Brian Roberts: I am concerned

[El Gordo]

I agree with this, but I'd rather not see this complicating the roster situation next offseason.

I doubt it gets that far. I think Roberts will know by then whether he can play effectively or not, and I don't think he is the kind of person who would stick around if he can't. He'll negotiate some settlement, when the time comes, IMO

[24fps]

Yeah, so far that has cost us one spot on the 40 Man Roster. Gee, if only he would have retired we could have kept Pedro Florimon.

His situation also cost the organization the opportunity to be proactive in finding a full-time replacement at 2B during the past off season. In the absence of any conclusive knowledge of the insurance status, we have to consider it's potentially a $10 million hit to an $80 million payroll as well.

I'm not picking on BRob, I'm every bit as hopeful as anyone here that he has a full recovery, but if you want to maintain that the current situation is no more than a 40-man roster issue, I don't know what to say to you.

[TGO]

His situation also cost the organization the opportunity to be proactive in finding a full-time replacement at 2B during the past off season. In the absence of any conclusive knowledge of the insurance status, we have to consider it's potentially a $10 million hit to an $80 million payroll as well.

I'm not picking on BRob, I'm every bit as hopeful as anyone here that he has a full recovery, but if you want to maintain that the current situation is no more than a 40-man roster issue, I don't know what to say to you.

How? I doubt he or his agent or his doctors misled us about his status. If we overlooked potential long term 2B options because we were betting on Roberts, we were stupid. And I highly doubt that happened.

If a decent long term option for 2B was there for the taking we would have taken the leap IMO, with or without Roberts. Roberts is 34 and declining even without the injury.

[DrungoHazewood]

Whether or not Roberts makes it back is only one part of the equation. The other part is whether or not he can still play at the level he and the fans will expect. Lest we forget, BRob is now 34 years old, and even before the concussion, there were subtle signs of the inevitable age-related decline. Obviously, the Orioles are aware of the negatives - they signed a bunch of guys who can play 2B - and are trying to prepare for a future without Roberts. But, they still lack a true lead-off hitter. As opening day draws closer, and if Roberts' recovery doesn't quickly reach the "miraculous" stage, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a trade to get a speedster with a good OBP at the top of the batting order.

Who would you suggest they trade for? There were exactly 13 players in all of major league baseball last year who had a .350+ OBP and 20 or more steals:

                                                                                                                                  Rk              Player  PA  OBP SB Year Age  Tm Lg   G  AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB  SO HBP SH SF GDP CS   BA  SLG  OPS     Pos1      Jacoby Ellsbury 732 .376 39 2011  27 BOS AL 158 660 119 212 46  5 32 105 52   1  98   9  3  5   8 15 .321 .552 .928    *8/D2       Dustin Pedroia 731 .387 26 2011  27 BOS AL 159 635 102 195 37  3 21  91 86   6  85   1  2  7  12  8 .307 .474 .861      *43          Ian Kinsler 723 .355 30 2011  29 TEX AL 155 620 121 158 34  4 32  77 89   2  71   8  4  2  17  4 .255 .477 .832     *4D4    Curtis Granderson 691 .364 25 2011  30 NYY AL 156 583 136 153 26 10 41 119 85   0 169  12  4  7  12 10 .262 .552 .916    *8/D5            Matt Kemp 689 .399 40 2011  26 LAD NL 161 602 115 195 33  4 39 126 74  24 159   6  0  7  16 11 .324 .586 .986    *8/D6     Andrew McCutchen 678 .364 23 2011  24 PIT NL 158 572  87 148 34  5 23  89 89   3 126   9  2  6   7 10 .259 .456 .820    *8/D7         Justin Upton 674 .369 21 2011  23 ARI NL 159 592 105 171 39  5 31  88 59   9 126  19  0  4   8  9 .289 .529 .898      *98     Emilio Bonifacio 641 .360 40 2011  26 FLA NL 152 565  78 167 26  7  5  36 59   1 129   1 11  5   4 11 .296 .393 .753 65789/49           Ryan Braun 629 .397 33 2011  27 MIL NL 150 563 109 187 38  6 33 111 58   2  93   5  0  3   9  6 .332 .597 .994    *7/D10          Jose Reyes 586 .384 39 2011  28 NYM NL 126 537 101 181 31 16  7  44 43   9  41   0  2  4   5  7 .337 .493 .877      *611         Bobby Abreu 585 .353 21 2011  37 LAA AL 142 502  54 127 30  1  8  60 78   5 113   1  1  3   8  5 .253 .365 .717    *D7912     Carlos Gonzalez 542 .363 20 2011  25 COL NL 127 481  92 142 27  3 26  92 48   8 105   7  0  6  11  5 .295 .526 .889     79813    Desmond Jennings 287 .356 20 2011  24 TBR AL  63 247  44  64  9  4 10  25 31   1  59   6  3  0   1  6 .259 .449 .805  *7/8D9

The only one I see as being an option is Bobby Abreu, and he comes with a significant risk of collapse.

[DrungoHazewood]

His situation also cost the organization the opportunity to be proactive in finding a full-time replacement at 2B during the past off season. In the absence of any conclusive knowledge of the insurance status, we have to consider it's potentially a $10 million hit to an $80 million payroll as well.

I'm not picking on BRob, I'm every bit as hopeful as anyone here that he has a full recovery, but if you want to maintain that the current situation is no more than a 40-man roster issue, I don't know what to say to you.

I'd say the Orioles are very lucky to only have $10M allocated to useless players (a bit more if you throw in Gregg or a handful of others). If I was going to swag a percentage, I'd say 20%-30% of major league payrolls are given over to players their teams would release tomorrow if they were off the hook for their salaries.

[El Gordo]

His situation also cost the organization the opportunity to be proactive in finding a full-time replacement at 2B during the past off season. In the absence of any conclusive knowledge of the insurance status, we have to consider it's potentially a $10 million hit to an $80 million payroll as well.

I'm not picking on BRob, I'm every bit as hopeful as anyone here that he has a full recovery, but if you want to maintain that the current situation is no more than a 40-man roster issue, I don't know what to say to you.

The 10M was already a spent cost. Who would we have gone after as a 2B, if he retired or renegotiated his contract? There were no real long term options available IMO. Oh wait I get it, if only BRob had retired, we could have signed Prince Fielder.

[24fps]

The 10M was already a spent cost. Who would we have gone after as a 2B, if he retired or renegotiated his contract? There were no real long term options available IMO. Oh wait I get it, if only BRob had retired, we could have signed Prince Fielder.

I don't understand your argument. Because the $10 million was already committed, whether or not any value was derived from the expenditure becomes incidental? That makes no sense.

Simple question: if BRob announced his retirement on October 4th of last year, would the Orioles have gone into spring training with Robert Andino as the default replacement? Possibly, but not certainly. Another question: if Duquette had an extra $10 million to spend, would he have conducted the offseason any differently? Of course he would have.

[AgentOrange]

This is the kind of thing that irks me. Some people act like the guy did this on purpose so he could sit around and just collect a check. Have some empathy.

Didn't he get into this by smacking himself on the head with his bat? Or did he get it some other way?

[CA-ORIOLE]

Didn't he get into this by smacking himself on the head with his bat? Or did he get it some other way?

Likely a contributing factor. He repeatedly applied light taps to his helmet after an out. This was discussed before and I agree with the Lawyers on this one as far as culpability. Since the Oioles knew he did this and made no effort to stop it, the team probably shares some culpability.

[weams]

Didn't he get into this by smacking himself on the head with his bat? Or did he get it some other way?

No, he hit himself. Hard enough to cause a grade 2 concussion. He revisited the symptoms when he dove headfirst into first ( his head did a boogaloo at the same time).

Both things were probably not advisable baseball plays.

I also felt really bad for him when he got his arm ripped off by the Yankees many years ago. That was unrelated.

[weams]

Likely a contributing factor. He repeatedly applied light taps to his helmet after an out. This was discssed before and I agree with the Lawyers on this one as far as culpability. Since the Oioles knew he did this and made no effort to stop it, the team probably shares some culpability.

I can't see this as true. I can understand that he got frustrated and whacked himself. I can't see his team or teammates being at fault in any way for this. It's kinda like building a fire in your living room. Even if your friends and family know that you have a fire fetish, it's not really there fault when you burn yourself up.

[Todd-O]

Chances are he won't play in the first half of the season... But I have to go back to that espn spot on Roberts' treatment. Every concussion is different... They talked about the need to realign his sensory with movement... And the doctor said with a lot of confidence that he will be back.

I think it's a big step for him to get out there with the music, etc. look at it this way: he's taking cuts, running around and taking fielding practice, etc and it's not debilitating him to the point where he needs to stop. Is it hard on him? We don't know because he isn't saying. But... I don't think they would continue sending him out there if it were harmful.

I think this is all positive

[CA-ORIOLE]

I can't see this as true. I can understand that he got frustrated and whacked himself. I can't see his team or teammates being at fault in any way for this. It's kinda like building a fire in your living room. Even if your friends and family know that you have a fire fetish, it's not really there fault when you burn yourself up.

I'm not a lawyer. I have held significant management responsibilty and owned several businesses. Allowing employees to do stupid things and then having them injur themselves (or others) clearly represents supposition of fault for management imo. From my understanding this was not a one time thing nor was it particularly hard. It was a light tap (with his helmet on) that triggerd the last concussion. Something he had done over and over again for many years, and certainly something Orioles management was well aware of.

[weams]

I'm not a lawyer. I have held significant management responsibilty and owned several businesses. Allowing employees to do stupid things and then having them injur themselves (or others) clearly represents supposition of fault for management imo. From my understanding this was not a one time thing nor was it particularly hard. It was a light tap (with his helmet on) that triggerd the last concussion. Something he had done over and over again for many years, and certainly something Orioles management was well aware of.

I saw him do it. It was hard. I defer to your business wisdom on culpability of behavior.

[CA-ORIOLE]

I saw him do it. It was hard. I defer to your business wisdom on culpability of behavior.

I didn't see him do it. But I did read the article that indicated otherwise. Whether it was hard/harder that particular time seams a relatively insignificant point to me. I'm aware you have business/management experience as well. We have different experiences and opinions. Nothing wrong with that.