"Moves that completely befuddle us" 2022-23 offseason edition

[eddie83]

Just now, wildcard said:

I doubt it.  Him coming off the 40 just has not been reported yet IMO.

I think you are wrong. 
 

The point of these deals is to be able to send a player to AAA to be able to keep them. Why would the Orioles or for that matter Bemboom sign the contract for? 

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

I think you are wrong. 
 

The point of these deals is to be able to send a player to AAA to be able to keep them. Why would the Orioles or for that matter Bemboom sign the contract for? 

Bemboon is going to sign it because it's a job playing baseball.

I doubt he's got a ton of other offers out there.

[Just Regular]

The young guys Mancano and Mortensen had a good callback on Michael "Corleone" Elias and these waiver claim guys on their podcast today, remembering that year how Yolmer Sanchez looked all spring like the Opening Day 2B and then a minute ahead of time Elias was like, "Eh, just a waiver guy".

Ramon Urias has grown to more than Yolmer in stature, but whenever I look at Westburg vs Urias as April 2B options, I just feel like it might be tough for Ramon despite his good play.

[JakeRider]

7 hours ago, wildcard said:

At the end of the season he was a minor leaguer and therefore eligible to declare himself a minor league free agent.  The O's wanted to keep him in the system so they put him on the 40 man.   Then passing him through waivers the claiming team would have to put him on their major league roster which Elias knew was unlikely.   So yes he had to go through waivers and must have cleared.   Then the O's signed him to a minor league contract with a ST invitation.

Such waivers are not a kind of machination? Or is it a common practice?
Just a question, nothing more.

[wildcard]

9 hours ago, eddie83 said:

I think you are wrong. 
 

The point of these deals is to be able to send a player to AAA to be able to keep them. Why would the Orioles or for that matter Bemboom sign the contract for? 

Bemboom will probably make somewhere close to 100K  for 7  months work to mentor pitchers at AAA and probably catcher Maverick Handley.   In addition to that the club provides health care, housing, meals, per diem, and tuition assistance.  He probably can't make that elsewhere.  

The fact that he has played in the majors as recently as last year and that he is available in case of injury to the major league club holds value to the Orioles.  Elias must think he is good at mentoring.

https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-baseball-minor-league-b4aac9d99b9701e42357607ac076b2e3

[wildcard]

Only CBS sports called Bemboom contract as split contract.   That means to me it a minor league contract.

All other reports just call it a one year contract.  Which does not tell whether it is a major or minor league contract.  

I need verification from some other source to know what kind on contract Bemboom signed.  This also effects if he is still on the 40 man roster.

Time will tell.

[Frobby]

37 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Only CBS sports called Bemboom contract as split contract.   That means to me it a minor league contract.

All other reports just call it a one year contract.  Which does not tell whether it is a major or minor league contract.  

I need verification from some other source to know what kind on contract Bemboom signed.  This also effects if he is still on the 40 man roster.

Time will tell.

All I know is that the O’s transactions page on Orioles.com lists several DFA’s in the last week or two but does not mention Benboom, and their roster page shows Bemboom on the 40-man.  It’s possible they’re just slow in updating it, but that becomes less plausible as the hours/days pass.  

[Tony-OH]

13 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Bemboon is going to sign it because it's a job playing baseball.

I doubt he's got a ton of other offers out there.

No, but he was so important that the Orioles needed to add him and protect him on the 40-man roster. 

Thank God! I was really worried about losing a 33-year old back up AAA catcher who can't hit to another team. Genius move. I apologize for ever suggesting Elias and his crew aren't perfect genius' on all their moves. I mean this move clearly depicts their genius because no other team would have possibly thought about signing up their own 33-year old backup AAA catchers to their 40-man rosters. 

These other team are so far behind the curve. They don't understand the value of a 33-year old catcher with a career .160/.231/.265/.496 line in 203 magical major league PAs. Dummies all of them. Yes, when the season was over, the most important move was to sure up Bemboom!! Freakin' Genius I tell you.

I apologize that my obviously non-genius brain was unable to understand the pure ingenuity and foresight it took to ensure the organization doesn't lose this talent. With only Cam Gallagher on the 40-man as a potential backup, it now has become clear to me, the need for three more back up catchers on the 40-man, to include the talents of 33-year old Bemboom was not only necessary, but a necessity. How could I have been so blind?

I hope you guys will forgive me for ever questioning Elias because clearly cornering the market on back up catchers after the season was over, but before free agency occurs is beyond my non-genius understanding. 

Maybe I need to change my scouting approach? Perhaps age and performance don't matter as much as I thought. Perhaps there is some magic evaluation metric that occurs in the Orioles-cave (The place I assume Elias and Sig do their work) that finds value in players like Bemboom when other mere mortals just see a AAA backup catcher.

I now have to question everything I know or have been taught to believe in scouting evaluations. 

But without the special Orioles evaluation computer, how will I ever be accurate again? 

Guess I'll just have to evaluate like everyone else on age, tools, and performance.  


 

 

[CHIP]

8 hours ago, wildcard said:

Bemboom will probably make somewhere close to 100K  for 7  months work to mentor pitchers at AAA and probably catcher Maverick Handley.   In addition to that the club provides health care, housing, meals, per diem, and tuition assistance.  He probably can't make that elsewhere.  

The fact that he has played in the majors as recently as last year and that he is available in case of injury to the major league club holds value to the Orioles.  Elias must think he is good at mentoring.

https://apnews.com/article/mlb-sports-baseball-minor-league-b4aac9d99b9701e42357607ac076b2e3

So Bemboom is in for $114K for MiLB season (or more depending on if/any MLB time)... plus housing at AAA, "Meals" deserve to be in quotes, Heathcare/Per Diem are true variables... and Tuition Assistance would be covered by team that drafted him.  Housing is new and adds maybe 1200-2500 a month depending on location/standards.  per diem in minors for food I think was $25/day on road trips only?  The NEWEST NUMBER is what Orioles have to pay MiLB players moving forward for Spring Training. (which actually leads to another sub topic of off season camps/clinics, etc... they have to pay the players that go to those now)  Still a 'good' income depending on where he resides the other 4 months of the year.  Would love to see what a AAA free agent contract looks like... but that is just me.

BUT...  BUT... Here is the real reply...   is that $114K above or below the coaching salary average?  Anybody know how much Tim Cossins gets paid as the MLB catching coach?  Seems too much to me because didn't the O's use the same mentoring/coaching philosophy with keeping Chirinos around to coach/mentor Adley and not bring up Nottingham/Cumberland/Bemboom the last few months of the season?  Maybe that is what left so much time for Cossins to be at all the Habit for Humanity houses (which is a noble cause but couldn't that time have been built building up the catchers in the system)

Fact is... the 'only' time you hear from the Orioles about player development success is when coaches are latching onto the 1st and 2nd Round picks... where it appears to be more of a 'don't get in their way' process.  So instead of hiring a Minor league Catching coach/coordinator to work with all the catchers or even focusing in on those at the AAA, AA, A+ & A- levels located 'near' Baltimore... we are going to start contracting players as 'player coaches' or just to be 'mentors' and 'Break Glass in case of Emergency' call ups...  

Seems to me the Orioles could spread that $114K across 11 minor league catchers and give each of the $10,000 to spend in the off season or in season to "BYOCC"... Buy Your own Catching Coach

[Aristotelian]

6 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

No, but he was so important that the Orioles needed to add him and protect him on the 40-man roster. 

Thank God! I was really worried about losing a 33-year old back up AAA catcher who can't hit to another team. Genius move. I apologize for ever suggesting Elias and his crew aren't perfect genius' on all their moves. I mean this move clearly depicts their genius because no other team would have possibly thought about signing up their own 33-year old backup AAA catchers to their 40-man rosters. 

These other team are so far behind the curve. They don't understand the value of a 33-year old catcher with a career .160/.231/.265/.496 line in 203 magical major league PAs. Dummies all of them. Yes, when the season was over, the most important move was to sure up Bemboom!! Freakin' Genius I tell you.

I apologize that my obviously non-genius brain was unable to understand the pure ingenuity and foresight it took to ensure the organization doesn't lose this talent. With only Cam Gallagher on the 40-man as a potential backup, it now has become clear to me, the need for three more back up catchers on the 40-man, to include the talents of 33-year old Bemboom was not only necessary, but a necessity. How could I have been so blind?

I hope you guys will forgive me for ever questioning Elias because clearly cornering the market on back up catchers after the season was over, but before free agency occurs is beyond my non-genius understanding. 

Maybe I need to change my scouting approach? Perhaps age and performance don't matter as much as I thought. Perhaps there is some magic evaluation metric that occurs in the Orioles-cave (The place I assume Elias and Sig do their work) that finds value in players like Bemboom when other mere mortals just see a AAA backup catcher.

I now have to question everything I know or have been taught to believe in scouting evaluations. 

But without the special Orioles evaluation computer, how will I ever be accurate again? 

Guess I'll just have to evaluate like everyone else on age, tools, and performance.  


 

 

I'm starting to sense you're not a big fan of Elias lol.

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

I'm starting to sense you're not a big fan of Elias lol.

I don't think any of us are anti-Elias or don't acknowledge that Elias has done a lot to improve things.

What some of us push back on are specific things he does that we don't agree with and the fawning attitude toward him that some fans have.

For example someone the other week was saying how they rated him as the second best GM (type) in baseball, over folks like Alex Anthopoulos.

[Frobby]

My general assumption, when Elias does something I don’t quite understand, is that Elias knows something I don’t.  That’s not to say that his decisions are always correct, just that he’s certainly fully aware of everything I know, and other things I don’t know.  So if I can’t really explain a decision based on what I know, it’s likely that it’s based in part on something I don’t know, rather than just being some inexplicable decision.  And that’s not because I think Elias is some infallible genius.  I’d probably feel that way about most credible GMs.

[SilverRocket]

Does anything ever normally happen before the playoffs are over, besides small-ball moves like this?

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, SilverRocket said:

Does anything ever normally happen before the playoffs are over, besides small-ball moves like this?

Absolutely not.  It would be indecorous.

[waroriole]

7 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Absolutely not.  It would be indecorous.

It would be ARodicous