Don't trade RLo.

[wildcard]

As it turns out this team needs Rodrigo Lopez. With all the young pitching coming RLo has been a consistent source of trade speculation. However this is not the time to trade him.

Why?

Because the young arms will wear down in August and September leaving the O's short on starters or worst.

The one thing the O's don't want to do is put too much stress of young arms. Remember calling up Matt Riley late in the year. Remember the arm problems he developed after that. Were they directly related? Who knows, but why take the chance.

RLo is not a free agent until after the 2007 season. He can pitch the rest of this year and still be traded this winter. RLo will be needed in the rotation until Penn gets stronger. That could take several weeks to a month. By then Bedard and Loewen will have probably excessed their highest innings pitched in their career.

I say keep RLo. Let him spot start for a while and keep sharp in the pen. Then go to a six man rotation late in the year.

[TinCup]

As it turns out this team needs Rodrigo Lopez. With all the young pitching coming RLo has been a consistent source of trade speculation. However this is not the time to trade him.

Why?

Because the young arms will wear down in August and September leaving the O's short on starters or worst.

The one thing the O's don't want to do is put too much stress of young arms. Remember calling up Matt Riley late in the year. Remember the arm problems he developed after that. Were they directly related? Who knows, but why take the chance.

RLo is not a free agent until after the 2007 season. He can pitch the rest of this year and still be traded this winter. RLo will be needed in the rotation until Penn gets stronger. That could take several weeks to a month. By then Bedard and Loewen will have probably excessed their highest innings pitched in their career.

I say keep RLo. Let him spot start for a while and keep sharp in the pen. Then go to a six man rotation late in the year.

Trading RLo should have little if anything at all to do with what you are suggesting IMO. It should have everything to do with potentially getting someone in return who can improve the team. But that is the problem, as it seems RLo's trade value is very limited now (and who can question that with his numbers), to the point where we likely won't get anything back that will in fact improve us. You could bring up more than one arm from the minors and get about the same results as RLo, while not overusing folks. Keeping him just to spread out the innings so as to not burn out any arms is a rather weak justification in my book. That has been the one thing everyone has always said about RLO, he eats up innings, but what good is that with an ERA like he has? If you can improve the team, trade him already.

[Optimum O]

Maybe RLo's arm has already worn down? Consider that for a while!!

[Frobby]

As it turns out this team needs Rodrigo Lopez. With all the young pitching coming RLo has been a consistent source of trade speculation. However this is not the time to trade him.

Why?

Because the young arms will wear down in August and September leaving the O's short on starters or worst.

The one thing the O's don't want to do is put too much stress of young arms. Remember calling up Matt Riley late in the year. Remember the arm problems he developed after that. Were they directly related? Who knows, but why take the chance.

RLo is not a free agent until after the 2007 season. He can pitch the rest of this year and still be traded this winter. RLo will be needed in the rotation until Penn gets stronger. That could take several weeks to a month. By then Bedard and Loewen will have probably excessed their highest innings pitched in their career.

I say keep RLo. Let him spot start for a while and keep sharp in the pen. Then go to a six man rotation late in the year.

Hayden Penn's arm isn't going to wear down. He has barely pitched.
Daniel Cabrera's arm should't wear down. He also spent some time on the shelf and his innings are not that high (although he has thrown a lot of pitches in those innings).
Bedard and Loewen are the ones who need to be treated carefully, I think.

[wildcard]

It's not whether their arm are worn down now. It's how they will be in mid August. A six man rotation may save arms.

As far as bringing more people up from the minors.

1) There is only so much roster space until the first of Sept.
2) Who do you bring up. It's not like there are are a bunch of arms that are ready. Burres needs to break in easily, probably in the pen. He has never been reported to have the talent of Loewen or Penn.

I don't disagree that RLo value is down. All the more reason why he is better off staying with the O's and helping out through the rest of the year.

[TinCup]

All the more reason why he is better off staying with the O's and helping out through the rest of the year.

This is where you lose me; mighty big assumption - him helping out.

He has shown little consistency to help out.

[Frobby]

I think we will see solid no. 4-5 type pitching from Rodrigo for as long as we keep him. I'm not sure why he started the year so badly, but he's been OK the last 7 weeks or so (2 stinkers and 7 pretty solid starts), and I think he will stay that way. Nothing great, but serviceable.

[TinCup]

I think we will see solid no. 4-5 type pitching from Rodrigo for as long as we keep him. I'm not sure why he started the year so badly, but he's been OK the last 7 weeks or so (2 stinkers and 7 pretty solid starts), and I think he will stay that way. Nothing great, but serviceable.

Which suggests to me that if you trade him, you don't lose much, as well as suggesting he should be easy enough to replace witha Loewen or a Penn.

I am tired of "serviceable" players!

[RShack]

I think we will see solid no. 4-5 type pitching from Rodrigo for as long as we keep him. I'm not sure why he started the year so badly, but he's been OK the last 7 weeks or so (2 stinkers and 7 pretty solid starts), and I think he will stay that way. Nothing great, but serviceable.

Exactly right. I like Loewen and Penn getting a chance, but we don't know that both of them will be servicable. There would be nothing surprising about needing another starter at some point, and I'd much rather have Rodrigo around than Ortiz.

If, as many suggest, Rodrigo won't net us much, then the only big reason for trading him before the off-season is to satisfy the "oooh, let's trade somebody" urge. If they can get somebody who actually adds value to the team this year and next, that's one thing. But this mad rush to make trades just for the sake of making trades is just silly. Doing that has become a fad around here, but it won't fix anything, and it could quite easily make things worse. You don't make trades to let some posters vent their spleen. You make trades to make the team better.

People wanted Matos gone. He's gone. Feel better? No. It's just time to move on to the next punching bag, that's all.

[Jagwar]

This is where you lose me; mighty big assumption - him helping out.

He has shown little consistency to help out.

No kidding MB. Help out with what... staying out of 5th place in the AL East?

Lopez should be traded, maybe packaged with another player/prospect, preferably for a position player (IMO)

[KstateBird]

I'm not for dumping him just to dump him, but if he can net you anything that might remotely be of value, you move him.

Is there really a difference between winning 75 games with R-Lo and winning 72 without him? (and claiming that he is worth 3 wins over Loewen/Penn/whoever is extremely generous on my part)

[Mark Carver]

It's not whether their arm are worn down now. It's how they will be in mid August. A six man rotation may save arms.

As far as bringing more people up from the minors.

1) There is only so much roster space until the first of Sept.
2) Who do you bring up. It's not like there are are a bunch of arms that are ready. Burres needs to break in easily, probably in the pen. He has never been reported to have the talent of Loewen or Penn.

I don't disagree that RLo value is down. All the more reason why he is better off staying with the O's and helping out through the rest of the year.

Trade Lopez, release Ortiz and call-up Penn and Loewen... that's 2-for-2 on the 25-man roster.

[DrungoHazewood]

It's not whether their arm are worn down now. It's how they will be in mid August. A six man rotation may save arms.

Or it might throw them off their regular throwing routine and screw them all up.

It's kind of weird to think that Loewen and Cabrera can't handle 150 innings, and Penn whatever small amount he's going to throw this year. If they break down after that workload you have to wonder if it wasn't inevitable no matter how they were treated.

If you can find anything of value for Rodrigo you have to trade him. He's not going to be a type A free agent (or I'd be amazed if he was) and net the O's a couple good picks.

[Avsfan]

What happens when his performance craps the bed again? Then it won't matter if he has a tired arm or not.

[Bryce]

I don't understand why Penn has been out so long? When I got my appendix out on a Thurs. I was back dunking a basketball by Monday? Did it rupture or something? I just used that example to say what type of activity I was able to do again? He has been out almost a month and hasn't he? I saw he pitched yesterday and gave up 2 runs in 2 innings.