Appears Grayson pitched his way to AAA to start the year

[RZNJ]

Pretty simple. He had the inside track on the job and didn't pitch well enough to keep it.  I still would have preferred him starting the year in the majors.

If he had impressed, he'd be up.  Yes, this benefits the team in a financial sense but I'm not buying any theories that suggest this is what they wanted to happen all along.

[Tony-OH]

20 hours ago, Frobby said:

So idiotic.  Bryant hit like 9 homers in spring training.  I think he led the entire league in spring homers.  Rodriguez meanwhile pitched to a 7.04 ERA.  

Such a simple premise to understand, yet a bridge too far for the twitter crowd! lol

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Such a simple premise to understand, yet a bridge too far for the twitter crowd! lol

I looked it up.  Bryant did have 9 homers that spring, and a .425/.477/1.125 slash line.  

[Can_of_corn]

17 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Pretty simple. He had the inside track on the job and didn't pitch well enough to keep it.  I still would have preferred him starting the year in the majors.

If he had impressed, he'd be up.  Yes, this benefits the team in a financial sense but I'm not buying any theories that suggest this is what they wanted to happen all along.

I'm not saying it was the plan, but I think they had no trouble at all adjusting to the developing situation and they are not mad about it.

[interloper]

45 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm not saying it was the plan, but I think they had no trouble at all adjusting to the developing situation and they are not mad about it.

I dunno, Elias seemed at least a little mad about it in his interview on MASN. 

[baltfan]

On 3/29/2023 at 1:11 PM, Can_of_corn said:

I don't know.

I think my confidence would take more of a hit getting sent down than I would get a bump beating a bunch of guys I beat least year.

And if there is little reason to believe it is anything else why did folks that aren't me call this move before spring training even started?

Why are established folks in the media questioning the move?

It is potentially very advantageous financially for the O's to send him down this spring.  Are you disputing that?

Do you think your confidence might take a hit if you repeatedly couldn't get out of the fourth in MLB games?  Yes, it could be advantageous to the Orioles, but it also would be advantageous to them if he wins ROY or finishes second.  If they were on the fence or didn't want him up, I don't know why they would create the expectation that he would be up.

LOL at you pretending you care about the opinions of the established folks in the media.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, baltfan said:

Do you think your confidence might take a hit if you repeatedly couldn't get out of the fourth in MLB games?  Yes, it could be advantageous to the Orioles, but it also would be advantageous to them if he wins ROY or finishes second.  If they were on the fence or didn't want him up, I don't know why they would create the expectation that he would be up.

LOL at you pretending you care about the opinions of the established folks in the media.

Just because I am not in favor of having him start in the minors over fewer than 20 innings of spring training that does not mean I am discounting the idea of him ever being demoted over performance.

No where have I suggested that he starts the season in the majors and stays there no matter what his results are.

[Going Underground]

Orioles are off today and Grayson is pitching in Durham tonight, weather permitting. 

[Aristotelian]

21 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Just because I am not in favor of having him start in the minors over fewer than 20 innings of spring training that does not mean I am discounting the idea of him ever being demoted over performance.

No where have I suggested that he starts the season in the majors and stays there no matter what his results are.

One thing Elias said is he doesn't like demoting guys so he only wants to promote when he's sure they are ready. I think there is something to that. 

[Tony-OH]

21 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Just because I am not in favor of having him start in the minors over fewer than 20 innings of spring training that does not mean I am discounting the idea of him ever being demoted over performance.

No where have I suggested that he starts the season in the majors and stays there no matter what his results are.

You do realize they are evaluating the stuff, not so much the stats over the "fewer than 20 innings" of work, right? 

I'd imagine if his stuff looked real good 80% of the time and he was just getting beat by a bad pitch or two, he'd be in the rotation. The guy I saw twice this spring looked like a shell of the guy I saw pre injury last year. Besides the pure velocity, he did not look like anything special and I wouldn't want him starting his big league career while he 's scuffling to find his command and breaking balls.

I think Elias expected Rodriguez to win a spot in the rotation based off what he saw pre-injury and expecting him to look like that guy after a full offseason. That's not the guy he was. Now, the fact that they can keep him down for at least three starts and potentially gain another year of control is now something I think they will do. They would be silly to not take that extra year of control now that they've optioned him. 

At the end of the day, Rodriguez pitched his way off the team by being the only starter unable to complete one 5 inning stint due to his lack of command and feel for his breaking balls. We now have to hope he goes down and finds both and that he's up here in the rotation by the end of April ready to be the pitcher we've seen him be pre-injury.

[Can_of_corn]

9 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

One thing Elias said is he doesn't like demoting guys so he only wants to promote when he's sure they are ready. I think there is something to that. 

Cool.

I don't.

Especially pitchers.

[interloper]

I'm not terribly miffed by the decision to option him, but I will say this. The O's have put themselves in a bit of an awkward situation where Grayson could struggle in AAA and then what? You have a top prospect who arguably graduated AAA, but has looked weird post-injury, so you send him down again to make sure he gets it together. And if he doesn't, you have a guy who already aced AAA, but now suddenly isn't.

Do you still call him up as soon as there's a pitcher injury even if he's struggling? That kind of undermines why you put him down there. 

Or do you simply wait as long as it takes for him to dominate again? Which only ratchets up everyone's frustration. 

Edited March 31, 2023 by interloper

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

I'm not terribly miffed by the decision to option him, but I will say this. The O's have put themselves in a bit of an awkward situation where Grayson could struggle in AAA and then what? You have a top prospect who arguably graduated AAA, but has looked weird post-injury, so you send him down again to make sure he gets it together. And if he doesn't, now you have a guy who aced AAA, but now isn't. Do you still call him up as soon as there's a pitcher injury even if he's struggling? That kind of undermines why you put him down there. 

Or do you simply wait as long as it takes for him to dominate again? 

He "aced" AAA pre injury. It's up to Grayson to find that post injury. not sure how this puts the Orioles in an "awkward position?" I don't see the Orioles calling him up until he looks like that pre-injury Rodriguez. Hopefully that's sooner than later. Even if there's an injury early on, Voth could very well slide into the rotation or Watkins could be brought up Rodriguez still looks like he did in spring training.

Now, none of us think that will happen, but I doubt if he's struggling AAA they're going to bring him up just to bring him up.

[interloper]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

He "aced" AAA pre injury. It's up to Grayson to find that post injury. not sure how this puts the Orioles in an "awkward position?" I don't see the Orioles calling him up until he looks like that pre-injury Rodriguez. Hopefully that's sooner than later. Even if there's an injury early on, Voth could very well slide into the rotation or Watkins could be brought up Rodriguez still looks like he did in spring training.

Now, none of us think that will happen, but I doubt if he's struggling AAA they're going to bring him up just to bring him up.

I mean I agree, it's clear that as long as the rotation is steady he won't be up until he's really forcing the issue. But if he's down there and bored and pissed off and pitching poorly, it could be a total loss year for him. And that's on him for not doing his job down there, 100%, it would just strike me as a wildly unlucky turn of events. If he had gotten injured after 5 ML starts last year, I don't think he'd be down there now. Now there's a real (if very slim) possibility he doesn't make it up here all year despite looking like he graduated the level last year. 

I'm sure it's very frustrating for him as well as the organization. I hope he lights it up down there. Right now though, I'd be putting money on Hall coming back before Grayson. 

[Spy Fox]

27 minutes ago, interloper said:

I'm not terribly miffed by the decision to option him, but I will say this. The O's have put themselves in a bit of an awkward situation where Grayson could struggle in AAA and then what? You have a top prospect who arguably graduated AAA, but has looked weird post-injury, so you send him down again to make sure he gets it together. And if he doesn't, you have a guy who already aced AAA, but now suddenly isn't.

Do you still call him up as soon as there's a pitcher injury even if he's struggling? That kind of undermines why you put him down there. 

Or do you simply wait as long as it takes for him to dominate again? Which only ratchets up everyone's frustration. 

I don't think it'd undermine the reasoning too much. 

Elias' claim is basically that there were 6 SP candidates and Grayson finished 6th. If one of the top 5 gets injured, it'd make sense to call up the 6th. (Hall would be 7th on this list and could theoretically leapfrog Grayson if DL is doing well but Grayson is not.)