Richie Martin’s glove has never been a worry. Whether the growth of his bat maintains is

a story all its own."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Commentary & AnalysisOrioles ProspectsOrioles Game RecapsOrioles News and RumorsCamdencastCommentary & AnalysisRichie Martin’s offensive breakout and the potential dividends for the OriolesNew http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-paul-konerko-jersey ,8commentsRichie Martin’s glove has never been a worry. Whether the growth of his bat maintains is a story all its own. ESTShareTweetShareShareRichie Martin’s offensive breakout and the potential dividends for the OriolesRick Scuteri-USA TODAY SportsWhile other organizations may view the Rule 5 Draft as a formality, utilizing the annual event has become a key strategy for the Orioles organization. Even more, those taken in recent years by the Orioles in the Rule 5 Draft tend to garner their own weird sort of cult following. And by cult following I mean me. From Ryan Flaherty and T.J. McFarland, to Anthony Santander and Pedro Araujo, the Orioles haven’t shied away from picking players cast off by other ball clubs. And maybe it’s just me, but I tend to root a little harder for the Rule 5 guys. As is mandated, Rule 5 players must remain on the roster of the drafting club for the entirety of their immediate season, which also means a positive performance makes them more likely to stick.Players left to be taken in the Rule 5 draft are essentially cast-offs or victims of a numbers game. The Orioles, a team that has taken at least one player in the major league phase of the Rule 5 Draft every year since 2006, have benefited little from those picks. Orioles Rule 5 Draft Picks (2006-18)YearPlayerPositionDrafted Year fWARCareer fWARYearPlayerPositionDrafted Year fWARCareer fWARAs you can see, there’s little to speak about other than Ryan Flaherty’s defensive versatility, Joey Rickard’s rare offensive surge, and T.J. McFarland’s appetite for innings. There’s a reason players are left to be taken as Rule 5 picks, though for Richie Martin, the story is an atypical one. Selected 20th overall by the Athletics in the summer of 2015, Martin is a plus-athlete whose defensive work has sustained over the course of his four minor league seasons. As far as his niftiness with the glove goes, there is little worry that Martin can’t play a serviceable middle infield as of this moment. Martin’s bat, though, is a commodity of less certainty. In over 1,500 minor league plate appearances, Martin has recorded only a .706 OPS, as his sense for the strike zone has been unable to overcome his lack of thump with the bat. Without more offensive production from a first round pick Reynaldo Lopez Jersey , the Athletics are somewhat excused for making Martin available. Plus gloves are always on the market at every level of baseball, and the ex-Florida Gator wasn’t showing the needed growth at the plate to warrant his return. But he had to have made it a tough decision, right?Last year, his second full season at Double-A, Martin posted an .807 OPS, while his slugging,BABIP, and other true outcome numbers all reached levels of new inspection. Excitingly, his pull rate rose from 37% to 42%, while his line drive and fly ball totals reached new bests. To me, these are signs of better pitch recognition and better timing, with more barrels finding greener pastures. The A’s finally got the offensive boost they were looking for, but in the end, the Orioles are now employing a player with a set of tools that have a made a jump. Oh, and yeah, those tools are about to—well, definitely should— get playing time. Richie Martin’s minor league path is somewhat reminiscent of DJ Stewart’s. Both saw slow offensive starts burst their respective reputations, though they both made a comeback. Their path towards mechanical refinement has also had its similarities. This is the Martin of four years ago, a college middle infielder with an OPS of .829 that walked as much as he struck out. He was a baller, and when you look at him at the time he was a plus-prospect, there’s a lot to like about his swing. You see the athleticism in his hands, a crisp bat path Bruce Rondon Jersey , and an efficient barrel through the zone. Much like Stewart, however, Martin wasn’t getting enough out of his legs, and both the A’s and Orioles convinced the two to get taller in their stances. Whereas the Orioles closed off Stewart’s front side, the A’s saw Martin open up, literally and figuratively. At some point in the not-so-distant past, he introduced a leg kick and divorced from a toe-tap that looked tough to replicate. He also let his hands go free, creating a more diverse swing. Martin went from being a hitter who was maybe TOO mechanical, to a player now swinging without as much restriction. Given the spike in his offensive production a season ago, we may be able to say that Martin has found comfort in his renovated approach to hitting, especially as he showed more consistent pop and managed to hit the baseball to left field with more regularity. He probably made a lot of pitchers mad last season. I mean, look at that guy ^. However, Martin’s lone season of offensive success will be nearly impossible to immediately replicate, as he leaps up two levels of the best baseball in the world. But you take him into spring training understanding that he’s making strides, and there is a chance for those strides to bound even further. If Martin does continue an upward trajectory in his offensive game, then the Mike Elias regime will have stumbled upon a gem in plain sight. Can you imagine a potential doubles machine whose speed and glove make him an everyday player of impact? Even better, he’ll have new eyes on him, and from everything we’ve been told, this Orioles staff and its future plans ooze of positive player development. If not, then Martin’s current tools, as Elias detailed to Baseball America, make him a bench player with “the versatility and speed you look for in that player.” As we’ve seen with other Orioles Rule-5ers http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-paul-konerko-jersey , there’s an impact to be had that way, too.Playing time will come with expected lumps, but Martin isn’t alone in that regard. He’s one of many players that this rebuild will afford an opportunity. What that opportunity brings is what makes all of this more fun than it should be. Where one thought leads to another."The TopicalSo we sit here in February and the two top free agents haven’t yet signed. This usually wouldn’t concern me that much, but every time I open any application that allows me to browse baseball news, I get hit with the “Why Hasn’t Bryce Harper Signed Yet?” or “Are the Owners Colluding Against Manny Machado?” or even the lesser ones like “Does the Reliever Revolution Screw Dallas Keuchel?” and undoubtedly some snarky comment about Craig Kimbrel. The point everyone tries to make is that they are good players, just expecting contracts over what they’re worth. So what?The TangentialMaybe teams got smarter? Is that the answer? Harper probably isn’t worth $350 million, but the problem is that the market has dictated that he should get that much. He’s young, reasonably good, and should be a fine mid-level star on a championship-caliber team for at least the next 5-7 years. Heck, even the Marlins offered a 31-year-old Albert Pujols $250 million back in 2011. Then maybe the problem is that teams don’t want to pay these players anymore. Which is just as well, if they were spending their money on smart things. But they’re not, and multiple teams have cited “cutting payroll”, which I guess is a worthwhile goal. But it’s February! Why are you going into the season with the goal of “cutting payroll”? Cut payroll in the middle of the season, but not before it even starts! Is this even fair to fans?A StretchMaybe as teams have gotten smarter, they realize that the playoffs are truly a crapshoot. Currently, 10 of the 30 teams make it, but 4 of them have the potential to be one-and-done. The Wild Card game is cool, but it throws a wrench into everything. Multiple times have I heard a variation of the statement, “sure, we can limp into the playoffs, but why would we trade valuable assets for the opportunity to play one playoff game?” The problem with teams becoming smarter is that they can look at the numbers and realize when they really don’t have a chance. Whereas a rebuilding team might’ve signed a veteran to mentor a team and hope that they could sneak into the playoffs, now teams can analyze teams as a whole and realize that one free agent probably doesn’t move the needle that much. Even if some team were to make the playoffs Miguel Gonzalez Jersey , if they get bounced in the first round, it’s not really worth it. So is analytics contributing to parity?The WildDo we fix it? Do we want to fix it? Is baseball lost? We can expand the playoffs to include more teams (the NBA and the NHL already allow more than 50% of the league into the postseason), but would that really encourage teams to buy free agents? The salary floor? Good luck getting that passed. I think the real problem is that baseball is that because of analytics, baseball is becoming less luck-based and more skill-based. Since 2014, when the San Francisco Giants won, the winner of the World Series has either been seeded #1 or #2 in their league. Fewer and fewer Wild Card teams are finding success. The outcomes are becoming more and more predictable. Home runs and strikeouts are sure things. Fewer and fewer bloop hits, grounders that make it through the infield (because of the shift), mean that luck matters even less. A GM once said “Velocity is the greatest predictor of success,” and that is part of the truth. Pitching to contact doesn’t work like it used to, simply because anyone would rather have a freaking strikeout.Outer SpaceYes, it is frustrating when the better team loses, especially if it’s your team, but I think that luck is a very important aspect of sports. In basketball, the better team wins at an extremely high rate, and that ends up being very boring. In hockey, each team has close to a 50% chance of winning each game because of the random bounces that go, and that is more fun.The ultimate goal is to reduce strikeouts and reduce home runs. Maybe the real issues stem from here. I don’t know how to do that without making too drastic a change to the game, but there are good ideas floating around there. Proposing rule changes is a good thing. Just make sure it’s the right ones. Bring the luck back.