Appears Grayson pitched his way to AAA to start the year

[Orioles4Life21]

I see folks on Twitter pretending that it makes absolutely no baseball sense to do this but it’s a very understandable decision in my eyes. Tyler Wells has shown us how good he can be as a starter. To pretend it’s clear cut that Grayson would outperform him early in the season is being pretty obtuse. 

[Sports Guy]

This move has absolutely zero to do with Tyler Wells. I’m convinced they want him in the pen but it’s nice for them to have him as a fall back option for right now.

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

This move has absolutely zero to do with Tyler Wells. I’m convinced they want him in the pen but it’s nice for them to have him as a fall back option for right now.

It might.  I mean, if the options would have been between G-Rod and someone like Asher Wojo, they might have just rolled the dice with G-Rod.  

Having Tyler Wells as a fall-back option right now makes this move a little easier.  

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

It might.  I mean, if the options would have been between G-Rod and someone like Asher Wojo, they might have just rolled the dice with G-Rod.  

Having Tyler Wells as a fall-back option right now makes this move a little easier.  

Sure but if he pitches well, the Os don’t care that Wells has looked good as a starter in the past. 

[Sports Guy]

 

[Sports Guy]

 

[Jim'sKid26]

So I have expressed my opinion on the wisdom of sending him back to AAA. I still believe he has nothing to learn there. That leaves us with 3 possible reasons why he's headed for Norfolk to start the season:

1. Service time manipulation. Lots has been said on this topic. I don't need to add to it.

2. The leadership is sending him a message. "Stop reading your press clippings." Elias's quote in the tweet that @Sports Guy posted above is rather telling. "We were hoping he would show up as a better version of himself." 

3. They saw a fundamental flaw in his mechanics that they couldn't fix in ST. Maybe he's tipping his off speed stuff. Maybe he's got release point problems. They saw something that would cause him to struggle mightily at the MLB level that will take several weeks to fix.

I personally think it might be #2. That quote from Elias has multiple layers. It's going to be very interesting to see how Grayson responds. 

 

[Flash- bd]

Love that response from Elias!

[Can_of_corn]

15 minutes ago, Flash- bd said:

Love that response from Elias!

But it wasn't true.

Adley finished his rehab last season (was healthy) and he was kept in the minors.

Or was he still hurt when he finished rehab?

That was the timing last year.

 

Of course Elias is going to push back against the idea he's gaming service time, no one thinks he's an idiot.  He's got plausible deniability and he's going to use it.

[Ripken]

I'm trying to think of one thing I feel better about since last season ended.  Gunnar and GRod did not look good in Florida.  Hall barely pitched.  Tate, Givens and Wells are not in the pen.  No big impact player was added through FA or trade.  Gibson seems very lateral.  I guess Irvin could work out but Frazier and McCann, I mean, ugh.  No young players were extended.  The ownership/city/MASN messes continue on.  And so forth.  The only bright spot was watching Westburg, Kjerstad, Cowser, and Holliday play well but they aren't going to Baltimore (not that they should be). 

I try to remind myself that all I ever really care about in spring training is going north with a healthy, talented squad.  We do meet those qualifiers for the most part but I was really hoping for more.

[waroriole]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

 

That’s kind of harsh from Elias. Not sure why he’s spelling it out so much. 

[waroriole]

47 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 

I wish you could would stop asking me about this thing that I’m obviously doing. It’s hard to act like I’m not doing it if you ask me if I’m doing it. 

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, waroriole said:

That’s kind of harsh from Elias. Not sure why he’s spelling it out so much. 

Crazy considering all the positive stuff we've heard over the years right?

[deward]

32 minutes ago, Ripken said:

I'm trying to think of one thing I feel better about since last season ended.  Gunnar and GRod did not look good in Florida.  Hall barely pitched.  Tate, Givens and Wells are not in the pen.  No big impact player was added through FA or trade.  Gibson seems very lateral.  I guess Irvin could work out but Frazier and McCann, I mean, ugh.  No young players were extended.  The ownership/city/MASN messes continue on.  And so forth.  The only bright spot was watching Westburg, Kjerstad, Cowser, and Holliday play well but they aren't going to Baltimore (not that they should be). 

I try to remind myself that all I ever really care about in spring training is going north with a healthy, talented squad.  We do meet those qualifiers for the most part but I was really hoping for more.

I generally agree with you, except for Gunnar. He started slow, but looked much better to me over the last two weeks.

[Frobby]

53 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

But it wasn't true.

Adley finished his rehab last season (was healthy) and he was kept in the minors.

Or was he still hurt when he finished rehab?

That was the timing last year.

 

Of course Elias is going to push back against the idea he's gaming service time, no one thinks he's an idiot.  He's got plausible deniability and he's going to use it.

This is such a BS agenda.  He was in the minors about a week longer than his official rehab period.   He was brought up at a time when it was not at all likely that he’d lose Super-2 status via the extra week.   Bottom line, they brought him up when they felt he’d gotten into the swing of things and was ready to be successful.   There’s ZERO evidence that the timing of his call-up was influenced by service time issues.