Ramon Urias to Team Mexico in WBC

[SteveA]

He and his brother Luis will both be on the team.

The GM Of Team Mexico, who made the announcement, is Rodrigo Lopez.

So the following Orioles that I know of are in the WBC.   I assume they will report to their national team's camp and not to Sarasota, and we won't see them until their team is eliminated?   That could be as late as the championship which is little more than a week before Opening Day.

• Team USA -- Cedric Mullins, DIllon Tate
• Team Venezuela -- Anthony Santander
• Team Mexico -- Ramon Urias
• Team Israel -- Dean Kremer

Am I missing anyone?  Nick Vespi was to be on Team Italy but I assume his recent hernia surgery as nixed that.

With Cedric and Anthony potentially missing almost all of the preseason, there will be a lot of chances to see younger outfielders in the lineups.

[emmett16]

So cool.  I’m genuinely excited for the WBC this year. 

[wildcard]

Seems like a stupid move by Urias if he wants to stay an Oriole.  

There are several things that Elias probably wants to evaluate during ST.   

1) Who are the best players to play SS this season.  That will be combination of who plays great defense at SS and who can hit.  Mateo, Gunnar and Ortiz will be the main candidates.

2) Who are the best players to play 3B this season.  Urias won a GG so he can play there especially if Gunnar ends up playing a lot of SS.   But this spring Westburg and Ortiz will play some 3B because Urias will not be in camp.    This is opportunity for  Westburg and Ortiz not only to show they can play 3B defensively but that they can hit.  Urias OPS decreased in 2022.  So there is an opening.

3)  Who are the best players to play 2B.  Frazier has the contract but there are opportunities for others to out play him at 2B.   Ortiz and Westburg again will get playing time at 2B in ST.  And if those two hit  and play decent  defense they set themselves up for playing time at 2B during the season.   Urias will not play full time at 3B and needs to prove that he is better than Frazier, Ortiz and Westburg to get time at 2B.  But he will not be there for much of ST to compete at 2B.  Vavra has already shown that he does not have the arm to beat out these players to get much time at  2B in 2023.

Ortiz and Westburg enter ST with the probability of starting the year in the minors.  Urias has no options so he will be on 26 man roster if he is with the O's.  But depending of what Elias sees in ST he knows he has too many guys to play them all in the majors during the season.    So at some point a trade may be in order. He traded two relievers after ST last season.   He could trade again this spring.

It may have been a smarter move for Urias to be in camp if he wanted to be part of the O's future.   But maybe he is fine with playing for another team.  Just sayin'.

[Just Regular]

I heard Ken Rosenthal on podcast yesterday talking about Buck's entire infield being on teams in the year new rules go into effect, and that he's anxious about preparation.     I don't see Scherzer in an early google for USA pitching, so he may have extra bandwidth early in Spring to help him with time to the plate.

Rosenthal reminded me of the detail the MLBPA and MLB teamed up to build this event as a showcase.

Maybe I am still calming down from World Cup adrenaline but one of my psychobabbles this spring is Shohei Ohtani's heart is more into Team Japan than Perry Minasian's Angels, but we'll see how things go.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

Seems like a stupid move by Urias if he wants to stay an Oriole.  

There are several things that Elias probably wants to evaluate during ST.   

1) Who are the best players to play SS this season.  That will be combination of who plays great defense at SS and who can hit.  Mateo, Gunnar and Ortiz will be the main candidates.

2) Who are the best players to play 3B this season.  Urias won a GG so he can play there especially if Gunnar ends up playing a lot of SS.   But this spring Westburg and Ortiz will play some 3B because Urias will not be in camp.    This is opportunity for  Westburg and Ortiz not only to show they can play 3B defensively but that they can hit.  Urias OPS decreased in 2022.  So there is an opening.

3)  Who are the best players to play 2B.  Frazier has the contract but there are opportunities for others to out play him at 2B.   Ortiz and Westburg again will get playing time at 2B in ST.  And if those two hit  and play decent  defense they set themselves up for playing time at 2B during the season.   Urias will not play full time at 3B and needs to prove that he is better than Frazier, Ortiz and Westburg to get time at 2B.  But he will not be there for much of ST to compete at 2B.  Vavra has already shown that he does not have the arm to beat out these players to get much time at  2B in 2023.

Ortiz and Westburg enter ST with the probability of starting the year in the minors.  Urias has no options so he will be on 26 man roster if he is with the O's.  But depending of what Elias sees in ST he knows he has too many guys to play them all in the majors during the season.    So at some point a trade may be in order. He traded two relievers after ST last season.   He could trade again this spring.

It may have been a smarter move for Urias to be in camp if he wanted to be part of the O's future.   But maybe he is fine with playing for another team.  Just sayin'.

I think the O’s have a pretty good idea what Urias can do.  It’s the rookies who need evaluation.  

[emmett16]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

Seems like a stupid move by Urias if he wants to stay an Oriole.  

There are several things that Elias probably wants to evaluate during ST.   

1) Who are the best players to play SS this season.  That will be combination of who plays great defense at SS and who can hit.  Mateo, Gunnar and Ortiz will be the main candidates.

2) Who are the best players to play 3B this season.  Urias won a GG so he can play there especially if Gunnar ends up playing a lot of SS.   But this spring Westburg and Ortiz will play some 3B because Urias will not be in camp.    This is opportunity for  Westburg and Ortiz not only to show they can play 3B defensively but that they can hit.  Urias OPS decreased in 2022.  So there is an opening.

3)  Who are the best players to play 2B.  Frazier has the contract but there are opportunities for others to out play him at 2B.   Ortiz and Westburg again will get playing time at 2B in ST.  And if those two hit  and play decent  defense they set themselves up for playing time at 2B during the season.   Urias will not play full time at 3B and needs to prove that he is better than Frazier, Ortiz and Westburg to get time at 2B.  But he will not be there for much of ST to compete at 2B.  Vavra has already shown that he does not have the arm to beat out these players to get much time at  2B in 2023.

Ortiz and Westburg enter ST with the probability of starting the year in the minors.  Urias has no options so he will be on 26 man roster if he is with the O's.  But depending of what Elias sees in ST he knows he has too many guys to play them all in the majors during the season.    So at some point a trade may be in order. He traded two relievers after ST last season.   He could trade again this spring.

It may have been a smarter move for Urias to be in camp if he wanted to be part of the O's future.   But maybe he is fine with playing for another team.  Just sayin'.

Free advertising/marketing is NEVER a bad thing.  He’s gonna be an MLBer this year on the Os or somewhere else.  As long as he tweaked his prep work to adjust for the tournament dates, and as a professional  athlete it’d be hard not to believe he did, there are nothing but positives for him to participate.  #forglory  

[wildcard]

12 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think the O’s have a pretty good idea what Urias can do.  It’s the rookies who need evaluation.  

Exactly.  And without Urias in camp O's mgt will have more time to see everyone else.

Edited January 18, 2023 by wildcard

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Exactly.  And without Urias in camp O's mgt will have more time to see everyone else.

So, good for them and the Orioles.  Urias is a proven good player and he’ll get his playing time.  

[wildcard]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

So, good for them and the Orioles.  Urias is a proven good player and he’ll get his playing time.  

You seem to think the Urias' offense is just fine but the O'a need to improve their run production and I think that will be evaluated this spring.   Seeing if Westburg and Ortiz can provide a boost to the offense will be in play IMO.

[emmett16]

8 minutes ago, wildcard said:

You seem to think the Urias' offense is just fine but the O'a need to improve their run production and I think that will be evaluated this spring.   Seeing if Westburg and Ortiz can provide a boost to the offense will be in play IMO.

So what is more beneficial?  
1- ABs vs. minor leaguers  on a back field in FLA -or-

2- ABs vs. the worlds elite broadcasted on network television?

 

These  guys aren’t dumb and hire lawyer strategists (agents) to help them make the best decisions for their particular circumstance.  

[Tony-OH]

The timing of the WBC is awful. I'm not fan of it overall, but making it during spring training is ridiculously stupid.

Nobody but die hards in the US really cares about this fake world teams anyways, but when you start messing with teams ability to prepare for the season it really becomes what it is. And that's a moneygrab by MLB.

[Just Regular]

If Rodrigo Lopez's team uses Ramon Urias at 2B, I am guessing he'll get to do that about to be outlawed Short RF thing.    I haven't heard if the 2023 WBC is using MLB's fresh rules one way or the other, but I doubt they would put the world teams through that.

The Angels probably want Shohei to have about 50 seconds between pitches.     And he can go 20-40-60 pitches as the competition progresses.

 

[Orioles4Life21]

10 hours ago, emmett16 said:

So cool.  I’m genuinely excited for the WBC this year. 

The WBC is awesome. It’s great baseball after a long offseason and it’s so cool to see how the different cultures clash and how into it the fans from other countries get. It’s a great event and anybody who says otherwise, to quote the great Peter McNeely, has a big dump in their pants. Respectfully

[Orioles4Life21]

32 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The timing of the WBC is awful. I'm not fan of it overall, but making it during spring training is ridiculously stupid.

Nobody but die hards in the US really cares about this fake world teams anyways, but when you start messing with teams ability to prepare for the season it really becomes what it is. And that's a moneygrab by MLB.

True that the timing isn’t great but when would be better? Nobody would want their pitchers going to throw extra innings in the middle of the season or after the season either. I wish there was a way to make international baseball as big and as important as the World Cup but its tough to schedule an event like this 

[wildcard]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

So, good for them and the Orioles.  Urias is a proven good player and he’ll get his playing time.  

You seem to think the Urias' offense is just fine but the O'a need to improve their run production and I think that will be evaluated this spring.   Seeing if Westburg and Ortiz can provide a boost to the offense will be in play IMO.