Orioles Draft LHP Brian Matusz

Andy MacPhail has gone and acquired more pitching for the Oriole farm system.

The Orioles drafted LHP Brian Matusz from the University of San Diego. He's one of the few potential Oriole draft picks that I have not seen play at all.

Meet Brian Matusz:



Some more from the big lefty:



He's 6'5" and throws in the mid-90's. You certainly can't have enough lefthanded heat in your system.

He is very polished and thought to be able to move quickly through the system. Hopefully, they can get him signed quickly and get him his first taste of professional ball.

Circles of Losing, Trends, Three True Outcomes, Melmosity and More

Last night will go down as a Circle 2 loss in Ben's 9 Concentric Circles of Losing: Not Enough To Win.

They had their opportunities. The Orioles had plenty of chances last night to win the game but couldn't get that extra hit, that long sac fly to score the man at third or that timely extra base hit to take the series from the Yankees.

On to Tampa. Tampa has greatly improved this season but not for the reasons people were predicting during the preseason. It was supposed to be the young offensive talent that was to carry this team to playoff contention. Instead, it's been the young pitching while the offense has still been trying to find itself. The good news for the Orioles is that the Rays pitching has slipped a bit after a stellar April. This is hardly an unbeatable team.

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Three True Outcomes - the Three True Outcomes in baseball are the strikeout, the walk, and the homerun. These are the outcomes that don't involve the defense or footspeed. It's just batter vs. pitcher to determine the outcome.

Some batters have embraced this method more than others to become legends of TTO. For the Orioles, Mickey Tettleton comes to mind. Elsewhere, Adam Dunn, Rob Deer and Jack Cust have embraced this "all-or-nothing" approach while still maintaining a good batting eye. So I decided to grab what I believe to be the highest TTO average seasons in Oriole history. The only two Orioles I knew that I would see on this list were Mickey Tettleton and perhaps Sam Horn. Some of the names were surprising.

                   Year   AB   HR   BB   SO   TTO%
Mickey Tettleton   1990  444   15  106  106   51.1%
Sam Horn           1991  317   23   41   99   45.5%
Mickey Tettleton   1989  411   26   73  117   44.6%
Jim Gentile        1961  486   46   96  106   42.6%
Cal Abrams         1955  309    6   89   69   41.2%
Boog Powell        1964  424   39   76   91   41.2%
Boog Powell        1966  491   34   67  125   40.5%
Jeff Manto         1995  254   17   24   69   39.5%
Chris Hoiles       1993  419   29   69   94   39.3%
Randy Milligan     1990  362   20   88   68   39.1%

 

As expected, Mickey Tettleton is the TTO king and Sam Horn comes in with the second highest TTO% for a season in Orioles history. Tettleton was so much fun to watch and would routinely walk and strikeout over 100 times each during a season, a rare talent. He was sent to Detroit straight up for P Jeff Robinson, one of the worst trades in the history of the franchise. Tettleton was a productive hitter for several years after the trade and Robinson...well, you probably know about Robinson.

Sam Horn had the potential to be a Tettleton-type slugger, albeit with more power. He never developed that batting eye to let the really bad pitches go.

Jim Gentile. A classic example of a TTO season was 1961. Should have remembered that. Also should not be surprised that Boog Powell show up on this list a couple of times.

Who is Cal Abrams? Abrams was a backup OF who played all three defensive positions for a terrible 97 loss team. He seemed to realize that while he was still a good fielder, his ability to hit was really slipping. So he seems to have decided not to make outs and walked a remarkable 86 times in only 407 plate appearances. It wasn't enough. 1955 would be Cal's last full season in the majors.

It seems that a 30-year old Jeff Manto arrived in Baltimore with the idea that he had better start swinging for the fences if he wanted to stick in the majors. In a way, he was right. 1995 was his best offensive year (108 OPS+) but he paid the price by striking out 69 times in 89 games. He was off to Boston the next year and went back to a more contact-making approach.

Chris Hoiles had a real breakout season in 1993 (the fact that he was not considered for the MVP that year is criminal...). When he made contact, good things happened but he struck out 94 times.

Randy Milligan was a mild surprise. I never remember Milligan as a guy with the skill set to draw 88 walks.

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I watched Miami play Georgia Tech last night and saw top prospect Miami 1B Yonder Alonso. He hit two homers but looked terribly mismatched against the lefty relievers they deployed against him. Miami can flat out hit throughout the lineup.

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The Wayward Oriole has made a significant scientific breakthrough. He can now measure Melmosity.

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Song of the Week: The Replacements - "Bastards of Young" Enjoy!

Thinking About The Draft...

To continue Thursday's thought, Jay Payton only got one hit all weekend (a homer) and it came off a lefty. He went 0 for whatever against the righthanded pitchers he faced. Just saying he needs his weaknesses masked...

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Here in Georgia, there's a lot of good college baseball being played. I am hoping to get out to see some of the games in the NCAA Regional Tournament this year. Until then, the amateur draft is coming up and I've been watching some of the top SEC and ACC to see some of these guys who might be future Orioles.

I was watching Georgia vs. Georgia Tech yesterday, specifically to see a player who might be the best in the country, Georgia SS Gordon Beckham. With the number 4 overall pick, the Orioles will have a very good shot at drafting Beckham and the farm system could surely use a top shortstop prospect. He went 2-4 with a walk.

Beckham is really smooth in the field, like he's on ice skates. He ranged way to his left, picked up the ball on a bounce and flipped it perfectly to the second baseman to start the double play. Smooth as silk.

But don't take my word for it. Here's a few highlights from a game against Clemson. Note the fielding...



He also ranks 1st or 2nd in 6 offensive categories in the SEC and is in the top 10 in 12 overall.

The two players who stood out for Tech were actually freshman.

RHP Deck McGuire is a 6'6" freshman who throws a fastball in the low 90's, throws a wicked 12-to-6 curve and has an 82 mph changeup. He need to work on his control but seems to know how to change speeds and worked out of a couple jams without losing his cool. He's gone 8-0 in a real tough SEC.

SS Derek Dietrich has great range and a great bat. He's hit .333 and slugged .623 in his first year of collegiate ball. He also ranked 3rd in RBI in the ACC.

I think you may be hearing from these guys in a few years...

The other top prospect in this game was Georgia RHP Josh Fields. He came in to preserve the 3-2 Georgia lead for the win, striking out two in the ninth for the save. Serious heat.