1:15pm: The O’s have now made it official, recalling Kjerstad and optioning Bañuelos to Triple-A Norfolk.
10:50am: The Orioles are planning to call up top prospect Heston Kjerstad today, reports Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun. The 25-year-old slugger is already on the 40-man roster, but Baltimore will need to make a move to get him onto the 26-man roster.
Kjerstad, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft, will bolster what’s already a dominant lineup. The O’s have six more homers than any team in MLB (35) and are batting .261/.316/.464 as a club. Kjerstad should fit right in. He’s taken 102 plate appearances in Norfolk this season and already bashed 10 home runs en route to a ludicrous .349/.431/.744 batting line (189 wRC+). Those 10 big flies tie him with Houston’s Joey Loperfido for tops among all minor league players.
The Orioles placed corner outfielder Austin Hays on the injured list due to a calf strain yesterday, and Kjerstad will provide them with another option in the outfield. First baseman/designated hitter Ryan Mountcastle was also absent from last night’s lineup due to a knee issue. The team has only listed Mountcastle as day-to-day thus far, but Kjerstad — a corner outfielder and first baseman — is a natural replacement if Mountcastle needs another day or two off or even requires a trip to the injured list himself.
The O’s aren’t exactly lacking for productive options at any spot Kjerstad could fit into the lineup, but he can certainly help keep their regulars fresh and provide some thump off the bench on days he’s not starting. Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander have all been productive in the outfield, while Mountcastle and Ryan O’Hearn have thrived as the team’s primary options at designated hitter and first base. Baltimore selected the contract of catcher David Bañuelos last night, bringing him up to the big leagues for the second time this season, but Bañuelos has a full slate of option years and can freely be sent to Norfolk if the O’s don’t want to continue carrying three catchers.
Kjerstad entered the 2024 season ranked as the game’s No. 26 prospect at FanGraphs. He landed 29th on MLB.com’s top-100, 41st at Baseball Prospectus, 42nd at Baseball America, 48th per ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and 62nd per The Athletic’s Keith Law. Kjerstad draws praise for his plus or better raw power, his penchant for making hard contact and his above-average arm in the outfield. He’s not especially fleet of foot and is a bat-over-glove prospect, but the lefty-swinging slugger is expected to hit more than enough to be a regular in Baltimore’s lineup for years to come. For the time being, Santander’s presence impedes Kjerstad’s path to an everyday role, assuming everyone’s healthy, but Santander is a free agent following the 2024 season.
From a service time vantage point, there are still enough days left on the regular season calendar for Kjerstad to accrue a full year. He picked up 18 days in 2023, meaning he needs 154 days of MLB service in 2024 to get there. It’s possible he’ll be optioned back to Norfolk once everyone’s back to full strength, but Kjerstad’s production there was also increasingly difficult to ignore regardless. If he’s in the big leagues for good, he’ll be controllable through the 2029 season and arbitration-eligible following the 2026 campaign.
Sink or swim time for the O’s prospects.
Really? Best young players in the game! No one team is close!
Sure are! All it took was being under 500 5 of the last 7 years including 3 100+ loss seasons..good job! Lol
Poolhall is so mad
Dumb
Did you miss how mad Os fans were in those seasons?
A little over dramatic aren’t you. There’s tons of young talent all over the league.
And a lot of it is in Baltimore.
Don’t let your drama get in the way of facts!
But….how many prospects are overhyped? Seems to be that there’s way too many that are only a flash in the pan. Baltimore will probably cash in on them for a couple of years just like Houston did but eventually most of them just fade after the league catches up with them.
Houston has had a 10 year run…..
We’d be happy with 10 years of that. I’m not sure that it wouldn’t still be going if the architects were still in that organization either.
yes and the cream always rises. I think that Holliday, Cowser, Heston, Adley and a few others are long term MLB talents with multiple All Star games in the next 10 years for each of them (maybe less so heston just due to age, at this point he is 25 so it is prime years now, and will start to really slow in only 4-5 years)
I agree on guys like Norby. But there are a ton of top 100 lists, and after you get past about 30-40 prospects at any given time, the rest of the list is either 1- likely productive big leaguers (like norby) with a floor of at least being a very used utility guy OR 2- lottery ticket (Basallo was that last year but last year cashed in and is not in that top 30-40 that are likely future all stars)..
The Os have had a ton of success finding guys and developigt them thus far.
The Rangers do have Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford
Hey now… The Reds, once Marte, Friedl and McLain are back will be at least close (still second best).
@Old York
seems more like, time to shape up for their young vets. no time to slump or scuffle or for injury… there are kids on your heels.
Congratulations, Heston Kjerstad. It will be difficult to find regular playing time for him though.
He will play every day. Others will have difficulty finding playing time. You don’t bring him up to ride the pine.
Especially the way he’s been mashing AAA. This team is young and deep. And will probably be atop for many years to come.
I agree, but will he play over Cowser, Mullins, Santander, O’Hearn, or Mountcastle?
Without question. Talent always replaces good veterans. Obviously Cowser is young and playing too but you have to move on from good players for elite talent at some point.
Yeah its hard to see an opening with how most of them are playing. The only one that has had a slow start is Santander but its hard to imagine benching him.
Kjerstad absolutely will not play everyday because those ABS are not available. I would imagine they’ll try to get him into the lineup 3-4x a week but it’ll be a challenge.
He may get optioned back down at some point. Cowser is on fire. Santander is 20% above league average. O’Hearn & Mountcastle are both hitting extremely well.
There’s only so many AB’s and Kjerstad can only DH or play a corner.
Without question? I think there is a question if he’ll play every day at the start, especially as a bat-first prospect. He’ll need to show he can hit. Once he does, then they’ll start taking ABs away from others. The game’s history is filled with great prospects who had to share time initially.
Extend Santander. Also, if Mullins is solid this year… and stays healthy … extend him next year. No rush to extend the young guns now other than maybe that Cy Young caliber stud GRod.
C Yards, I’d love to extend Santander. He’s such a joy to watch and has been integral throughout the rebuild. That said, it’s hard to imagine the O’s doing so and for good reason. Not even sure he receives a QO unless he sets the world on fire this year.
bakedmc, agree to disagree on this one. Tony Taters was a major cog on a 101 win team last year and a winning one the year before. Mullins too. Two proven winners that are realistic/affordable extensions. IMO the young guns especially the Boras clients are gonna be expensively difficult to the point of unrealistic to extend. They all got their big draft signing bonuses. Get in line fellows … sans Adley and GRod.
His Defense is fine. Young players having hard time adjusting to MLB pitching that lose their confidence show ot on D side first.
It’s a shame that guys like Urias and Hays are being phased out. Right now they are playing for their next job.
Holliday will be okay. Rutschman, Henderson, Cowser, Westburg all struggled. Keep him at 9 and let him learn. He is a fast learner.
The #1 priority for extension is Gunnar. GrOD Almighty probably does not qualify as a good extension candidate since they would be buying 1 – 1 1/2 years of TJ.
No sense in extending Adley, who will be old and a 1B by the time he reaches free agency. He is far from a premier hitter.
Kjerstad is fundamentally sound defensively with a strong accurate arm.
Holliday has a beautiful swing but is fundamentally poor on defense, both fielding grounders and throwing.
I’d rather save Santander’s money for a pitcher and pay Kjerstad the minimum. Regardless of whether we can extend guys or not
I could see a similar contract as Will Smith just got. His hit is very good and his presence is even better.
Next year Santander, McCann, and O’Hearn are FAs. Hays and maybe Urias will be traded or non-Tendered. That leaves the spots for these guys.
Kerjsted will have to wait for a full time spot and prove he can field.
Who in their lineup will sit, so that he can play every day?
He doesn’t know. Mets is a guy that believes everything any prospect does in AA will automatically translate and the rest of us know that it is not the case. He is just young. I remember when I thought Eric Anthony was going to be a no doubt Hall of Fame player. We all learn, but it takes time.
No I just think you all think every one of your starters are better than they really are. Go ahead and sit a player with 10 hrs already this young season( I don’t care what level it is). He was the 2 overal pick and top rated prospect for a reason and it had nothing to do with me. This kid is drastically better then your journey man 1b or Mountcastle. You all realize all these veterans have to go to make room for your premium talent at some point?
Kjerstad cant really hit better than Mountcastle right now. When your goal is a WS you put the best player on the field.
When Kjerstad is that player—he’ll certainly play all the time. Cowser sat behind Hays until he started to outperform him
he is 25, with nothing to prove in the minors…. i disagree. He may ride the pine since he is getting nothing out of destorying AAA anymore, and they need to do something with him NOW or in the very short future.
He’s literally sitting today. And there’s a good reason for that. The Os aren’t the team that can’t afford to put out their best lineup every day
*can’t not afford
Deserved.
C’mon WSH – Big Jim Wood is on deck.
Send down Holliday
*ducks*
They really should
He can’t learn to hit ML pitching in AAA, where he’s already mastered it. Let the guy learn on the job. It’s going to be ok.
@RunDMC Agreed, and if anything, the Orioles aren’t losing any games because of him. They’re on pace for 110 wins as it is so most of the naysayers are just saying “we wanna win even more” at this point.
Letting Holliday grind through it in the majors has two big benefits IMO 1.) he might just have it click and start producing at the big leagues 2.) if he continues to struggle for another 20 or so games, you send him back down then with a clear, well-sourced list of items to work on and film to review.
where he’s already mastered it.
======================
But is that true? He’s only had 117 AAA ABs. And he is also only a bit past his 20th birthday.
Holliday is horrendous on defense. That is what he needs to go back to the minors to improve on. It’s embarrassing how bad he is on D.
btw: Holliday has not really mastered hitting minor league pitching. He hits far too many grounders and has not yet grown into his power.
i agree- give him a little more time, and if he has not figured it out after about 100-120 plate appearances, send him back down. At that point if you have not figure it out, you are going to be super down on yourself and need to rebuild confidence too… so let him beat up on AAA again once that happens.
It basically is what they did with Cowser last year
They definitely called Jackson up too soon, but listened to all the fools clamoring for him to be brought up. Needed more time in AAA as seen here.
Holliday will be fine. He’s young, he was aggressively promoted but he can contribute to the big league club now. Keep him up and let him figure out who he is.
but he can contribute to the big league club now.
=========================
But can he? I tend to agree that he was promoted too soon, but it is probably better to let him suffer than to send him back down.
The only sons of Major Leaguers I am sold on are Ken Griffey Jr and Barry Bonds. (Getting there with Tatis Jr.) Otherwise they seem overhyped and entitled. Everything has always been so easy for them, they don’t want to put in the work when adjustment becomes necessary. Case in point: Vladdy Guerrero Jr. We shall see about this snot nosed kid Holliday.
I am pretty sold on Bobby Witt now. He’s one of the best in baseball.
There are a few great 3rd generation guys- Jayson Werth, David Bell and Aaron Boone headlining that list.. I agree that the 3rd generation list is less than great. But 2nd generation is a different story.
2nd generation it is almost all too common for at least an uncle to have played in the minors for most of these guys… but there are more HOF than just those 2, Robby Alomar iand Reggie Jackson are 2nd generation players (and HOF) Moises Alou is part of the Alou family (and not a HOF but a hall of very good player).. Robinson Cano was very good (and if not for the PED stuff at the end of his career would be HOF level),
Current you have: Bo Bichette, Cody Belliger, Jeremy Pena, Joc Pederson, Gavin Sheets, Cal Quantill, Tyler Soderstrom, Fernando Tatis, and Bobby Witt
With that, there are not very many father sons that make it, but the uncle connection is common. The kids still grow up surrounded by the game, since normally their dats were at least college players where their brother made it to the bigs. So when they talk about bloodlines at the draft, it is very common to see that. I think Carl Crawford now has 2 nephews playin in the bigs. those kids got most of the genetics that got him there, and were raised around the game.
Or he just hit a slump at an importune spot. Give the kid room to breath and he will be alright.
It’s not that Holliday won’t hit eventually. Problem is how weak he is on defense.
@16
I wish people would be honest about how they have 20/20 hindsight and really have no better wisdom about calling up prospects than do the professionals. when Elias sent Holliday to Norfolk after ST, all we heard was that there was nothing to learn and it was all about service time manipulation.
Now, when the team in Baltimore is in FIRST place, there’s a huge rush to send Holliday down. Betcha if they did, the pitchforks and torches would returns with the cries about service time manipulation.
Jackson is well prepared by being Matt Holliday’s son and growing up in clubhouses his whole life. He knows that each level is hard to acclimate to. Major League pitching is for real. Pitchers find your weaknesses and prey on them until you can make adjustments. I’m sure that he’s going to break this slump. The kid is sooooo young. The O’s are in 1st place and he hits 9th. Everyone chill out.
I love seeing Heston get a chance. I’m concerned about him getting enough PAs but we’ll see.
It would just be a complete betrayal of the odds to have so many prospects be sure -thing above-average Major Leaguers. It’s not possible for every single one of these guys to be a stud: Henderson, Ruschtmann, Rodriguez, Cowser, Holliday, Ortiz, Kerjstad, Westburg. The odds are probably only two of those guys are supposed to pan out? 3 of them are already well on their way. So what gives? Baltimore is either extremely unfathomably lucky, OR they know something magical, which is unlikely. (Because nothing stays a secret in MLB for very long.)
Gunnar is already a superstar, So your claim is only 1 of the other 7 will “pan out”according to “the odds.” That group includes a 1:1, another 1:1 who was #1 prospect, a 1:2, a 1:5, a 1:11 who was the top pitchng prospect, a #40 overall and a 4th rounder the Orioles traded (why was he included, I’ll never know).
Hope you are not a gambler because the “odds” you cite are not accurate in this case.
And we still have Mayo and Norby hahaha. Ridiculous.
Astros owner majorly F’d up letting his front office all leave for Baltimore, smartest FO in baseball and building a dynasty.
I mean ..i get this haul of talent is great but was the massive losing for so many years worth it? So sure celebrate the talent but how hard is a front offices job to acquire it if you pick top 3 every year? Maybe the credit goes to the owner for not spending and allowing for all those bad years…hopefully they will never go through that again for the fans sake
Yea they’re loaded, Baltimore reminds me of Cincinnati with the potential up and coming up.
I think you have that backwards.
No, the two teams remind me of one another in their make up, it’s only backwards if someone’s reading this in a bias point of view.
The O’s are there. The Reds are …. maybe…. on their way.
Big diference.
No doubt Baltimore is further along in the process.
There is no such thing as “for sure” when talking about prospects.
Yes there is. There’s been tons of them in the games history.
Harper
Todd Van Poppel would like to have a word with you.
Tell him to go talk to Arod,Griffey, Harper, Soto, Gooden, Ohtani, Trout, Ruth, Gehrig ,Mantle, and more.
Van Poppel was a pitcher a better OF comparison is someone like Lastings Milledge if you believe he will become a bust
Mantle got sent down in ’51. At that time, he wasn’t a sure thing.
Just because they worked out doesn’t mean it was inevitable or guaranteed that they worked out. Hell, look at Gooden from your list. He’s not going down with the all time greats. He is going down on the “what might have been” list. For every one on your list, you could probably name 5 prospects of equal hype that did not work out.
Gooden is an all time great. Granted he sniffed his career potential away but he still had a career better than 95% of players. Would you take a prospect for 194 career wins right now? Go ahead and name me 5 pitching prospects that had the hype of good men that came in the league at 19 that didn’t work out?
He got sent down at 19 years old and was an all star at 20. You really can’t get much more of a sure thing than that. Sorry he was playing in the Majors at 19 years old. That’s not the point you think you’re making. How many people played in the majors as a teen ager?
Mantle so was a sure thing. About as sure a thing as anybody ever has been.
Mets should of traded Alonso for Kjerstad like I said before the season started. Looks like I was right again, this kid is mashing the ball. Clueless GMs get paid millions while I give my advice out for free
Your free advice is worth every penny!
Not sure why the Orioles would do that. 1 year 1B rental is not worth Kjerstad.
@LFGMets: Definitely a legend in your own mind.
Why would the Orioles do that for one year of Alonso?
The orioles wouldn’t have considered that trade on their end sooooo
Why stop at Kjerstad? Keep going you silly fool! Maybe we can get Mayo or Holiday too!!!
Is Alonso not mashing the ball in the Majors?
Only if you consider a .250 average and 12 RBI mashing.
Seems to me that he mashes a lot of strikeouts and outs with runners on base.
A solo home run with your team down 4-0 is not mashing.
7 hrs in 20 games is not mashing? If we all could do that. What about the two run home run he hit in the ninth to end their losing streak and get them winning? That one doesn’t count? Or hitting 2 hrs in 15/20 mph incoming winds? That would be a normal day at the ballpark?
Pete Alonso gives me Chris Davis vibe. And Chris Davis was a better fielding 1B, too.
You’re joking right? Chris Davis wasn’t a better fielder. Pete Alonso already has almost twice the career WAR as Chris Davis after 5 seasons. You do realize Alonso was rated the fifth best defensive 1b last year by metrics.
It’s a shame that Mountcastle and O’Hearn have been more productive for a fraction of Alonso’s salary.
O’s never needed or wanted Pete and his salary.
1B has turned into a slugger first position and fielding is not a priority.
1b/dh platoon is more common than an everyday 1b these days.
So being top 5 really doesn’t convince me he’s a good fielder, very few full time 1bs these days are.
What’s more relevant is that considering the contract he’s looking for, he pales in comparison to Keith Hernandez defensively and Mike Piazza offensively, and both as a team leader.
And Piazza played a more demanding position while being a far better hitter and a player who could literally carry the team into the postseason.
Alonso is really not that much better a hitter than Dave Kingman. At the rate he’s going with 7 homers yielding only 12 RBI, he might not eclipse 85 for the season.
They are RBIs. They are a tally, not a ratio.
No crap, Charlie.
But future tallies or values can be extrapolated from present tallies or values.
My point stands.
To enhance your learning, EXTRAPOLATE is a mathematical term meaning to extend a range of values by INFERRING unknown values from trends in the known data.
Your really complaining about someone that has had 249 RBI’s over the last two seasons not having enough RBI’s over the first 20+ games of the season? No one said he was a better overall hitter than Piazza. Not many are. Hernandez was the best fielding first baseman in baseball history. You comparing him to him is saying something right there.
What I am saying is that he falls short of the level at which he hopes to be paid for 2025 and beyond.
He’s a good player, but not a great one, and not a difference maker like the greats. The Mets can be a .500 team with or without him.
It’s almost as if Alonso might have more RBIs if the rest of the lineup in front of him could get on base more often.
Right after they drugged Elias right?
The verb is “have.” The word “of” is a preposition,
I feel like the last two years the O’s have called up like 50 top 50 prospects.
I remember a couple of years ago all the whining from fellow O’s fans…why do we need this guy? What good are prospects? Waah.
I guess I encounter different Orioles fans. Who were they saying was not needed?
Bring Norby up for regular 2nd baseman spot. Take Hollyday down for an experience process
Go ahead. No one is stopping you.
Good thing.
The O’s are filthy with talent. They paid a steep price with terrible seasons in order to obtain those high draft picks, but they made savvy picks.
The problem now is having too many good players. There is so much playing time on a team and you don’t want to waste top talent sitting on a bench. The Orioles need to start working some trades for pitching. There is definitely room for improvement in the rotation and using some of their superfluous hitters to get them should be the plan.
The similarities between the early days of the Astros run to the O’s team is so striking. Constantly producing talented players with more in the minors. I really feel like next year’s Baltimore team will win it all. They will be the next team to have sustained success in the AL – likely taking the torch from Houston.
They definitely have the potential for that. The Astros did exactly what I was talking about in acquiring both Verlander and Cole for prospects. Yes the Astros did end up losing Joe Musgrove, but most of the prospects didn’t work out. Those of the type of deals I am talking about for the Orioles. They did good by getting Burnes, but still need at least 1 more top starter. A guy I would be looking at is Logan Webb of the Giants. He would cost 3-4 top guys, but if you get a title it would be worth it.
The only top 10 pick that had made an impact until recently was Adley. Now Cowser is breaking out. But people acting like the Orioles built a stacked team with all top 5 picks are incorrect.
Umm, the O’s are polluted with talent.
Since the O’s haven’t traded any of their significant prospects yet (except for Ortiz), could they possibly have an all youth lineup???
Kjerstad LF, Mullins (or bradfield) CF, Cowser RF
Mayo 1B, Norby 2B, Holliday SS, Henderson 3B
Rutschman C, Basallo DH???
No shot they find a way to keep basallo he is the one that can’t be an oriole
Huh? Basallo will be a star for the Orioles. He holds the #1 spot amongst MiLBers for projected MLB OPS. Mayo ranks 3rd.
The one on your list who will most likely fail is Bradfield. Might have to move Holliday to CF when they move on from Mullins in a couple years.
You do realize you get higher draft picks and compensation picks in later rounds for sucking too?
Ra
How can they fit basallo though??? Basallo is a C/1B, Rutschman is already a top 10 catcher and could become the #1 eventually, and mayo has more experience at 1B (and is really close to basallo on prospect rankings)
You do realize that every team could have drafted Gunnar Henderson or Jordan Westburg or Cedric Mullins or Ryan Mountcastle or taken Santander in the Rule V??
Cowser and GrayRod were considered big reaches.
It’s not the Orioles fault that other teams suck at drafting.
Good point. Cleveland seems to draft good pitchers like they’re falling out of trees, but other than DeLauter, can’t draft ofers to save their life.
Clearly arent talking about Trevor Bauer
Jack Bauer then. 🙂
Hank Bauer. Best Bauer in MLB ever.
Obviously HK has earned this and I wish him an all the best, but I’m a little confused by why him now. With Hays out and Mountcastle banged up, it seems they need a righty bat – with versatility – read Norby – more than another corner outfielder lefty power bat?
I would think Mayo over Norby. Norby career splits are pretty even whereas Mayo crushes LH pitching.
I will say that Mountcastle plays a lot vs RHP so maybe its not a platoon thing and just wanted someone with more positional versatility.
Norby only because of his versatility and because he has far more AAA at bats than Mayo. Mayo has a higher ceiling for sure but let him stay where he is for now.
Because this kid is the best hitter in the minors and it really doesn’t matter what side he hits from.
If only it was that simple. Just don’t see quality lefties in AAA.
Kjerstad was the only player mentioned here on the 40 man roster!
I thought Norby is – but if correct then that’s a good answer
Those numbers are crazy. Good luck in the Bigs HK.
Obviously a good situation on the whole, but the O’s need to maximize this influx of talent before individuals start to become stunted by blocked or limited playing time.
They have already started to do that. They traded Hernaiz, Prieto, and Ortiz in 12 months. Stowers and Norby are blocked currently. They still have many more prospects coming up like Mayo, Basallo, Beavers, Bradfield, etc.
Norby is the one guy who has significant value that has no slot. I struggle if Stowers will ever amount to much as a major leaguer.
He feels 4Aish to me but absolutely deserves an opportunity on a rebuilding squad to get a big league chance.
Norby is a true MLB bat. It’s more a matter of which team he hits for.
Not happening Trevor
I think the Orioles need to make a big trade at the deadline this year and if they do they will win it all. They need a top end lefty starter. Luzardo if he can start pitching better would make a lot of sense.
The Orioles at least need some bullpen help at the deadline. The middle releif has been getting crushed. SP may be a need as well but that will be dependant on how Means and Bradish are doing. By the trade deadline we should know if they can contribute or not.
“they will win it all.”
—-
New to baseball?
Look it’s LordD being salty in an Orioles thread again.
Why ? They can just outscore everybody
THE 2026 BALTIMORE LINEUP WILL BE??????????
A lot like the Braves line up last year. Absolutely loaded from top to bottom
If he hits just .034, he’ll have a higher average than the failed wonder boy. These prospects should have been traded for real players
Lmfao cardinals look good!
That’s not me that’s some loser pretending to be me fella.
Yes, I am sure the Cardinals are so glad to get a real player like Marcell Ozuna for 2 prospects. They did not need Alcantara and Gallen. They were just prospects.
That loser is a troll.
Bad trades happen. The Cardinals suck right now the Orioles are doing great. The Orioles had to suck for years in order to get to this point. No need to be a jerk about things.
There would be 29 takers for either of their services haha. When holiday is a superstar at 25, you’ll be glad they didn’t
That is one terrible start thou lol
Talking down a white guy and calling him boy. R@c1st^
Yeah, sure, MAGAt.
I just want Keston Hiura to end up on the O’s so there will be mass confusion in announcing booths.
AAA stats do not matter in todays game. They just don’t. Look around the league….9x out of 10 the top prospects crash and burn. There has never been a bigger discrepancy between AAA and MLB in history of the game. So many top propsects smash AAA and then come to MLB and can’t hit 500 ops. I wish him well.
90%! What decade are you living in? Teams now hit on prospects better than ever.
Not true, its the opposite. Please provide your statistical data that proves otherwise. Thanks
Guru of false information apparently, prospects hit more than ever buddy. There’s always some misses but I guess if they don’t hit 90% of the time it’s all for nothing I guess.
wrong….mine is back up in data, Please provide your statistical data that proves otherwise. Thanks
Provide yours first instead of demanding it from others. Come on, prove it!
Seriously I’d love to see what you consider a bust with your “statsitcal data.”
As if they need help beating us.
Guess it is better for the prospect than facing a good team out the gate.
A new 7 year man ? Are we at that time of the season ? Might we see the ace of Pittsburgh ? It’s all good news for the kids on the farm.
For the folks attributing the O’s success to their many years of losing, they did a lot of good work beside a couple of high picks.
Grayson #11 career bWAR 1.7
Rutschman #1 10.5 WAR
Gunnar #42 8.3
Even Gunnar doesn’t really count as a “high” pick.
Drafting well is not easy.
When are the O’s going to promote Matt Hobgood? lol
You’re 100% right, just because you draft high doesn’t mean that you draft well.
It’s both. It’s being bad enough to get those high picks. It’s making the right decisions with those high picks and it’s also making good decisions with the other picks. And also developing the talent properly. But make no mistake getting those high picks has helped tremendously.
That’s pretty good considering only 11% of first round picks ever achieve a 2 WAR season. Only 20% of top 100 prospects ever achieve 2 WAR.
It looks like Westburg and Cowser could achieve 2 WAR this season (both will cool down some but they already have over 1 WAR)
Yes, and tanking doesn’t guarantee anything as we’ve seen losing teams try and rebuild, only to spin right back into another rebuild.
That said, tanking and getting the top-of-the-draft picks is a huge advantage, and baseball as constructed rewards losing. Not only does a tanking team get gifted access to the top picks simply by being horrible, but that cascades down increasing the opportunity access to additional good players, greatly increasing the odds of hitting on a few more.. Gunnar, for example, was the first pick in the second round. Factoring in the supplemental round, that pick is barely more than ten picks off from the team that picks at the back end of the first round, while teams picking at the backend are nearly 25-30 picks from the frontend of the first round. Talent wise it’s a huge difference.
Credit for the Orioles for drafting and developing well with the gifts they were provided for losing, but MLB will never fix this problem until they start financially penalizing teams at the bottom, In it’s worst outcome, you get the Oakland A’s. Not good for MLB.
The MLB financially rewards the teams at the top with playoff revenue. The MLB rewards success more than any other professional sports league in North America.
If you really wanted to prevent the Oakland As you would institute a salary Cap and salary floor like the NFL, NBA, and NHL have. If an owner wants an MLB he needs to meet a minimum salary.
The draft is the best thing that the MLB does to level the competition.
Luxury taxes has stopped some of the large market teams but there’s plenty willing to spend. A few willing to spend stupid money.
Best chance the small markets have is to draft and develop.
First, there is no apostrophe is “its,” the possessive of “it.”
Second: The A’s went to the playoffs in 2018, 2019 and 2020. As recently as 2021 they were 10 games over .500. That’s good for baseball.
Third: it would be adding injury to insult to financially penalize a team for losing. There must be losing teams, by the definition of competition. Totally stupid suggestion.
Mike Elias has done so much more than just get high picks.
Joey Ortiz was a 4th round find. He was a main piece for Corbin Burnes. He’s found a bunch of relievers on the scrap heap. Got the little known Kyle Bradish for Dylan Bundy. Plucked Wells out of the rule 5. Got O’Hearn for free & has developed a number of other guys.
Even Cedric Mullins turned into a better player than we thought as a prospect….He’s built a baseball team. I don’t see how anyone could have the O’s FO outside of the top 5 in the bigs. I could certainly make the case for #2-3 right now.
fwiw: They got O’Hearn for cash considerations. Not “free.” Though it may have been a very small amount of cash; we’ll never know.
GrOD Almighty was picked by Duquette in 2018, a year when the Orioles were chasing the division title (but imploding).
Grayson Rodriguez was picked 11th overall. The Cardinals, my team, has not picked higher than 11th since I believe 2008.
Yes good decisions have been made but a LOT of guys came from high picks. Add some spending to the good decisions and you might have the Astros from a few years ago. But you have to make good decisions spending too
The Orioles were not “tanking” in the year that resulted in the GrOD Almighty pick the following year. And he was not picked by Elias.
The Cardinals picks are impertinent; better records result in lower picks. btw: Where are they picking this draft? And does that mean they were tanking in 2023?
The Orioles got Holliday and Rutschman as number 1 overall picks. That’s huge. Kjerstad was what third overall? They got Henderson because they saved money on the number 1 overall pick that year. Cowser was I think 5th overall. That’s 5 huge core pieces all because they were awful. No that’s not everything but it’s a big deal. Yes they did pick the right guys but that’s an advantage no other team has had over that time period.
No, they did not get Henderson because they “saved money on the number 1 overall pick that year.” Every single team had a chance to pick him and chose not to. Other teams were scared Henderson wouldn’t sign. but the Orioles took the chance and won. Also, Rutschman was “the number 1 overall pick that year,” and he signed for ~ slot at $8.1MM, so they did not save a penny on him.
You could have checked these indisputable facts before printing your feelings, which are wrong.
Finally, neither Kjerstand nor Cowser is a “huge core piece” at this time. And Holliday is in the minors. There’s a long way to go before anyone can call those three “huge core pieces.”
The Orioles signed Henderson for over slot. You obviously looked this stuff up why the f did you not mention that???
They saved money on Holliday not Rutschman I got mixed up on that.
There was no reason to mention Gunnar signed overslot because they didn’t save money on Rutschman to sign him, it’s that simple. Your claim was invalid. The Orioles didn’t sign Gunnar because they had previously saved bonus money as you claimed, they signed Gunnar because they had the balls to pick him when all the other teams did not.
Guess you didn’t bother to note that three of the next four picks after Gunnar went “overslot” also. You will find this is common in convincing H.S. players not to go to college. Teams don’t often sign 3rd year college players overslot as a general rule and almost never sign 4th year college players overslot. You may want to research this for yourself.
They really didn’t save money on Holliday, either. Everybody thought Jones was the slam dunk #1 and Holliday was somewhere between #2 – #6. So the Orioles signed him for higher than the #2 slot, which was also more than what Jones signed for.
Thank u MLBTR. He’s now on the Dead Rabbits fantasy baseball team
Freshly added to the Bohemian Grove Brephophagists as well.
They’ve got to send Holliday down to AAA
He’s way too early.
I respectfully disagree. His MLB experience has only been a very small sample and thus not enough evidence to warrant a move like that.
He had a small AAA sample to get the call too. I wish we hadn’t done that but I don’t think he should go down yet.
Give him a little more rope. I would’ve preferred he spent at least another month in AAA to see if it continued once pitchers attacked his weaknesses down there .
I wish they had not promoted Holliday yet either. At least not until they could get him to plant his right foot and throw like a major leaguer. And learn to backhand grounders instead of trying to circle them all.
Heston Kjerstad was great on Prairie Home Companion.
The quintessential bachelor Norwegian farmer name.
Orioles have quite a core of prospects entering system – If all goes well or most of them do well – They will be atop division for at least 5 years.
Not exonerated. Dude has revealed a pattern of behavior,
What’s that? Getting women to make accusations to get extort money out of him?
Choking women out isn’t immoral to you? Okay, pal! Fly your freak flag! It’s still a free country.
It’s a reflection of a fukked up dude, getting his dick off by beating women.