Is Soriano the first player the O's SHOULD go after?

[clapdiddy]

Which Angelos won't do. What would suck would be giving the NYY extra picks. The only way we become a consistent contender is to have an elite farm system. Much harder to do when you give away high picks to the rival you wish to dethrone.

It scares me to think we may throw 12 to 14 million (or more) at a guy like Carlos Lee. I'd have less of a problem throwing big money at Soriano, because he is a much better all around player than Lee.

We need to get a big stick, but this team has too many holes to fill to throw all of our money into Lee or Soriano. Neither of them by themselves is going to make us a contender.

[inmiggywetrust]

Leave it to the Orioles to try to get the wrong 2 players.

While I'd prefer Soriano and Nomar, I see no problem with these two guys, maybe besides Lee's defense. Is that your main beef, SG, or is it something else?

[Avsfan]

While I'd prefer Soriano and Nomar, I see no problem with these two guys, maybe besides Lee's defense. Is that your main beef, SG, or is it something else?

He thinks we'll give Wilson too much/too long....and the Yankees will offer him arbitration....hence making us lose a draft pick as well.

[Ruzious]

He did...

a .309 OBP and .512 SLG are not worthwhile #'s for a guy who played half of his games in texas....or that will demand 15 million per season.

Big Teix is slugging .506 this year, and nobody questions his power - rightfully so. Again, if you look hard enough, you can find a reason to stay away from anyone. And you can end up starting guys like Newhan.

[Sports Guy]

While I'd prefer Soriano and Nomar, I see no problem with these two guys, maybe besides Lee's defense. Is that your main beef, SG, or is it something else?

My main beef with Lee is that i do not think he is as good as he is made out to be.

A 830ish OPS with 30 homers is not anything special...He is tailing off at the end of the year again, just like last year.

He has a body that doesn't bode well for the aging process...He is not good defensively.

I think people look at homers and RBI's and that's it. Dellucci and Cruz Jr give you the same or better production as Lee does for 1/3 of the cost. It isn't "sexy" and people demand 30 homers from one player but they also seem to feel that that is the only way to improve and that is just wrong.

[utvolzac]

I'm hearing Carlos Lee and Craig Wilson are 2 guys we're zoned in on.

Craig Wilson, to me, just screams "take the easy way out". Sure he's an upgrade over our current 1Bman (who isn't), but I don't think he necessarily the answer at 1B either.

I wouldn't mind him as a fall back option, but certainly there are better ways to go to stabilize the First base position for years to come. The O's should try to get in on a young 1st baseman who is blocked.

If that doesn't work, then see if we can get in on a guy like Nomar. If he's asking too much and too many years then you go for a guy like Wilson as a stop gap.

No way I'd make him a top priority, while there are better options. We should have learned from last season when we made Conine a priority instead of going after a guy like Adrian Gonzalez.

[BoysofArbutus]

Craig Wilson, to me, just screams "take the easy way out". Sure he's an upgrade over our current 1Bman (who isn't), but I don't think he necessarily the answer at 1B either.

I wouldn't mind him as a fall back option, but certainly there are better ways to go to stabilize the First base position for years to come. The O's should try to get in on a young 1st baseman who is blocked.

If that doesn't work, then see if we can get in on a guy like Nomar. If he's asking too much and too many years then you go for a guy like Wilson as a stop gap.

No way I'd make him a top priority, while there are better options. We should have learned from last season when we made Conine a priority instead of going after a guy like Adrian Gonzalez.

I completely agree. But I dont' see how Wilson is even an improvement over what we have now. Gibbons can play first (dont' tell me he can't. If you can't play first base, you are just lazy and not trying. It's just reps)

He's a career .266 hitter who has only hit more then 20 homers in a season once. He missed the majority of the 2005 season. Doesn't sound much better then Gibbons to me. If we are going to go after a power hitter, we want Soriano. If we could add Soriano and Casey this offseason, we'd have a potent offense.

[Sports Guy]

Craig Wilson, to me, just screams "take the easy way out". Sure he's an upgrade over our current 1Bman (who isn't), but I don't think he necessarily the answer at 1B either.

I wouldn't mind him as a fall back option, but certainly there are better ways to go to stabilize the First base position for years to come. The O's should try to get in on a young 1st baseman who is blocked.

If that doesn't work, then see if we can get in on a guy like Nomar. If he's asking too much and too many years then you go for a guy like Wilson as a stop gap.

No way I'd make him a top priority, while there are better options. We should have learned from last season when we made Conine a priority instead of going after a guy like Adrian Gonzalez.

Great post...with the bolded part being the highlight.

[Baltimoron]

I completely agree. But I dont' see how Wilson is even an improvement over what we have now. Gibbons can play first (dont' tell me he can't. If you can't play first base, you are just lazy and not trying. It's just reps)

He's a career .266 hitter who has only hit more then 20 homers in a season once. He missed the majority of the 2005 season. Doesn't sound much better then Gibbons to me. If we are going to go after a power hitter, we want Soriano. If we could add Soriano and Casey this offseason, we'd have a potent offense.

Casey (31) is two years older and they are similar fielders. Casey will cost a lot more while Wilson (29) will hit for more power. Maybe look at Wilson's at bats per year when looking at his counting statistics.

Casey hits a lot of singles so his batting average advantage isn't that great when you also consider that he will hit into more double plays than Wilson and probably draw fewer walks than Wilson, resulting in much less disparate OBPs. (although Wilson has been in a bad funk with the Yankees, their career OBP are Wilson .356 and Casey .369).

Wilson's bigge is he only has one full season as a regular player. Wilson only played 59 ganes in 2005 becuase of two separate hand injuries that are not of the nagging/concern for re-injury type, unlike our own Jay Gibbons.

[TonySoprano]

Craig Wilson, to me, just screams "take the easy way out".

To me, it screams, "Steinbrenner wanted him, so he must be good." It's that reactionary kind of management that led Angelos to personally sign Albert Belle. Wilson was there for the taking and his performance (granted it hasn't been long) with the Yankees should actually have driven his value down a little. Currently, he is hitting just .232 with an OPS of .657 with them.

[Moose Milligan]

Sigh...

I don't understand why we spend so much time and effort speculating and predicting what the O's are going to do. I mean, I understand why...

But the chances of us being in the running for any of these guys are just totally remote.

[Mark Carver]

To me, it screams, "Steinbrenner wanted him, so he must be good." It's that reactionary kind of management that led Angelos to personally sign Albert Belle. Wilson was there for the taking and his performance (granted it hasn't been long) with the Yankees should actually have driven his value down a little. Currently, he is hitting just .232 with an OPS of .657 with them.

I don't care if the signing of Albert Belle was a reactionary kind of move or what not. It was still a good baseball move. Besides Belle being one of the best players of the '90's and at the time of his signing... in 1998, he had a -

AVG = .328 (3rd in AL)

OBP = .399 (7th in AL)

SLG = .655 (1st in AL)

OPS = 1.055 (1st in AL)

And the kicker was, that 1998 was not a career year for Belle.

[geschinger]

I don't care if the signing of Albert Belle was a reactionary kind of move or what not. It was still a good baseball move. Besides Belle being one of the best players of the '90's and at the time of his signing... in 1998, he had a -

AVG = .328 (3rd in AL)

OBP = .399 (7th in AL)

SLG = .655 (1st in AL)

OPS = 1.055 (1st in AL)

And the kicker was, that 1998 was not a career year for Belle.

Well he was 31 at the time so considering it was a 5 year contract the chances of it working out for the O's was poor from day one.

[Mark Carver]

Well he was 31 at the time so considering it was a 5 year contract the chances of it working out for the O's was poor from day one.

Well, that's interesting... everybody was so gung-ho of trading for or signing Carlos Delgado and yet he was 2 years older than Belle. If you look at Baseball-Reference.com, who does Belle match up as Similar Batters...

1 - Carlos Delgado

2 - Juan Gonzalez

3 - Jim Edmonds

[Baltimoron]

Well, that's interesting... everybody was so gung-ho of trading for or signing Carlos Delgado and yet he was 2 years older than Belle. If you look at Baseball-Reference.com, who does Belle match up as Similar Batters...

1 - Carlos Delgado

2 - Juan Gonzalez

3 - Jim Edmonds

Keep in mind you can't accurately compare a contract the oriorles might give someone with a contract other teams give them. For example, Billy Wagner got an absurd contract this offseason season, but its far less absurd because it was the mets. Not all marginal wins are worth the same revenue to each team.