Excellent article on Os hitting development

[Sports Guy]

 

[Moose Milligan]

This was fantastic. 

[HbgOsFan]

SG, this was a great find.  Thank you.

[Jim'sKid26]

Very pleased the "secret sauce" was not entirely disclosed. 

[Sports Guy]

“They draft guys with present power and improve their launch angle and swing decisions,” said a rival assistant general manager with player development responsibilities. “That present power is there in the form of top-end exit velocities, not necessarily slugging percentage. They teach better Vertical Bat Angle to reduce ground-ball rates. Swing decisions plus better VBA equals power production when those top-end exit velocities exist.”

 

 

May be a big reason why they traded for Eloy. Perhaps they feel they can change his launch angle and have him hit for more power by the time we get to the playoffs?

[HowAboutThat]

It was a good article. Now Buck can retire TTTP and adopt VBA as his go-to metric.

A snarky comment was made in the comments section that noted that the secret could be nothing more than drafting only hitters in the top rounds for the last five years.

Made me laugh.

Sadly, there’s no corresponding article about pitching success.

[glenn__davis]

11 minutes ago, HowAboutThat said:

It was a good article. Now Buck can retire TTTP and adopt VBA as his go-to metric.

A snarky comment was made in the comments section that noted that the secret could be nothing more than drafting only hitters in the top rounds for the last five years.

Made me laugh.

Sadly, there’s no corresponding article about pitching success.

Actually there sort of is.  The article below focuses specifically on Zach Fruit, a High-A pitcher that is having some decent success this year, but ventures into the organization pitching philosophy a bit as well.

I think that in the next 2-3 years we'll start to see a pretty steady stream of intriguing pitchers at the upper levels, many of whom will come from the international side.  I know it's chic right now to criticize the pitching development, and I do think it's lagging behind the hitting for sure, but I have a feeling we see some breakthroughs soon.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/orioles-pitching-development-zach-fruit-NGAWZMBBSFFQBOL5ZLKARO3BSE/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&utm_source=The+Baltimore+Banner&utm_campaign=4afe5120f4-NL_ALRT_OR_20240711_1200&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4afe5120f4-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]&mc_cid=4afe5120f4&mc_eid=6750f74ac9

[HowAboutThat]

Just now, glenn__davis said:

Actually there sort of is.  The article below focuses specifically on Zach Fruit, a High-A pitcher that is having some decent success this year, but ventures into the organization pitching philosophy a bit as well.

I think that in the next 2-3 years we'll start to see a pretty steady stream of intriguing pitchers at the upper levels, many of whom will come from the international side.  I know it's chic right now to criticize the pitching development, and I do think it's lagging behind the hitting for sure, but I have a feeling we see some breakthroughs soon.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/orioles-pitching-development-zach-fruit-NGAWZMBBSFFQBOL5ZLKARO3BSE/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&utm_source=The+Baltimore+Banner&utm_campaign=4afe5120f4-NL_ALRT_OR_20240711_1200&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4afe5120f4-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]&mc_cid=4afe5120f4&mc_eid=6750f74ac9

Thank you very much for the article. I do think the Os team is pretty good at either recognizing potential or seeing existing ability that others have missed. Almost all our relievers came to us as rejects, and became more or less successful for a time before succumbing to injury or returning to Lousyville: Lopez, Alexander, Cole Sulser, Castro, Tate, and now Suarez, Bautista, and on and on. 
But they don’t maintain it, and with Tanner Scott, for instance, it took someone else to unlock much of his ability.

But mainly, Pitching can only be developed if we have it. International development is great, but we need to draft arms more promising than Carter Baumler, for instance.

The trade/FA route for pitching is not working enough to compensate for not drafting promising pitching.

[CaptainRedbeard]

I like the description of Holliday, Mayo and Kjerstad grading very highly in swing path. It’s a bit of a mystery how highly the Orioles think of Kjerstad internally. Mayo I expect is such a good offensive prospect that they value him really highly even if he ends up a DH or subpar 1B. Do they view Kjerstad similarly or is he more expendable?

Whatever the special sauce is, let’s hope it starts to work better for Beavers, Fabian and Bradfield in AA now and all of the international talent and new draftees more than it has for those in the most recent drafts. 

[Just Regular]

22 minutes ago, HowAboutThat said:

A snarky comment was made in the comments section that noted that the secret could be nothing more than drafting only hitters in the top rounds for the last five years.

Today's parallel to Billy Beane had nothing but Hudson, Zito and Mulder!

We'll see how best on best goes this fall.    Anecdotally, I do wonder if stuff like hitting 4 HR against Zack Wheeler or blowing up Luis Gil on a hot streak but not being able to touch random NL journeyman is partly reflective of training to handle the best.

You can disrupt process with Cody Bradford, but the probabilities are you won't see that kind of guy in October much.

[jabba72]

Quote

“They have a lot of young coaches and throw short box with them — so those are relatively live arms, from up close, forcing the hitters to adapt and see the ball out of a release point,” said a rival director of player development. “They use weighted bats at most levels as part of the regular process to keep bat speed up. They focus on making swing decisions and help hitters internalize that as they come up through the minors.”

Sounds like another team has an idea of what the O's are doing or at least in these general terms. Now it will be something else if other teams are able to implement this strategy. It mentions the O's are kind of a blueprint model for other rebuilding teams.

[ChosenOne21]

1 hour ago, HowAboutThat said:

But mainly, Pitching can only be developed if we have it. International development is great, but we need to draft arms more promising than Carter Baumler, for instance.

Carter Baumler was plenty promising on draft day. He just got hurt.

[HowAboutThat]

11 minutes ago, ChosenOne21 said:

Carter Baumler was plenty promising on draft day. He just got hurt.

Yeah I just mentioned him because I think he was among the highest pitcher picked.

I don’t even know whether he remains a prospect.

[baltfan]

20 hours ago, glenn__davis said:

Actually there sort of is.  The article below focuses specifically on Zach Fruit, a High-A pitcher that is having some decent success this year, but ventures into the organization pitching philosophy a bit as well.

I think that in the next 2-3 years we'll start to see a pretty steady stream of intriguing pitchers at the upper levels, many of whom will come from the international side.  I know it's chic right now to criticize the pitching development, and I do think it's lagging behind the hitting for sure, but I have a feeling we see some breakthroughs soon.

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/orioles-pitching-development-zach-fruit-NGAWZMBBSFFQBOL5ZLKARO3BSE/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&utm_source=The+Baltimore+Banner&utm_campaign=4afe5120f4-NL_ALRT_OR_20240711_1200&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4afe5120f4-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]&mc_cid=4afe5120f4&mc_eid=6750f74ac9

Agree with this.  Every time I see someone in the industry quoted on the Orioles pitching development they are laudatory.  Houston has focused on developing pitching from the international signings.  The Orioles seem to be trying to do similar.  It would though be nice if a couple of these drafted pitchers surprisingly broke out.  

[baltfan]

19 hours ago, jabba72 said:

Sounds like another team has an idea of what the O's are doing or at least in these general terms. Now it will be something else if other teams are able to implement this strategy. It mentions the O's are kind of a blueprint model for other rebuilding teams.

You can only keep secrets for so long.  Players move around and can show other teams what the Orioles are doing.  As a matter of fact, I am sure that teams strategically pick up players from other teams that seem to be doing development well in order to learn what they are doing.  I hope the Orioles are doing the same.