Mick McDonald's Baltimore Orioles fan blog

The Rule V Draft happens every December, and it is basically a tool to keep teams from hoarding prospects in their minor league systems for too long. Johan Santana is probably the most famous Rule V pickup, as the Twins got him for nothing. Last year the Orioles selected Randor Bierd from the Tigers.

The rules are pretty simple. Team select from a pool of minor leaguers (who is in that pool I'll get into in a bit), and can choose to not select anyone, and pass, or they can select the player of their choice. However, once that player is selected, they MUST remain on the teams Active 25-man roster for the entire season the following year (barring injury). If the team decides they no longer have room for the player on their roster, or decide for whatever reason they don't want that player on their active roster, the player must be returned to their original team. The two teams are permitted to work out a trade for the player, but the team that would be getting the player back is by no means obligated to do so.

Continue reading "Rule V Draft Stuff"

I hope you got a chance to read my post earlier today, explaining how the 40-man roster works, and setting up where we are in terms of getting our roster down to where it needs to be. If you get lost or confused at any time, please take a look at it, as I tried to lay out the basics of how the roster management works in the off-season. In this post, I’ll go into more specifics of who needs to be cut, why they need to be cut, and if I don’t ramble on too much, who needs to be added so they aren’t taken in the Rule V Draft.

First off, who has no minor league options left, and therefore must make the major league team out of spring training? These guys must be on the team all year (barring injury), or else they can be picked up on waivers by any team. So, this is an important question to ask. Of the players with no options, if you have some that you feel have no shot of making the opening day roster, then it makes sense to cut them now, and perhaps save roster spots for players who can stay in the minor leagues all season.

Continue reading "Working on that 40-Man Crunch"

There is a long list of things to do for Andy MacPhail and company this off-season, and I’ll be tackling some of those things throughout the next few weeks. I’ll also keep you updated on the Arizona Fall League, as well as rumors about possible trades and free agent signings. For me, November, December, and January are always a lot of fun, with trades (and lots of rumors), big free agent signings, and roster re-adjustments.

Therefore, first and foremost is dealing with the 40-man roster. As a quick explanation, the 40-man roster is comprised of all the organizations players who are signed to Major League contracts. It also must contain prospects that have been in the organization for a certain number of years (More on that later). If you appear in a major league game, you must be on the 40-man roster. However, it’s different from the 25-man roster, which is just the players on your current major league roster. So, the 40-man has everyone from Nick Markakis to Oscar Salazar, Jeremy Guthrie to Freddy Deza (Who? Exactly, more on him later). Here is a link to the current O’s 40-man.

Continue reading "Orioles Off-Season Priorities"

Or at least, when I do, I lose. Badly.

I guess I could have done worse on my Division Series predictions, since I did get the Rays winning in 4 right. But the Angels, Brewers, and Cubs? Gah! Who knows, if the Angels could actually execute a squeeze play we may have been back to LA for Game 5. However, they couldn't, and now the Red Sox are back in the ALCS for the 4th time in the last 6th years. Gag me please.

So, who am I rooting for? Obviously the Rays in the ALCS. I'd love to see Tampa make it to the Series. As far as the NLCS, I'm not sure I'm rooting for anyone. However, if the Red Sox end up winning in the AL, than I really, really want the Dodgers to come out of the NL. There wouldn't be much better than Manny single handedly destroying the Red Sox at Fenway in the World Series. That would make me happy. However, since whatever I want to happen usually doesn't, here are my LCS picks:

Continue reading "This is Why I Don't Gamble..."

Well, the playoffs get going today, so I guess I should weigh in with my thoughts. I'll be rooting for the Rays and Brewers to get to the World Series, because I've never seen either of them there, and because it will cause the executives at Fox to collectively form a mass riot. That would be fun.

Of course, I'll also be on full anti-Boston watch. Therefore, go Angels in Round 1. It certainly is weird not having the Yankees to root against in the playoffs, but man, I could sure get used to it.

Anyways, the picks: 

ALDS:

Rays over White Sox in 4        Angels over Red Sox in 5

NLDS:

Brewers over Phillies in 5       Cubs over Dodgers in 4

ALCS:

Angels over Rays in 7

NLCS:

Cubs over Brewers in 6

Continue reading "Playoff Predictions"

That he can dominate two leagues in the same season, and be considered the number one prospect in both of them!

The Eastern League Top 20 is out at BA, and once again Wieters takes the top spot. 

Also, for the second straight league, one of the guys Wieters caught lands in the number 2 spot.

That would be youngster Chris Tillman.  I remember last off-season hearing one of the guys that discusses prospects on ESPN (I think Keith Law, but not 100% sure), say that when it's all said and done, the Erik Bedard trade will be a slam dunk for the Orioles. However, that it won't be remembered as the Adam Jones trade. It will be remembered as the Chris Tillman trade. That's pretty high praise, considering what it looks like Jones is going to be able to do.

No other Birds prospects landed in the Top 20, but in the write-up they mentioned that lots of others were considered, and that a really deep Eastern League is the only reason they weren't on there. It mentioned Nolan Reimold, Lou Montantez, Brad Bergeson, David Hernandez, and Jason Berken.

Continue reading "Matt Wieters is so Good....(How good is he?)"

Wanted to give a congratulations to Milwaukee and Tampa for getting into the playoffs. As a baseball fan, I like seeing new teams get into the playoffs. I love when the Yankees or the Mets have to sit at home and watch some teams that maybe the average fan doesn't know a whole lot about. It may hurt the TV ratings, but to me, there is nothing better than seeing some new teams get a shot in the playoffs.

With that thought in mind, I was thinking about how it has been 11 years now since the Orioles got to play in October. (Yes, I've been counting.) It seems like ages ago that the Orioles were battling Cleveland for the AL Pennant in one of the best LCS' I can ever remember (although it didn't end how it was supposed to. Damn you Tony Fernandez!!!)

As long as that wait seemed, the Brewers hadn't been to the playoffs since 1982 before clinching the Wild Card yesterday. 

Continue reading "Congrats to the Brewers and Rays"

Here is Baseball America's Top 20 in the Carolina League. Frederick puts 5 players in the Top 20, about as good as the Orioles could have hoped for.

No surprise that Matt Wieters placed #1, but very nice to see Jake Arrieta at #2. Brandon Erbe also was a nice surprise, not that he was on the list, but that he was all the way up at number 8. Also good to see Brandon Snyder and Billy Rowell, two former first round picks, both make the Top 20.

It should be interesting to see who makes the Eastern League list. I'd have to assume Chris Tillman will be there. Nolan Reimold certainly has a shot. Which of the other Baysox pitchers will be there? David Hernandez and Brad Bergeson both certainly have a shot to be there as well. 

Also, with the regular season wrapping up yesterday (I know, I know, I haven't been following the major league team at all. Tough when they've ended the season so poorly.) you might wonder whether I'll keep blogging over the winter. Basically, yes. It seems that recently the off-seasons have been more exciting than the regular seasons at the Warehouse, so I'll be here to follow every rumor that gets mentioned this off-season. Mark Texeira, AJ Burnett, a Markakis extension, trades of Huff/Mora/Hernandez, maybe even Roberts. Lots of stories to follow this winter, and I'll be all over the Hot Stove.

Continue reading "Orioles Prospects Dominate Carolina League Top 20"

Baseball America has continued to do their Top 20 prospects for each league in the Minors. I've told you that I'd keep you updated when the Orioles had a prospect named in a league's Top 20.

Well. Still waiting.

The Appalachian League, the New York-Penn League, and the South Atlantic League lists have all been announced, and there isn't an Oriole to be found. 

Not much of a surprise that Bluefield and Aberdeen had no one on the the lists, as the Orioles really didn't have any top prospects on either of those teams. However, it was a surprise that Delmarva didn't get anyone on their Top 20, specifically left-hander Zach Britton.

Britton, who is probably a Top 10 prospect in the Orioles organization, was a guy that many thought would easily be in the Top 20 of the South Atlantic League. He wasn't, but it's not the end of the world. Remember, these lists are put together by the thoughts of the Managers in each league, not necessarily what BA's scouts think.  

Continue reading "Bluefield + Aberdeen + Delmarva= Zero?"

This will be my last division wrap-up, just not going to do the National League division by division. I'll mention who I feel should win the NL awards in a post with my AL wrap up.  

Also, if you're wondering where the Orioles-related posts have gone....I just need a break. It's been really, really frustrating watching them lately, and taking the time to write about them just gets me even more frustrated. Don't worry...this off-season I will be all over every move, with plenty of suggestions myself. (Are you ready for Mark Teixeira-mania? Or as a friend called it, Tex-Mania! There will be like, a million Teixeira related rumors this off-season. Just be ready for them.)

Anyways, on to the AL West.

Most Encouraging Team: Los Angeles Angels

I'd say you are the most encoouraging team when you wrap up the division in, like, June. OK, not quite, but didn't it feel that way? This has been the Angels year, simple as that. And how crazy is it that they will have to open the playoffs with either Tampa or the Red Sox? Congrats on running away with your division and dominating the league, boys...enjoy Boston! This year has been about the pitching for the Angels mostly. All you hear about is K-Rod breaking the saves record. Look. I know it's a great accomplishment. Good for K-Rod, and he has been very good this year. But he alone can't get saves. His team has to put him in lots and lots of save situations for him to....you know what, I'll rant about this later. Let's get to everyone else. The rotation missed Kelvim Escobar for the entire season, but they showed they didn't need him. Ervin Santana had a breakout year and Joe Saunders was very solid. John Lackey was injured early on but may have been their best pitcher late in the season. When you throw in around average seasons from Jared Weaver and Jon Garland, you have the best staff in the AL. The offense was very blah earlier in the season, but the addition of Mark Texeira has been huge. Will he be the boost to their offense in October that Tony Reagins (Angels GM) hoped? We'll see soon enough...

Continue reading "It's the AL West's Turn"