Os acquire Saunders.

[Slappy]

Keep in mind that Saunders put up his mediocre numbers in the weakest hitting division in baseball. Now he's moving to the best hitting division in baseball. Very careless move for the sake of making a move.

Huh? The Rays and Jays have almost poor hitting at this point and the Sox dumped their best hitter and their 2nd best has been on the DL for most of the season.

On the other hand, both the Giants and Rockies have good offenses, and Chase Field is a lopsided hitters park.

[Prayin4Reign]

Mixed feelings about this. It's good to have some starting pitching depth, and I think Lindstrom is not quite as good as his 2.72 ERA suggests. However, I don't like losing the bullpen depth. We've lost Neshek, Socolovich and now Lindstrom in the last few weeks and suddenly Buck won't have as many options in September as I thought he had. On the other hand, you can stick Hunter and Arrieta in the pen for September and probably not miss Lindstrom too much. And, he was due to make a lot of money next year (choice of exercising a $4 mm option or buying him out for $200k and then offering arbitration with a minimum offer of $2.88 mm). On balance, for September Saunder probably is a more useful asset than Lindstrom.

Kind of sucks for Lindstrom to get traded away from a team in the race.

That's it in a nutshell. This is why I'm perfectly fine with this trade. What are we losing? Nothing really. Arrieta is going to be a power arm in the bullpen, he'll replace Lindstrom. We'll see how Saunders adapts to the AL East. If there's any one thing that concerns me is the PTBNL.

[MagicBird]

Horrible,

What a stupid move,

Unbelievable,

We gave up tremendous value and got nothing in return,

Is this what we think?

After 14 years, yeah, 14 years of utter futility we finally have a team that is in contention at the end of August and the guy who has made moves to make it possible has made a huge blunder now.

Come on,

Name me one team that has had every single trade they make work out great. Name one team that has always been the clear cut winner in every trade they make on the day of the trade. And name me one team where fans who post on an internet forum know more about the game and personnel than the guys in the business. Just one.

Be happy we are in a position to do this trade. And be happy we have a FO that is actually proactive and working to improve this team on seemingly a daily basis.

With the fun of winning this year I'm just happy to have meaningful games again. 14 years is far too long. DD gets a pass from me on this one, no matter how it turns out.

[Prayin4Reign]

Horrible,

What a stupid move,

Unbelievable,

We gave up tremendous value and got nothing in return,

Is this what we think?

After 14 years, yeah, 14 years of utter futility we finally have a team that is in contention at the end of August and the guy who has made moves to make it possible has made a huge blunder now.

Come on,

Name me one team that has had every single trade they make work out great. Name one team that has always been the clear cut winner in every trade they make on the day of the trade. And name me one team where fans who post on an internet forum know more about the game and personnel than the guys in the business. Just one.

Be happy we are in a position to do this trade. And be happy we have a FO that is actually proactive and working to improve this team on seemingly a daily basis.

With the fun of winning this year I'm just happy to have meaningful games again. 14 years is far too long. DD gets a pass from me on this one, no matter how it turns out.

Get over yourself.

[JohnD]

I like the trade. A relief pitcher who was rarely put in key situations, and seemed rather ordinary for the most part, for more starting depth? As many starting pitchers as we've seen the Orioles use this season, and people want to criticize them for this move?

Saunders has generally been decent this year. That's better than some of the starters we have seen pitch this year. No one expects him to pitch like Roy Halladay. But as much as I like Tommy Hunter, giving up gopher balls all day ain't going to help in September. DD went out and got someone who is better than some of the other recent starters. Good on him. Chen, Johnson, Gonzo, Tillman, and Saunders for right now. And once Hammel comes back, it's a nice problem to have to deal with.

[Slappy]

Duquette has squeezed some pretty nice value out of Jeremy Guthrie, all told.

[MagicBird]

Get over yourself.

:2yay-thumb:

[BillySmith]

I think the server is about to crash again.

[Moose Milligan]

I'd rather keep giving the ball to Steve Johnson until he proves he's a failure like Arrieta or Matusz.

Joe Saunders? That's who we identify as our guy down the stretch?

[Triple Crown]

Horrible,

What a stupid move,

Unbelievable,

We gave up tremendous value and got nothing in return,

Is this what we think?

After 14 years, yeah, 14 years of utter futility we finally have a team that is in contention at the end of August and the guy who has made moves to make it possible has made a huge blunder now.

Come on,

Name me one team that has had every single trade they make work out great. Name one team that has always been the clear cut winner in every trade they make on the day of the trade. And name me one team where fans who post on an internet forum know more about the game and personnel than the guys in the business. Just one.

Be happy we are in a position to do this trade. And be happy we have a FO that is actually proactive and working to improve this team on seemingly a daily basis.

With the fun of winning this year I'm just happy to have meaningful games again. 14 years is far too long. DD gets a pass from me on this one, no matter how it turns out.

Excellent recap of this thread and spot on.

[Lester Freamon]

I'd rather keep giving the ball to Steve Johnson until he proves he's a failure like Arrieta or Matusz.

Joe Saunders? That's who we identify as our guy down the stretch?

Not "our guy", just depth. It may be Johnson's spot who he takes in the immediate future but we have other question marks as well and I suspect Johnson will still have an opportunity to help out this season.

[statman]

It doesn't seem like a very wise decision to take the strength of our team and make it weaker. Really...Joe Saunders is NOT good...his numbers in the AL West are very similar to those of Tommy Hunter.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Excellent recap of this thread and spot on.

Ehh, I thought it was mosty nonsense (and I actually agree with the the general sentiment).

[Frobby]

It doesn't seem like a very wise decision to take the strength of our team and make it weaker. Really...Joe Saunders is NOT good...his numbers in the AL West are very similar to those of Tommy Hunter.

A 4.22 ERA is not similar to 5.95. Also, Hammel came from the NL West, how'd that work out.

[FanSince88]

Arrieta's going to have to earn our trust in the BP. Right now I don't see it.

This could come back to bit the O's if they get in extra-innings games where you need lots of BP depth. Especially if Patton isn't back soon.

I get the SP depth reasons though. It's a roll of the dice I guess -- looks like the Orioles exchanging some of their ability to win late in games for the ability to keep the game within reach before the 7th inning. We'll see, bold move IMO. If it's salary you're concerned about, you could have just as easily moved Lindstrom in the offseason though, couldn't you?

If all Saunders end up being is a LH Hunter, I'm going to be mega-ticked, especially if he takes starts away from Steve Johnson who has done everything the O's have asked of him so far. And I have a sneaky feeling it could end up like that, although Saunders as a lefty could be move likely to bump Britton out.