OUch! er Yipes! Brandon Tripp Released

[oriolescrew]

Well, while I would have given him one more shot, I don't think it's a big mystery. An OPS under .700 at A ball for a 23 year old is simply not performing like a prospect. Yeah, he probably deserved to be promoted to Frederick a half season earlier, but if that's an excuse for his mediocre performance at Frederick, then perhaps there's a maturity issue that contributed to his release.

What is your opinion regarding the players that replaced Tripp at Bowie and Frederick. Binick is the same age as Tripp and is playing at Frederick, last year at Aberdeen (when Tripp was at Frederick) had an ops of .665 in short season ball. Also, Tucker is almost 2yrs older than Tripp and Concepcion is 3yrs older. Both went 0-4 tonight, Tucker hit 7hr's and an ops of .769 last year, and Concepcion had an ops of .658 in '08. And Nowicki is starting the season on the DL list? Already? If like everyone says Tripp's age and ops was a problem, and would have been a miracle to make it to the majors, what is the story here. Just wondering. By the way Tripp ended the 2008 season with a 14 game hitting streak.

[baltimoriole]

Wasn't there an article published with a Fredrick coach saying how there were players who were selfish? Perhaps attitude contributed to the release?

[Jenius]

What is your opinion regarding the players that replaced Tripp at Bowie and Frederick. Binick is the same age as Tripp and is playing at Frederick, last year at Aberdeen (when Tripp was at Frederick) had an ops of .665 in short season ball. Also, Tucker is almost 2yrs older than Tripp and Concepcion is 3yrs older. Both went 0-4 tonight, Tucker hit 7hr's and an ops of .769 last year, and Concepcion had an ops of .658 in '08. And Nowicki is starting the season on the DL list? Already? If like everyone says Tripp's age and ops was a problem, and would have been a miracle to make it to the majors, what is the story here. Just wondering. By the way Tripp ended the 2008 season with a 14 game hitting streak.

First of all, you are arguing two different things here. Let's address your original argument:

It's a mystery..but he already has a few things in the works and will land somewhere and prove the "birds" made a big mistake.

Your argument is that the O's made a "big mistake". My counterargument (and Ruzious') was that this simply has no merit. His chances of making it to the ML, objectively speaking, are minute. This is based on empirical evidence.

You've now changed your argument to point at the players "replacing" Tripp at Bowie and Frederick. The players you listed are all fringe prospects at best. They may or may not outperform what Tripp would have done at those levels. This absolutely does not prove that the O's made a "big mistake" by releasing him. According to Tony there were other issues at play here.

Bottom Line: Are the corner OFs we have at Frederick and Bowie substantially better than Tripp? Probably not. Does this mean that Tripp is a significant ML prospect that the O's were foolish to release? Absolutely not.

[Tony-OH]

What is your opinion regarding the players that replaced Tripp at Bowie and Frederick. Binick is the same age as Tripp and is playing at Frederick, last year at Aberdeen (when Tripp was at Frederick) had an ops of .665 in short season ball. Also, Tucker is almost 2yrs older than Tripp and Concepcion is 3yrs older. Both went 0-4 tonight, Tucker hit 7hr's and an ops of .769 last year, and Concepcion had an ops of .658 in '08. And Nowicki is starting the season on the DL list? Already? If like everyone says Tripp's age and ops was a problem, and would have been a miracle to make it to the majors, what is the story here. Just wondering. By the way Tripp ended the 2008 season with a 14 game hitting streak.

Did you not see this, "There was more besides performance in this release. Not going into the details so don't ask, but that's what I heard."

This is not about the players who "replaced him." Do you really want anyone to say any of these guys are prospects? They're not, but neither was Tripp. I have my thoughts on why I believe Tripp was released but I'm not going to share them on here for various reasons. Either way, Tripp had major holes in his game and although he did have some tools to work with, his inability to make adjustments when pitchers adjusted to him was a major flaw that would have been hard to overcome as he faced more advanced pitching.

Skills wise, I'd prefer to have Tripp over several players still in the organization at Frederick and/or Bowie, but there's more to the story from what I understand.

[olehippi]

There was more besides performance in this release. Not going into the details so don't ask, but that's what I heard.

Tony....I think I understand the reasoning behind your lack of an explanation, but your statement does leave a dark and nebulous cloud trailing behind it.

[oriolescrew]

First of all, you are arguing two different things here. Let's address your original argument:

Your argument is that the O's made a "big mistake". My counterargument (and Ruzious') was that this simply has no merit. His chances of making it to the ML, objectively speaking, are minute. This is based on empirical evidence.

You've now changed your argument to point at the players "replacing" Tripp at Bowie and Frederick. The players you listed are all fringe prospects at best. They may or may not outperform what Tripp would have done at those levels. This absolutely does not prove that the O's made a "big mistake" by releasing him. According to Tony there were other issues at play here.

Bottom Line: Are the corner OFs we have at Frederick and Bowie substantially better than Tripp? Probably not. Does this mean that Tripp is a significant ML prospect that the O's were foolish to release? Absolutely not.

Never said they were foolish, but I do believe it was a mistake to release Tripp, never said he was a significant ML prospect either (please don't put words in my mouth) And since Tripp had "holes" in his game like Tony stated, are there no coaches or delevopemental stratagies that the O's have to improve the game of their minor leaguers? (isn't that what minor league is about??) Last yr the coach at Frederick up and left, causing the team to spiral down, also a traveling "batting coach" changed Tripps stance and approach causing major damage to his numbers in June and July, only when he changed back did he start hitting the ball again. And btw Tony don't start rumors by saying something other than performace caused the release, you really have no idea, all you have is "hearsay", which is worse than rumors. Please keep it to yourself.

[Crazysilver03]

Never said they were foolish, but I do believe it was a mistake to release Tripp, never said he was a significant ML prospect either (please don't put words in my mouth) And since Tripp had "holes" in his game like Tony stated, are there no coaches or delevopemental stratagies that the O's have to improve the game of their minor leaguers? (isn't that what minor league is about??) Last yr the coach at Frederick up and left, causing the team to spiral down, also a traveling "batting coach" changed Tripps stance and approach causing major damage to his numbers in June and July, only when he changed back did he start hitting the ball again. And btw Tony don't start rumors by saying something other than performace caused the release, you really have no idea, all you have is "hearsay", which is worse than rumors. Please keep it to yourself.

Tony has direct contact with the managers and front office personnel. He isn't starting any rumors.

[Jenius]

Never said they were foolish, but I do believe it was a mistake to release Tripp, never said he was a significant ML prospect either (please don't put words in my mouth) And since Tripp had "holes" in his game like Tony stated, are there no coaches or delevopemental stratagies that the O's have to improve the game of their minor leaguers? (isn't that what minor league is about??) Last yr the coach at Frederick up and left, causing the team to spiral down, also a traveling "batting coach" changed Tripps stance and approach causing major damage to his numbers in June and July, only when he changed back did he start hitting the ball again.

Apologies if I put words in your mouth, if that is the case then I don't get your logic. To me, the logical extension of a team making a "big mistake" is that the team was foolish. And the logical extension of a "big mistake" in releasing a minor league player is that player eventually getting to the big leagues and making the team regret losing them. As for the coaching, those are fair points, I suppose. Time will tell. The fact is, though, that Tripp's K rate has been an issue even when he was hitting well at Delmarva, and it is rare for guys fairly far into their development age-wise (like, 22+) to suddenly make a dramatic improvement in their K rates. And again, the release appears to be for deeper reasons than his on-field performance, so this argument may ultimately be pointless.

And btw Tony don't start rumors by saying something other than performace caused the release, you really have no idea, all you have is "hearsay", which is worse than rumors. Please keep it to yourself.

In this case, you are the one who apparently has "no idea" about Tony's credentials and who he has access to (as Crazysilver03 pointed out).

[ScottieBaseball]

And btw Tony don't start rumors by saying something other than performace caused the release, you really have no idea, all you have is "hearsay", which is worse than rumors. Please keep it to yourself.

Hehehe...you have no idea, dude. Talking to guys like David Stockstill, Joe Jordan, Tripp Norton, Dave Trembley, Gary Kendall, Scott McGregor, various O's scouts, various MLB scouts, etc. etc. etc. both in-person, via e-mail, telephone, and text message is hardly 'starting rumors' or 'hearsay'. If I hadn't met Tony (and actually become good friends with the guy) and taken in ball games at several levels in this organization with him, I might be skeptical, too, but I can assure you it's hardly rumor mongering.

I get that you might be related to/a friend of Brandon Tripp, so it's tough to hear anything remotely critical of said relative/friend. Tony could come right out and say what heard, but I personally think it's best to leave it at that.

[Bosibus]

Hehehe...you have no idea, dude. Talking to guys like David Stockstill, Joe Jordan, Tripp Norton, Dave Trembley, Gary Kendall, Scott McGregor, various O's scouts, various MLB scouts, etc. etc. etc. both in-person, via e-mail, telephone, and text message is hardly 'starting rumors' or 'hearsay'. If I hadn't met Tony (and actually become good friends with the guy) and taken in ball games at several levels in this organization with him, I might be skeptical, too, but I can assure you it's hardly rumor mongering.

I get that you might be related to/a friend of Brandon Tripp, so it's tough to hear anything remotely critical of said relative/friend. Tony could come right out and say what heard, but I personally think it's best to leave it at that.

At the same time though, with no evidence or source, it still IS just a rumor of whatever Tony will not say. But in general, I agree with what you guys are saying, I can just see what oriolescrew's view about the rumor subject. As far as Tripp, total opposite.

[Tony-OH]

At the same time though, with no evidence or source, it still IS just a rumor of whatever Tony will not say. But in general, I agree with what you guys are saying, I can just see what oriolescrew's view about the rumor subject. As far as Tripp, total opposite.

So, I'm just a rumor starter?? Whatever...

Quite simply, it serves no purpose to start getting into the other stuff after a guy is released. The only reason I put this out was to let people know there was more to the situation than pure performance/potential.

You can believe what you want, but don't start calling me out as just some guy throwing rumor's around.

[Bosibus]

So, I'm just a rumor starter?? Whatever...

Quite simply, it serves no purpose to start getting into the other stuff after a guy is released. The only reason I put this out was to let people know there was more to the situation than pure performance/potential.

You can believe what you want, but don't start calling me out as just some guy throwing rumor's around.

I didn't call you out, nor did I call you a rumor starter. We all know you have credentials and contacts none of us have.

But by saying "There was more besides performance in this release. Not going into the details so don't ask, but that's what I heard." provides no source and that is what I stated in my post.

For clarity, the definition of a rumor is "a statement or report current without known authority for its truth" is exactly this. In my post, I agreed with what you guys had to say, yet, you became defensive. I was not disrespectful or slanderous. Nor do I think my post broke any of the board rules and warranted negative rep.

I cannot believe I just got a little upset by this.

[ScottieBaseball]

I didn't call you out, nor did I call you a rumor starter. We all know you have credentials and contacts none of us have.

But by saying "There was more besides performance in this release. Not going into the details so don't ask, but that's what I heard." provides no source and that is what I stated in my post.

For clarity, the definition of a rumor is "a statement or report current without known authority for its truth" is exactly this. In my post, I agreed with what you guys had to say, yet, you became defensive. I was not disrespectful or slanderous. Nor do I think my post broke any of the board rules and warranted negative rep.

I cannot believe I just got a little upset by this.

Ugh...you're playing word games with the whole definitions thing, Bosibus.

Is the Hangout perfect? No. But I think Tony deserves enough credit to negate the absence of "known authority for its truth" when it comes to stuff like this. You agreed with what they had to say, but followed it up with, "It's still a rumor." It's kind of back-handed to be quite honest. I read it as a comment intended to discredit the validity of the statement and/or the person making the statement.

If that's not what you meant, then cool. It was a misunderstanding. It happens all the time on the web when we can't read each other's body language and facial expressions.

I'm not saying Tony, Paul, myself, any member of this staff, or any member of the media in general should be bowed down to and go unquestioned, but man alive...we all (at least on this staff) have enough integrity that we wouldn't engage in rumor mongering if we didn't have first-hand knowledge of a story's validity.

[Tony-OH]

I didn't call you out, nor did I call you a rumor starter. We all know you have credentials and contacts none of us have.

But by saying "There was more besides performance in this release. Not going into the details so don't ask, but that's what I heard." provides no source and that is what I stated in my post.

For clarity, the definition of a rumor is "a statement or report current without known authority for its truth" is exactly this. In my post, I agreed with what you guys had to say, yet, you became defensive. I was not disrespectful or slanderous. Nor do I think my post broke any of the board rules and warranted negative rep.

I cannot believe I just got a little upset by this.

So I'm not a known authority? Let me clear this up for you. I am a source for a minor league information. If you don't want to believe me that's fine, but I'm not in the business of giving my sources out. When I post something like this it should be treated as information, not some rumor. This entire argument is disrespectful and goes against the reputation I've built up over many years.

[Frobby]

So I'm not a known authority? Let me clear this up for you. I am a source for a minor league information. If you don't want to believe me that's fine, but I'm not in the business of giving my sources out. When I post something like this it should be treated as information, not some rumor. This entire argument is disrespectful and goes against the reputation I've built up over many years.

Eh, Tony, I wouldn't sweat it. When Bob Woodward cites unnamed sources he still gets criticism, despite being a Pulitzer Prize winner. And here you are not only not naming the sources, you aren't even saying exactly what they said. Mind you, I am not criticizing the way you've handled it, but as a loyal reader it's kind of frustrating to only know that somebody (maybe more than one somebody) had something negative to say about why the guy was released, but not know who said it or what it was they said. In those circumstances, it's kind of hard for us to have an opinion as to whether these non-performance related reasons for Tripp's release are good reasons or not.

In my case, I really don't care. He could have been an Eagle Scout, and he still wasn't at all likely to reach the majors. So if the team had additional reasons to let him go, besides the performance-related ones, it doesn't matter much in assessing whether the decision to release him was a good one. Now if they suddenly released someone like (just picking a name of a better prospect at random) Ryan Adams for non-performance related reasons I'd be a lot more interested in the specifics.