More Keith Law on the Orioles...
Well, I have a little more Keith Law from ESPN for everyone today. He noted that the Baltimore Orioles are 3 teams that took a step back during the winter. Here’s what he said about the Orioles off-season signings so far:
“I suppose they'd like to pretend the last 10 years never happened -- or at least their fans would. Needing a major bat or two, the Orioles decided to pour money into their bullpen. They gave closer money to Danys Baez for him to work as a set-up man and gave three years to right-handed specialist Chad Bradford, who was available for peanuts a year earlier. The Orioles have some great, young pitching and a rising star in Markakis, but they'll be lucky to get out of fourth in the difficult AL East.”
As sad it is for me to admit this, I sort of agree with Keith Law’s assessment. I think the team will be better off in ’07, but in the long term, the contracts to the bullpen, especially Baez’s deal may come back to bite them. Baez is still young and should have a lot of miles left, but he’s been in regression and should be a candidate to improve. However, relief pitching can be volatile, and since he will only be a setup man (closer in some situations, or if Ray gets injured), it was not worth the contract given to him.
I think both Walker and Chad Bradford were signed for too long as well, they have had decent numbers.
The Orioles needed to improve their bullpen, and given last year, perhaps spending a bit might have been the way to go. I believe the Orioles could have gotten their bullpen in shape for half, or even a third of what they spent on the market. In addition, they might have been better served going after some younger, established pitchers than who they signed.
About the projections of where the team will finish, I will admit I agree with him there too. We may finish at or above .500 and perhaps overtake Toronto for third place if all goes well, but the Orioles have a mountain to climb if they want to contend with the Yankees and Red Sox, much less a wild card spot. He’s absolutely right about the young stars, but that is still nowhere near enough.
In my opinion, the Orioles still need a big bat and another front line starter, and our young pitching to click, in order for us to be contenders in the American League at all.
However, to say we have taken a step back is silly. We’ve gotten better, just not enough to compete.
2 comments:
Keith Law clearly doesn't know what he's talking about. His time with the Jays yielding a grand total of 0 playoff berths and some of the things he's written in his column this season are flat out wrong.
Great Blog, i've given a few of the past articles a read. The Orioles were one of the few sane teams in the off-season, adding cheap bullpen depth to complement the array of young arms on the way up. I found your post on our site (although a little late) and I put up your link.
Thanks
Kman - Mopupduty.com
Thanks the input Kman. Take care!
Yes, I agree with Law's points and logic, but yes I have found a lot of what he's said to be way off and based on assumption rather than thought.
The O's made have made some questionable moves, but based on the last decade, some risks needed to be taken for sure and the team in light of the criticism made rational choices based on the situation at hand.
I disagree with some of the contracts and their lengths, but from a distance, the O's have made moves to improve and the moves made a lot of sense.
The pundits said much of the same about the Tigers of '06 before the onset of the season and look where they finished. Not to say that we will end up in the Series, but baseball is a sport of suprises and ultimately the games are played on the field, not on the 'net or in opinion pieces.
I'll write a post in response to what you mentioned, as well as what I think of pundits, especially in the cases of Mr. Law and Steve Phillips.
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