Keith Law hating on the Orioles big time.

http://www.masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2011/02/keith-law-criticizes-the-os-offseason-moves.html

Steve Melewski did a phone interview with Kieth Law yesterday and let's just say he's not a fan of the O's chances or the moves we made. A few quotes below, but I encourage you to read the whole article.

"The Orioles are not a club right now that is adding young talent, they have added veteran players to the roster. I don't get it, they are not winning 85 games this year and even if they did, what is that going to buy them? A couple extra fans in the seats? It won't put them in the playoffs," Law said.

"The Orioles are clearly the worst team in a five-team division. The worst team in a five-team division is not going to win 85 games. It's never happened since baseball went to a three division format," Law added.

I understand how difficult the AL East is, but I don't think you can say that we are clearly the worst team in the division and to say we have very little chance of getting to .500

So he felt that we should have just gone into the season the same as last year with glaring holes at multiple positions? Just how were we to acquire the young talent to fill all of these holes?

Until we prove it on the field, pundits will always think of us as a doormat.

go O's

by the way: Hardy and Reynolds are old now?

I'm surprised he was so against the Reynolds acquisition. Keith Law seems like the last person who would care about high strikeout numbers for a hitter-- it's like he was possessed by Joe Morgan. That's very unlike Law.

Also, why does he consider Reynolds a "brutal" defensive third baseman? By most reports, isn't he about average or slightly below?

Didnt we add Reynolds (27) and Hardy (28).

Both of these guys could be long term solutions to those positions.

I feel like we pissed some writers off when we signed Vlad.

So he felt that we should have just gone into the season the same as last year with glaring holes at multiple positions? Just how were we to acquire the young talent to fill all of these holes?

He wasn't commenting on HOW we were to acquire the young talent to fill all those holes. It doesn't change the fact that the Orioles still project to near the bottom of the division. Law's not wrong in that respect.

It won't put them in the playoffs

Probably not, but it was nice to improve on some massively glaring holes at multiple positions. In some universes, a baseball move is worth 2 cents if it doesn't make any team a penant contender.

I feel like we pissed some writers off when we signed Vlad.

And I think Mark Reynolds kicked Law's dog.

Mark Reynolds strikes out 200 times a year and is a brutal defensive player.

Mark Reynolds is not a very good baseball player.

I haven't seen anyone else mention his D being brutal, and my understanding seems to be that it has been improving.

My biggest objection to a writer saying some of these things is this:

If the O's want to trade some of their older vets for younger potential talent they don't have to do that right now. They can do it at the deadline. You can argue the merits of it right, but if the O's turn around and deal every single person they signed for prospects of some kind it renders Law's comments moot.

It's like they are defining all of the O's 2011 season before it even starts.

They don't account for the fact that most of the O's talent has to mature for them to compete. This is the window where we see what we have and potentially blow it all up if we have to.

The young guys he writes about are Reimold and Pie. Come on Law, if you really want to talk about the O's tell me what you think about Wieters and his progression. Can Jones improve? If you want to slam the O's, I'd much rather see writers tell us why they think our core young talent is a failure.

In the scheme of things the Vlad move probably doesn't do us much good. But in the long run this one isn't going to hurt us either. It's almost like these guys would have been happier if we overpaid for the likes of VMart and Dunn because they are talented.

I don't think people realize how bad the O's were at 1b, SS and 3b last year. They have no idea how bad...I'm pretty sure if you told Law CI's OPS from last year he might be so shocked he fall off of a chair.

I do think Law was right on here

Make sure you have $5 million available for your first pick in this draft and another $3 million for the second pick. Because this draft is loaded and there might be somebody there you can overpay for," he said.

If we don't sign our top two picks next year I will be upset that we spent the money on Vlad. I can't imagine that is the case. I am guessing the budgets are compartmentalized.

Didnt we add Reynolds (27) and Hardy (28).

Both of these guys could be long term solutions to those positions.

That was my thinking as well. To me, the only "bad contract" we've added is Gregg's. Lee is on a one-year deal and will likely be traded if he's back to form as will Guerrero. I'm not quite sure what he's getting at. The only possible player "blocked" at this point is Reimold.

Now, if he means we should have been looking at adding some meaningful younger prospects, he has a point. The only issue with that is that all of our attractive trade chips are YOUNG GUYS. I'm sure we'd deal Scott for a nice young player or two, but I doubt any decent young players are being offered for Scott any way. Do we trade Scott and Guthrie for low-level prospects? I'm not sure we'd get good value for either of those guys right now.

He wasn't commenting on HOW we were to acquire the young talent to fill all those holes. It doesn't change the fact that the Orioles still project to near the bottom of the division. Law's not wrong in that respect.

That may be, but I think he's wrong in saying that even if we do win 85+ games this year that it means nothing. 13 years of losing is enough. And while we all want this team to get to the playoffs finishing with a winning record would be a step in the right direction.

He wasn't commenting on HOW we were to acquire the young talent to fill all those holes.

Then I have no idea what he's commenting on, other than we should have done nothing or traded pieces like Roberts, Markakis, Scott. I certainly don't think that trading just Scott would have filled these holes.

It doesn't change the fact that the Orioles still project to near the bottom of the division. Law's not wrong in that respect.

Well sure, but I don't understand why he is so against additions that improve the team. Reynolds and Hardy aren't geezers, and what we gave up/are paying them certainly doesn't hamstring the future.

My biggest objection to a writer saying some of these things is this:

If the O's want to trade some of their older vets for younger potential talent they don't have to do that right now. They can do it at the deadline. You can argue the merits of it right, but if the O's turn around and deal every single person they signed for prospects of some kind it renders Law's comments moot.

It's like they are defining all of the O's 2011 season before it even starts.

Agreed. That's one man's opinion. Here is another that thinks what we are doing makes perfect sense.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/7034/orioles-take-necessary-steps-to-compete