High praise from BA on our minor league pitching development program

[Frobby]

I suggest that anyone who thinks we are way behind on the pitching side of things should read this:

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/o-s-pitching-development-program-got-some-props-from-baseball-america

 

[Sports Guy]

Yea, the stuff+ tidbit has been out for a few weeks.  Wonder how much GRod impacted that, since stuff+ loves him.

[ThisIsBirdland]

Making it tougher and tougher to want to see them part with Povich or McDermott as part of any SP trade…

[Jim'sKid26]

I found this tidbit to be fascinating:

“I think a lot of it is they’ve gone after guys that throw hard or have certain movement profiles," said Pontes. "And the stuff they have trained on internally has accentuated some of those traits. I think they have a knack for going after guys that have good underlying traits – it’s not always about the numbers – but guys that can develop into something better. They have consistently done that to have success.”

This really fits what we've seen recently with acquisitions such as Heasley and others. 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

I found this tidbit to be fascinating:

“I think a lot of it is they’ve gone after guys that throw hard or have certain movement profiles," said Pontes. "And the stuff they have trained on internally has accentuated some of those traits. I think they have a knack for going after guys that have good underlying traits – it’s not always about the numbers – but guys that can develop into something better. They have consistently done that to have success.”

This really fits what we've seen recently with acquisitions such as Heasley and others. 

Lots of the pitchers we’ve drafted had poor ERAs in college.  

[wildcard]

40 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I suggest that anyone who thinks we are way behind on the pitching side of things should read this:

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/o-s-pitching-development-program-got-some-props-from-baseball-america

 

Two starters doesn't make the O's deep in pitching.   I like Johnson also.  But the O's are real deep at  most positions (except center).  Pitching is not near as deep in the high minors.

 

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Two starters doesn't make the O's deep in pitching.   I like Johnson also.  But the O's are real deep at  most positions (except center).  Pitching is not near as deep in the high minors.

 

I think the article is more about our pitching development system than about near-major league ready pitchers.  Obviously we have more upper-level hitting prospects.  But our pitching development system is strong and the pitchers are coming.  

[Say O!]

43 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, the stuff+ tidbit has been out for a few weeks.  Wonder how much GRod impacted that, since stuff+ loves him.

Article states that Os ranked #1 for LHPs. 

[emmett16]

55 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, the stuff+ tidbit has been out for a few weeks.  Wonder how much GRod impacted that, since stuff+ loves him.

Not as much as Bradish.  

[btdart20]

19 minutes ago, Jim'sKid26 said:

I found this tidbit to be fascinating:

“I think a lot of it is they’ve gone after guys that throw hard or have certain movement profiles," said Pontes. "And the stuff they have trained on internally has accentuated some of those traits. I think they have a knack for going after guys that have good underlying traits – it’s not always about the numbers – but guys that can develop into something better. They have consistently done that to have success.”

This really fits what we've seen recently with acquisitions such as Heasley and others. 

Elias has said this for a few years now whether it's FA or drafting.  Something along the lines of "finding the guy with 'warts'".  One of his goals in player selection is arbitraging the market in finding underlying metrics that are hidden by the warts on the baseball card stats.  They seem to know a few paths to filling out/tweaking the pitcher's approach to get more out of them than many other staffs.  

It's also part of why I don't think we'll ever draft a pitcher in the 1st.  

8 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Two starters doesn't make the O's deep in pitching.   I like Johnson also.  But the O's are real deep at  most positions (except center).  Pitching is not near as deep in the high minors.

We have our top 2 pitching prospects at AAA.  They'd be in the top 4-7 range in most other orgs.  BA ranked them 10 and 11 for us.  Toss in Johnson at AA for good measure.  And that's after graduating Grayson and Hall this past year.  I think it's fair to argue that it's not deep after that point, but the 2023 draft seeds have just been sown and the international investments are starting to pay some dividends (i.e. we just traded one for an MLB-ready guy with warts and upside).  What more we could realistically ask for.  Especially considering the prioritization of positional drafting pre-2023.

 

15 minutes ago, Say O! said:

Article states that Os ranked #1 for LHPs. 

We have 19 LHP in the entire organization.  8 of them are too old for the BA report.  That leaves 11 LHP.  I have to think Hall and Povich heavily influenced the #1 stuff+ ranking for us.

[emmett16]

41 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Lots of the pitchers we’ve drafted had poor ERAs in college.  

They’ve gone after guys with big  arms, unique movement profiles, high spin profiles, specific body types, and unique body types/pitch profiles.  Seems they are getting creative and trying out new things, like the guy that was almost 7’ talk a few years back.  They are looking for unique advantages anywhere they can find them.  Very little of which has to do with past performance, or at least past performance not being a determining factor.  I’m sure there is some overlap between success and the traits they are looking for.  As we can see from the pitching market, finding these guys for pennies on the dollar is priceless.  Hope they can load up in the short term, I think they say unique advantages in baseball last about 18 months.  Won’t be long before the cat is out of the bag. 

[Jagwar]

I don't have any issue with the O's development of pitchers. I just wish they had drafted more of them. 

[Sports Guy]

I also think this is more of an indication at the type of pitchers the team is drafting.

[emmett16]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

I also think this is more of an indication at the type of pitchers the team is drafting.

Seeing as how a guy we traded for is #2 on the list, I’d say it’s an indication of the type of guys we are trading for as well.  

[IPlayGM]

9 hours ago, Frobby said:

I suggest that anyone who thinks we are way behind on the pitching side of things should read this:

https://www.masnsports.com/blog/o-s-pitching-development-program-got-some-props-from-baseball-america

 

Thanks for sharing. Reading this article gave me two thoughts:

1. Elias and his team really know what they are doing, and it makes me feel good about prospect sustainability moving forward.

2. Even more reason to trade for a “right now” starter.