball yet.   Gunnar Henderson, who was the best player in the minors last year, still didn’t make it from AA to the majors until the last day of August.  Stowers, who is a LH power bat and had already reached AAA at the end of 2021, had a good AAA season in 2022 and still didn’t reach the majors until mid-August.  Westburg, who had a bit more AA experience than Henderson going into 2022, got promoted to AAA with Henderson in June but never made it to the majors last year.   So I see zero precedent to suggest Elias would promote Kjerstad to the majors in June even if he were putting up a Henderson-level performance, which he probably won’t.   I’ll be very happy if Kjerstad does enough to earn a promotion to AAA sometime in 2023 and puts himself in position to be a candidate to make the major league roster in 2024.

[Owen21]

Let him get developed further. There’s not a need to have him in Baltimore this season unless he forces the issue.

It would be nice if we have a Larry Walker type manning RF for the second half of the 2020’s.

[jrobb21613]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I have to ask, what makes you think that?   Kjerstad hasn’t played a day of AA baseball yet.   Gunnar Henderson, who was the best player in the minors last year, still didn’t make it from AA to the majors until the last day of August.  Stowers, who is a LH power bat and had already reached AAA at the end of 2021, had a good AAA season in 2022 and still didn’t reach the majors until mid-August.  Westburg, who had a bit more AA experience than Henderson going into 2022, got promoted to AAA with Henderson in June but never made it to the majors last year.   So I see zero precedent to suggest Elias would promote Kjerstad to the majors in June even if he were putting up a Henderson-level performance, which he probably won’t.   I’ll be very happy if Kjerstad does enough to earn a promotion to AAA sometime in 2023 and puts himself in position to be a candidate to make the major league roster in 2024.

Wishful thinking more than anything probably. Like you said nothing Elias has done suggest it will happen.
 

He was impressive  in the afl, Father Time doesn’t stand still he’ll be 24 next month. Former #2 overall pick. The organization if he shows that he’s ready could move him threw the system quicker to make up for the time he lost due to his medical issues.

 

[ThisIsBirdland]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I have to ask, what makes you think that?   Kjerstad hasn’t played a day of AA baseball yet.   Gunnar Henderson, who was the best player in the minors last year, still didn’t make it from AA to the majors until the last day of August.  Stowers, who is a LH power bat and had already reached AAA at the end of 2021, had a good AAA season in 2022 and still didn’t reach the majors until mid-August.  Westburg, who had a bit more AA experience than Henderson going into 2022, got promoted to AAA with Henderson in June but never made it to the majors last year.   So I see zero precedent to suggest Elias would promote Kjerstad to the majors in June even if he were putting up a Henderson-level performance, which he probably won’t.   I’ll be very happy if Kjerstad does enough to earn a promotion to AAA sometime in 2023 and puts himself in position to be a candidate to make the major league roster in 2024.

The only hesitation I have with this argument is I've wondered if the organization slow-played their good prospects early in the rebuild for service-time manipulation. Why rush Adley to a bad team? Whereas now, I think we could start seeing slightly faster graduations, especially for Kjerstad, Cowser or even Holliday as a high schooler.

I could be and probably am wrong though; look at Gunnar last year. He would have been more helpful earlier than the O's promoted him. They probably do believe in over-exposing these guys in the minors before letting them take their lumps in the majors.

[Can_of_corn]

50 minutes ago, ThisIsBirdland said:

The only hesitation I have with this argument is I've wondered if the organization slow-played their good prospects early in the rebuild for service-time manipulation. Why rush Adley to a bad team? Whereas now, I think we could start seeing slightly faster graduations, especially for Kjerstad, Cowser or even Holliday as a high schooler.

I could be and probably am wrong though; look at Gunnar last year. He would have been more helpful earlier than the O's promoted him. They probably do believe in over-exposing these guys in the minors before letting them take their lumps in the majors.

Gunnar was not going to lose his rookie status last season.

[ThisIsBirdland]

13 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Gunnar was not going to lose his rookie status last season.

What were the service time implications last year? After mid-late April is there anything to be gained by keeping players in the minors?

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, ThisIsBirdland said:

What were the service time implications last year? After mid-late April is there anything to be gained by keeping players in the minors?

Draft pick.

 

 

Farm system ranking.

[MurphDogg]

On 1/2/2023 at 10:31 AM, Owen21 said:

Let him get developed further. There’s not a need to have him in Baltimore this season unless he forces the issue.

It would be nice if we have a Larry Walker type manning RF for the second half of the 2020’s.

I agree. I feel that they should shoot for having as many future Hall of Famers on the team as possible. Just good roster management, in my opinion.

[Tony-OH]

I image Kjerstad will start 2023 in Bowie. I could see him ending his season in AAA. I'd be shocked if he made his major league debut next year barring a series of unfortunate injuries.