Teammates on an Orioles team that advanced to the American League Championship Series in 1996, Roger McDowell and Alan Mills are now reunited in Baltimore. Today, McDowell was hired as the club's pitching coach and Mills as bullpen coach.
While McDowell will have to get to know the Orioles pitchers coming from Atlanta, Mills is already quite familiar with many of them. He was the pitching coach at short-season Single-A Aberdeen from 2012-13, at Single-A Delmarva in 2014 and with Double-A Bowie...
While this has the potential to be a quieter offseason than most for the Orioles, it also seems like it will be an offseason without the pursuit of a starting pitcher. At least one that can step right in on the big league level.
Right now, the Orioles have six starters for five spots. Some feel the rotation gets off to a good start with Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy. But then it falls off a cliff with the veterans Yovani Gallardo, Ubaldo Jimenez and Wade Miley.
Let's start with...
Are the Chicago White Sox having a fire sale? Are they telling other teams in baseball that almost all of their players can be had in a trade?
If the reports are accurate that any players with less than four years of team control are available, then they have a player that technically has less than four years remaining that is very attractive. A player that a team looking for a leadoff hitter, right fielder and good on-base guy might covet. Know any team that needs a player like that?
The...
The salaries for good relief pitchers continue to rise. During a free agent period when it's possible that Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen could sign deals approaching $100 million, former Terps left-hander Brett Cecil cashed in yesterday.
The St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a deal with Cecil for four years and $30.5 million, putting the average annual value at $7.625 million. The dollars and deal are very similar to the one the Orioles signed Darren O'Day to in December 2015. That one was...
In recent seasons, getting starting pitchers to go deep into games has been an issue for the Orioles. But it has been for most teams in the American League as well. Some facts bear that out.
In 2012, there were seven AL teams that saw their rotation average at least six innings per start. Last year, there were just two. In 2013, there were 19 AL pitchers throwing 200 innings or more and last year there were just nine.
Fewer innings by the starters, fewer workhorses, fewer complete games, and...
The Orioles tonight added two right-handed pitchers to their 40-man roster. They selected the contracts of starting pitcher Joe Gunkel and reliever Jesus Liranzo. The two pitchers are now protected from being taken by another club in the Dec. 8 Rule 5 draft. The Orioles' 40-man roster now holds 35 players.
Liranzo is a 21-year-old from the Dominican Republic that had a very strong season after having pitched just 52 career innings coming into the year. Originally signed by Atlanta in May 2012,...
The Orioles today are expected to add a few players to their 40-man roster to protect them from being lost to another team in the Rule 5 draft. Today is the final date for teams to make 40-man additions to protect those players from being selected in the Rule 5 draft on Dec. 8 at the Winter Meetings.
This list is a partial list of O's minor leaguers who are eligible for the Rule 5 this year if not added to the 40-man. It is not a listing of every player in the organization with eligibility,...
If the Orioles do not re-sign catcher Matt Wieters, the club has some questions to answer at the position. Will Caleb Joseph become the starter or will the team look to sign someone they deem an upgrade? Or will Joseph become part of a platoon or a timeshare at the position?
Joseph has become a solid defensive catcher, we have seen that. It came after a minor league career where he was often knocked for his defense. Sometimes labels are hard to lose and/or they may not be completely...
A few weeks after a successful rookie season, Orioles right-hander Dylan Bundy turned 24 yesterday. When you consider that he entered the 2016 season out of options and having to stick on the major league roster all year, and with all of 38 2/3 minor league innings above Single-A on his resume, Bundy had a solid season indeed.
He tied for second on the team in wins, threw 109 2/3 innings, moved into the starting rotation, and certainly flashed some of the vast talent and potential fans had been...
Here is a question worth pondering: If the Orioles lose Mark Trumbo, thereby adding a draft pick, are they then more likely to give up a pick for signing a player that turned down a qualifying offer?
In other words, will they give up a pick but have one on hand already to replace it.
Trumbo, as expected, turned down the qualifying offer from the Orioles on Monday. If Trumbo signs with another team, the Orioles get a pick after the first round but before the second next June. Right now, that...
With the Orioles in the market for at least one corner outfielder, let's look at a few free agents the team could pursue. There is also the trade market, but there is no way to know which players are available through that avenue.
Dexter Fowler: After the deal that turned out not to be a deal last winter and the hard feelings that resulted, you have to wonder if the Orioles would even travel down this road again.
But putting that aside for a moment, Fowler seems a perfect fit in several...
It is time for another edition of "10 Questions for O's Fans." As you probably know, we do this about once a month to survey the pulse of Birdland on a variety of topics. Feel free to answer one or all 10 question and provide short answers or long ones. It's your call and your opinions we're looking for.
This edition features a twist. Every question today comes from an Orioles fan and reader of this blog. The 10th question when we did this last month was, "What question should we ask next...
The defensive metrics don't paint a pretty picture. They scream that the Orioles need to improve their outfield defense. We know they need to improve because some of the metrics rank the Orioles last of all 30 major league teams.
In this ranking from FanGraphs.com of outfield Defensive Runs Saved, the Orioles are at -51 DRS. Orioles outfielders also ranked last in Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) at -36.7. Kansas City led all American League outfields in DRS at 45, with Boston at 42 and Houston at...
Mark Trumbo set out to hit a lot of home runs in the 2016 season, then he went out and did it. Much easier said than done, but it's nice when a plan comes together.
And make no mistake, Trumbo went into the 2015 offseason with a specific plan to improve his ability to drive the baseball, and he went out and got that done.
Trumbo's 47 homers led the majors by four over the next closest on the list, Seattle's Nelson Cruz with 43. Last night, Trumbo was rewarded with a Silver Slugger Award, the...
In baseball, the price of talent seems to always be going upward. But for those pitchers we know as closers, the pay rate is about to really escalate.
This steep incline may have started when free agent right-hander Jonathan Papelbon left the Red Sox to sign a four-year deal with the Phillies worth $50 million in November 2011. That broke the record for total contract by a reliever that was set by one-time Orioles lefty B.J. Ryan. He had signed a four-year deal worth $47 million with Toronto in...
There has been some discussion about baseball's qualifying offer system. It is a system that can be a drag on player salaries and the players union is obviously not a fan of that. We could see changes in the system when the new collective bargaining agreement is announced.
But for now, the current system is in place, and 10 players, including the Orioles' Mark Trumbo, got qualifying offers Monday. A player getting the qualifying offer can accept it and play this upcoming year for his current...
So Mark Trumbo got a qualifying offer and Matt Wieters did not. Buck Showater was an award finalist but Zach Britton was not. A rather newsworthy day involving the Orioles.
I thought the Orioles should have extended Wieters the qualifying offer, maybe moreso this year than last. After a season where he proved that his right elbow is sound, throwing out 35 percent of attempted base stealers, Wieters should get a decent multi-year offer in a down year for free agent catchers. That would have led...
So much for Zach Britton becoming the fifth Orioles pitcher to win the American League Cy Young Award. He would have joined Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Mike Flanagan and Steve Stone. But the finalists for the award were announced tonight and Britton did not even make the final three.
First, let's look at his resume.
Britton recorded 47 consecutive saves this season, going 47-for-47. According to STATS, LLC, Britton has the longest save streak in as many chances to start a season by a left-handed...
When it comes to Baseball Prospectus and its PECOTA projections, it is time to admit that projection system just cannot make accurate projections on the Orioles.
The system missed by a mile on the Orioles yet again in the 2016 season. The projection was for last place in the American League East at 72 wins. The end result was a tie for second place, with 89 wins and a wild card berth. Yep, not even close. Again.
PECOTA, which stands for Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test...
Last year, when they played in college, right-handers Ruben Garcia and Matt De La Rosa were position players that pitched for just a few innings. But after being drafted by and signed by the Orioles, they are now full-time pitchers.
They are basically conversion projects similar to right-hander Mychal Givens, now a fixture in the Orioles bullpen. Givens was a second-round pick in the 2009 draft (No. 54 overall) and played shortstop from 2010-2012 on the O's farm. In three seasons, he never...