The Orioles announced last night that they will promote 20-year-old infield prospect Manny Machado to the Major Leagues. It seems likely that Machado, the third overall pick of the 2010 draft, will play third base in Baltimore. Here are the latest Orioles-related links…
- One rival general manager questioned the Orioles' decision to promote Machado, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. "Just because he's better than Wilson Betemit doesn't mean it's the right move for the kid,'' the GM said. The GM acknowledged that Machado is “really good, one of the top ten prospects in MLB.”
- Orioles manager Buck Showalter recently made it sound like Machado was headed to the Instructional League this September, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes (Twitterlinks).
- Sherman suggests the Orioles could call on top prospect Dylan Bundy this September and use him out of the bullpen. Bundy, 19, was just promoted to Double-A after posting a 1.92 ERA with 11.0 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 84 1/3 innings at Class A.
- ESPN.com’s Buster Olney points out that the Orioles have had to juggle their roster all season long. Executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette told Olney the Orioles have been “piecing it together” and relying on manager Buck Showalter to get the most out of the roster. Showalter said it helps that the Orioles are a professional, blue collar group “They really like each other. And they like to win," he said.
I bet “rival GMs’s” hands were shaking and voice was cracking when he made that comment. Be afraid rival GM, be very afraid.
“Just because he’s better than Wilson Betemit doesn’t mean it’s the right move for the kid,” the GM said. First of all this is ridiculous. Betemit isn’t a bad hitter, the guy just can’t field out there at a good enough level at third base. Even Tiger announcers were frustrated with him last year. Quite frankly they were fed up every time they saw him.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I mentioned on Steve M’s blog at MASN and asked him who had the best glove between Schoop and Machado and whom ever it was, call him up.
Most of the reaction was don’t rush him. As for me, I am ok with it, I like the idea of calling him up. I hope it works out, I don’t see it as a disaster like some O’s fans might.
Buck Showalter recently made it sound like Machado was headed to the Instructional League this September. You know Showalter is like Disco Stu, he just doesn’t advertise or announce to the world as to what he’s doing. Come on, this shouldn’t be breaking news here.
Maybe Bundy gets called up, who knows. I would like to see him get some more time in the minors. I don’t see the Mariners rushing Hultzen and he might be the better pitcher. Although, Keith Law doesn’t agree, but eh, I don’t care.
The only problem I had with Duquette was that he should have gotten a deal done before the deadline. As for bringing up Machado, I think you well see a few more fans in seats this week. That will be a good thing!
very few if anyone thinks Danny Hultzen is a better pitcher than Bundy. Maybe more polished, but if anything I think people were surprisingly disappointed with him thus far.
I don’t see any real disadvantage of calling him up, except that he really didn’t play third base in the minors.
He played a few games this year and more than Schoop, I do know that. What we don’t know is how much he has been practicing at third.
Kyle H.. Below… really Mariner fans are disappointed in Hultzen? Why?
He was tearing it up in AA. Now, it looks like he making some adjustments in AAA currently. He was pitching really well in AA. Great WHIP, ERA and win percentage. I am almost certain that will happen to Bundy as well.
Patience with him as far as I am concerned.
bundy is the game’s best pitching prospect
Bundy > Hultzen, and Seattle is not in a pennant race. You can talk all you want about the wild card, but the O’s are 4.5 back of the Yankees and you can bet they want to win the division and will settle for a wild card spot, no matter how outlandish that may seem to be.
I personally don’t get why they promoted him, especially if they don’t plan to play him every day. I’ve been hearing they will only be playing him against lefties, which makes absolutely no sense at all… this guy needs to play every day at some level to learn and get better. Sitting on the bench does him no favors.
I would think he be playing mostly everyday at 3rd base, so im fine with the call up.
they definetely should be playing him everyday. But at this point, I question if he is really much of an upgrade over Betemit. He just turned 20 and wasn’t really dominating AAA pitchers. He most likely just needs more time.
He was in AA, not AAA, and he was hitting over .450 over his last nine games including a cycle a few days ago.
I think he plays 4-5 days a week, just not every day. He will get as many favorable matchups as possible. He will be a defensive upgrade over Betemit at third, and hopefully an offensive upgrade over Andino. It will also allow Andino to move over to second against lefties to give Quintanilla a day off. Q has exceeded all expectations offensively, but he needs a blow. Furthermore, it will let Buck give Hardy a day off since he has a true SS to play there, instead of Andino the imposter. I’m not a big Andino fan.
Nothing like rushing top specs who could fail and be permanently affected just to chase the pipe dream of being swept in the ALDS.
especially since they play in the AL, the chances of them making the NLDS seem increasingly unlikely
@Kyle Haker
That would be the ultimate in inter-league play!
Haha, whoops. Fixed it.
This is typically a bigger problem for pitchers than hitters.
Why would you dream of being swept in the division series? The O’s have won at least one game against every team they could possibly play in the division series.
I personally dont agree with either of these promotions. Machado definitely held his own as a 19 year old in AA but he didnt tear the league up and Bundy just got to AA.
he produced at a level 20% higher than the league average at age 19. as a shortstop
Sure. So hes ready for the majors? I disagree
yeah, that’s what i said
Bundy isn’t being promoted, Brummie. He is being promoted to AA. There is just speculation that in September he might be called up to show his stuff in the bullpen.
I know that I was just saying i disagree with him being promoted in September also
Gotcha. I’m on the fence. I think he gets called up even if he doesn’t pitch more than a couple of mop up spots. He will certainly have used up most of his allotted innings for the year. With the amount of innings the bullpen has thrown this year, I fully expect him and several others to be called up just to take some of the heat.
It would only make sense for me if the O’s were still somehow in the race come September (i personally doubt it though). Adding Bundy to the bullpen could possibly provide an immediate impact. Kind of like what the Rays did with Price in ’08.
But looking at the O’s #’s, they are by far over performing if you look at their run differential, extra inning record and record in 1 run games. I expect a regression coming soon and if they are out of the race I dont see much value in rushing Bundy up just for the sake of doing so.
And that rival GM has his team in the playoff hunt too, eh? Seriously though, anyone can make easy criticisms. Especially sports writers who make a living off their reader traffic.
The simple fact remains–players are in the minors to prepare for the majors. A cup of coffee ain’t a bad thing for a player as highly regarded as Machado.
The Orioles aren’t going to ask Machado to carry the team, let alone take over 3B at the age of 20 when the team is competing for the first time in a decade and a half. Plus, this shows him what winning at the ML level feels like. It’s about time the O’s instilled that in it’s young players!
@casey Bryant
May be a coincidance, But I remember the Yanks bringing up a kid SS in’95 in the middle of a play-off drive to get his feet wet to see what abilities he had, and get a taste of the Bigs.Showalter was the manager and the kid is now on the way to the HOF. Not saying it will turn out the same way, but it would be nice for the O’s.
I’m anxious to see the kid perform after all the hype that has surrounded him.
“Not saying it will turn out the same way”
You should, because 10 years down the road you can say you called it.
Uh… Derek Jeter made his pro debut May 29th, 1995 and Jeter only had 51 plate appearances. His slash line was .250/.294/.375/.669. He had 0 HRs, 0 SBs a -.4 WAR and didn’t play in the post season. In short, Jeter had very little effect on the 1995 season, if any. I your “Not saying it will turn out the same way…” comment was about 1995 (and the whole statement up till that point was about 1995) then I agree, as an O’s fan I sure hope Machado performs much better during this call up then Jeter did as a non-factor in 1995. To be fair, Machado is walking into a much better situation in terms of him getting more playing time and his potential to actually make a difference this year. The Yankees had Wade Boggs at 3B and Tony Fernandez at SS. The O’s have nobody of note at 3B.
The problem with the Orioles, however, is that they are still in a playoff race this late. If you promote a prospect, it should be to start everyday…and Machado had not been tearing up the minors, unlike Mike Trout, who was tearing up the minors even in AA, and more so in AAA ball.
Actually, since the All Star break, he’s been putting up some good numbers and he hit for the cycle a few days ago.
So posting a 1.401 OPS in his last 10 games isn’t tearing it up?
Sample size
Trend
On whether or not calling up Machado is a good move, I can’t say. I can cite history going both ways.
There is one thing that puzzles me, why are they calling him up to play third base? One has to think throwing a 20 year old kid into a playoff race is going to be stressful enough on him… add in he won’t be playing his regular position. Just saying.
What is this stress silliness from the playoff atmosphere? If I got to do it all over again, obviously it would be the Little League Level, I never got remotely close to having my day in the sun.
Anyway, I would be having the time of my life, and I hope that Trout and Harper are enjoying every minute of it!
I remember in high school I was playing in some tournament. I was the back up catcher trying to calm down our closer who just came into the game, had a bulldog mentality, and a 3 run lead. We were both sweating bullets from the stress.
My point being if you really don’t think that kid will feel any stress from being in a playoff race then you’re just kidding yourself.
Machado is a SS. Machado, despite a recent mini hot streak, still isn’t really hitting well in Double-A. Machado’s development is essential to the future success of the franchise. Lastly, even Machado somehow figuring it out in MLB isn’t going to get the Orioles past the first rd. of the playoffs, if they even make it.
All good reasons IMO not to promote him.
Man, I really cringed when I read the suggestion of bringing up Bundy to help in the pen. Other than Jeff Samardzjia, I can’t recall anyone that has made the transition from the bullpen to the starting rotation successfully. The list of young arms having a lot of difficulty transitioning is growing (Joba Chamberlain, Daniel Bard off the top of my head). Why risk it with a 19 year old with front line starter written all over him?
note: I am sure there have been others that have successfully made the transition, but the risk just seems asinine to me, especially at 19.
Franklin Morales.
5 of his last 6 starts? 29IP 19H 5ER 9BB 33k
He did get shelled vs the NYY at fenway in the other game.. Gave up 6ER,, Still.. Morales has been relieveing for over 2 seasons only at the MLB level.
Bundy wouldn’t be making a transition from bullpen to starter. He has been a starter, and (if he is called up in September) would go back to being a starter next year. Besides, he’s on a ML contract so other than starting his arbitration clock a month early (which basically does nothing), there are no financial implications.
Now, about making the transition from bullpen to starter, you seem to have forgotten about CJ Wilson. You could also make the argument for Ogando and Feliz, but I won’t until they do it for a longer period of time. You are right in that there seem to be more cases of it backfiring than of succeeding, although I think that Bard is an extreme case and Joba never did seem like he had the stamina to be a ML starter.
David Price and Adam Wainwright. Both were exclusively starters in the minors, were late season bullpen callups, helped the team immensely in the playoff push, and were put back in the rotation in following years. Price was the number one pitching prospect in baseball when he was called up as well.
Also worth noting: the minor league season ends in September. Could make sense to call up Bundy once the minor league season ends to pitch him out of the pen.
Jacob Turner should get a long look in September as well in Miami, if not earlier. Miami is out of the PO race and Turner has done decent for AAA New orleans in 3 starts.
Wouldn’t shock me to see Turner called up before 9/1 even.
All this can do is hurt his long term devolopment and confidence.
They said that about Middlebrooks also, with less than 2 month of AAA between 2011 and 2012, yet here he is probably going to get votes for ROY.
I wouldn’t say it will hurt him badly, it could. Orioles need a 3b and look at the cast of dolts they have been running out there? Duquette has a track record of being slow to promote, always did. Am sure he carefully weighed his options, vs wanting to get his team into the PO.