Breaking Up Is Hard To Do…..What Should The Orioles Do?
It’s time to take off the orange colored glasses and look at things objectively. I hope everything I say that isn’t positive is wrong in the end because no one here wants to see the Orioles win more than I do…but it’s time to be real.
This team has been and is flawed. No new news here.
To start with Dan Duquette did a lousy job of filling the holes we had in left and right.
Pitching? Last yr the O’s had 5 starters who pitched really well the second half of the season. Going into the second half of this yr they don’t even have 5 starters. And what are the chances of Tilly, Gonzo, Jimenez and Chen all pitching really well the rest of this season? I don’t think it’s good. Donald Trump has a better chance of being invited to Taco Bell for a free dinner.
What about all these good arms in Norfolk? We’ve been hearing that for yrs yet I’m still waiting for the O’s to draft and develop a top level pitcher. The last decent one was Ben Mcdonald..who wasn’t exceptional just decent and certainly his results weren’t close to what you would hope a first pick in the draft would bring. The last real good starter..Mike Mussina..so please excuse me if I’m skeptical. Mike Wright looked lights out at first but now looks like Mike Wrong. Tyler Wilson? Do you think he’s a number one or 2 starter? In other words do you think he’s an impact pitcher? Probably not. Hope so but….so I don’t think significant pitching help is coming from the minors. Gausman? Not ready for prime time and so far a major disappointment for the 4th pick in the draft. Look how many players drafted in 2012-12 even 14 have been become impact players in the majors. zero from the O’s.
Is there one starter from the O’s the Mets would want? The Nats? The Dodgers? The Cards? How many would K.C. want? How about the Tribe? None of our guys would be a 1 or 2 maybe even a 3 for a lot of teams.
Do you have confidence in DD making a trade to bring an impact player here? I think DD is more a flea market-garage sale GM. I don’t see him making deals that Andy Macphail showed during his tenure in Baltimore.
And speaking of trades. who do the O’s have to trade to help make a run? Some following the O’s tell you we have a good farm system and we have good scouts and we develop talent well. Wish they were right. They’ll say what about the prospects we sent to other teams and got back some good players. That’s true. Other teams have seen value in some of our players in the past, but, and i’m probably framing this for my use, which of those players actually turned out to be good. I can think of Alfredo Simon and Jake Arrieta, an maybe Eduardo Rodriquez…the rest you’ve never heard from them again. You think Matusz has turned out well for a 4th or 5th pick in the draft? Adam Loewen? Matt Hobgood? Kevin Gausman? When you’re picking in the top 10 you can’t miss as often as the O’s have.
You think Dylan Bundy has value? This is 2 yrs in a row he has missed due to injury. Next yr if healthy the most he can pitch is 100 innings. Maybe 130 innings the next so if he is ever going to be a starter you’re looking at 2018 at the earliest. Yes he’s still young, but…right now Al Bundy from Married With Children has more value. Hunter Harvey? He’s still in A ball and has missed significant time injured 2 yrs in row. What value does he have? Not much at this time.
How many positions players in the minors may have value? Jomar Reyes, an 18 yr old 3rd baeman..Dariel Alvarez, 26 yr old outfielder. I don’t see a quality shortstop, second baseman, catcher or other outfielders in the minors that have some value. Do you see a see a stud pitcher in Norfolk or Bowie? No No and No. Maybe Trey Mancini at first at Bowie or Christian Walker playing first at Norfolk… but as trade bait neither has the kind of value that brings something back good. I think the first rd pick this yr, DJ Stewart, is a dh at best.
Maybe it’s time to say this isn’t working and trade Davis, Wieters, Chen, Norris and Hunter and get some prospects back that are close to being ready. Snider and Parmelee could get you an autograph picture of the San Diego Chicken. Every team can’t have scouts and minor league coaches like Baltimore so let them do the work for us. I think our scouts must have worked for General Custer and you know how that worked out George. Oy!
I’m sure in a couple of days I’ll be back to saying we’re still in the race and you can’t break up the team because you never know when the opportunity to win will come around again but if you take a step back and look at things as a baseball fan but not an O’s fan it’s not hard to say this team doesn’t have the magic. Was that a run on sentence? At least it’s a run which the O’s are having trouble finding these days.
Listen to me rant on Terptalk on Wednesday at 6 pm and The Sports Maven, 9AM on Saturday-1300 am or on terptalk.com. And you can check out my picture on the wall at any Post Office. I’m number 6 on the list.
Blog from Freddy from Boca
Brian
Unless Angelos is willing to make the financial commitment necessary in free agency I think we’re stuck with the annual flea market-garage sale hole plugging and trust Buck to get it to all work. So far it’s worked out.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
would you pay davis 18-20 mil a yr for 5-7 yrs?
wieters 17-20 mil a yr for 5 yrs
chen 15 mil a yr for 5 yrs
that’s what it’s probably going to take to get these guys
· 11/12/2019