Rising O's wrote:The nugget is protected by Buck so what can a fan say? Have you ever looked at his numbers based on batting order? Yikes. That's what makes the 42 million remaining on the contract hurt. 14 million a year for a #2 hitter is expensive, especially for a team that loses 94 games a year. The fact that he failed to even attempt to steal bases the previous two years indicates a lack of effort to me, failing to use every ounce of talent to help your team win. At least try, its not like by running you are taking the bat out of our clean-up hitters hands because we never had one.
Anyway, it should be clear I would like to see him traded. His age puts him outside the core the Orioles should be looking at and again, we're losing with him so may as well lose without him if you can get prospects who can help down the road. I think there are a few contenders that might like to have him and hope he can renew himself outside of Baltimore. Heck, you can point to his strong post ASB numbers as proof the talent is still there (even if I can't pinpoint to his direct impact on us winning games).
I agree, that type of money for a 2 hitter is quite overdoing it. I really do not think the Orioles would be that much worse off if they did indeed trade him. I think there are teams out there, like the Braves or Giants, that would bite the bullet and give up something substantial for him. The one thing we can all agree on though, is he has been a disappointment. He has been my favorite Orioles player for a long time, but I think it may indeed be time to look in other directions.
One more quick note; His value is probably the lowest it has been in ever, so it might honestly be a better idea to wait until he had a strong first half of a season or showed a little more improvement before dealing him.
