O's Final Stretch

[papasmurfbell]

Yeah but you take $1000 from a guy who make $30k a yr and that will hurt. You take $10000 away from a guy who makes $300k and that hurts too.

[dc.]

I'm just waiting for your alternative.

[papasmurfbell]

I would take a look at John McDonald.

[dc.]

I'm assuming that's a joke.

 

But the question wasn't... you need to replace a decent avg, generally solid power and outstanding defense... for the foreseeable future, given that we have no legitimate replacement coming up... who's out there that really fills that void?

[papasmurfbell]

The window is closing fast and I see no need to extend a older maybe becoming injury prone player into that.

[dc.]

But the goal is not to just reset but to extend the window.

 

You can see no reason, but everyone else sees a reason to have a decent As for a few years, especially while the rest of the division is weak.

 

Whatever though. There's no right answer. Maybe in three years you'll have been right. Or maybe you'll have misjudged again. Either way, three years isn't a big deal in the grand scheme - allows for lots of flexibility

[papasmurfbell]

I don't see it being extended. I think they will do a partial rebuild and try to have a ran again in 3-4 yrs.

[cravnravn]

I don't see it being extended. I think they will do a partial rebuild and try to have a ran again in 3-4 yrs.

What's there to rebuild? Pitchers are young, release weitz, release Davis, those have already been replaced with youth and they playing in October.

[papasmurfbell]

Buck pulled a bunch of smoke and mirrors with his replacements this season. I don't think that will keep working. Also Cakes is up. I don't think they should bring him back at all. He is getting slow now. Imagine 4-5 yrs fro now.

[dc.]

Nick has an option this year, so it could be a one year extend.

 

I agree that Buck made some magic this year- but theme again the same could be said for performance last year and 2012. So maybe he just know what he's doing. And a lot of God teams are actually filled with some pretty average no names.

 

But even more than all that - next year we have Manny and Matt back, at least. That's two no names already replaced with two names at no cost and no long risk. So you've got Nick, Matt, Manny, Adam, JJ all locked in for another year at least - I think most teams would be happy with that as a 1-5 or 2-6. That's not a window closed. Yet.

[papasmurfbell]

Actually I think they have been better after Weit went down. They were like 2 games above .500 with weit and well over .500 after he went down. I think the rotation got better without him. Sure Weit will start but if he can come out to start the season and light the world on fire trade him while you can. Just let him go.

 

Manny I am not sure about. His knees are a giant quetion mark to me.

[dc.]

I don't think that had to do with missing Matt so much as other terms that changed too. Pitching found its slot, Hunter got benched as closer, Pearce found his bat, etc. I don't think we went from a good glove defense and 20hr to... Not... And got better

[papasmurfbell]

I think Caleb has been better with the staff. I think he is a much better long term option for the O's.

[dc.]

Break down the numbers and you'll see Caleb has been good with some but not others. Nick has been better with a few.

 

Honestly, I think Matt is the best option overall without question. If Caleb sticks around to call for a pitcher or two, that's fine. But I think attributing the staff growth to Caleb is premature... It especially requires us to ignore that we have a new pitching coach. Maybe it took more than a month for him to find his groove with the staff and vice versa