Pickles

I saw the Fangraphs thread and figured I might as well add this here. Another national publication criticizing the O's deadline moves or lack thereof. https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2023/8/1/23816523/mlb-trade-deadline-2023-buyers-sellers-justin-verlander-max-scherzer Loser: Baltimore Orioles In: Jack Flaherty, Shintaro Fujinami, Logan Rinehart Out: César Prieto, Drew Rom, Zack Showalter, Easton Lucas, Eduard Bazardo The Orioles are like the Rangers—a surprising first-place team at the deadline. But they’re also not like the Rangers, because it’s unclear whether the Orioles actually realized they’re a first-place team at the deadline. Texas acted like it, strengthening its roster in an effort to both make the playoffs and maximize its opportunity once there. Baltimore, though, acted with nowhere near that amount of aggression, even though the Orioles had more prospect depth to trade than any other contender. The Orioles have so many good young hitters that they can’t even play all of them together—yet they didn’t use any of their top 25 prospects, by FanGraphs’ reckoning, to upgrade at the deadline. There’s a large gap between not “set[ting] the minor league system on fire just because we’re in first place,” which GM Mike Elias warned against doing, and holding every notable prospect close. It’s not as if Baltimore is devoid of holes, either. The bullpen is overly reliant on just two brilliant arms, Félix Bautista and Yennier Cano, and Cano has struggled of late, with a 4.91 ERA and 1.018 OPS allowed in his last 13 appearances. Yet the club’s only bullpen addition was Fujinami, a speculative acquisition with control problems who was terrible for the A’s this season. The starting rotation is in even more dire straits, ranking 19th in the majors in WAR this season, and without a true ace who can helm a playoff rotation. How does some combination of Kyle Gibson, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer, and Tyler Wells (recently demoted to Double-A after a slump) sound in October? The club has succeeded with such uninspired rotations before—remember when Joe Saunders beat Yu Darvish in a wild-card game, or when Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, and Bud Norris swept Verlander, Scherzer, and David Price?—but that doesn’t mean Baltimore’s bound to win in the same fashion again a decade later. And all the team did in this regard was add Flaherty in the final minutes before the deadline. Flaherty’s a big name—but now he’s only an average pitcher, not the top-of-the-rotation type the Orioles need. While Flaherty was dominant for the Cardinals en route to the NLCS in 2019, he hasn’t posted an above-average FIP in any full-length season since then. His strikeouts have fallen, his walks have risen, and now he’s an impending free agent who’s largely indistinguishable from the Gibsons of the world. Make no mistake, the Orioles are still flying high with the best record in the American League, and their fans should still be exuberant about the team’s overall direction. But their playoff potential would look a lot less precarious if they’d cashed in some of their prospect value to make a real run at the 2023 title.

These are the same brilliant commentators that spent all off-season dumping on Mike Elias, right?

All prospects fail at a high rate.

You can play McKenna in CF vs LHP. But against a LHP you're still going to want Hays in LF.

No worries. Cowser's here.

He's ice cold. You'd love to give him some rest, but Mullins is out.

I thought you gave a decent summation in the other thread: The team is better. They didn't markedly improve, but they are better, and while they gave up more than you like, they didn't give up anything major. One thing I will add that I don't especially like: 3 of the 4 departing prospects are pitchers, and we received no long-term pitching in return. That formula's going to have to change.

It's funny, but most of the board is complaining about not making a bigger aquisition, while simultaneously most of the board is complaining about giving up 3 legit prospects for Flaherty. If we had to give up 3 to get Flaherty, can you imagine what they were asking for Cease?

Yeah, apparently the trade was Prieto and Rom. I don't love it tbh. Prieto I'm fine with, but would have preferred bullpen help honestly. Rom seems like a weighty addition for what we're getting. I know he's been bad as of late, and there's always been a big divide between the scouting projection and the numbers he was putting up in the MiLs, but I think he has a ML future, and I'm not so sure I'd have given that up for 2 months of an innings eater.

Yes.

It's worth noting, E-Rod took an extended absence last year due to "family" or "marital" issues, and while I've never heard clarification on what those issues were, it suggests relocating his family mid-season might not be something he's interested in.

Had he? I didn't realize that.

This seems pretty obviously a precursor to another move. Perhaps they have something lined up for a bp arm.

MLB.com has him as Phillies #5 prospect with a FV 50. Pretty close to Norby territory.

Recency bias.

Like I said, it's the most charitable take possible of DeJong and clearly not a consensus one. But there's no need to parse DeJong's value too much. It's a very uninteresting topic.

I remember well.

The price of a FA win has been stable for several seasons now.

Personally, I'm not giving up a Godfather package for Cease. He's not The Man for that.

That's the single most charitable take possible. LOL. BWAR has him under 1 WAR with 75% of the season played so not according to BWAR. And since when has a win been worth 10 mil?

Probably, along with a lower level lottery ticket.

Because he's not good and he's overpaid.

The Cardinals were thrilled to get that.

That's interesting.

They never meant anything.