Orioles Should Try to Acquire Justin Masterson

Posted in Pitching, Trades with tags , , on July 30, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

It’s July 30, and that means more trade talk.  Despite being in the playoff hunt, the Cleveland Indians have not only made Justin Masterson available, but they seem “very willing” to deal him.  Even though he’s having the worst season of his career and is currently on the disabled list (right knee inflammation), I think he would be an excellent fit for the Baltimore Orioles to try and acquire before the trade deadline.  So head over to ESPN Sweetspot Network Orioles blog, Camden Depot and find out why.

Direct Link to Article –> Orioles Should Try to Acquire Justin Masterson

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Minor League Recap: July 21-July 27

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

The Norfolk Tides are the talk of baseball!

Ok, they aren’t really, but the exclamation points make you think they are. Actually, going 15-3 over an 18 game stretch is pretty impressive, and that hot streak has now brought them up to 8 games below .500, 7.5 games behind the division leading Durham Bulls. Wait, 8 games BELOW .500? After going 15-3 over their last 18 games? Yeah, they’re not a good team. Considering they’re 10 games out of the wild card as well, I’d hold off on printing those playoff tickets.

In “you can stop panicking” news, Dylan Bundy threw 6 scoreless innings last week to bring his ERA at Frederick DOWN to 6.11. He gave up 3 hits and walked to in his outing, but he only struck out one batter (if that actually made you panic more, then…sorry). Continue reading →

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Zach Britton on Pace to (Probably) Make History

Posted in Pitching with tags , , , , , on July 25, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

Orioles closer Zach Britton was once part of the team’s “cavalry” of starting pitching prospects that included Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Jake Arrieta, and to a lesser extent Brandon Erbe and Brad Bergesen. #Blessed with an above average sinking fastball and slider (along with an average change-up), Britton was generally considered the 2nd or 3rd best prospect of the group, depending on who was asked, and he topped out as Keith Law’s #11 overall prospect in his 2011 rankings for ESPN (ESPN Insider required and recommended). Here’s a snippet of what Law had to say:

“There’s at least strong No. 2 starter potential here, but better command would give him more ceiling than that.”

Continue reading →

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Minor League Recap: July 14-July 20

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 23, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

It’s been a while since the last minor league recap (almost two months!), but I can promise you that I have some really good excuses. The first excuse is that I was out of country on my honeymoon. Yes, it’s true that I have been married for a little while now (apologies to all of those single ladies who read this blog on a regular basis, I know there are a lot of you), but we hadn’t had the opportunity to go on one until this past June. I was then tied up with my actual job that pays me way more money than I get for operating this site, so, you know, priorities. I had thought about doing one giant minor league update, but quickly reconsidered when I realized just how much work that would entail. So I decided it was best just to not cover the last 6 weeks of Orioles minor league baseball. Let’s face it, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.

In actual Orioles minor league baseball news, the big story of last week was the promotions of 1B Christian Walker and recent Futures Game representative OF Dariel Alvarez to AAA, as well as the promotion of OF Mike Yastrzemski to AA. That’s great news for them, as they’re one step closer to their major league dreams. But don’t go thinking that they’re actual prospects all of a sudden. With the respective All-Star games last week, it was a short one, so let’s get on to the recap… Continue reading →

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A Trade for Martin Prado Solves a Present and Future Problem

Posted in Offense, Trades with tags , , , , , , , , on July 21, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

Trade season is heating up and like most contenders, the Baltimore Orioles find themselves only a few weeks away from the trade deadline with areas for improvement.  Second base happens to be one of those areas.  With talented rookie Jonathan Schoop struggling offensively, the team could use an upgrade to increase their chances of a playoff run in 2014.  Today over at ESPN Sweetspot Network Oriols blog Camden Depot, I explain why acquiring Martin Prado solves their issue at second base in 2014, but also takes care of potential roster problems in the future.

Direct Link to Article –> A Trade for Martin Prado Solves a Present and Future Problem

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Orioles Starting Rotation (Still) Needs Improvement

Posted in Pitching, Trades with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

After a long vacation that didn’t involve any baseball, I’m back with my first post since early June.  Today at ESPN Sweetspot Network Orioles blog Camden Depot, I take a look at a very familiar topic that has seemed to pop up during the trade deadline and the offseason ever since I started writing about the team.  Writing about upgrading Baltimore’s starting rotation is quickly becoming a bi-annual tradition, where the names change, but the statistics stay the same.  Take a look at the article to see who I suggest they go after this time.

Direct Link to Article –> Orioles Starting Rotation (Still) Needs Improvement

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The Futility of Mock Drafts: 2014

Posted in Draft, Rule 4 with tags on June 6, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

Last year I looked at the accuracy of ESPN’s Keith Law final mock draft, along with the draft simulator, which basically performed a brand new mock draft after each pick was actually taken. This year ESPN didn’t run a draft simulator so I brought in mock drafts from other experts to see how each one of them performed picking the first round of the draft. We have Keith Law of ESPN, Jonathon Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com, and John Manuel of Baseball America. Here is a list of the results where green indicates a correct pick (click to enlarge).

MLB Draft

 

I gave Keith Law and John Manuel credit for both of their Toronto Blue Jays picks, as they each picked the correct players, but in the wrong order. Law picked the most correct draftees, however, all experts were fairly close to each other in the number of correct picks. No analysis here, just a fun little exercise. Hope everyone enjoyed the draft!

*Programming Note: I will be leaving for a vacation today, so no posts for the next 2 weeks. I’ll see everyone on June 23.

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Minor League Recap: May 26-June 1

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

Ain’t nobody got time for an in depth minor league recap this week, so let’s get right to it.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 3-5 (W-L), 29 RS, 33 RA

Bowie (AA): 2-5, 28 RS, 45 RA

Frederick (High-A): 4-3, 36 RS, 29 RA

The Good:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): OF Julio Borbon– 7/23 (H/AB), 2 3B’s, 1 HR, 2 BB’s, 4 SO’s

The speedster showed some unusual power this week, hitting 2 triples and a home run. How unusual is it to hit 2 triples in one week? I don’t know, you shouldn’t depend on me to figure everything out for you. Continue reading →

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Nick Markakis’ Secret Platoon Issue

Posted in Offense with tags , on May 29, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

Nick Markakis is off to what seems like a very strong start to the 2014 season, hitting for a much higher average, on base percentage, and power than he was last year.  However, despite the early results and the fact that he already has an 18 game hit streak under his belt, there may be some underlying statistics that suggest that Markakis is not only having a worse season than it initially appears, but he may have a serious issue with left handed pitching.  Is it bad enough that he could potentially be a good platoon candidate?  It’s something I take a look at today over at ESPN Sweetspot Network Orioles blog Camden Depot.

Direct Link to Article –> Nick Markakis’ Secret Platoon Issue

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Minor League Recap: May 19-May 25

Posted in Minor Leagues, Offense, Pitching, Prospects with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 28, 2014 by oriolesprovingground

If you’re reading this, then you already know…the minor league recap is a day late this week. Blame it on the holiday weekend, where my time was spent doing really important things that didn’t involve baseball. Don’t believe me? I didn’t even know that the Orioles traded for Nick Hundley until he made that throwing error against the Brewers in the bottom of the 9th inning on Monday night (I started watching the game only a couple of minutes before that). I’m not proud of that, but it’s the truth. In other news this week, the talents of Heath Bell were on display in Norfolk this past week. We looked at what the Orioles may expect from him last week. Obviously it’s only been a week (small sample alert), but the results in AAA have been worse than expected, as he gave up 4 earned runs in 3.2 innings, giving up 7 hits while walking 4. Yet somehow, he didn’t have the worst performance by a Norfolk pitcher.

Weekly Summary

Norfolk (AAA): 3-3 (W-L), 43 RS, 28 RA

Bowie (AA): 5-2, 44 RS, 33 RA

Frederick (High-A): 1-5, 16 RS, 25 RA

The Good:

Hitters

Norfolk (AAA): OF Quintin Berry – 8/21 (H/AB), 2 2B’s, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 BB’s, 3 SO’s

Berry had such a good week that he was named International League Player of the Week…

Wait, he wasn’t? I think the voters got that one wrong. Peguero had a great week and was very deserving of “my” award, but I think Berry was slightly better by hitting for slightly more power (Peguero’s extra base hits consisted of 3 doubles) and walking twice, compared to Peguero’s zero walks. So if Peguero makes fun of Berry for NOT winning the International League Player of the Week award last week (which I’m sure will happen if it hasn’t already), Berry can point to this blog post and reply with a witty comment.* Continue reading →

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