Orioles Attendance

[welch]

Quantity over quality? They figure by spending cheap and throwing the money around they may get one or two players on the cheap who might make the big league roster.

I think that's about it. Get a player by accident rather than scout someone good. Typical: Baltimore is a bush-league town with bush-league fans. Move them back to St Louis so the Nats can put their AAA team there.

And Angelos claimed he owned Washington.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Actually, the team that used it's money strangely was the Nats with only one break the bank signee and 10 total. The Nats and Os are both on the extremes

[welch]

Also the Yankees. They signed the other top-two prospect, SS Roderick Arias, plus another SS and a catcher. Then, think of the White Sox. They drafted a 23-year-old Oscar Colas, a pitcher/OF from Cuba, plus two other guys.

Colás, who turned 22 in September, is one of the most intriguing and potentially impactful prospects on the market. He has been called "the Cuban Ohtani" because he plays all three outfield positions and is a left-handed pitcher with a fastball in the mid-90s. He also has experience playing third base.

On the mound, Colás also throws a breaking ball and shows potential for growth. At the plate, he has a longer track record. In 2019, he hit .302 with a .515 slugging percentage and 11 home runs in the Minors of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the Nippon Professional Baseball, and he hit .278 with one homer in seven games for the NPB club. He did not pitch for either team. In three years in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, he hit .305 and slugged .487 with nine homers. He pitched for Holguin in 2018-19, allowing one run in 3 1/3 innings, all in relief.

[welch]

This, from The Athletic, clears off some of the odd business in Baltimore. "[A]lmost no international presence" before 2018.

The Orioles made a little history by signing Dominican outfielder Braylin Tavera to a reported $1.7 million signing bonus, which is a franchise record for an international amateur.

The Orioles spent their full budget on 24 players, including Tavera, Dominican shortstop Leandro Arias and Cuban shortstop César Prieto, a 22-year-old who likely will start 2022 in the mid-to-upper minors. The Orioles had almost no international presence before general manager Mike Elias came on board at the end of 2018 and now, with a new facility being constructed in the Dominican, the Orioles are hoping to become a player in Latin America.

“We’ve been here three years, so these signings that we’re signing today, we’ve been working with them and their agents for three years. That is the reason we have been able to go a little bit toward the top of the signing classes and in future years we will continue to do that,” said Koby Perez, Orioles senior director of international scouting. “It just takes time to be able to get these players to commit to us and we’ve been working on these players for two or three years now. Fortunately, we promoted that we’re opening an academy and the agents have realized we’re in with the Latin American talent, and they’ve been very receptive to the Orioles. So, we’ve been able to get some talented players.” — Dan Connolly