Offseason Priorities

[TradeAngelos]

I think the O's follow the Ravens mantra & try to sign their own. I'm looking at potential starters of Hammel, Chen, Gonzalez, Tillman, Saunders. Matusz, Steve Johnson, Britton, Arrieta, Wada & even potentially Jim Johnson. No need to waste money on Grienke. Jim Johnson has starter stuff & Strop, Tommy Hunter or Arrieta could be closers plus Johnson could always go back to the pen.

I still think the O's have $10 million reasons to give BRob every shot to play 2nd base. The good thing is that he doesn't have to be the center of the offense. You could have Markakis lead off & Hardy or McClouth bat 2nd. BRob could settle into the 9 hole. Flaherty could handcuff with him to make a good combo.

For $11 million or whatever it is, Reynolds is worth it for 1b. Hardy & Machado fill out the left side of the infield.

I look to add a healthy Reimold to platoon with McClouth for a potent LF combo. I have zero interest in Hamilton for the money or years he asking plus all the baggage. Jones & Markakis round out the outfield. Davis is your DH & occasional LF/RF. Wieters is your catcher with someone like Teagarden backing him up.

Finally, keep as much of the bullpen as possible. I know a pen is sometimes up & down but who knows?

So do nothing, and pray we achieve once in a 100 year records in 1 run and extra inning games 2 years in a row, to get us back to 93 wins?

Can't say I am on board with that, for obvious reasons.

This isn't football, where there are cost control measures for other teams in place and just "signing your own" is enough to consistently win.

[rjslomo]

Obviously keeping Buck is a priority.

Don't see any need for any pitching at all. Really. Top of the rotation starter? What have the guys we had this year been? Darn close in some cases, and showing the possibility of being even better in the future (Chen - conditioning/experience, Hammel - healthy, Tillman - more experience, Gonzo - experience and full season). I think one of those guys fill that role, or close enough, and maybe we even have 3 number two starters as well. Plus, I would love to bring back Saunders as aback of the rotation guy, he seems solid when in a good situation, which is apparently what he felt like Baltimore was. None of this is even mentioning guys like B.Mat, Arrieta, Britton, Bundy, which who knows, one of these guys might be ready to step it up next year finally. I think the starting pitching is fine overall, maybe a little depth w/ some cheapie flyers.

Bullpen - keep it intact, period.

Hitting - an OBP second baseman, maybe with speed who could lead off or maybe not, but a run scoring guy who gets on base. Either re-sign Reynolds cheap, because his defense is nice, but as streaky and with as many holes as there are in his swing, nobody is giving him $10mil. a year, or sign another first baseman who is also an OBP guy with some power. Not a superstar, just a solid guy.

That's all we need. Really. We got better as the season went on, I'd be happy going into next year with mostly the same team. At the end of the season, we really were good. Keep those players, they like each other, they play well together. Hopefully Reimold can replace Ford, Flaherty is our util., and the two additions I mentioned, and I think we are good.

No need for Hamilton or anyone like him, or the problems, underperforming bum contracts they bring. The reason this team is/was so great, is because we didn't have those sorts of guys. Our hitters who failed us this post season will be better next year, they just needed the experience (hopefully).

Anyway, that's how I see it...

Edit - oh, and please, please, please forget about Roberts, that guy is a cancer, he is never going to be a major league player again and is simply a distraction and a detriment to the guys who built the winning chemistry we have. Let him go, don't even let him near the other players.

What an ignorant & stupid comment about BRob. What makes you think he's some sort of cancer? He's been nothing but a great teammate. He's been with the team in the playoffs to offer his support & wants nothing more than for this organization to win. Sorry if this breaks the rules but you are a complete a**. He's a quality person & a quality Oriole that would want nothing more than to see this organization succeed.

[rjslomo]

So do nothing, and pray we achieve once in a 100 year records in 1 run and extra inning games 2 years in a row, to get us back to 93 wins?

Can't say I am on board with that, for obvious reasons.

This isn't football, where there are cost control measures for other teams in place and just "signing your own" is enough to consistently win.

There's not a lot of quality free agents. Who are you getting? I think some of the O's can show growth. I like the potential of the rotation & the strength of the pen. I am not in favor of going after Hamilton at all. Who else is there?

[from1954forever]

PGA is aware, interested and for the first time in a long time willing to spend. DD should take advantage of that and target a TOR SP,(Haren?) That should make it easy to bring back Buck. Weiters and McLouth. Iwould also sign Saunders because he earned it, wants to be here, will be cheap and as we proved this year you can never have too much pitching. Lastly I would look for decentfield high obp 2nd baseman.

[El Gordo]

I'd really be interested in Jake Peavy. The Chisux aren't picking up his option and I doubt he gets more than 3 years from any one at more than 15 M per. He would be a good TOR for us until Bundy takes over. I'd sign Reynolds to a reasonable extension. Something similar to Hardy's. I'd be interested in McLouth to platoon with Reimold in LF. Forget about a 2B, until they know what Roberts' situation is they are going to stick with Flaherty and Andino as back up options. I really don't like Hardy batting #2 and Jones batting #4 but I don't think I want to risk the money and years on someone like Hamilton. I would wait and see how Manny improves at the plate. He might be a good #2 option, with Hardy dropping down to 7or 8. We could have a line up of:

LF McLouth

3B Machado

RF Markakis

DH Reimold/Davis

CF Jones

C Wieters

1B Reynolds

SS Hardy

2B Roberts/Flaherty/Andino

[centralpaosfan]

1. Sign a true #1 pitcher

2. Sign a 2b. Keep Flaherty and say bye bye to Andino.

3. Extend McClouth. Yes it's a small sample size but I love the way he plays.

4. Extend Buck obviously, but I have a sneaky suspicion that he has no interest in extending. I don't think he wants to manage elsewhere, but I think he may have tipped his hand a bit in some of the comments he made in the past couple weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come back next year.

[centralpaosfan]

At what point do we stop including Roberts and Reimold in our future plans? I think you must move forward assuming you won't have them healthy and if you do then that is a good problem to have. Personally I don't think Roberts has anything left in the tank and there are much younger and better options out there.

[Yachtsman]

Folks, hate to say this, but - BRob is done. Flaherty is your 2nd baseman, and you call up Schoop as your extra infielder.

[TradeAngelos]

At what point do we stop including Roberts and Reimold in our future plans? I think you must move forward assuming you won't have them healthy and if you do then that is a good problem to have. Personally I don't think Roberts has anything left in the tank and there are much younger and better options out there.

Neither of them is worth much of anything to a ML roster at this point, yet people around here talk about them like they were forces that just had "minor" injuries and will return to form. What "form" that is I will never know. One is 35 and out of baseball for 2 years, the other is 29 and has never done squat.

They are wastes of a roster spot, and we need to move on from both. (unless we just sit on our hands this offseason, which is entirely possible)

[Roll Tide]

1. Extend Buck

2. McLouth

3. Extend Wieters

4. Perhaps sign a guy like Saunders to a one year deal for rotation depth

5. McLouth

6. Do not sign Josh Hamilton or anyone similar

7. McLouth

8. I think we should give Flaherty an extended look at second next year and if he and Andino aren't getting the job done, make a trade during the season. I personally think Flaherty will stick.

The Orioles clearly need a #4 hitter .... The offense was very one dimensional (home run or nothing).

Keep McLouth & get rid of all of Reynolds, Thome, and Davis.

[notyourbuddy]

Someone is going to have to explain to me the "extend reynolds now" line of thinking as I've seen it quite a bit. His defense at 1B was great, but it took him an insane hot streak just to reach 23 homeruns and his OBP the last 3 years is .320, .323, .335 which is rather weak for a 1B.

Why risk a 3 year extension on a huge question mark like that instead of simply picking up the option and seeing how it plays out?

[gallden]

1. Sign a true #1 pitcher

2. Sign a 2b. Keep Flaherty and say bye bye to Andino.

3. Extend McClouth. Yes it's a small sample size but I love the way he plays.

4. Extend Buck obviously, but I have a sneaky suspicion that he has no interest in extending. I don't think he wants to manage elsewhere, but I think he may have tipped his hand a bit in some of the comments he made in the past couple weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come back next year.

Please explain number 4.

[exist10z]

Folks, hate to say this, but - BRob is done. Flaherty is your 2nd baseman, and you call up Schoop as your extra infielder.

You better watch out saying things about Roberts, there are some here willing to resort to name calling in an effort to defend the steroid using, hitting self in the head, injury 'prone' (inventing), sitting on the beach w/ his money and beautiful woman, former second baseman...

[clapdiddy]

You better watch out saying things about Roberts, there are some here willing to resort to name calling in an effort to defend the steroid using, hitting self in the head, injury 'prone' (inventing), sitting on the beahc w/ his money and beautiful women, former second baseman...

Wow...hope Cindy doesn't see this!

[centralpaosfan]

Please explain number 4.

One comment he made the other week that really stuck out to me was (please forgive me, I'm paraphrasing from memory".... "They have someone on this staff that will do a great job coming in behind me. I just hope they realize it." To me, that meant he sees this coach as the next head coach. Now, if you had intentions of signing a multi-year extension would you be lining up your successor already?