OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Congrats to the Houston Cheaters on their win

[DJ Spinoza]

I think he has the stuff, and there likely will be an opportunity between injury and performance, but I wouldn't be shocked if we kept him down for service time and roster management reasons. He's another who dodged the 40-man necessity last winter, and so I don't think he needs to be added this winter, but I'm not sure. That could mean they slow roll it and avoid starting his clock until after the first few weeks next year, especially since they'll monitor his innings.

Setting that stuff aside though, the stuff is definitely real, and he's probably been the most encouraging prospect in the system this year IMO. The transition to AA is a big one and he's been smooth sailing.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Thanks for the report @DJ Spinoza I wanted to watch it but figured trying to do so while at peak work hours was probably counterproductive to doing actual work haha. Honestly, I may try and sneak over to Reading on Friday night. It's a bit further than Harrisburg for me but I'd like to see some of the Altoona guys again. Especially if Davis is back later in the week, given he's been rehabbing and got a game in last night in Florida.

I don't expect Burrows to jump straight to the majors. Cherington obviously has a pretty distinct plan in terms of development and Roansy was manipulated in terms of service time a bit so I'd wager Burrows will follow a similar path.

The great news is he's definitely emerged as a potential 1/2 and that's very much needed in light of the Priester injury and slight decline of his stock over the past year.

 

[Factorial]

Anyone going to Pride Night?

 

[Factorial]

This is yet another loss incoming. This team is odd. Cannot beat shitty teams but play up against the elite.

Reynolds has been a massive disappointment. Keller either has no control or hits the middle of the plate every start.

I don't have time to waste on these mail them in efforts at the dish.

I'm in the top of the 7th and Keller had a good game.

 

[Factorial]

Boo to Brown for not admitting the ball was not caught by Reynolds on that last replay.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Pretty good indication that there is confidence Super Two is passed, though Cruz also has the extra days of service from last year. He didn't play in the Indy game earlier today, but I wouldn't read too much into that. Only thing I could see is maybe the callup being announced tomorrow, and the move happening on Friday, but I think they'll take the easy buffer of the entire road trip and then off day next week prior to the homestand.

What will be unfortunate is if the wind is way out of our sails with a bad stretch of games. The Atlanta pitching won't be easy, and Atlanta is often a house of horrors for us. Acuna seems to be on fire... hoping Roansy pitches well and we somehow luck into another win.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Mock: Orioles take a Holliday at No. 1

There's still little concrete intel about teams locking in on players because the Draft is five-plus weeks away. But there have been some significant developments in the past week, especially on the pitching front. Tennessee right-hander Blade Tidwell, who missed the first six weeks with...

www.mlb.com

New Callis, same as the old Callis/Mayo mock in that it has us taking Lee again. Callis mentions that he keeps hearing college bat, so I take that more as the industry consensus than anything truly sourced. It's the first mention I see of us liking Collier, and from the mocks I really think that's probably the most ideal situation in terms of chasing long-term huge upside and the strategy of having more slot dollars to leverage with the next two picks.

I need to do some kind of dive on Lee, because on paper I just don't quite see it. He looks like he'd be a fine pick, but the calling card seems more to be the hit tool, and I have a bias towards Johnson there with all the accolades he's gotten. The recent tendency to push him down a little bit further seems to mostly just be about not having as much physical projection left.

The way I'm reading the consensus, there's 0 chance for Jones and minimal chance for Green. I think the path to Green being available depends on Jones not going #1 and then Texas opting for Holliday or someone else. Hard to know if we'd even have strong interest in Green, but I'd like to think that if the draft board somehow settled that way, we'd take the big swing. Lee might be the kind of guy with whom it's possible to cut some kind of deal, but I'd much rather chase the prep talent in Collier, especially if the price is right.

I think my ideal scenario right now is Collier and then having the $ to double tap pitching with the next two picks, and I'd love to see us have the slot money to force Prielipp to our second pick.

 

[Gallatin]

Mock: Orioles take a Holliday at No. 1

There's still little concrete intel about teams locking in on players because the Draft is five-plus weeks away. But there have been some significant developments in the past week, especially on the pitching front. Tennessee right-hander Blade Tidwell, who missed the first six weeks with...

www.mlb.com

New Callis, same as the old Callis/Mayo mock in that it has us taking Lee again. Callis mentions that he keeps hearing college bat, so I take that more as the industry consensus than anything truly sourced. It's the first mention I see of us liking Collier, and from the mocks I really think that's probably the most ideal situation in terms of chasing long-term huge upside and the strategy of having more slot dollars to leverage with the next two picks.

I need to do some kind of dive on Lee, because on paper I just don't quite see it. He looks like he'd be a fine pick, but the calling card seems more to be the hit tool, and I have a bias towards Johnson there with all the accolades he's gotten. The recent tendency to push him down a little bit further seems to mostly just be about not having as much physical projection left.

The way I'm reading the consensus, there's 0 chance for Jones and minimal chance for Green. I think the path to Green being available depends on Jones not going #1 and then Texas opting for Holliday or someone else. Hard to know if we'd even have strong interest in Green, but I'd like to think that if the draft board somehow settled that way, we'd take the big swing. Lee might be the kind of guy with whom it's possible to cut some kind of deal, but I'd much rather chase the prep talent in Collier, especially if the price is right.

I think my ideal scenario right now is Collier and then having the $ to double tap pitching with the next two picks, and I'd love to see us have the slot money to force Prielipp to our second pick.

Exactly my thoughts. There are always guys that drop, and will play college if they can't get that 1st RD money. And multiple teams are likely to reach for college pitchers in the 1st - hence I expect some real talents to be on the board still at 36 & 44.

Give me Cam Collier, and a couple of guys most other teams don't have the cash for please.

 

[Goalie_Bob]

Anyone going to Pride Night?

I might have to go that night because that T-shirt is spectacular. I love simple effective designs

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Exactly my thoughts. There are always guys that drop, and will play college if they can't get that 1st RD money. And multiple teams are likely to reach for college pitchers in the 1st - hence I expect some real talents to be on the board still at 36 & 44.

Give me Cam Collier, and a couple of guys most other teams don't have the cash for please.

Yeah, the only caveats I think I'd make are that I do hope something happens where Green falls and we take a big swing on him, and also, if our scouts think Johnson has an 80-grade hit tool, then we should jump on him. I can't really make that assessment and I'm not going to be able to from watching videos and reading around -- it seems like not everybody is on quite the same page, but it's also nearly unanimous that he has a 70-grade tool, and for a prep hitter, that's pretty rare.

That said, as we know, underslot gives us a good chance to leverage some talent for later, and Collier still checks off the box of big prep upside while enabling us to do so (though I guess it's possible that the same could be true for Johnson if his stock has dipped slightly). One of the names I like from the prep class for the second or third pick is RHP Walter Ford.

There's also some possibility that the deeper college class will give you a good faller for the second or third pick. For example Fabian, whose performance has been good and can move equally as fast as a guy like Lee. All told, I lean heavy prep for 1.4 and am pretty intrigued with the hype Collier's getting, though I am still a bit hopefully Green somehow falls into our lap. It'd be nice to pick 2nd and have the chance of Jones somehow falling, but there's no way Jones gets to 4th I think. Next year, it's still way way too early to tell, but it's probably at least somewhat likely that we'll pick 6th-10th, and our comp pick will be Round B, so we won't have the big pool again. In other words, the spread money around strategy is probably more viable this year than in the future, though the MLB team is bad enough that we could still pick 3rd-5th I think.

 

[DanielPlainview]

 

[ImporterExporter]

Just taking a look at prospects from last year's draft:

Davis (us) was killing it before suffering a slight fracture of the wrist (should be back to Altoona this week). Same story as last year. Health is obvious question mark with him, but his bat seems very legit. Needs to stay healthy the rest of this year so he can be ready for a call up next summer.

Leiter - Yuck. Getting hit to the tune of .247 with 19 walks in 39 innings. ERA near 6 though he faced a tough task of being started in AA which is very aggressive, even for a guy like him. Still early but the numbers are at least slightly worrisome. Wasn't his biggest fan coming out, but I still won't write him off this early.

Lawlar - Probably the most impressive of the group. OPSing over 1.000 showing serious pop and an ability to draw walks.

Meyer - Not quite on the level of Lawlar thus far, but he's still showing out very well for a teenager in pro ball. Leading up to the draft he was my #2 behind Davis for our pick.

Jobe - Hard to gauge HS pitchers in their first year. Early numbers are just OK.

House - Meh so far this year. Has cooled tremendously the past month.

Watson - Garbage so far. Dude has struck out 79 times in 42 games. Insane. Only 9 walks.

 

[ImporterExporter]

GREAT NEWS

 

[ChaosAgent]

GREAT NEWS

Wow! Actual prospects at the single A level!

 

[ImporterExporter]

Wow! Actual prospects at the single A level!

Bradenton (and to a lesser extent Greensboro) have been void of anything exciting as far as hitters go. A bit concerning IMO.

BTW, Braylon Bishop hit his first homer.



And our top international signing has gotten off to a nice start.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Suwinski is running away with the NL Rookie home run title. If he keeps trending upwards, he's going to seriously have a shot at the ROTY, though I think a more prominent name like Gore will end up winning if he continues to impress.

Congrats to Swags on his first hit!

Oh and btw, Bradenton is working on a combined no hitter right now! Priester and Solometo both fantastic! Priester went 3, no hits, no walks, 1 hit batter and 1 K. Solometo went 4, 0 hits, 2 walks and 3 Ks.

Henry Davis was also hit by another pitch. There is some serious voodoo shit going on. But he's still in the game and just hit a cracking double.

 

[ChaosAgent]

Great news in the minors.

I'll say in the strongest possible terms that I'm done with Vogelbach. He has lost whatever "It" factor he had at the plate earlier in the year. He is not swinging at inner third pitches and then flailing at random stuff with his little midget bat. Dude sucks. He should never play against any lefty.

Castillo needs to do anything today, too.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Great news in the minors.

I'll say in the strongest possible terms that I'm done with Vogelbach. He has lost whatever "It" factor he had at the plate earlier in the year. He is not swinging at inner third pitches and then flailing at random stuff with his little midget bat. Dude sucks. He should never play against any lefty.

Castillo needs to do anything today, too.

Agreed. I'm not that optimistic w/Mason Martin but dear lord do we need some better production out of the 1B/DH role.

Castillo is completely lost at the plate. I love his D but once again, Shelton bats him too high in the lineup given the struggles over the last few weeks especially. I don't mind him getting starts, but please put him down in the 8/9 hole until he improves.

 

[ImporterExporter]

Bradenton just finished the no-no! Davis behind the plate the entire game for it. Awesome stuff.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

I think it might make sense for Castillo to go down for Cruz when the time comes. The trouble is, I'm not sure Marcano is enough to back up SS, and Castillo is maybe more of a bench/utility guy anyways, so maybe he makes the adjustments at the MLB level, but I think it could make sense for him to go back a level, tweak his approach, and then be able to come back to MLB and try to punch back.

His defense still makes him playable, but given that OF will be a bit crowded for Cruz, maybe that's the easiest move.

 

[Empoleon8771]

It's actually kinda crazy how Davis just hits at every single level he plays at. It's also crazy how he keeps getting hit by pitches, he got hit again today.

 

[TNT87]

 

[Empoleon8771]

Also this Pirates-Braves game should be a win for the Pirates, but Vogelbach, Chavis and Castillo have failed the team.

I'm fully over Vogelbach at this point.

 

[ImporterExporter]

I think it might make sense for Castillo to go down for Cruz when the time comes. The trouble is, I'm not sure Marcano is enough to back up SS, and Castillo is maybe more of a bench/utility guy anyways, so maybe he makes the adjustments at the MLB level, but I think it could make sense for him to go back a level, tweak his approach, and then be able to come back to MLB and try to punch back.

His defense still makes him playable, but given that OF will be a bit crowded for Cruz, maybe that's the easiest move.

The truth is Bae, of anyone in Indy right now, deserves to be the next call up. Sure, he's not a mega prospect, but he's not an outsider and is easily the most deserving of anyone, has multiple boxes you want checked off (contact, some pop, speed, versatility).

Cruz, if we're going based on results, does not deserve a call up before Bae. That's just simple reality. And the idea that Cruz is going to somehow turn the ML team around, when numerous other big time prospects have struggled mightily upon promotion around the league, is reason to pause and temper expectations. I really loathe where we've gone as a society in terms of all or nothing expectations for young players. Not saying that's what you're doing mind you, but I've seen a lot of talk that gets into that realm and it irritates me, especially those glossing over his absolutely subpar defensive play this year as if committing an error every single series (that's the rate he's going now) is acceptable at the ML level.

With that being said, Cruz will be up soon. And he probably should be, but not at the expense of giving Bae a crack as well.

Castillo can't hit anything right now. Vogelback and every other 1B is a bum currently. I think the OF is settled w/the current crop of guys up, though there is zero doubt Gamel will eat into AB's for Mitchell and Swaggerty based purely on Derek Shelton. The same will happen when VanMeeter reutrns, though he at least was on a pretty nice tear before getting nicked up.

 

[Empoleon8771]

The Pirates should call up Cruz as a DH at this point IMO. The only real "DH" they have is Vogelbach, and it's not like he's hitting well enough to be playing as much as he has been playing.

Chang getting DFA'd and Castillo going to AAA until he gets his hitting correct, while you call up Bae and Cruz, seems like the call to me.