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...

*****

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.

How to Make Jay Payton Look Awesome (and trade him...)

First, I present the headline for yesterday's O's game on ESPN.com:

Manny's snag, high-five steal O's thunder

Hey, ESPN! There's a school called Fordham University. Some people call it FU. That's right ESPN, FU.

Anyway, far be it for me to tell the great Dave Trembley what to do. (That's not sarcastic at all, I think he's doing an excellent job...) But he's making a big mistake that is affecting the Orioles on the field and in the front office.

As I mentioned yesterday, Jay Payton can only do two things well at this advanced stage of his career: serve as a passable defensive replacement and mash lefthanded pitching.

It's an evolution that has been happening gradually over the past 3 or 4 seasons but the transformation is now complete. Jay Payton is a guy you call off the bench to pinch hit against lefthanded relievers or give him spot starts against lefty starters.

If Dave Trembley would start deploying him as such, Payton will succeed and get the attention of contending teams in the National League. Good pinch hitters are not easy to come by. A veteran who could pinch-hit (like Payton) could be seen as a commodity come the trade deadline.

But only if you start his "branding" now. He's a righthanded bat off the bench who can rake lefties and a fine defensive replacement. Start using him that way now and it'll pay dividends in the box score and maybe get you a young minor league arm that is worthy of pitching in the Oriole bullpen in 2009.

Sticking My Head In To Say Hi...

...since I haven't posted anything of substance in two and a half days. Been too busy trying to learn MySQL and some rudimentary Dutch (don't ask) to form much significant Orioles thought.

Until today.

Inspired by the O's mini-sweep of the Boston Red Sox, I had to pen an open letter to substitute Red Sox manager, Brad Mills.

Dear Brad,

Just a little note to thank you for giving us the opportunity to take these last two games from you. You don't know what wins like these mean to a struggling franchise like the the Baltimore Orioles and your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Really, beating Josh Beckett would have been enough for us. Victories over one of baseball's top pitchers just aren't expected and we were thankful enough to see the team catch him on one of the rare days when he was quite hittable.

But today was just too much. You shouldn't have! With the bases loaded, the Orioles were trailing 3-2 in the 7th with two outs. Jay Payton was at the plate and, well, let's just say that Birdland was less than optimistic that a guy hitting .220 would end up the hero.

But Brad, you had pity on us. You took out righty Craig Hansen and brought in lefty Hideki Okijima. At his advanced age, Jay Payton can only do two things; play a passable defensive leftfield and mash lefthanded pitchers. Here's the splits for Payton...as if you didn't know!

                 vs. RHP           vs. LHP
Payton 2008  .216/.259/.216    .250/.250/.542
 

Those aren't Ruthian numbers against lefties but at least it gave us a fighting chance. Dave Trembley couldn't have planned it better himself...even if he actually had bench players to use.

Again, thanks for handing over the sweep on a silver platter today. We know Terry Francona wouldn't have been nearly as generous.

Your Friends,

The Oriole Faithful

*****

Daniel Cabrera - mentally tough.

A Quick Thought

A few weeks back, I mentioned the Orioles might want to look at platoons for the near future since they can be a good way of getting good value from flawed players. I thought I might look at what a Luke Scott (facing righties) and Jay Payton (facing lefties) platooning in left might look like.

               AVG     OBP     SLG     OPS
Luke Scott    .273    .366    .516    .882
Jay Payton    .281    .325    .432    .757

Luke Payton   .277    .354    .503    .857

Now, I'm not saying Scott needs to be platooned. With only 763 PA in his career it may be too early for that and he may be able to maintain a better average than he showed last year. But it is interesting when you consider Payton's greater value as a fielder.

So, Scott would bring patience and power while Payton supplies better contact and fielding.

WWED?


(What would Earl do?)

Base Hits: 6/26/2007

It's rough to be an Oriole fan these days but according to The Hardball Times, Baltimore isn't even close to being the worst team in the league. Small consolation but it could be worse...

The New York papers are filled with stories like this one, questioning Joe Torre and calling for his ouster after last night's 3-2 O's win. It's nice to be on the other side of one of these losses and I'm loving watching Yankee fans try to eat one of their own.

It looks like Leo Mazzone will be sticking around, at least for now, which is a good thing. The only reservation I had about firing Perlozzo was the potential loss of Leo. His work with the pitching staff (even with the struggles of some bullpen personnel) has been enormously successful.

The usually completely insipid Amber Theoharis writes a decent enough column in Press Box this month. (I give Nestor a lot of crap about inane, misinformed rantings but as far as the inane and misinformed, Amber gives him a run for his money...) I think Alyssa Milano writes better.

On the other Hand, I am really finding myself enjoying Phil Jackman's Press Box column called...well, On The Other Hand. Good stuff.

I have posted WPA graphs before and The Hardball Times have assessed some of the biggest hits of the year in terms of WPA. Jay Payton has the biggest hit of the year for Baltimore this far....so stop pinch hitting for him in the 9th!