They’re Taking Notice
Over at SI.com, Joe Sheehan has a piece about the game’s top prospects. The Orioles placed two players (Matt Wieters and Chris Tillman) on his list, out of only eight total mentioned. Read it here.
On Wieters, he says:
Baltimore’s top draft pick in 2007 could be the game’s top prospect in ’09. The 22-year-old backstop is rocketing through the farm system in his debut season as a pro, batting a combined .351 with 72 walks and 42 extra-base hits, including 24 home runs, at high Class A and Double A. Wieters also plays his position well, with a strong arm and good athleticism despite a 6′ 5″ frame. This is a franchise player, the Orioles’ version of Joe Mauer (with better power), who next season could be not only the Opening Day starter but also the American League’s best catcher
Tillman is just mentioned in passing, but it really got me thinking: how in the hell did AndyMac manage to work that deal?
Either Adam Jones or Tillman would have made the deal worthwhile on his own. The fact that we got both of them plus Sherrill and Mickolio — who is tearing it up at Norfolk — seems like a video game move. We should give Tony Butler back to them for nothing, simply out of pity.
Mauer with power! I hope so. I’d love to see him get some reps in come sept 1st. that month if he gets a reasonable amount of at bats, we’ll probably be able to tell if he’s ready, or needs more seasoning in norfolk next year. I know he cant be rushed, but if he bats over .300, bangs a few dingers, even throw out some base stealers, than you have to make a case that he’s ready, like SI says, to be the opening day starter. time will tell. I cant wait to get my official O’s Matt Wieters road jersey with “Baltimore” on the front.
And with this talk of all these players clearing waivers, how the hell the Huff make it through. Since he is tradeable now, and not in the re-building project, you think we can get a shortstop prospect, and maybe 2 pitchers for him? Millar, payton. and walker wont draw much I dont think. Or do we keep huff, and maybe hope he has a contract year al la javy lopez like.
I don’t feel like discussing the reasons Wieters shouldn’t get called up again, so I’ll just say with all due respect I’m against that idea. As for Huff, I’m pretty sure the 10 million he’s owed next year and his reputation for shitty defense (fairly or no) and his perhaps flukish year right now have a lot to do with how he made it through. If we trade him, we’ll be eating a lot of that money, but I’m not against it. But we might not get very much for him.
Nationals Park was nice. I don’t have much else to say about it. When the Expos become an actual team, it’ll probably be a pretty cool place all told.
First, I’ve been living/working in the DC area, so I’ve been to a few Nationals games this year. To me it’s nice because it’s new, if you know what I mean. I feel like the actual park minus all the brand new feelings is pretty average.
Second, I have a pretty stupid question about clearing waivers. I understand the point of passing people through waivers from our (the sellers) perspective. We put everyone on waivers, if someone makes a claim on someone good, we pull back (i.e. Sherrill), if we are willing to trade them, we offer a deal (i.e. Bradford), if they pass, we can trade them until August 31 (i.e. Millar, Payton, Huff, etc.).
But the player(s) we receive in the trade, wouldn’t the other team involved have to pass them through waivers in order to trade them to us? And if they are a young cheap prospect that is under contract for a long time (i know a lot of those things were redundant), how did they pass through waivers without being claimed. I know I’m missing something here. Is that why you get a player to be named later, like the Bradford deal?
I believe that you can trade freely players not on the 40 man roster or who have been in team X’s organization for at least a year (for example, we can’t trade Matt Wieters because he hasn’t played for us for a year yet) – that’s done to prevent teams from ostensibly trading draft picks. No idea why it’s a rule, though. Sometimes baseball is really stupid. The only part of that rule that I’m not 100% on is how long you have to hold onto a prospect before you can trade them.
Other than the non-rookie non-40 man guys who can be traded, you can trade anybody who passes through waivers (but you can’t put an injured guy on waivers) or just agree to a deal for whoever and call it a PTBNL. For example, the D’backs traded Dallas Buck, Micah Owings, and Wilkin Castillo for Adam Dunn from the Reds. Owings is on the 40 man and injured, so he can’t be put on waivers or traded. So the deal became Buck and Castillo and a PTBNL for Dunn. Owings will be traded in the offseason as the PTBNL already agreed upon, once the restrictions end.