Four Orioles Prospects with the 2016 Tides

Joe Reisel's Archives

During the 2016 season, ten of Baseball America's preseason top 30 Orioles' prospects played at least one game in Norfolk. I was able to see 52 Norfolk games last season, and so my observations and opinions of these prospects might be of interest. This article covers half the prospects; the other half will be covered in a subsequent article.

Chance Sisco, catcher (#4)

Chance Sisco wasn't promoted to Norfolk until after they had played all their home games, so I didn't see him play.

Trey Mancini, first base (#8)

How good is he? Will he have a major-league career? How does he compare to Christian Walker?

Accurately or not, I see at least superficial similarities between Mancini and Christian Walker. Both are right-handed hitting first basemen, drafted in a middle round out of college. Mancini is almost exactly one year younger than Walker. Walker shot to AA in his first full season, but Mancini did not get there until his second full season. Mancini has slightly out-performed Walker at AAA - a .770 OPS vs a .754 OPS.

It's important to remember that Norfolk's Harbor Park is a pitcher's park. It's especially hard on a player like Mancini, a right-handed hitter who's more of a line-drive hitter with a little power, rather than a true slugger. Mancini was also much better at Bowie than he was at Norfolk. Given that, I think his .770 OPS is a reasonable estimate of what he'll do in Baltimore, moving to a better hitting environment. His OBP will probably drop some but his SP will probably increase by about as much. Looking for players who hit about as well as I think Mancini would, the best comp I found was David Freese.

Freese is a better player than we might remember, given that he was a last-minute free agent signing last season. And if Mancini were a third baseman, he'd be a solid regular. But Mancini has only played first base, and he hasn't yet hit well enough to be show that he'd be a championship-quality  first baseman. He can still improve, although probably not dramatically.

I was struck by a couple of things about Mancini, but I'm not sure if my perception is accurate. I thought he was too aggressive in run-producing situations to the extent that I really wasn't expecting him to drive in the runs in key situations. He also struck out more than I expected. I'll be taking a more detailed look at his performance later in the off-season.

Is he good trade bait?

He's a right-handed hitting first baseman who hasn't yet shown himself to be a great hitter. He won't bring much back.

Mike Wright, pitcher (#10)

Can he be a major-league pitcher?

He's been terrible as a starter in the major leagues, and I suspect his chances of being a starter with the Orioles are gone. On the other hand, he's been effective the past two seasons at Norfolk, although last season his strikeout rate deteriorated while his walk rate improved.

Two things about Wright. First, I wonder if he has concentration problems. He generally hasn't pitched well when he's been given early run support. It could be that he lets up too much when he's given a lead. Second, he generally is more effective when he strikes out fewer batters. I suspect that the harder he throws, the more hittable his pitches become because they move less.

This pattern - general ineffectiveness in the major leagues and general effectiveness in the minor leagues - is that of Jake Arrieta. Arrieta had more periods of sustained major-league success than Wright has had, and I am in no way declaring that if Wright got to another team, he'd be another Jake Arrieta. I do think his chances for success will be higher if he gets in another organization.

Dariel Alvarez, right fielder (#13)

Is he a major-league player?

If you took his best offensive numbers out of his two AAA seasons - a .287 batting average, 38 doubles, 16 home runs - that's good enough to play regularly. Unfortunately, (1) he didn't put those numbers in the same season and (2) he doesn't walk, so his on-base percentage is low. And his defense, which was quite good in 2015, deteriorated in 2016, perhaps because he was discouraged. With all that, he probably won't win a major-league job but might get one if all other options fail.

He's a lot like Adonis Garcia of Atlanta - a Cuban expatriate who spent a few years in AAA before falling into a job as the Braves' 2016 third baseman. He didn't play well, but will probably keep his job because the Braves don't have anybody better ready. That's the best case for Alvarez - he gets a job filling a gaping hole on a bad team.

Could he be a bench player?

It's hard to see it. He doesn't hit well enough to be an offensive asset; he probably can't play center field except on an emergency basis. A bench outfielder, especially in the American League, either has to really hit or play center field passably. He'd probably be a little better than Nolan Reimold, if that's what you're hoping for.

Christian Walker, left fielder/first baseman (#14)

How's the conversion to the outfield going?

He's not yet ready to play the outfield in the major leagues.

I'm willing to give Walker a mulligan for much of 2016. His father died suddenly in mid-season; he missed several days to attend services and he obviously was distracted when he came back. He seemed to be improving until his father's death; after he came back, he regressed.

It's obvious that he's never going to be a good outfielder. He's slow, has trouble tracking the ball, and doesn't have a good arm. He does catch what he can get to - he just can't get to enough.

He's been remarkably consistent offensively in his 2+ years at Norfolk. He's a .260/.325/.430 hitter. I thought last year that Billy Butler was a reasonable comp for Walker, and I still think that. Walker probably wouldn't be quite as good a hitter as Butler, but he'd be a better defensive first baseman.

Dariel Alvarez At The Plate

Joe Reisel's Archives

There is a difference of opinion among Orioles fans about Cuban expatriate outfielder Dariel Alvarez, who played the 2015 season at age 26. Some fans envision him as a solid right fielder for the Orioles because he has an outstanding defensive reputation and power (16 home runs with AAA Norfolk, which plays in a pitcher's park.) Others acknowledge his defense but see him as AAA roster filler because of his low on-base percentage (.305, also at AAA Norfolk), lack of strike-zone judgment, age, and pedigree as a lower-level Cuban signee.

In my roles as datacaster and BIS scorer, I got to see a lot of Dariel Alvarez. The strongest impressions I have of him as a hitter are him wildly swinging and missing at a pitch which looked to be far out of the strike zone. At least once Alvarez swung so hard at a pitch he missed that he went down to his knees. These memories leave me thinking that he will wildly swing at anything and everything, wasting at-bats like a modern-day Glenallen Hill.

But is this correct? Does Alvarez swing at everything? When he does swing, does he miss frequently? How, if at all, does this reveal itself in his performance? I will look at Alvarez' plate appearances in the games I saw, focusing on the individual pitches.

During the 2015 season, I scored 50 Norfolk Tides games, which incorporated 177 of Alvarez' plate appearances - just under 1/3 of his season. While not comprehensive, this is a reasonable sample and should give us a fairly good idea of what Alvarez does. The table below shows the results of each pitch Alvarez saw in those 177 plate appearances:

Pitch Result	Count
Ball / Hit by Pitch	208
Called Strike	80
Swinging Strike	44
Foul	114
Put in Play	152

First, Alvarez saw 598 pitches in those 177 plate appearances, or 3.38, per plate appearance. For comparison, the major-league Orioles saw an average of 3.81 pitches per plate appearance. So Alvarez does seem to be seeing fewer pitches per plate appearance than most other batters.

But my impression that Alvarez swings at everything and misses most of the pitches he swing at is wrong. In my experience, at the AAA level, the number of balls is about equal to the total number of called, swinging, and foul strikes. Although Alvarez does have more strikes than balls, the difference isn't extreme. What's more interesting is that, also in my experience, there is roughly an equal number of called strikes, swinging strikes, and foul balls. Alvarez has about half as many swinging strikes as usual and about one-and-a-half times as many foul balls. It seems clear that Alvarez is fouling off pitches that many other batters swing at and miss.

Another interesting breakdown is the number of times Dariel Alvarez concluded his plate appearance at a given count. In over 20% of the plate appearances I saw, Alvarez put the first pitch in play:

0-0	37
1-0	16
0-1	15
2-0	11
1-1	14
0-2	14
3-0	2
2-1	6
1-2	20
3-1	8
2-2	18
3-2	16

The table above shows that 37 times, the last pitch Alvarez saw was on a 0-0 count - the first pitch. 16 times, the last pitch was on a 1-0 count - the first pitch was a ball and he put the second pitch in play (or was hit by it.) And so on. Only twice was the last pitch on a 3-0 count, but that's not atypical - most of the time batters take the 3-0 pitch.

When Alvarez did put the first pitch in play, he produced at a .324/.324/.541 pace. That looks good compared to Alvarez' overall .275/.305/.424 numbers, but there's a catch. Batters can neither strike out nor walk on the first pitch, so to better evaluate Alvarez when he swings at the fist pitch we should compare that performance to his non-strikeout/walk performance. When not striking out or walking, Alvarez performed at a .314/.319/.483 pace. Alvarez hit with more power when putting the first pitch into play, but wasn't substantially better at getting on base. To be fair to Alvarez, all of these plate appearances occurred at Norfolk's Harbor Park, a pitcher's park, so Alvarez' performance is potentially better than it looks.

The most interesting is that Alvarez put the first pitch in play 37 times in 177 plate appearances, a much higher rate than usual. There are two possible explanations - either Alvarez swung at more first pitches than most batters or that Alvarez put into play more of the first pitches he swung at. In these 177 plate appearances, Alvarez took the first pitch 107 times and swung at the first pitch 70 times (putting 37 into play and missing or fouling off 33.) He swung at 39.5 percent of first pitches, which is high but not extraordinarily high (the Tides swung at between 35 and 40 percent of first pitches in 2015.)

Alvarez doesn't swing at and miss pitches; he swings at and puts pitches into play. Like some other prospects, such as Dodgers (and former Braves) prospect Jose Peraza, Alvarez is too good at making contact. Consequently, he has a relatively low strikeout total but a low walk total. But unlike Peraza and other players with "too-good" bat-to-ball skills, Alvarez has power. His .424 slugging percentage with Norfolk looks unimpressive, but Harbor Park is a bad park for power hitting; the Tides as a team slugged .353.

What makes Dariel Alvarez such a hard player to project is that there just aren't many players like him. He doesn't have a high on-base percentage (OBP) and probably won't contribute enough on offense to be a good right fielder, especially if major-league pitchers can take advantage of his willingness to swing. And the Orioles don't need another low-OBP batter in their lineup. Also, most Cuban expatriates, with a few very highly publicized (and expensive) exceptions, top out as AAA lifers. Faced with these facts, I feel obligated to think that Alvarez won't have much of a major-league career. But Alvarez is such an unusual player that I can't completely write him off. Similar players have had decent major-league careers as part-timers with occasional seasons as regulars. If the Orioles don't sign another outfielder, Dariel Alvarez might end up being the Orioles' best right-field option for 2016.

The July Tides

After the Orioles promoted Nolan Reimold and Chris Parmelee from AAA Norfolk, and some of the fringe AAA players have been released, the Tides have more-or-less settled on a starting lineup of position players. As of this writing (July 3rd) Norfolk is in first place in the International League Southern Division, one-and-a-half games ahead of the White Sox' affiliate Charlotte.

So far this season, I've seen 27 Tides games. This article will provide my thoughts and observations on the eight current Norfolk position-player regulars, without any sophisticated statistical analysis. I will be sharing my opinions on whether and how these players would fit in with and help the Orioles both for 2015 and, if appropriate, beyond.

Before I review each individual player, one general overview. As a team, the 2015 Tides are the best overall AAA defensive team I've seen. And that's not just my opinion - many people who have been following AAA baseball much longer than I have agree. This means that the ERAs of the Orioles pitchers are better than they would be if there was a more typical AAA defense. Given that, and given that Harbor Park is a pitcher's park, we need to be less impressed by Norfolk pitchers' ERAs than we would normally be.

Now, on to the players:

Catcher Steve Clevenger: Clevenger's been up with the Orioles a few times, so he's a known quantity. He's a left-handed hitter, a line-drive hitter with occasional power. He has been playing well and hitting line drives to all fields. He's a solid, if not spectacular, defensive catcher. He'd probably combine well with Caleb Joseph as a semi-platoon catching combination, with Joseph playing against all lefties and maybe half of the righties. Clevenger's even pulled a Steve Pearce and played second base in one game.

First Baseman Christian Walker: Walker got off to a very slow start in 2015 and I feared he was going to become another Brandon Snyder, who had a half-year at AA in which he played much better than he would ever play again. Walker has gotten hotter and he's starting to hit for more power, although he's never going to be a true power hitter. He's a good defensive first baseman. He doesn't really have a role on the 2015 Orioles in that Steve Pearce and Reimold are already filling the role Walker would fill, and those two have more defensive value. Long-term, Walker might be a "good enough" replacement if Chris Davis leaves; I don't think "good enough" is really good enough for the Orioles going forward.

Second Baseman Rey Navarro: Navarro is a better player than I thought he'd be. He's got good range at second base (and he is also the backup shortstop) and an adequate arm. He's got more pop on offense than I was expecting, although he doesn't have the patience he needs and he's not as fast as I had thought. Navarro has tapered off after hitting well when he first joined the Tides. He would be a perfectly fine backup infielder; I wouldn't want to play him as a regular for more than a week or so.

Third Baseman Michael Almanzar: I've written about Almanzar in depth; he's still a solid, if occasionally error-prone, third baseman with a strong, accurate arm. Unfortunately, he's still trying to hit every pitch out of the ball park and still doesn't use the strike zone well, so it's hard to see a major-league future for him.

Shortstop Paul Janish: All of my co-workers agree - Paul Janish is the best defensive shortstop any one of them has seen on a regular basis. That includes Rey Ordonez, who  played a full season in Norfolk. I agree - Janish relies on positioning, reliability, and a strong arm to shut down the left side of the infield. That makes him more of a J.J. Hardy than an Ozzie Smith, so it's hard to see Janish making the Orioles. Unfortunately for Janish, he hits like Rey Ordonez - he doesn't walk and hits too many weak fly balls. He's also in his early thirties. I actually think he could play regularly for the right team - a team with a really strong offense that needs a defensive anchor. That's not the Orioles.

Left Fielder Henry Urrutia: After a 2014 season wrecked by an injury, Urrutia has bounced back and has been hitting the way he hit in 2013. Even though he doesn't walk and doesn't have great speed, he's been the Tides' leadoff hitter and, like Steve Clevenger,  has been hitting line drives all over the field. An Urrutia-type player would fit the Orioles' offense well; the Orioles offense is sustained by home runs and would benefit by having a player who does something else well. It won't be Urrutia; he's not a good defensive outfielder (the one defensive weak spot on the Tides) and he's not quite a good enough hitter to overcome that. Like many other Cuban refugees, he'll have a long professional career in AAA, Japan, and Mexico.

Center Fielder Julio Borbon: Borbon is a good defensive center fielder with above-average range and a playable, if not good, throwing arm. As an offensive player, he doesn't take advantage of his speed; he hits too many balls in the air. Because he doesn't have much power, pitchers are willing to throw him strikes and consequently he doesn't draw many walks. I wouldn't be surprised if Borbon were a September call-up as a pinch-runner and outfielder defensive replacement.

Right Fielder Dariel Alvarez: Alvarez is a good defensive right fielder with good range and an outstanding throwing arm. He can get by in center field on a short-term emergency basis. As a hitter, Alvarez has shown more power than I expected - he's hit 12 home runs so far - and makes more contact than I expected for someone who takes as many bad / wild swings as he does. He doesn't take walks. I don't see him with a role on the Orioles, and he's the kind of player who has to have his good year to help you.

The Tides have been using Sean Halton, a recent call-up from AA Bowie, as their primary designated hitter; he's also seen time as an outfielder when Urrutia or Alvarez is getting a "day off" as the DH. I haven't seen enough of him to have a good opinion.

Dariel Alvarez - the Latest Advanced Cuban Oriole

Dariel Alvarez, most likely after having made contact with a pitch. Photo courtesy of Christopher McCain / Norfolk Tides.

The outfield defense of the 2014 Norfolk Tides was overall the worst I've seen. At least, I don't remember seeing any more consistently poor outfield defense, and I'm sure I would remember it. Certainly, some of the Tides' outfielders had some strengths - Julio Borbon and Quintin Berry had good range but poor throwing arms; Francisco Peguero had good tools and made some great plays but had apparent lapses in concentration. But the other Tides' outfielders included infielders-trying-to-play outfield like Steve Lombardozzi, Jemile Weeks, Cord Phelps, and Buck Britton; all of whom gave it their best shot but were playing out of position. Even worse were Henry Urrutia, who frankly looked as though he'd rather be the DH; Chris Marrero, who played the outfield like a 230-pound first baseman, and Xavier Paul, who (1) had to be seen to be believed but (2) was such a bad outfielder that he served as the DH instead of Chris Marrero.

When the Orioles promoted Dariel Alvarez from Bowie at the all-star break, then, it was a relief. Alvarez could track fly balls and catch them and could field ground-ball base hits consistently. But it was his throwing arm that wowed us. Francisco Peguero made his share of nice throws, but Alvarez impressed me with strong, accurate throws. He was stretched to play center field, which he did on occasion, but he was a very good defensive right fielder. However, very few major leaguers have built a substantial career just on being a good defensive right fielder; right fielders have to hit. The rest of this piece will explore Alvarez' offense, at least the 50 AAA plate appearances (out of his 183 AAA plate appearances) that I saw.

Dariel Alvarez was following the Henry Urrutia career path. Urrutia signed as a free agent out of Cuba at age 25 in 2012; Alvarez signed as free agent out of Cuba at age 24 in 2013 (he turned 25 in November, 2013.) Urrutia had problems getting able to play legally in the United States in 2012; Alvarez was able to play 22 games between the GCL Orioles, Frederick, and Bowie in 2013. Urrutia started 2013 at Bowie and was spectacular, hitting .365/.433/.550 in 52 games; he was promoted to Norfolk where he hit .316/.358/.430 in 29 games; he spent September with the Orioles and hit .276/.276/.310. Alvarez started 2014 at Bowie and was less spectacular than Urrutia but still good, hitting .309/.332/.487 in 91 games; he was promoted to Norfolk and hit .301/.328/.439 in 44 games. (Of course, Alvarez probably wishes he would get off the Urrutia career path right about now.)

You've probably noticed that Alvarez' on-base percentage isn't much higher than his batting average and consequently he doesn't draw many walks. That's true; combining his AA and AAA seasons he drew 21 walks in 564 plate appearances. He's an aggressive hitter, as the table below (showing the number of pitches he saw at each possible count) illustrates:

0-0	50
1-0	16
0-1	26
2-0	5
1-1	14
0-2	12
3-0	0
2-1	6
1-2	12
3-1	3
2-2	11
3-2	7

Alvarez saw only sixteen pitches with a three-ball count; and he put one of the first two pitches he saw into play 38% of the time (19 out of 50.) He's not someone who works the count to advantage.

The chart below, which details the result of each pitch Alvarez saw, is also revealing:

Ball	49
Taken Strike	21
Swinging Strike	15
Foul	32
In Play	44

Alvarez is a contact hitter. He didn't miss many of the pitches he swung at (15 of 91.) He didn't take many pitches, either - 70 taken pitches in 50 plate appearances. But, in general, the pitches he didn't swing at weren't strikes - 21 out of 70. Taken as a whole, it seems accurate to describe Dariel Alvarez as a player who knows the strike zone but wants to hit, not take a walk.

We have to re-adjust our expectations on offense; offense is declining and numbers which didn't project well three or four years ago project much better now. Alvarez looks like he could become a solid enough regular right fielder in the major leagues, with doubles power and good defense. The question, of course, is whether pitchers will exploit his aggressiveness or whether he can continue his production. If Alvarez can simply maintain his current production, he'll likely have a chance to be a major league right fielder; if he fails to do so, like Henry Urrutia in 2014, he'll likely have to settle for a good career as an AAA outfielder.

Orioles in the Winter Leagues: Orioles AFL Position Players

It used to be a common thing.  After a long season, a ball player would look for extra sharpening of his skills, maybe a little extra money in his pocket, or perhaps enjoy the thrill of playing in his home country.  As the money crept up, players began to value rest more and teams preferred to try to have their players train the way they wanted them to train.  As such, the Winter Leagues have cratered from their heyday with such historic leagues as the Puerto Rican Winter League having to reduce their operations or even go into hiatus.  They are still around, but maybe not as competitive as they once were.  In addition to those leagues, MLB has established their own which take on much more of an instructional tone and are designed to give players more experience.


In a series of posts, we will go through the different leagues that the Orioles organization is involved.

• Arizona Fall League: Position Players
• Arizona Fall League: Pitchers
• Venezuela Winter League (10/15)
• Mexican Pacific League and the Dominican Winter League (10/17)
• Australian Baseball League (10/22)

Arizona Fall League

The goal of the Arizona Fall League was for Baseball to devise a league where prospects could get more experience while being closer under the eye of their parent organizations as opposed to being spread out overseas.  This enables a club to provide training and game day oversight.  Concerns before the AFL included having an upper minors player be overworked on the mound or find himself in completely new positions that have no bearing on how the parent club projects his future.  Typically, the players found in this league are up-and-coming prospects in the high minors.  It is a mix of solid prospects and guys who might just find themselves exposed in the Rule 5 Draft.

The Orioles send players to the Surprise Saguaros along with the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Texas Rangers.  Bowie manager Gary Kendall and Aberdeen pitching coach Alan Mills will be overseeing the squad, which includes other teams' notable prospects: Taylor Jungman (MIL), Garin Cecchini (BOS), Ryan Rua (TEX), and Tony Wolters (CLE).  You can find all of the information you need about the AFL at their home page here.

In this post, we'll briefly focus on the position players that the Orioles are sending.  The collection of players they are sending this year falls fully in the need-more-playing-time camp.  They include:

• Michael Ohlman, catcher
• Jonathan Schoop, second baseman
• Henry Urrutia, outfield
• Dariel Alvarez, outfield

In order, Ohlman needs help with defense, Schoop was injured and needs more playing time, and the Cuban players (i.e., Urrutia, Alvarez) had issues with Visas and need more playing time.  It may well be that what the team sees with the latter three could impact how they proceed in the offseason with trades and signings for second base and left field.

Michael Ohlman, catcher
22 yo (12/14/1990)
B/T: R/R

Year	Age	Tm	Lev	PA	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2009	18	Orioles	Rk	12	1	0	0	1	0	1	3	.182	.250	.273
2010	19	2 Teams	Rk-A	301	14	1	2	3	0	33	86	.208	.302	.293
2011	20	Delmarva	A	431	15	2	4	1	2	48	96	.224	.320	.307
2012	21	2 Teams	A-Rk	240	19	2	3	1	1	35	37	.300	.400	.460
2013	22	Frederick	A+	424	29	4	13	5	0	56	93	.313	.410	.524

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/8/2013.

Ohlman was one of the bonus babies back in the somewhat infamous draft where Joe Jordan selected Matt Hobgood over Zack Wheeler and explained it as a belief in Hobgood's character over Wheeler's potential.  Ohlman was a selection in the 11th round who fell due to signability concerns.  He profiled as a catcher or corner outfielder depending on how his mechanics behind the plate cleaned up.  Ohlman's loud tool was his power which was considered plus to plus-plus.  The concern there was that he had some recognition issues.

2010 and 2011 were such difficult years for Ohlman with his defense very much a work in progress and his power not showing up in games that he fell off the radar for more talent evaluators.  Last year, however, illustrated that he could bump up her contact rate and showed some secondary power.  This season, he moved up a level and maintained that contact rate as well as his walk rate.  Even more impressive is that a good number of those doubles turned into home runs.

With his bat breaking out, his defensive position is holding him back.  This is similar to his old North Carolina teammate, Wil Myers.  In Myers' case, his bat was so advanced that the Royals decided that they should not wait to see if they could teach him to have MLB quality catching skills.  Now, Ohlman's bat is not equivalent to Myers', but the Orioles may face a decision like this may shake down this winter, spring, or summer.  Arizona will help provide some information to answer that question.

Jonathan Schoop, second baseman
21 yo (10/16/1991)
B/T: R/R

Year	Age	Tm	Lev	PA	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2009	17	Orioles	FRk	284	7	3	0	11	3	24	39	.239	.320	.291
2010	18	3 Teams	Rk-A+	240	18	1	5	1	1	20	25	.290	.350	.453
2011	19	2 Teams	A+-A	567	24	5	13	12	7	42	76	.290	.349	.432
2012	20	Bowie	AA	555	24	1	14	5	3	50	103	.245	.324	.386
2013	21	3 Teams	AAA-Rk-A-	336	14	0	14	1	3	20	62	.278	.330	.460
2013	21	Baltimore	MLB	15	0	0	1	0	0	1	2	.286	.333	.500

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/8/2013.

Schoop worked himself in as a fringe top 100 prospect from his impressive performances in 2010 and 2011 as one of the youngest players in those leagues.  That shine wore off a little bit while in Bowie and Norfolk as he struggled this year and last (his 2013 MiL numbers are buoyed by dominating low minors pitching during an injury rehabilitation assignment).  Added to the troubles this season was an injury that left him about 120 plate appearances short of a full season.

Schoop was then called up to the majors to bum around with the parent club and learn through osmosis.  He managed to find himself in a few games and took advantage of a few poor pitches.  His .833 OPS looks better than it actually was in those 15 plate appearances, but gives a lot of hope as he is still short of his 22nd birthday.

Arizona will help determine a primary concern for Schoop's future: where will he play?  Is he going to be able to cut it at second base?  If Machado is now a third baseman, then is Schoop better suited in right field as an eventual replacement for Nick Markakis?

Henry Urrutia, outfielder
26 yo (2/13/1987)
B/T: L/R

Year	Age	Tm	Lev	PA	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2013	26	Baltimore	MLB	58	0	1	0	0	0	0	11	.276	.276	.506	.310
2013	26	Bowie	AA	224	16	0	7	1	1	24	36	.365	.433	.550	.983
2013	26	Norfolk	AAA	123	5	1	2	0	0	8	15	.316	.358	.430	.788

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/8/2013.

Urrutia was the first Cuban amateur signed by the Baltimore Orioles.  He was largely glossed over by other teams as a player who had filled out (aka no projection) with average contact skills and power.  His defensive acumen was described as fitting into right field, but in no way glowing.  As such, he was considered by most a fringe MLB player who stood at a disadvantage having sat out for an entire year in Cuba due to a failed defection attempt.  Once signing with the Orioles, things did not improve much because visa issues delayed his arrival another year before he was able to take part in a professional league.

Once able to play, AA pitchers beware.  Urrutia showed great gap to gap power and a good understanding of strike zone.  He also imparted on observers that his outfield defensive play is pretty atrocious.  As the Major League club suffered through one of the worst team designated hitters performances in the history of the position, Urrutia was promoted.  Once arriving, he maintained his poor defense, but his hitting reverted to slap grounders scooting between the third baseman and shortstop.

Arizona will see him work on his hitting and figuring out if he can truly be an outfielder.  As a designated hitter, his bat will need to improve upon what he accomplished last year in the minors and transfer over to the MLB level.

Dariel Alvarez, outfielder
24 yo (11/7/1988)
B/T: R/R

Year	Age	Tm	Lev	PA	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG
2013	24	3 Teams	A+-AA-Rk	83	4	1	4	1	2	4	11	.342	.373	.570
2013	24	Orioles	Rk	10	2	1	1	0	0	1	1	.444	.500	1.222
2013	24	Frederick	A+	41	2	0	2	1	2	2	1	.436	.463	.641
2013	24	Bowie	AA	32	0	0	1	0	0	1	9	.194	.219	.290

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/8/2013.

Alvarez, like Urrutia, is a tweener as well, but for different reasons.  Several teams question his ability to be a MLB starter much more so than the questions Urrutia has faced.  The reports on him supported that he is capable of being a very solid corner outfielder defensively.  However, the concern was brought up about him being a training camp player.  Alvarez' power played well in the Cuban league band boxes where lofting the ball can bring a lot of success.  However, that is not likely to be the case in the States.  There were enough issues with his offense that some teams were looking at him as a pitcher, as reported by Baseball America's Ben Badler.

Alvarez only had 83 plate appearances this season.  He appeared to have issues in AA with more advanced pitching.  I have not heard much positive about him and that he likely needs to rework his swing in order to better cover the plate.  Perhaps, it is scouts reaching back to their earlier assessment as a result of not having much to look at this summer, but there is an expectation that Alvarez will become a relief pitcher for the 2015 season after what is expected to be a poor 2014 season in the field.  However, I think it is too early to come to any conclusion.

Arizona for Alvarez will be an exercise for the developmental team to see how Alvarez plays and figure out a solid offseason routine as well as how to handle him coming into Spring Training.  There is certainly potential there, but that is a pretty rough probability in achieving something that would significantly aid the Orioles.