(Update) Orioles reach agreement w/ Taiwanese LHP Wei-Yin Chen

[dan-O]

Oh Lordy. StrawDawg was real. We're getting Prince and trading Jones. Done deal.

I don't care who you are, a trade of Jones and a signing of Fielder would make the OH blow up like an orange and black super nova. And not one of us wouldn't be excited to watch the O's next season regardless of our feelings of how smart or not smart that would all be.

[Bradysburns]

His strikeout numbers were down last year. They were pretty good the 3 prior seasons. I'm not sure how strikeouts translate from Japan. The talent certainly isn't as good but I bet most of the hitters over there are more contact oriented than many ML hitters.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...d=chen--001wei

A lefty throwing 93-94 mph heat with great location - he's gonna strike some guys out. Also, I bet they like his delivery. The guy doesn't so much "wind up" as cock. The ball comes out of his hand extremely fast. I bet that makes it hard to pick up, especially for lefties but really for anyone. Love the signing. Finally, we have a realist in the front office, who is not afraid to acknowledge that not EVERY member of the Cavalry is going to stay on his horse when the arrows start flying.

[LookinUp]

Who said? Perhaps one of the two.

You. Almost verbatim, minus the substance.

[Frobby]

I don't care who you are, a trade of Jones and a signing of Fielder would make the OH blow up like an orange and black super nova. And not one of us wouldn't be excited to watch the O's next season regardless of our feelings of how smart or not smart that would all be.

I will admit, a Fielder acquisition would excite me whether it was smart or not. But if we are going to do that, I'm not that excited about trading Jones.

[NCRaven]

I will admit, a Fielder acquisition would excite me whether it was smart or not. But if we are going to do that, I'm not that excited about trading Jones.

Good point. Much more likely to see where that lineup/rotation gets us at the trade deadline and then decide what to do with Jones once DD knows how competitive that team could be. Having said that, as always, I'd trade anyone in the right deal with the likely exceptions of Wieters, Britton and Machado.

[dan-O]

I will admit, a Fielder acquisition would excite me whether it was smart or not. But if we are going to do that, I'm not that excited about trading Jones.

Yeah, I mean, not to be all Trea on it, but it does seem counter-intuitive to trade Jones for prospects and then sign Fielder. Hard to gauge if DD is totally "yeah right" about Fielder or if there's something brewing because you can't really take him at his word. Same on the Jones front. Can't quite figure out what the whole plan is.

Do we want to trade Jones for pitching and weaken the overall offense?
Do we want to trade Jones for pitching and replace him (in a way) with Fielder?
Do we want to keep both Jones and Fielder and roll with what we've got for pitching?

Who knows.

[Can_of_corn]

A lefty throwing 93-94 mph heat with great location - he's gonna strike some guys out. Also, I bet they like his delivery. The guy doesn't so much "wind up" as cock. The ball comes out of his hand extremely fast. I bet that makes it hard to pick up, especially for lefties but really for anyone. Love the signing. Finally, we have a realist in the front office, who is not afraid to acknowledge that not EVERY member of the Cavalry is going to stay on his horse when the arrows start flying.

That isn't who Chen is.

No way the O's get a guy like that for 3/12. No way any team gets that on the open market for 3/12.

You might want to rein in your expectations a touch.

[dan-O]

That isn't who Chen is.

No way the O's get a guy like that for 3/12. No way any team gets that on the open market for 3/12.

You might want to rein in your expectations a touch.

That's what the videos say he is. I mean, he's right there doing it. Although I think it's probably more like 90-93.

[weams]

Oh Lordy. StrawDawg was real. We're getting Prince and trading Jones. Done deal.

Grimed1 is StrawDog

Einhorn is Finkle

[weams]

You. Almost verbatim, minus the substance.

Well, it's not like he is an insider or anything.

[JayThomas]

I think an additional side-effect is going to be the trading away of some of the guys with no options remaining. Bergy and Eveland come to mind. Does Berken have any options left? We have too many guys to fit on the ML staff, and a bunch of these guys will not pass through waivers. Some of these guys have got to be traded. Is there any market during spring training when teams pitching plans start to suffer from attrition? Can we go into ST with what we have and trade off what we can't use towards the end of spring training?

Oh yeah, great move picking up Chen by the way.

[Orioles4Life21]

This is one of those times where I actually think the Orioles have a chance to be good. I start thinking about Edwin Jackson and Fielder and how great that would be haha. Get it done DD. World Series let's go!!

[dan-O]

This is one of those times where I actually think the Orioles have a chance to be good. I start thinking about Edwin Jackson and Fielder and how great that would be haha. Get it done DD. World Series let's go!!

Sure why not? I've always said, if you're going to go big, then Go Big. The O's have to pick a direction. They don't seem to be rebuilding, do they? So... let's Go Big, then.

[LA2]

Lots of nice close-ups of Chen pitching here (song is in Japanese):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=a0KwxxwKOdA

His wedding (starts at 0:24), in Chinese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmv8...eature=related

[Orioles4Life21]

Sure why not? I've always said, if you're going to go big, then Go Big. The O's have to pick a direction. They don't seem to be rebuilding, do they? So... let's Go Big, then.

Exactly. I'm only 17 which isn't old enough for me to ever remember the Orioles being good. My best memories are us leading the division for a while in 05 and the last game against Boston this past September. That's really pathetic and I want something to get really excited about and I want it now! Haha