Signing Vlad was big mistake

[DrungoHazewood]

They did not sign Vlad just to sell a few more tickets. They thought and it still might happen,people know his name and might come out to see the O's. The last two weeks have killed alot of the Oriole buzz. I know the O's were hoping to draw around 2 million or more this year. They drew 1,733,018 last year.

I don't think they're that dumb. They signed Vlad on the off chance he could still put up an .800-.850 OPS and drive the team towards contention and build hope for the future. Take away some of that hopelessness. The contention part wasn't a good bet, as a lot of things had/have to go right, but the hope part isn't entirely unreasonable.

But 2011 ticket sales had to be way, way down on the list. There's almost no objective evidence that a guy like Vlad does anything measureable for attendance. Real attendance spikers, like Strasburg, or Mark Fidrych, are exceptionally rare.

[LookitsPuck]

Yea, I am sure if he has a really solid rookie season that they will send him down to start next year.

Its either this year or it doesn't happen..unless he flops.

Name one (potential star) player that they called up too soon (in regards to service time)?

[LookitsPuck]

It wasn't the only reason, but I would say it contributed a heck of a lot.

The whole Vlad signing said to the world "we are ready to compete this year, there is no more rebuilding". Making that kind of statement make you make decisions that have this year in mind, prime example being you bring up Britton for 3 starts.

Do you see a team like the Royals bringing up Hosmer, Moustakas, Lamb etc.. this year? Why not, those guys are much better than Kila and Aviles. Hosmer is absolutely killing the ball in AAA. The reason that they are in the minors is that they know they aren't competing this year, why waste the resources this year.

If they had spent 8 million and 10 million on two old guys on one year deals they might be more inclined to bring those guys up.

I am not discounting that losing 3 SP's to injuries kind of accelerated it. But without Vlad, bringing up Britton wouldn't have been in the discussion other than in JTrea's head.

The only reason Britton is up here is due to lack of depth in the minors and the injuries of our starting pitchers. Period.

[Sports Guy]

Name one (potential star) player that they called up too soon (in regards to service time)?

Not sure what this question has to do with anything but Markakis is your answer here.

[LookitsPuck]

Not sure what this question has to do with anything but Markakis is your answer here.

I guess I should have qualified this with:

Name one (potential star) the MacPhail regime called up too soon.

My point is this: MacPhail has not done it, yet, so why assume that Britton won't be shut down at the end of the season (for 21 games, i.e. 3 starts) or next year?

[Sports Guy]

I guess I should have qualified this with:

Name one (potential star) the MacPhail regime called up too soon.

My point is this: MacPhail has not done it, yet, so why assume that Britton won't be shut down at the end of the season (for 21 games, i.e. 3 starts) or next year?

Well, he definitely won't be next year....because there will be no reason to shut him down.

This year he will get shut down because of IP limits...but whether they option him or not is unknown.

[EddieEddie]

I dont think team speed has been the issue thus far.

The issue is that no one is hitting.

[olehippi]

I skipped through a couple pages of posts, so maybe this was already mentioned, but.........

Just looking at HR's and RBI's, on April 26 of last year, Vlad only had 2 HR's and 11 RBI's. He now has 2 and 9 respectively. The biggest difference is that last year he was getting more base hits, even though they didn't translate into runs – 7 so far this year, as opposed 8 at this time last year.

Then in May he went on a tear and hit 10 HR's and knocked in 31 runs. After that he was much more modest: June 6 / 24; July 3 / 16; Aug 4 / 15; and Sept 4 / 16. So, outside of one crazy month, Vlad was pretty mediocre.

I think what we might see out of Vlad this year is a disappointing 18-20 HR's, and 60-70 RBI's. Definitely not what was envisioned. I have no doubt that Reimold/Pie could do much better than that.

[Emory Eagle]

Did anyone else here read the OP Title as if it was spoken in a strong Russian accent? Because I did.

In Soviet Russia, Vladimir signs you!

[BaltimoreTerp]

Did anyone else here read the OP Title as if it was spoken in a strong Russian accent? Because I did.

In Soviet Russia, Vladimir signs you!

This is how we do things in Russian Baseball Program!

[LookitsPuck]

I skipped through a couple pages of posts, so maybe this was already mentioned, but.........

Just looking at HR's and RBI's, on April 26 of last year, Vlad only had 2 HR's and 11 RBI's. He now has 2 and 9 respectively. The biggest difference is that last year he was getting more base hits, even though they didn't translate into runs – 7 so far this year, as opposed 8 at this time last year.

Then in May he went on a tear and hit 10 HR's and knocked in 31 runs. After that he was much more modest: June 6 / 24; July 3 / 16; Aug 4 / 15; and Sept 4 / 16. So, outside of one crazy month, Vlad was pretty mediocre.

I think what we might see out of Vlad this year is a disappointing 18-20 HR's, and 60-70 RBI's. Definitely not what was envisioned. I have no doubt that Reimold/Pie could do much better than that.

Reimold is really tearing it up in the minors!

2 homers, 6 rbi's and a slick 377 slugging percentage! At least he's getting on base at a 366 clip, though. His strike out rate is pretty alarming, though. 20 k's in only 71 plate appearances. 3.55 pa/k. In the minors he's a career 5.38 pa/k. This is not a good total. He's basically back where he left off last season in the minors except with a slightly better batting average. Little power.

[olehippi]

Reimold is really tearing it up in the minors!

2 homers, 6 rbi's and a slick 377 slugging percentage! At least he's getting on base at a 366 clip, though. His strike out rate is pretty alarming, though. 20 k's in only 71 plate appearances. 3.55 pa/k. In the minors he's a career 5.38 pa/k. This is not a good total. He's basically back where he left off last season in the minors except with a slightly better batting average. Little power.

Nope....Reimold isn't lighting things up, but that .366 OBP, and his 8 walks, lead the Tides. It will be interesting to see who - either - goes on a tear first, Vlad or Noland.

[scOtt]

So what does a .743 OPS at Norfolk translate to at ML levels, and would that really be abig boost to the team over Vlad?

I looked their numbers up. Besides 8 walks I don't see how we could possibly be better off with Nolan. Especially because it also means trading Luke's defense for Nolan's.

Vlad G. -- .265 avg ; .265 obp ; .398 slg ; .663 ops ; 13 k ; 0 bb ; 0 sb ; 0 cs

Reimold -- .262 avg ; .366 obp ; .377 slg ; .743 ops ; 20 k ; 8 bb ; 1 sb ; 1 cs

Not much diff at all.

[Can_of_corn]

I looked their numbers up. Besides 8 walks I don't see how we could possibly be better off with Nolan. Especially because it also means trading Luke's defense for Nolan's.

Vlad G. -- .265 avg ; .265 obp ; .398 slg ; .663 ops ; 13 k ; 0 bb ; 0 sb ; 0 cs

Reimold -- .262 avg ; .366 obp ; .377 slg ; .743 ops ; 20 k ; 8 bb ; 1 sb ; 1 cs

Not much diff at all.

There would be nothing forcing the O's to put Nolan in left and DH Scott. I imagine if it meant a trip back to the bigs Nolan would be happy to DH.

[El Gordo]

There would be nothing forcing the O's to put Nolan in left and DH Scott. I imagine if it meant a trip back to the bigs Nolan would be happy to DH.

I think you give a HOF hitter more than 87 AB before you replace him with a kid who had a .610 OPS last year.