Seeya at the yard Meat!

Welcome to Baltimore , Matt Hobgood and good luck to your first assignment .

Pete-I was watching Angels-Dodgers on Espn last week when I recalled you were Orange County reporter ?
Was this your hometown ? and which of those two teams are you loyal to?

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Pete's reply: I grew up in Orange County, bicycle distance from Anaheim Stadium -- now Angel Stadium -- and was a big Angels fan as a kid. Never a big Dodgers fan, but ended up covering the Angels for 7 1/2 seasons and the Dodgers for three.

Welcome to Baltimore Matt Hobgood. Just listening to how the young guy talks and handles himself is refreshing. No "punk arrogant" attitude and he seems genuine. Obviously the kid's parents did a good job of raising him, and kudos to his mom for her part in child rearing after his dad passed away. Regardless of what kind of career Hobgood has, I bet he will be fine in whatever he does. Congratulations to him and his family, and I wish him much success; especially against those damn Yankees and Red Sox.

Pete - "couldn't" care less, not "could" care less.

Inthe Boston paper this morning:

Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP, Red Sox - The most surprising thing was his lack of conditioning, and that he didn’t feel he had to do any of the shoulder strengthening program all Sox pitchers are on. According to a major league source, Matsuzaka appeared convinced that a Japanese shoulder is different from an American shoulder. Head-scratcher. In the end, he realized it wasn’t true.

Does Uehara suffer from the same delusion?

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Pete's reply: Nice post. I don't think Uehara feels that way. I think he'll do whatever the team wants him to do, but at 34, I don't know if you can totally change his routine and expect him to stay healthy and thrive. Guess we're going to find out.

It's refreshing to see a kid like Hobgood who wants to play ball for the love of the game.

Don't be surprised to see him follow in Palmer's footsteps and be up here by the time he's 20.

Well i am going to be nice again today pete. Have a great day.

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Pete's reply: And you too. I'm watching from afar today, but will try to keep up.

Folks,

Expectation managment, "Don't be surprised to see him follow in Palmer's footsteps and be up here by the time he's 20", yeah this happens all the time? HELLO! Let the kid develope, have a nice career and dominate each level on his way to a long and successful career! Heck he's in Baltimore, lets put him in the Pen for a day or two???? NOT!

Pete, you know I was big critic of the pick immediately after the draft. Given what we've heard from the kid and his family last week, I'll admit I might have been wrong. I still don't think he was the most talented player, most talented pitcher, or even the most talented prep-RHP left on the board when the O's picked. Blessed with an infinite bonus budget, they probably take someone else. However, we here in the "peanut gallery" never get to evaluate a kid's makeup before the draft, while the scouting department does. And Matt's performance this weekend earned a 70+ grade. He has just the right amount of self-assurance ("no reason to haggle over a million, I'll make plenty of money in the big leagues") mixed with humility and practicality.

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Pete's reply: I still don't know if there was a budget consideration. There might have been, though they spent a ton on the last two first rounders. I will tell you this. I've talked to Joe Jordan about him and I don't know that I've ever seen him so pumped up about a prospect. I also spent quite a bit of time one-on-one with the kid yesterday and I was very impressed with his maturity. If I didn't know his age, I would have figured him for 22 or 23.

On a local radio show yesterday, Keith Law said that Joe Jordan "kinda does things his own way, which is good because if you try to copy the other 29 teams, you're not likely to be successful." So I'm going to trust that Joe had a particular affinity for Matt and specifically his makeup, and rescind some of my criticism.

Now, I still think they're making a mistake if they think Givens can be a SS. They're wasting a unique talent (96 MPH from a side-arm slot) in the name of drafting to fill an organizational need (SS).