You know it’s a slow news day when Jace Peterson returning to the Baltimore Orioles is the headline. But them’s the breaks when the team’s on the west coast sometimes. Peterson of course was with the Orioles all of last year, and now finds himself back with them at the big league level.
Peterson takes the roster spot of Rio Ruiz, who was sent to the minors after yesterday’s game. Ruiz had been hitting .238 on the year. This comes after they opted to keep Anthony Santander, when he in theory could have been sent back to the minors. Since being called up to replace an injured player, Santander had been playing at a frenzied pace. And that pace has continued.
Those are two very different, yet similar situations. During the first half of the year Orioles’ brass said many times that they didn’t want to pull the rug out from anyone prematurely. Basically, they wanted to give guys the utmost opportunity to prove that they belong in the big leagues. This is both fair to the player(s) and the organization. Because the last thing the organization wants is for a guy to walk and then hit it big elsewhere.
But the fact that Ruiz was sent packing and Santander is staying tells you that perhaps some of those opportunities have started to run out. At a certain point, you need to put your best foot forward in terms of winning games TODAY. And by that, I’m talking about the roster itself and the makeup thereof. This as opposed to the effort being put forth. Because I would never question that.
At the beginning of the season I suggested that success would look resemble winning more games than they did last year. So that’s 15 wins for the rest of the season at a bare minimum. Do we think they can do that?
Birdland Crush 