The games continue
Tim Bascom, the Orioles' fourth-round pick in last year's draft, allowed two unearned runs in two innings in his debut with the West Oahu CaneFires of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league.
I'm not sure why it's considered a winter league, but I digress...
Bascom gave up three hits, walked one and struck out one.
Infielder Tyler Henson, a fifth-round pick in 2006, tripled and scored four runs in Saturday's 12-3 win over the North Shore Honu. Henson batted .265 with 11 homers, 62 RBIs, 71 runs scored and 20 stolen bases in 127 games at Single-A Delmarva this season.
Cliff Flagello, Henson's teammate at Delmarva, picked up the win for West Oahu yesterday despite allowing a hit and walking a batter in the eighth inning. He struck out two. Flagello was 5-3 with a 2.29 ERA in 39 games with the Shorebirds. He received the Elrod Hendricks Award last week for community service.
Roch,
Sorry, that was my post a minute ago. Fast fingers.
Roch, thanks for another great season of coverage. Your venue may change, but your excellence at doing this remains the same.
The 7-30 finish will go down with other recent ugly O’s memories. It’s just stunning that with the way the season went up until August pretty much, that the O’s finished a record ½ game worse than 2007. That’s really discouraging, even if the overall result is about what many expected before the season (I predicted 66-96—I was really hoping they’d be far above this). How much better would we all feel if the O’s did a bit better and finished up 14-23? A bad record, but we’d have ended with a 75-86 record, which would’ve been better than last season and what everyone expected, and would have to be encouraging going into next season.
It should prove to be another interesting offseason. The team does need at least 2 starters and a real shortstop, but the team also needs to find a way to stop the endless injuries and have young pitchers come up with more confidence and throwing strikes (or even making progress toward that after a few starts here and not regressing).
I would put extending Markakis and Guthrie at the top of things to do, along with extending or trading Roberts. The team also has to figure that the offense probably is not going to be as good next year as it was this season, so it shouldn’t be afraid to not re-sign, release, or deal if it can some of the veterans like Hernandez, Millar, Mora, and Huff.
The good news is that the club might have the makings of a decent bullpen core if the members can stay healthy. Jim Johnson (provided he doesn’t start), Sherrill, Chris Ray, Sarfate, and Cormier might not be a bad place to start. Definitely not perfect, but they’ve done much worse. More good news is that this offseason is another chance for addition by subtraction: D. Cabrera, Walker, Burres and other pitchers could be dismissed, and Jay Payton and R. Hernandez as well.
Here's an idea. The second the free agent market opens, the O's put out simultaneous multi-year at-market (or even above market) offers to:
1. CC Sabithia
2. Ben Sheets
3. AJ Burnett
4. the next best starter out there
5. Mussina
AND
6. Teix
Give them 72 hours to decide and tell them they can have a contingency to back out of the deal if at least 2 of the others do not sign.
If three or more sign, we are instantly respectable. If not, no one has lost anything committing to a losing team. You could even expand the list by another name or two, and offer more $ in the contracts if only 3 signed and a bit fewer $ if 4 or more signed. That way, you are accomodating the need to overpay for the first few big signees but not if you get 4 or more big names, which would remove the need to pay for our lack of credibility.
Hit the market fast and extremely hard and see if we can lock up 3 or more guys in the first week. Try to catch the other teams sleeping or at least waiting to see what happens.
Double Down Option: you could add Roberts and Markakis to the mix to provide even more proof of credibility to the FA's.
Mark C i like how you think. i know this is a long post, but it should be very insightful, and id like opinions or comments if anyone agrees or not.
the Orioles decission makers are wussies! while contending teams call up their players when they dominate in the minors regardless of age/experience, the O's sit on their organiztions young players while theyre performing beyond the level at which they currently play. the Yankees braugt up Chamberlain in what, his FIRST FULL SEASON of pro ball! they even tried Hughs and Kenedy, both of whom i never thaught much of to begin with, but if it had been us, we would say, you need more then just a year at single a and/or double A. The redsox constantly bring up their young guys as soon as they show anything, and dont even want to get into tampa calling up their first round draft pick FROM THIS YEAR in the middle of a race. this is why nthe Os are so inept... they have no B*LLS!!!! your playing respectably in early JUly and still have a shot... you have pitchers dominating (Bergesen, Arrietta, Tillman) but yet you stay with and even give second chances to Olson, Burress, and LIz, who failed the test during 2 seperate stints. had we been one of the other teams those guys wouldve been sent down and stayed down unless any the aformentioned 3 failed as well, in which case they would go back down and wed be stuck with Burress, Liz, and lson again, but at least we gave it a shot.. and Wieters... tell me the Yankees or REays wouldnt have had them up by july???
now we need to sign Burnett and Tiexierra, and right a horrible ownership wrong of 8 years ago and BRING BACK MUSSINA. then make a solid run at Sabathia or Sheets. thats right- we need 3 starters and we need to anny up for them. dont let go of Cabrera until next year. if he gets of to a fast start again, trade him when he has value, but his near 200 innnings every year wont look so bad as a 5th starter. all of this gives you the time that for whatever reason the team thin ks it needs to develope the young pitchers, and when the organization is ready to bring them up 12 years from now, your other guys that you signed will be tradeable or in Mussina's case, near the end of there contract (2 years/option). dont give up Walker for nothing- he has a track record with only 1 blemish. trade Ramon for a 3b prospect, cuz Rowell and Snider do have a ways to go. and i like the rule 5 shortstop idea because you wont reaslly find a good one any other way at this point, and as far as this old defensive wiz of a SS we have now, i am strongly against giving up automatic outs in this division. Trading Roberts creates the same problematic hole that trading Tejada did (although i like the Tejada move in general) because a good 2b is just as hard to come by and your potentially creating a middle infield problem it could probably take 5 to 10 years to recover from and fix. if that happs, by then we'll still be losers who've wasted the young guys we had come up because we have no production at those 2 hard to fill positions.
Mark when you make an offer immediately, you are determining what market is until the next offer comes in. Every year someone says the same thing. It is silly to think that any player is going to accept the first offer from a bad team with a history of horrible front office without waiting to see what the big spending winning teams do. By coming out swinging all you do is help the players drive up the "market". There are two likely scenarios for the Os if they are going to accomplish something worthwhile this free agent season. First, decide that you have a geographic advantage with Burnett and Tex and bid strong for them with a mind to hang tough with the Yanks, Sawx, Angels etc. determined to overpay to bring them in, or go after a few second tier pitchers while the big money players are busy with the bigger names.
Roch,
What shows are you on in the off season?
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Anita Marks Show (tomorrow this week, but no set days), Playmakers Show that's been airing on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and a Hot Stove Show with Jim Hunter. Not sure when that one begins, but I'll keep everyone posted. - Roch
Cabrera should want to get out of Baltimore. He had a solid 4.47 ERA on the road this year and 4.26 last year. Which is much better then the 6+ ERA at home for both seasons.
The Hawaii Winter Baseball League used to be played in winter in its first life. Ichiro, Bret Boone and Jason Giambi (without the '70s porno moustache) all played in the initial HWB League. The O's send Alex Ochoa back then and he threw out a runner at home from right field that was on every HWB League commercial back then.
Anywho, they kept the name but play in the Fall instead now.
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Thanks for the explanation. I knew that I could count on you! - Roch
Hey Roch, there is a rumor out there that one of the free agent pitchers, Kyle Lohse, is going to sign with his old club, maybe today. Is there a window here where the Orioles should be contacting free agent pitchers or does this wait until the series is over? It makes me curious, because it is obvious some clubs are trying to keep from losing some of their best talent. Thanks!
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The Orioles can't begin negotiations with other free agents until after the Series. - Roch
what player will adam jones be like in his prime?
That right Roch the season just ended yesterday , so i think it's fitting that you start the very next day pumping the KOOL AID drinkers up about all the great prospects we have to look forward to seeing in OUR REBUIDING PROCESS.
Let's see... Sabithia, Sheets, Burnett, Mussina AND Tex?! Congress doesn't have to pass a bill, you could bail out Wall Street and have change left over with what these guys will be paid.