Do you agree with the O's decision to recall Britton from Norfolk?

[backwardsk]

It's not unprecedented for an Orioles starting pitcher to dump Boras.

[BaltimoreTerp]

It's been 14 years since our last winning team. We need to go for every single win that we can this year. I'm tired of hearing about rebuilding and that kind of crap. A team is entitled to talk about rebuilding for maybe a period of about three or four years following their last winning team. After that, you've got to try to win -- we passed that point 10 years ago. Rebuilding didn't work, at least not on it's own, now it's time to field a winner by whatever means possible, or at least as close as we can get to one.

1) You obviously don't understand anything about building a baseball team. What you are saying the Orioles should have done is exactly what they did do, and it cost them most of last decade. So congratulations, you can build a winning team as well as Syd Thrift, Jim Beattie, Mike Flanagan or Jim Duquette.

2) You better get used to hearing all of that rebuilding "crap" because this is still one of those years. We're still just as likely to finish under .500 as over. We're most assuredly not coming within ten games of a playoff spot either way. So be prepared to hate this team when it doesn't come close to your expectations.

Jesus. As the legendary philosopher Barney Stinson once said, "You're forcing me to be the voice of reason. It's not a good look for me."

[OFFNY]

Damn, you would never guess that we just won our first game of the season on the road (failry easily), with our ace pitcher outdueling their ace pitcher (David Price). :scratchchinhmm: Good times.

[BaltimoreTerp]

It's not unprecidented for an Orioles starting pitcher to dump Boras.

I'm not willing to take that roll of the dice for what is most likely to be a couple worthless wins at best.

[DeanMW]

Jon Heyman votes yes:

http://twitter.com/#!/SI_JonHeyman/status/54002590303793152

Which automatically means the correct answer is no.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Damn, you would never guess that we just won our first game of the season on the road (failry easily), with our ace pitcher outdueling their ace pitcher (David Price). :scratchchinhmm: Good times.

Plenty of other threads for that. This is a different discussion.

[eddie83]

The only way they save time is if they shut him down at the end of the year and they option him back in September.

Either that or he sucks and gets sent back down.

What makes you think they won't option him if they have to?

He doesn't have to completely tank to be sent down either.

If he would of been called up on the 21rst he wasn't going to pitch the whole year here anyway. They could of just shut him down at the end of the year if they had to. They are not going to take a kid who has a grand total of 66 innings at AAA and have him pitch a crazy number of innings at the big leagues.

[OFFNY]

Plenty of other threads for that. This is a different discussion.

Yeah. There's no harm in making one comment of today's win in relation to the debate that is going on, though. It's not like the thread is off course because of it.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Yeah. There's no harm in making one comment of today's win in relation to the debate that is going on, though. It's not like the thread is off course because of it.

Relax, I was just making the point

And yes, now that we're responding back and forth, the thread is going off-course

[OFFNY]

Relax, I was just making the point

And yes, now that we're responding back and forth, the thread is going off-course

OK, my bad. Now I'll put it back on track.

BRITTON SHOULD BE UP HERE, DAMN IT !!!

[BaltimoreTerp]

What makes you think they won't option him if they have to?

He doesn't have to completely tank to be sent down either.

If he would of been called up on the 21rst he wasn't going to pitch the whole year here anyway. They could of just shut him down at the end of the year if they had to. They are not going to take a kid who has a grand total of 66 innings at AAA and have him pitch a crazy number of innings at the big leagues.

He pitched 153 innings last year.

As a young pitcher who is likely to struggle to go deep into games, he might not hit 180 between the minors and majors either way. So I doubt he gets shut down, at least late enough to have an effect on the service time.

[CharmCityCrab]

So if he comes to the Orioles and says, "I want ten years, $300 million," (and by then that could be the going rate for a starter at the top of the market) the Orioles should just give it to him?

If that's the going rate for a starter at the top of the market, and Britton's performance to that point qualifies him as a Cy Young caliber pitcher then, yes, I think you give it to him. If an owner gets to the point where he or she can't, over the long haul, ever sign or re-sign a top player to a market value contract due to fiscal constraints, I think he or she should sell the team. I didn't agree with Angelos lowballing Mike Mussina way back when, and I wouldn't agree with something like that in your hypothetical either.

Having said that:

A) If the market gets to the point you describe, baseball is pretty much doomed as a sport unless it implements a salary cap.

B) I'm not sure it's a given that the market reaches that point

C) Britton may be out of baseball by then or just a middle tier pitcher -- we all hope he's future Hall of Fame material, but obviously no one knows yet.

1) You obviously don't understand anything about building a baseball team. What you are saying the Orioles should have done is exactly what they did do, and it cost them most of last decade. So congratulations, you can build a winning team as well as Syd Thrift, Jim Beattie, Mike Flanagan or Jim Duquette.

Actually, as much as I criticized all of those front office types, it'd be pretty impressive if I, a simple apartment dwelling person who's never played (above the little league level anyway) or been formally involved with the game, had the baseball knowledge of a former major league GM. So, thanks.

Anyhow, I don't think they did what you attribute to them. I think they tried to rebuild and failed. Just my personal opinion.

2) You better get used to hearing all of that rebuilding "crap" because this is still one of those years. We're still just as likely to finish under .500 as over. We're most assuredly not coming within ten games of a playoff spot either way. So be prepared to hate this team when it doesn't come close to your expectations.

Buck Showalter doesn't talk about rebuilding, he talks about winning games. And, this off-season, we acquired a lot of veterans like Guerrerro, Lee, Hardy, Gregg, and Reynolds, and raised payroll, which seem to be indicators that we are trying to take a step forward and win some games. I'm not saying we're actually *going* to have a winning record, but it sounds like we've moved out of the "strict rebuiild" phase into a "*try* to win" phase.

If we lose because the team can't win, that's one thing, but I'll be very upset if we start dismantling again and trading off our better veteran players.

Jesus. As the legendary philosopher Barney Stinson

LOL. Barney Stinson. Legendary.

[Slappy]

I voted yes. A lot can happen between now and 2017. Our wave of prospects is in the majors now, and we augmented them with a solid group of veterans. The team is built to compete this year.

And in any case, there are still ways to get the extra service year. I don't believe it has to be Britton's first 20 days off the 25-man.

[underdog]

Like I said they can send him down for 3 week stretch where they only need a 5th starter once for a couple of weeks.

Service time aside you don't see rookies pitching every 5th day today for a whole year. Teams don't do that, they bring guys along slowly.

You can't send him down for 21 days later on in the year. Once he has been on a major league roster, his clock has started and it doesn't stop.

[Slappy]

You can't send him down for 21 days later on in the year. Once he has been on a major league roster, his clock has started and it doesn't stop.

Not true. The service clock only ticks when a player is on the 25-man roster.