mikezpen wrote:I never expected them to bankrupt the team by signing Hamilton or Grienke. Of course not. But I did expect more action than a 1 year contract extension for Nate McLouth. And by now, I figured they would have extended the best manager they've had since Earl Weaver.God, is that too much to ask?
Maybe Angelos will finally give we long-suffering Orioles fans something to hang on to. I mean, he's done next to nothing for almost 15 years; there is something called the Law of Averages...you know...
BUT I WON'T BELIEVE IT TILL I SEE IT.
Which trade or FA signing would you have made? With all due respect, I ask that you be realistic in your answer and remember that it takes both sides to be willing in any trade or signing.
We need ONE veteran SP for ONE year. For reasons that I have explained in another post (
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1790&p=17973#p17973) I don't believe that we can count on
Dylan Bundy to be a permanent part of the rotation in 2013, but I would expect that he will be in 2014. If you assume that Hammel leaves after the season and either Matusz, Arrieta, or Britton becomes an effective member of the rotation then Bundy is all that would be needed to fill the 2014 starting five. Maybe Gausman will be ready to throw 190 or more innings that year, too.
What I see as Bundy's biggest obstacle to become a full time member of the Orioles' staff is the innings limit the team will put on him this year. He threw 105.1 innings last year and the team will almost certainly not allow him to exceed 150 this year. If you assume he'll need about a third of those in AAA to finish off his curve ball and change up he'd have about 100 innings left for Baltimore.
Do you let him pitch until he hits his limit? If so, we'll have our own Strasburg controversy next year and a potential big hole in the rotation in September and October. Do you try to delay his return to Baltimore so he can pitch till the 162nd game? If so, you still wouldn't have any innings left for the post season.
I honestly think the best course for Dylan Bundy is let him get his work in at AAA and ONLY bring him up on an emergency basis. If he pitches about 50 ML innings spread out over about eight starts he'll get enough experience to be ready for 2014 when he should be cleared to pitch a full season.
This means that Anibel Sanchez and Edwin Jackson would not have been good fits in that they wanted too much money and too many years to fill a hole for just one year; and, frankly IMO, neither of those two are any better than what we already have.
If you accept that then we move on to position players. Regardless of how you feel about Brian Roberts, the FO is NOT going just cut him loose and spend big money on a replacement; and none were available in the FA market. That means that we might have made an upgrade in LF, 1B, and DH. Since the team wants to (rightfully, IMO) focus on defense first they decided McLouth presented the best option for the money they had to spend. You could argue that Bourn is a better defender, but he wants too much money for too many years and he would cost a draft pick; which the team apparently is unwilling to give up. Hamilton? Once a team was foolish enough to go beyond three years the Orioles wisely passed. Swisher? The glove detracts from the bat and both will only get worse as he gets older. He's really a DH on a good defensive team at this point. Money, years, and draft pick. Pass.
LaRoche? OK, fits the profile of run producer and plus glove, but he's insistent on three years which the team won't do and he costs a draft pick; which seems to be a deal breaker. Besides, the team wants to give Chris Davis a shot at proving he belongs at 1B and he may very well make them look good. At DH they want to see if Nolan Reimold, who MAY be the best natural hitter on the team, can get through an entire season; and I see that as the right move. If he is unable to produce we have our share of platoon hitters for that role, and those kind of guys can be easy and relatively cheap to acquire during the year.
Trades? Which position would you trade to fill? LF? Who would you be looking at? Michael Morse? He might be a slightly better run producer than McLouth but his glove is unacceptable. If you set your sights on a better player what are you willing to give up and is that going to harm the team at another position? We do a have a small surplus of SP, but most teams just don't want to give us fair value for them. That might change at the trading deadline and we would have a better understanding of what our real needs are.
Taking all of this into consideration, do you still feel the same way about your grade?
