Surprised? Roch say it's Hernandez and Tatum

[Stotle]

Just imagine when we add Hobgood and Taillon to the mix.

Haha! I didn't know it was one-liner Tuesday! I would have prepared something...

[Frobby]

You are assuming that Moeller accepts a minor league assignment with the O's. That may or may not happen.

Does he have a choice? He's signed to a minor league deal. He can always ask for his release I guess.

[backwardsk]

Tillman will be back by May 1st if Guthrie keeps pitching like he has been pitching.

Who gets waived off the 40 man roster to make room for Ohman?

My guess would be Castillo because they have the same role and Castillo is either 34 or 35.

[Sports Guy]

Chemsitry with the young pitchers is more important than our back up catcher being able to throw out a runner every 10 games or so.

Hopefully Tatum will have that same chemistry...if not, this doesn't make sense.

[tvz1997]

Chemsitry with the young pitchers is more important than our back up catcher being able to throw out a runner every 10 games or so.

Hopefully Tatum will have that same chemistry...if not, this doesn't make sense.

How is it going to affect our young pitchers if there is a gaint green light on above second and third base every time they give up a walk or a bloop single?

[Johnny]

It would be really sweet if we could move Guthrie for a long-term SS solution.

It'd be really sweet if we moved Guthrie to the pen and used him as a spot starter for the first stretch of the season. Let him get his head on straight. Any SS we get for him wont be worth while.

I know 4 young pitchers in the rotation may be a little beyond reasonable, but is it any less insane than running Guthrie out there because he's older? All the baby birds have seen innings at the major league level, and the pitcher we're sending down has nothing more to prove in the minors, IMO.

[McLovin]

Chemsitry with the young pitchers is more important than our back up catcher being able to throw out a runner every 10 games or so.

I agree, if it exists. Maybe it doesn't.

[MurphDogg]

You are assuming that Moeller accepts a minor league assignment with the O's. That may or may not happen.

I bet Moeller's feelings are a little hurt over the demotion but I would be surprised if he doesn't accept the assignment. It is unlikely another team is looking for a backup catcher like Moeller at this point and the Orioles AAA team is as good as any other. I do expect the Orioles to have a gentleman's agreement to release Moeller if any other team wishes to add him to their major league roster should a backup position become available elsewhere.

[McLovin]

I bet Moeller's feelings are a little hurt over the demotion but I would be surprised if he doesn't accept the assignment.

Well, he does have a tough decision to make - TIVO Days of Our Lives, or watch it in realtime.

[osbaseball08]

It may be MORE beneficial to have Moeller in AAA (assuming he accepts the assignment.

It is well known that the young pitchers enjoy pitching to him, and where are most of our young pitchers? AAA.

Tillman, Arrieta, and Patton are all there and would be able to work with him on a daily basis, whereas if Moeller was with the ML club he would catch once every 4 or 5 days, and wouldn't catch Matusz, Bergesen or Hernandez very often.

Since Tillman is going to start in AAA, it is a good thing Moeller is down there to mentor him as well as the rest of the young arms.

The only one that has a right to be upset about this is Moeller himself, whose career may be taking a backseat for the benefit of the organization. As far as the ML Orioles are concerned, I think this is really a non-issue.

All of this of course assumes Moeller accepts the assignment.

[Hank Scorpio]

Looks like it's official:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-orioles0330,0,5186604.story

[mefogus]

Chemsitry with the young pitchers is more important than our back up catcher being able to throw out a runner every 10 games or so.

So you're saying that his Mentorocity is much higher than Tatums?

http://www.fogus.me/baseball/chemistry.html

:m

[Dr. Andrews]

Well now we know the backup C position will be truly worthless offensively.

Tatum isn't exactly a mentor either as he's only 3 years older than Wieters and has less service time in the majors...

My guess is that the pitchers want to throw to him more than they do Moeller.

I can't imagine any team whose backup catcher lights the world on fire...considering that there are only about 4 or 5 STARTING catchers that do anything meaningful with the bat. Just another reason for Trea to be pessimistic, I guess.

[byrdz]

Send Moeller to Norfolk to work with the young pitchers with the possibility of a callup later in the season. Hmmm, sounds familiar, not suprising.

[Dr. FLK]

Send Moeller to Norfolk to work with the young pitchers with the possibility of a callup later in the season. Hmmm, sounds familiar, not suprising.

Yeah...like helping Tillman continue development and improvement of his changeup. Tillman is the one who has appreciated working with Moeller the most (at least he's been the most vocal about it). So, send Chad down to AAA to work with him since they have a good chemistry. Tillman is one of the team's biggest assets, so you do what makes the most sense for him. The backup C at the ML level really doesn't mean all that much, but maximizing Tillman's potential and speeding up his progression to the big leagues does.

The changeup "was terrible last year," Tillman said. "Now I'll throw it 20, 25 times a game. I am more than thrilled with that pitch, and all the credit goes to [Norfolk catcher] Chad Moeller and Mike Griffin."

LINK

Or...maybe DT just wants Tatum up so he can continue his obvious plan to destroy the roster.