Last week, I missed out on Dylan Bundy’s pro debut, as I just couldn’t make the two-hour drive to Asheville work with my schedule. But, tonight, Bundy was even closer, pitching just over an hour away in Kannapolis, and I wasn’t going to miss him twice in a span of six days. So, I jumped on I-85 and took in a game with the other 100 or so people who decided to brave the sudden cold front that rolled into NC today.

It took me about an hour to get there. Due to his three-inning limit, Bundy was only in the game for about 30 minutes, and he was actually on the mound for less than 10. It was still well worth the drive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dylan Bundy’s Orioles debut for the Delmarva Shorebirds versus the Asheville Tourists, a Rockies affiliate, marked the start of a fourth season for me scouting prospects in the South Atlantic League. In previous years, highly ranked pitching prospects have come and gone, bringing with them reportedly unhittable “stuff.” In most cases, those arms never live up to advanced billing as the prospect hype does not match performance on the field. With Dylan Bundy, his ability may have been undersold, as exemplified by the lack of major media at his first professional start.

Video after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

Rain. The archenemy of baseball fans across the country, inclement weather has the ability to throw a scouting trip into flux. As a rule, I never commit to an overnight trip when rain is in the forecast, but made an exception for Orioles uber-prospect Dylan Bundy as it was the only time this season the young right-hander was scheduled to throw within 200 miles of my home outside of Atlanta.

the trip started innocently enough, driving three hours on small highways and back roads leading into the mountains. At Podunk Produce, the sun was shining and baskets of tomatoes sat outside patiently awaiting a short drive to a local dinner table close by. Chunky Girl Stables came and went leaving me wondering just how chunky a girl could be and still comfortably mount a stallion or mare.

It was a beautiful Thursday afternoon as batting practice crept closer and the miles continued to inch towards 200.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the methodology behind the ratings here. Remember that the grading scale is 20-80, with 50 representing league average.

Baltimore’s 2011 Ranking: #16

2012 Outlook: – 31 (29th)

The Orioles would be a long shot to be a contender in any division in baseball, as their young pitching hasn’t emerged as they had hoped and they’ve struggled to find good complementary offensive pieces to surround their best young players. As such, this a team that is going to give up a lot of runs and not score enough to compensate. When you add in the level of competition they face in the American League East, it would take something close to the largest miracle in sports history for the Orioles to win their division this season. The addition of a second wild card spot does make it more possible for the Orioles to hope they can play in October again at some point, but that point is not this year. The talent level just isn’t in place to compete with good Major League teams, and in a division with three of the seven best teams in baseball ahead of them, they should consider a 75 win season a success.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Orioles are reportedly looking to trade “third baseman” Mark Reynolds and reliever Kevin Gregg. You think so, doctor? It would be strange if the team really waited until this late to start shopping these two veterans, who are rather pointless on a team that is at the beginning of what looks to be a long rebuilding process. To be fair, while the rumor is just coming out now, they may have been shopping these guys for a while. Gregg is a pretty generic reliever (other than having that oh-so-valuable “closer experience”), but Reynolds is an interesting case. His problems making contact with both the bat and glove make him a flawed player, but his monstrous power makes him playable in the right situation. But are there any teams on which that situation exists?

Read the rest of this entry »

So far this spring, SP Yu Darvish has pitched 9 innings while walking 7 and striking out 10. Rangers fans, like any typical fan would, are beginning to laugh nervously. It is only human tendency, of course, to make too much out of Spring Training. We have been trapped in a baseball-less winter for nigh-on twelve or eighteen months or something up until this month, so when we finally get some more of that sweet, leather-tossing action, it’s only natural we freak out when someone goes 0 for 3 or a pitcher allows 2 home runs.

The best solution to this March Mania is to refer to the wealth of statistics behind the player and remind oneself that, more often than not, the last few years will tell us much more than the present spring. Well, for Darvish, it’s not as easy. So here, today, right now, I offer that March Mania solution for all NPB imports (I’m looking at you, SP Wei-Yin Chen, SP Tsuyoshi Wada, and OF Norichika Aoki):

Presenting the 2011 NPB stats for hitters and pitchers:
Read the rest of this entry »

What do these fellow batsmen have in common?

• Adrian Gonzalez
• Matt Kemp
• Emilio Bonifacio
• Michael Bourn
• Michael Young

Well, probably a lot, seeing as how they all share a profession, but today let us examine a particularly unique distinction: The fact that they collectively represent the top five BABIPs of the 2011 MLB season.

Let’s find out how much was luck and how much was repeatable.

Read the rest of this entry »

With disabled list information available going back 10 years, I have decided to examine some league wide and team trends.

League Trends

To begin with, here are the league values for trips, days and average days lost to the DL over the past 10 years.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed it yesterday, Ben Badler of Baseball America has some pretty fascinating background about the Orioles saga with Korean prospect Seong-Min Kim. You probably heard about the signing when the Korean Baseball Organization filed a protest with Major League Baseball due to the Orioles failing to follow protocol. The deal ended up being voided, Kim was suspended by the KBO, and Orioles scouts were banned from games in Korea over the incident.

However, as Badler reports, there appears to be way more to the story than just a snafu over the improper signing of a prospect.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Baltimore Orioles recently avoided going to an arbitration hearing by signing Adam Jones to a one year, $6.5 million contract, but there are still rumblings about a long-term deal being in play. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Orioles have started to explore the possibility of signing Jones to a long-term deal, as well they should. Jones currently has one more year of arbitration left before becoming a free agent, and considering that he’s a young +2 to +3 win player with the upside for more, he’s the sort of player the Orioles should be hoping to build around.

Rosenthal reports that Jones wants at least a five-year extension, so that got me curious: what would a five-year extension for Jones look like? Are there any players in a similar situation to him that have signed extensions recently?

Read the rest of this entry »