Chatting it Up

Love the chats by the Baseball America guys, and apparently they love to answer Oriole questions, so here are some from todays:

Matt, Norwalk CT: Best starter in 2011: Cahill, B Anderson, Matusz or Holland?

John Manuel: (2:56 PM ET ) If he uses his fastball more often, I'll say Matusz. His secondary stuff is so good, he missed a ton of bats in college by pitching off his curve, slider and changeup. My next pick would be Anderson, then Cahill and then Holland, who has the shortest track record of success among these guys. Four good guys to pick from.

Matusz, pronounced Mat-us, is the top pitching prospect for the O's.

matt (sacramento, ca): first off the love the chats! can i get a quick comparison between wieters and posey's skill sets? which one would you prefer to have? thanks a lot.

John Manuel: (2:37 PM ET ) I did a story on just this subject in September; I'd prefer Wieters, as while I believe in Posey's bat, I think he'll be an average big league hitter and very good defender while believing strongly in Wieters bat and his ability to catch, 6-foot-5 or not. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/minors/awards/player-of-the-year/2008/266817.html

Great article about the Orioles top feilding prospect.

Dave (Jax, FL): John-love the chats. Best part about the website. What are your projections for Nolan Reimold? How is he defensively compared to Luke Scott? Could he start in LF for the O's this year? If so, can Huff play 1B and Scott be the primary DH? Thanks.

John Manuel: (2:31 PM ET ) He's more well-rounded than Luke Scott, but Scott (who's getting a lot of references in this chat) has shown an ability to hit for power in the majors already that Reimold has not. I can see Reimold becoming a regular, and he's also a bit unconventional in his swing, which gives scouts some pause. To me, though, he is the future LF in Baltimore and a good 6-hole option; that would be the best scenario for the Orioles, who should have a solid lineup for '09, even more than solid if Mora and Huff maintain their 2008 level (which is iffy) and if Markakis and especially Adam Jones make improvements with the experience they have gained. Plus there's Wieters as an X-factor. If the O's had any pitching at all, they'd be a nice sleeper pick, but that division is too tough for a rotation with Jeremy Guthrie and a lot of filler.

Doug, Brooklyn, NY: C'mon, AL top 10 please! I won't even hold it against you for knocking the NFL Hall of Fame when the MLB one has turned into the Hall of Pretty Good lately.

John Manuel: (3:06 PM ET ) MLB's HOF has actually improved its standards compared to the guys it used to allow in, but I agree the Rice vote doesn't help the Hall. My AL top 10 went a little something like this; Wieters-Price-Feliz, then Travis Snider, Brett Anderson, fellow Greek-American Mike Moustakas, Chris Tillman, Trevor Cahill, Gordon Beckham and Brian Matusz.

For the O's that would be #'s 1,7,10. 3 in the top 10 of th AL!!!

I love Baseball

So, as usual, I watch the chats on ESPN with their writers, and always send in maybe one question each time, just for chuckles, or so I don't feel like I'm not at least trying. Well, I guess you could say lightening struck twice, I got another question answered:

Jim (Washington, DC): Rob, what do you think are the top 10 baseball books?

Rob Neyer: (12:49 PM ET ) Jim, I don't have the list handy anymore, but you can't wrong by starting with Jim Bouton's "Ball Four", Bill James's "Historical Baseball Abstract", and Lawrence Ritter's "The Glory of Their Times". Once you've read those, I'll have some more.

Pretty cool hu? I have been reading as much as I can about baseball, and have found some really great books. It all started out with the Josh Hamilton book. I thought it was extremely entertaining, and that lead me to explore other books. I just bought four new books, and was hoping none of them would be mentioned by Rob Neyer, and luckily they weren't. AWESOME, I have more to add!

Back to the O's, a few quick notes about the roster
- They signed Mark Hendrickson and Koji Uehara to help them in the rotation. Uehara is known for his great control, and Hendrickson for his height, you can guess which is the better pitcher.

-Chris Gomez signed a minor league deal, he is a very versatile player, good.

-Apparently Greg Zaun is close to signing on as a mentor to Matt Wieters.

I'll bring you more as I can. I am really interested to see the young pitchers who are moving up from AA to AAA. Lets see if they rise to the occasion.