Baltimore Orioles: Don’t blame the Birds for being smart

There’s actually more than starting pitching for which the Baltimore Orioles are looking. They’d also like a left-handed bat – someone who could hit-for-average. But I digress; the starting rotation is the most direly needed spot.

The easy out here is for them to trade the likes of Machado. And many of you question why they haven’t done that. The answer is simple; they didn’t get the proper offer. The Orioles were steadfast in their need for pitching in exchange for Machado this off season. Many teams made offers, but they didn’t involve pieces that the Orioles liked.

The Chicago Cubs reportedly offered some hot prospects, but not enough pitching. If the Orioles don’t get the deal they want AND need, they aren’t going to sell. Point blank, that’s just how it’s going to be. And that’s smart.

The Orioles know that’s smart, and other teams know that’s smart. However other teams are kind of intelligent also. They’re smart enough to know what they have in terms of pitching prospects. And they aren’t willing to just relinquish those prospects because the Orioles need and want them. Granted the Orioles are offering a heck of a piece in return, however again I digress.

To their own chagrin, the O’s have been quick to trade pitching prospects over the past couple of years. Now many of those were actually decent trades that in theory should and could have helped the team. But not all of them worked out. Point being, opposing teams aren’t quite as willing to trade their top pitching prospects – even for Machado.

But while it might be okay to second-guess some of the Orioles’ past trades (while understanding that hindsight is 20/20), fans should also be thankful that the team isn’t parting ways with Machado – for a low return. They know what they want and need, and they aren’t going to give Machado away unless they get that. Sometimes that process is painful, but if you’re going to trade a guy of his caliber, you need to be very targeted in what you get in return.

Baltimore Orioles: Is selling the new buying?

Should the Baltimore Orioles buy or sell? That’s always the question at the deadline and in the off season. Most people are entrenched firmly in their view – one way or the other.

Personally I’m of the mindset that you don’t rebuild in the AL East. The northeast is really all about results, whether it’s work or play. What have you done for me lately is the big saying, right? So teams like the Orioles can’t really sell a rebuild to their fans, the idea being that their fans won’t necessarily show up to support that rebuild.

In my antiquated view of the world, rebuilds also take time. The Orioles began that process last time around in 2008 when they traded for the likes of Jones. They didn’t hit pay dirt until 2012. But is that still the way of the world in terms of the time invested?

As the minor leagues have gotten more refined and coaching has gotten better, I think we’ve seen players become more and more ready for big league play. And the same is true of college coaching; players are more suited to quickly go through the minor league system and get to the bigs. That’s why teams such as New York, Cleveland, Boston, Houston, and others have made decisions to sell, and in essence have gotten better almost immediately.

So…should the Orioles commit to following suit? I still say that it would be a tough sell to the fan base. There’s a large portion of people who won’t buy tickets unless a team’s committed to winning in the here and now. Furthermore it’s still running a risk. Do the Orioles generally have the luck that New York got – where all of the prospects that came to them start hitting at the same time? Odds are against that.

It’s a tough call. My personal opinion was that they could have done a bit of a warm-over, perhaps by trading someone like Britton for a prospect or two. They almost had that done last year at the deadline, but at the last moment there was an issue with the medicals on one of the players the Orioles were to get in return. Many people will say that the O’s are too stringent in that regard. But would you rather trade for a guy who’s going to be injured on and off?

Obviously Britton isn’t a guy who can be traded any longer. Many people will say that’s what the Orioles get for not wanting to take a chance. I would argue it’s simply dumb luck. However at the end of the day, it is interesting that teams have sold and then suddenly gotten better very quickly. Should the Orioles run that risk?

Baltimore Orioles: Dealing with bad bounces

As I sit here in sun splashed Florida, yes it’s very easy to think of the Baltimore Orioles. Baseball being a summer game, I’m used to getting up in the morning and looking towards covering that day/night’s game! And yes folks, from my vantage point right now, it’s eternal summertime!

That aside, I saw an interesting feature on the NFL Network the other day which really is applicable in every sport. The discussion was how do you deal with being on the wrong side of bad (or controversial) calls. For the record, I was in a restaurant and I couldn’t hear what the commentators were saying. But I saw that was the topic du jour, and I thought it was interesting.

Ask yourselves how often we see the likes of Buck Showalter red-faced in the dugout barking at the umpires for one thing or another. Remember a few years back when he got tossed out of a game against St. Louis for coming out and wanting to talk to the league office in NY after a review didn’t go his way? How often do Orioles fans seem to grouse from the stands at what they assume are bad calls?

The answer to those questions is probably no more or less than any other manager or fan base. And incidentally, I’m not talking about an inconsistent strike zone, or even a run-of-the-mill controversial call on the base paths. I’m talking about big time calls whereby the ball bounces in the other direction. Think of the Jeffrey Maier-aided home run in Yankee Stadium.

And there’s a situation where the Orioles didn’t handle it well. Mind you, that wasn’t an elimination game, and the O’s had every opportunity to come back and still win the series. But for all intents and purposes, it decided the game. Granted you can’t totally blame them because it was so blatantly a horrible decision by the umpiring crew, but the fact is that the O’s allowed that one moment to decide the game.

And that’s really the crux of what you don’t want to do. That one moment snowballed in the Orioles’ faces. On the flip side, New York did exactly what you do want to do – they moved on. Granted it was much easier for them given the fact that they were gifted something they shouldn’t have had. But had the Orioles allowed that not to phase them as New York did, the series might have ended differently.

And incidentally, it’s a mental state of mind in a sense. This is not to say that you don’t argue the call or try to make your point with the umpire – because in effect you have an obligation to do so. If you just sit there and let a bad call unfold around you, due diligence isn’t being done. However once it’s over, you have to accept that it’s over.

And Buck Showalter is generally pretty good at that. You don’t see him commenting too much after games about things like this, no matter how egregious the call. He might make some round-about comments, however nothing that’s going to stick in the media and have people talking for days on end. And that helps the team move on as well.

Bad calls are going to happen. The mistake the Orioles made in the playoffs so many years ago was they allowed the bad call to define both them and the series. You can’t do that. Just ask that Orioles team, which was potentially good enough to win the World Series.

Baltimore Orioles: How does the bullpen play out?

With the likes of Britton not available for potentially the first half of the season, how does the Baltimore Orioles’ bullpen cycle through? Can we assume that Brad Brach is the closer? Who sets up? Those are all questions that will need to be answered.

For starters, my personal opinion is that yes…Brad Brach is the closer going into spring training. And while many fans lament the Orioles’ fortunes in not being able to get a deal done with Machado and Britton’s injury, remember that Brach was considered trade bait at the winter meetings. Imagine where the team would be had they pulled the trigger on a trade including Brach or Darren O’Day, only to find that they’d be in a spot where those pieces were direly needed.

Speaking of O’Day, I suspect that he’ll slide into the setup role. Keep in mind that at various points when Britton was injured last year, those two represented the back end of the bullpen. And they were fairly successful. (In games at least where the O’s were leading.) While losing Britton is tough, you don’t lose as much as you think with those two playing those roles.

The middle relief is a bit more of a question mark. My personal opinion is that the likes of Mychael Givens and Donny Hart will play major roles in those slots. The Orioles really like both of them, and I don’t see a scenario where they don’t play a huge role in middle relief. But you never know.

Obviously we don’t know what types of deals are made which could bring other relievers to Baltimore. And we don’t know how spring training shakes out. The Orioles under Showalter have a grand tradition of allowing players to play their way onto the roster in Grapefruit League play. Time will tell.

And with that, I’m off to Florida for a few days. I’ll still be writing this column during my stay, however it’ll just be from a much more tropical climate. You know…sun, surf, and ocean spray. Pretty much everything you can get in Ocean City in June or July. But the calendar says December – which is why I’m headed to Miami!

Baltimore Orioles: Christmas miracles happen

The Baltimore Orioles should be the furthest thing from anyone’s mind on this Christmas morning. Unless of course you’re unwrapping orange and black-themed gifts! However with that said, I noticed something interesting on my twitter feed last night…

…people were still complaining about the Orioles’ past few weeks. People are kind of relentless in their views – which is fine. But…it’s Christmas, isn’t it? As I said, don’t we have a few more important things to do?

I would say this; miracles happen, folks. I’m not saying that it would have to be a miracle for the Orioles to compete in 2018, because I don’t feel that way. But if you do, ’tis the season – is it not?

On my behalf as well as on that of all close to me, I wish all Orioles fans a very Merry Christmas today!

Baltimore Orioles: Will Santa come late for the O’s?

People have more important things to do on this Christmas Eve than worry about the Baltimore Orioles. So we’re going to keep it brief. Or as brief as possible, that is.

As everyone knows, Santa Claus comes tonight. Let that sink in if you’re wondering where the time went. In the past month fans have worried ad hoc about the Orioles going into 2018. What should they expect?

The winter meetings came and went, as did the subsequent weeks as we led into what’s normally a break for big league teams over Christmas and New Years. No moves were made by the Orioles. Yet it seemed that everyone around them were making every possible move they could. So…will Santa stop at the yard this year?

I think that Orioles fans want the team to do something. Whether it’s a trade of Machado, a signing, etc., they want something to happen. For the record, while most team personnel across the league are off this coming week for the holidays, GM’s will still have their phones on. If something comes down the pike, a deal will be made.

But will something come down the pike for this Orioles team? Tough to say. At some point it will – but Santa might just be a little bit later than normal.

Baltimore Orioles: Old and new intersect

The Baltimore Orioles’ fortunes aren’t necessarily tied to the local NFL team. Or teamS (plural), as it may be – the current and the former, that is. But…do they? Or did they in the past?

The Indianapolis Colts come to town this afternoon to play the Baltimore Ravens at M & T Bank Stadium. That would be the former Baltimore Colts, that is. You know, the team that left town in the middle of the night on Mayflower moving vans in March of 1984, ripping the hearts of the city and it’s sports fans out all the while? Yes, those Colts. And they’re back – for today at least.

It’s certainly not the first time the Colts have come to town. And it won’t be the last. Baltimore’s really an interesting study of a town in terms of the NFL. In the sense of the NFL, it’s squarely behind the Ravens now. However if you ask most fans (my father included) if they’d take the Colts name and tradition back if given the chance, I think the answer would be yes.

Only in Baltimore do you have the sight of the Colts wearing their white visiting uniforms and coming out onto the field to the thundering boos of many who still remember them fondly. Only in Baltimore do you have the band playing the former Baltimore Colts and current Baltimore Ravens fight song. And only in Baltimore are the Colts the visitors in a stadium that honors “Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts” in it’s ring of fame. Needless to say, it’s an interesting dynamic.

I was three years old when the Colts left. But the mere act ripped my Dad’s heart out, as well as those of his brothers. And that was true of all fans of their generation. So while the Ravens have playoff hopes on the line, today’s game has meaning across the board, regardless of anything else.

However as I said, in some senses the Orioles’ fortunes were tied to that snowy morning in 1984. The reason the Colts left was because they wanted a new stadium – Memorial Stadium had become too decrepit for their liking. And eventually, the writing was on the wall for the Orioles to adopt the same sentiment.

The act of the Colts leaving put both Baltimore and really the entire sports world on notice that owners (especially garbage owners like Robert Irsay) could hold cities hostage by demanding a new stadium. And if that city was unwilling to build it, there was always another city that would do so and except that team as it’s own with open arms. Teams had moved before – heck, the Baltimore Bullets relocated down the pike to Washington. But never like that.

So the movement eventually became not only to secure funding in the Maryland state legislature for a new football stadium at some point in time, but also for a new ballpark for the O’s. At the time, Washington was always the low-hanging fruit in terms of a baseball team relocating. There were rumors that the O’s would go there, or Charlotte, or perhaps even Portland, OR. The threat was real.

With help of course famously from the former Baltimore Colts marching band, the state legislature approved funding for both stadiums. The football stadium of course was on hold because the city didn’t have a team. However in November of 1995 the Cleveland Browns announced their intention to relocate to Baltimore the following season, and they became the Ravens. They played for two years at Memorial Stadium, which I always saw as poetic justice. However the funding that the state earmarked so long before eventually became what’s now called M & T Bank Stadium, which opened in 1998.

Plans for a new stadium for the O’s began in earnest almost immediately. Oriole Park at Camden Yards of course opened in 1992. And as we know, it’s The Ballpark that Forever Changed Baseball. All of these issues (the Colts leaving, resulting in funding for two stadiums) will intersect today in the Inner Harbor, as the Ravens push for the playoffs against the Colts.

Baltimore Orioles must always get the proper value

First and foremost, numerous outlets have reported that Baltimore Orioles’ closer Zach Britton‘s achilles surgery was successful yesterday. Now begins the tough part: rehab. The Orioles are hoping that Britton might be back before the trade deadline, but obviously at this point it’s tough to say.

The O’s have been getting lambasted by fans and local media the past few days for what’s interpreted as having botched trades. They had a trade involving Britton last year, and the medicals on one of the players the O’s were to have received came back suspect. Britton stayed with the Orioles obviously, and now thanks to a freak accident he’s on the shelf for the foreseeable future.

There were several deals out there for Manny Machado during the winter meetings last week. The Orioles didn’t like any of them, as they’re looking for two starting pitching prospects in return. Fans see this as just more of the same. The O’s are being greedy and unrealistic.

Maybe they are, for all we know. But the Britton injury can’t be allowed to convince them that staying the course is a bad idea. Unfortunately these things do happen. They shouldn’t, but they do. The Orioles have assets that other teams covet – such as the Machado’s of the world. Why should they sell low?

I’ve had people tell me that they should have gotten whatever they could for Britton, and that they should do the same with Machado. And of course people in that camp can point to this Britton injury as evidence that they’re right. Okay, so if someone offered a low-A prospect, should the Orioles have taken it?

The way forward is either with Machado (and Britton) on the roster this year, OR with prospects that equal or better their value. That’s the only way forward, because if you don’t value your own pieces, you can’t expect other teams to do so.

Baltimore Orioles lose Zach Britton

There’s bad luck, and then there’s bad luck Baltimore Orioles style. The organization found out late Tuesday night that they had lost the services of closer Zach Britton – at least for the first half of the 2018 season. Britton ruptured his right achilles tendon while working out in California. The injury will require surgery, and he’s expected to miss six months.

This is a really difficult pill to swallow for the Orioles, who almost traded Britton to Houston last year. Ironically, the trade was nixed because the O’s didn’t like the medicals on the players they were to receive. However regardless of anything else, Britton’s out for the foreseeable future.

There’s nothing worse for any team in any sport than to have an injury of that magnitude occur to a player during the off season. Let’s be clear, however; this wasn’t a non-baseball related injury that happened because the guy was horsing around. He was working out, getting ready for the season (and at his agent, Scott Boras’ training center no less). But the fact is that it happened outside of the parameters of the season, and that’s tough to fathom.

This would in theory mean that the Orioles couldn’t move Britton at the deadline, because who’s going to give up anything of value for a guy coming off of achilles surgery? Britton is of course in the final year of his contract, and would have brought some dividends for the Orioles at the deadline – if not before.

Baltimore Orioles: Hindsight’s 20/20

There’s a lot of talk across the board about the Baltimore Orioles, and had they not done this or that they maybe could afford Manny Machado. One such deal is that of Chris Davis, who signed a long-term contract before the 2016 season. For a lot of money.

I want to remind people that the Davis signing was widely popular in Baltimore. I thought it was a smart move myself. The same was true with re-signing Mark Trumbo, who had a brilliant 2016 season. Another move with which I agreed. But those two signings stemmed from letting Nelson Cruz walk after 2014. The Orioles felt they should have kept him.

Maybe they should have, and maybe they shouldn’t have. But either way, quite a few people were in favor of the Davis and Trumbo signings. Now people are saying the Orioles were stupid. So what gives?

Hindsight’s always 20/20. So it’s easy to look back now and suggest that they shouldn’t have done something that they did. My personal opinion is that the Orioles are a better team with Davis and Trumbo – just like they’re a better team with Machado. However the fact is that you can’t keep everyone.

And for the record, we don’t know how things would have played out had those guys not remained on the team. For all we know the team would have been even worse, and Manny would have demanded a trade before now. That’s always a possibility. However I’m not one to say that Orioles fans should prepare for the worst and assume that this team is going to be poor. The Birds have a hot-hitting lineup – with or without Machado.

So don’t just assume, especially because Machado isn’t going to get traded for peanuts. The Orioles will get a good deal, because that’s what they do. So they’ll end up with one, maybe two, starting pitchers out of the deal. That could stablize the organization and potentially allow them to win MORE games. Couldn’t it?!