If you want a better starter, deal a strength for a weakness

The Orioles do not have the horses to get a better than mediocre starting pitcher given the state of their system. The Cardinals are looking for a back end reliever and the Orioles have Givens, Brach, O'Day and Britton. I wouldn't deal Britton right now and O'Day's deal might complicate what you could get back in a trade for him. With that said Givens and Brach are fairly cheap. If you give up Brach then you could get back a very good prospect or a package of good prospects to deal in a trade for a quality starter. We have bullpen arms and while Brach has been great we have 8th and 9th inning guys and Givens is pretty good most nights. What I do not want to see is the Orioles give up a quality prospect for another arm.

But wouldn't a team wanting a stronger bullpen at the deadline be a team that's making a run at it and you may possibly face in the postseason? On the surface, that looks like a plan that could backfire on us. But I do agree with your premise in your subject line.

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The Orioles do not have the horses to get a better than mediocre starting pitcher given the state of their system. The Cardinals are looking for a back end reliever and the Orioles have Givens, Brach, O'Day and Britton. I wouldn't deal Britton right now and O'Day's deal might complicate what you could get back in a trade for him. With that said Givens and Brach are fairly cheap. If you give up Brach then you could get back a very good prospect or a package of good prospects to deal in a trade for a quality starter. We have bullpen arms and while Brach has been great we have 8th and 9th inning guys and Givens is pretty good most nights. What I do not want to see is the Orioles give up a quality prospect for another arm.

The problem is the bullpen isn't necessarily an area of strength. They have three excellent relievers (Brach, Britton, DOD) and a bunch of guys with shaky command and high WHIPs. I don't want Givens in the game in an important situation against a left-handed hitter or Despaigne or Roe pitching high leverage innings in August and September.

The problem is the bullpen isn't necessarily an area of strength. They have three excellent relievers (Brach, Britton, DOD) and a bunch of guys with shaky command and high WHIPs. I don't want Givens in the game in an important situation against a left-handed hitter or Despaigne or Roe pitching high leverage innings in August and September.

If you took out Britton, Brach and O'Day from the stats the Orioles bullpen is still under 4 at 3.99 which would rank them 19th and that is with guys like Ubaldo, Matusz and a few others. The current ERA of the guys in the pen as a reliever is 3.02 which would rank us 2nd in baseball.

We're not going to do anything that weakens the 25 guys we have on the team now. Plus the bullpen has been the reason we've outperformed our run differential since 2012.

KC gets a lot of credit for the bullpen thing. But DD was ahead of the curve there.

You don't weaken one area of your team to make it "better" in another area if you're competing. If we were rebuilding? Yes, trade every asset that is at peak value.

You don't weaken one area of your team to make it "better" in another area if you're competing. If we were rebuilding? Yes, trade every asset that is at peak value.

Brach doesn't help us much in games where we are down by 3+ runs. I don't want to deal Brach, but the Orioles can't expect to make Cisco off limits and try to package Mancini plus a couple others as a centerpiece to a deal. I think that if the Orioles took on a lot of the Upton contract and included Mancini with the Other two prospects they could have gotten Upton and Cashner. The statement about Peter Angelos rejecting the amount of money coming back is concerning. I am not saying that Cashner is a top starter, but he is a capable one.

We're not going to do anything that weakens the 25 guys we have on the team now. Plus the bullpen has been the reason we've outperformed our run differential since 2012.

KC gets a lot of credit for the bullpen thing. But DD was ahead of the curve there.

The Orioles have to decide if they are not going to weaken the 25 man then do they weaken the minors? If they are not willing to weaken the minors are they willing to eat a contract? If they are not willing to do either then they are going to have a very hard time finding a starter in a thin pitching market.

I think some people forget that trades aren't moves on a fantasy roster. Generally, contending teams are looking to add without subtracting much from the current major league team. They don't like to mess with chemistry or send wrong messages. Trading minor leaguers who aren't yet part of the fraternity isn't a big deal, but when people suggest a first place team should trade Trumbo or Brach, I think they are forgetting the reality of the situation. I won't even get into why a non- contending team would want Trumbo...In Brach's case he has value, but that would be an offseason type move imo.

You don't weaken one area of your team to make it "better" in another area if you're competing. If we were rebuilding? Yes, trade every asset that is at peak value.

I am completely with you on this.

I am completely with you on this.

yep, this.