Because You Asked - Hero of the Federation

Because You Asked - Hero of the Federation
The first Sunday without football. No spring training. How about those Wizards? The mailbag isn't overflowing, but I'll dip into it anyway. There's always room for Jell-O and another sequel. This has been going on for a long time. Longer than I realized. A friend asked whether I could look up an article from Jan. 22, 2010 that she found amusing, to the point where she thanked me in a Facebook post for making her day. She didn't remember the content, just that it made her laugh. I did a...

Elias waiting for new CBA before detailing roster plans

Elias waiting for new CBA before detailing roster plans
Exhibition games have been postponed through March 4 due to the lockout. The inevitable became official yesterday afternoon. Shocked faces didn't exist. "We regret that, without a collective bargaining agreement in place, we must postpone the start of spring training games until no earlier than Saturday, March 5th," Major League Baseball said in a statement. "All 30 clubs are unified in their strong desire to bring players back to the field and fans back to the stands. The clubs have...

This, that and the other

This, that and the other
Baseball prospect lists are dropping like snowflakes as the start of major league spring training is put on ice. Organizations and players are ranked within a top 100, 30, 20 or 10. And the variety doesn't change how the Orioles are perceived within the industry. They keep gaining respect, with the only caveats being how they're a bit "top heavy" in the system. Trust me, they gladly would have taken it back in the day. The Athletic's Keith Law offered his opinion this week on the top...

Kjerstad recounts his small world moment

Kjerstad recounts his small world moment
Heston Kjerstad won't claim that he never forgets a face, but the young outfielder was certain that he recognized one of the players who showed up in Sarasota last month to work out at the minicamps for hitters. The stranger wasn't at the fall instructional camp. He wasn't in the organization until January. Who was this guy? A little detective work revealed his identity and proved again that it's a small baseball world. Kjerstad already lived the coincidence of being teammates with...

Catching up with Heston Kjerstad

Catching up with Heston Kjerstad
Heston Kjerstad has outlasted the two hitters minicamps in Sarasota. The outfielder reports daily to the Ed Smith Stadium complex for workouts, slowly recouping those at-bats lost after a diagnosis of myocarditis in 2020. The facility is a second home to the University of Arkansas product, who first received an invitation to the fall instructional camp that ran from Oct. 18-Nov. 20. He went back to Fayetteville for a while and arranged sessions with his hitting and conditioning coaches - "a...

This, that and the other

This, that and the other
Representatives for Major League Baseball and the players association will meet again on Saturday, at which time we finally should get confirmation whether the start of spring training is going to be delayed. That's the expectation, and has been for a while. But commissioner Rob Manfred wasn't ready to concede it yesterday during his media session at the owners' meetings in Orlando. "We understand where the calendar is," Manfred told reporters. "Until we have that conversation and see...

Wondering how O's configure camps in spring training (updated)

Wondering how O's configure camps in spring training (updated)
The planning that goes into setting up spring training again grows more complicated with the expected delay in pitchers and catchers reporting. An announcement could be made as early as today, according to reports. The Orioles are in the process of figuring out how they're going to operate under these conditions. We'll get confirmation whether minor league camp remains at Twin Lakes Park, which is supposed to signal a return to normal after 2021, and on the report date. I'm curious about...

How important are these stats for pitching staffs?

How important are these stats for pitching staffs?
The topic of the Orioles signing more groundball pitchers came up in the comments section of the blog yesterday. It is a topic worthy of discussion. The basic thinking states that ground balls are generally easier to turn into outs than fly balls and we have yet to see a hitter drive a grounder over the outfield fence. It's guaranteed to keep the ball in the ballpark. The pitcher we discussed here yesterday, O's lefty John Means, is not a groundball pitcher. His 2021 groundball rate of 32.9...

Latest sampling of spring training storylines

Latest sampling of spring training storylines
Baseball remains in lockout mode, but representatives for ownership and the union met on back-to-back days. Communication is better than complete silence. My hot take. Per reports, Major League Baseball increased its proposal to raise the minimum salary for players with up to one year of service time from $600,000 to $615,000. MLB also proposed a $10 million bonus pool for pre-arbitration-eligible players, while the union has sought $105 million. Lots of work to be done, but this is...

Highest-ranked Orioles prospects should make 2022 more palatable

Highest-ranked Orioles prospects should make 2022 more palatable
One of the club records set by the Orioles last year, the kind that typically is chased by non-contenders while other teams are in pennant races, was the 16 players making their major league debuts. The previous high was 15 in 2018, when the Orioles finally heard the window slam shut - it no longer could be muffled - and began dismantling. They're still rebuilding from it. A few prospects were introduced, the pitchers led by Zac Lowther, Mike Baumann and Alexander Wells. Many others were...

Leftovers from the mailbag

Leftovers from the mailbag
Dumping the contents of my mailbag last week was an incomplete task. A few letters stuck to the bottom. How is this possible? Maybe from using the bag to make caramel apples over the holidays. That's one theory. Let's avoid overthinking it and just get to the core of the issue. Here are a few more questions, posted word for word. If you need more clarity or the length challenges your attention span, I can't help you. If Rougned Odor wins the second base job, who will be at third base?...

Neustrom and Dorrian getting extra looks at minicamp

Neustrom and Dorrian getting extra looks at minicamp
The Orioles opened their second January minicamp yesterday, and the first for hitters, with a modest invite list that featured six of their top 11 prospects per MLBPipeline.com. Four of the other prospects in the elite 11 are pitchers. The only position player who's absent right now is infielder Connor Norby, a second-round pick in 2021 who will participate in the second hitting camp that opens Tuesday morning. (Here's a reminder from earlier this week.) The current gathering is headlined...

Still No. 1: Rutschman leads five players on Baseball America list

Still No. 1: Rutschman leads five players on Baseball America list
For just the third time since Baseball America started releasing top 100 prospect lists in 1990, the Orioles had five players in the initial top 100 of the year when the newest list came out on Wednesday. We say initial top 100 because now these lists are tweaked and changed often during the year. Some outlets, including Baseball America, move players in and out as they "graduate" and lose prospect and rookie eligibility. There was once a time when outlets released one list per year and a...

Rutschman, Kjerstad, Cowser headline next minicamp (plus notes)

Rutschman, Kjerstad, Cowser headline next minicamp (plus notes)
With the pitching minicamp wrapping up over the weekend in Sarasota, the Orioles are ready to conduct two others geared toward hitters in their organization. The breakdown puts more experienced and higher-profile prospects in the first camp, which begins on Friday, followed next Tuesday by a gathering of newer, younger players. The initial wave will consist of first-round selections Adley Rutschman, Heston Kjerstad and Colton Cowser, along with Kyle Stowers, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg,...

Another look at some of the solid offense on the farm

Another look at some of the solid offense on the farm
When you look at the various lists of Orioles top prospects, most of them will have more hitters than pitchers among the top 10. That is certainly true of MLBPipeline.com, which ranks hitters as six of its top nine prospects for the Orioles, and Baseball America, which ranks hitters in six of the top eight spots. And these include high draft picks the club has made since executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and his staff took over before the 2019 season. He has been here for...

Debating dates of Orioles debuts in 2022

Debating dates of Orioles debuts in 2022
Based on draft status, expectations and various prospect lists, Orioles fans are likely to get most excited about the anticipated 2022 debuts of catcher Adley Rutschman and pitchers Grayson Rodriguez and DL Hall. MLBPipeline.com, Baseball America, Prospects 1500 and I'm assuming everyone else with a list ranks them in that order as the top three prospects in the system. Rutschman is going to arrive in Baltimore first. Rodriguez and Hall haven't pitched above Double-A, but are primed to join...

Jim Callis' take on O's 2021 draft picks and a look ahead to 2022

Jim Callis' take on O's 2021 draft picks and a look ahead to 2022
They are still a long way from the major leaguers, but seeing a host of players from the 2021 Orioles draft class end the year playing so well at low Single-A Delmarva was a real plus for the organization. After drafting players they are high on in the first two drafts under Mike Elias - like Adley Rutschman, Kyle Stowers, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad - the class of '21 was raking late in the year with the Shorebirds after starting their pro careers this...

Mancini endorses Trumbo as coach, news on Trimble injury

Mancini endorses Trumbo as coach, news on Trimble injury
The hitting voices in Trey Mancini's head are changing again. The Orioles didn't retain coach Don Long after three seasons. Long had replaced Scott Coolbaugh, who was hired in December 2014 and lasted four seasons. Assistant hitting coach José Hernández is moving into a new role on manager Brandon Hyde's staff. The shuffling has led to the Orioles hiring co-hitting coaches, bringing Ryan Fuller from Double-A Bowie and going outside the organization for Matt Borgschulte. Mancini has...

Minors matter more to Orioles during lockout

Minors matter more to Orioles during lockout
Even when Major League Baseball was fully operational and a lockout only meant that a guard needed to open the gate to the players' lot after hours, the Orioles welcomed and encouraged the increased attention on their minor league system. The talent pumped into it via the draft and international signings, the developmental tools and personnel spliced into the organization, a modernized approach that the rest of the industry was embracing. Can't stand the sight of the mounting losses that...

Can new hitting coaches help O's lagging OBP stats?

Can new hitting coaches help O's lagging OBP stats?
The Orioles seemingly always rank near the bottom of the American League in on-base percentage. It's an important stat and this year in the American League the average team OBP was .316. The Orioles ranked 12th among the 15 clubs in the AL at .304. Since they won the AL East in 2014, the Orioles have ranked 12th or lower in the league in team OBP five times in eight seasons. Their best mark was when they were eighth in 2020. When it comes to walk rate (the percentage of times a hitter walks...