O's take their first steps in scouting Japan

Good breakdown of what the O's are doing internationally and how the process works in general. It's been a long time coming, but it's nice to see the team finally doing some things right.

over 3 years ago Stacey 2 comments 1 recs |

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Reading that reminds me of Mr. Baseball

a very enjoyable baseball movie, that somehow gets lost in the shuffle of late 80’s/early 90’s baseball movies, amongst your ‘Major League’s’, your ‘The Scouts’ (the most cringe worthy sports movie ever) and your ‘Major League’s 2’.
This article got me pretty excited, though. My goal is to pick a favorite sports team from every major proffesional sports league in the world and I still have yet to find my Japanese Baseball club. Chibba Lotte Mariners, anyone?

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words—"mank" and "ind". What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind.
-Jack Handey

by jobe on Oct 15, 2008 2:35 AM EDT reply actions

About freaking time.

Imagine if Angelos had thought to invest his money in scouting and player development. Maybe we would have drafted the following guys

David Wright (3B) 25 yrs old
.302 33 124 .390 .534

Cole Hamels (LHP) 24 yrs old
3.09 14-10 196 1.08 (1st in NL)

Tim Linecum (RHP) 24 yrs old
2.62 18-5 265 (1st in the NL) 1.17

In 2001 the O’s had three 1st round picks ahead of the Mets and took Chris Smith, Mike Fontenot and Bryan Bass rather than Wright.

In 2002 the O’s selected Adam Loewen with the 4th pick of the draft, leaving Cole Hamels (and guys like Matt Cain, Joe Saunders, Zach Greinke, Jon Lester, Joe Blanton, etc) still on the board.

In 2006 the O’s took 18 year old Billy Rowell, a slugging 3rd baseman prospect. Rowell has been underwhelming in two minor league seasons. With the pick immediately after the O’s the Giants selected Linecum (who is from right here in Bellevue, WA).

Imagine having Hamels and Linecum in the rotation behind Jeremy Guthrie (3.63 10-12 120 and who is from Oregon) and David Wright as our 3B man along with Roberts, Markakis and Matt Wieters and Adam Jones as a nucleas to build around.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Oct 17, 2008 3:15 PM EDT reply actions