Latest Roch ...

[Fairfax Bird]

FB said he wasn;t going to post until after New Years...I was merely asking him why he is now...Christ, are you this sensitive in real life?

Yeah, like I said I was tired of the nonsense coming from a couple of people, but with the illness in my house I am damn bored and looking for stuff to do.

[bigbird]

Yea, i did forget about him.

The Orioles never make moves like this it seems.

This is also why I think we have focused so much on trading the big 3 while ignoring most everything else.

It's hard to chew gum, walk and fart at the same time when you're a one man show.

[ScottieBaseball]

I would probably go (in order I would want them to be the starting SS):

Bynum

Fahey

Mora

Moore

LH

Personally I'd put it like this:

Fahey

Hernandez

Mora

Moore

Bynum

I watched Freddy from the field take ground balls at short on three separate occassions at Oriole Park and the results were unimpressive. He looked very deliberate and "un-smooth". I hate saying that, too, because he's another super-nice guy. I want all the nice guys to be superstars (and vice-versa), but sometimes that can't be the case.

[MikeAD]

Personally I'd put it like this:

Fahey

Hernandez

Mora

Moore

Bynum

I watched Freddy from the field take ground balls at short on three separate occassions at Oriole Park and the results were unimpressive. He looked very deliberate and "un-smooth". I hate saying that, too, because he's another super-nice guy. I want all the nice guys to be superstars (and vice-versa), but sometimes that can't be the case.

Don't tell me that .

I would love to watch Bynum succeed, he is great fun to watch play the game.

I mean, yeah he hasn't been the best SS in the past, but if LH can magically change his performace then so can Bynum

I still would like to see the three (LH, Bynum, Fahey) get a fair shot at Spring Training if that is the root we are going to go (as in not acquire another SS).

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing something like a revolving door at SS this season. If LH sucks, start Fahey, if Fahey sucks, start Bynum and so on. That is probably implausible due to options left, but maybe once or twice it would work.

[ChaosLex]

It's hard to chew gum, walk and fart at the same time when you're a one man show.

How zen.

[clapdiddy]

It's hard to chew gum, walk and fart at the same time when you're a one man show.

I tried this once and I pooped my pants!

[RShack]

LH just played above his head defensively last year while he was up here AND he hit above his head.

I agree that he hit above what anyone should expect of him. I am puzzled by the first claim though. That one is news to me. On what possible basis would you say that he played above his head defensively? AFAIK, people have always liked him defensively. AFAIK, DT did not form his opinion in a vacuum. AFAIK, he heard from people watching him play at Bowie and Norfolk before he even got here. I assume that if he could neither field nor hit, then he would not have been handed a shirt with a single-digit on it. Now, I agree that *my* sample size and maybe *your* sample size of seeing him play SS was limited to however many games he played on TV as an Oriole, but I don't think it's rational to equate that with the people in the org. I don't think the org is a decent system, but I do expect that they at least talk with each other about the players they promote. Don't you?

[markakis4pres]

Come on guys, Fahey over LH.

LH is bad, but Fahey is far worse.

[slaphitter]

I still can't believe I was laughed off the board with the mere mention of signing Eckstein.

He's gone and the price was right.

It's illogical to throw Luis Hernandez out there when his bat is barely above AA level quality.

The money lost with Tejada could have given us a PROVEN SS in Eck.

Unfortunately the entire board hates him. Some preferred Hernandez over D.E. because D.E. " throws funny ".

I liked the .351 OBP and steady defense that wasn't worthy of being an Oriole. $4.5 mil. is nothing for a player that puts up steady MAJOR LEAGUE numbers.

Luis belongs in AAA , with a few others that have crept onto our dismal excuse of a roster.

[TCAlumni9700]

I still can't believe I was laughed off the board with the mere mention of signing Eckstein.

He's gone and the price was right.

It's illogical to throw Luis Hernandez out there when his bat is barely above AA level quality.

The money lost with Tejada could have given us a PROVEN SS in Eck.

Unfortunately the entire board hates him. Some preferred Hernandez over D.E. because D.E. " throws funny ".

I liked the .351 OBP and steady defense that wasn't worthy of being an Oriole. $4.5 mil. is nothing for a player that puts up steady MAJOR LEAGUE numbers.

Luis belongs in AAA , with a few others that have crept onto our dismal excuse of a roster.

I think if we were a AAA team we still wouldn't have a winning record.

[Sandwich Pick]

It's hard to chew gum, walk and fart at the same time when you're a one man show.

"Dude, we gotta leave now. I just sharted."

[birrman54]

I still can't believe I was laughed off the board with the mere mention of signing Eckstein.

He's gone and the price was right.

It's illogical to throw Luis Hernandez out there when his bat is barely above AA level quality.

The money lost with Tejada could have given us a PROVEN SS in Eck.

Unfortunately the entire board hates him. Some preferred Hernandez over D.E. because D.E. " throws funny ".

I liked the .351 OBP and steady defense that wasn't worthy of being an Oriole. $4.5 mil. is nothing for a player that puts up steady MAJOR LEAGUE numbers.

Luis belongs in AAA , with a few others that have crept onto our dismal excuse of a roster.

How does signing Eckstein somehow make us more competitive this year or in the future? I doubt we're going to win 75 games this year, why does it matter who's starting at short?

[Mackus]

Come on guys, Fahey over LH.

LH is bad, but Fahey is far worse.

Not by any sort of real analysis. Fahey's put up a .716 OPS at AAA in '06 and a .625 OPS in '07. Hernandez put up a .592 at AA and a .546 at AAA last season.

Fahey is bad, Hernandez is worse.

I'll take Fahey's glove over Hernandez' as well, although they are both above average defensively.

[Fan4Life]

Not by any sort of real analysis. Fahey's put up a .716 OPS at AAA in '06 and a .625 OPS in '07. Hernandez put up a .592 at AA and a .546 at AAA last season.

Fahey is bad, Hernandez is worse.

I'll take Fahey's glove over Hernandez' as well, although they are both above average defensively.

Statistically speaking, on MiLB numbers, sure, Fahey over LH all day long.. on MLB numbers, LH all day long. Obviously both guys have small sample sizes with LH's being extremely small, but in his limited time he displayed some very good defense as well as not being completely over-matched... he didn't look like he was out of his league (at home anyway).... Now I agree if the past can be any judge of the future, it won't stay that way.... but to comletely discount his mild MLB success and soley quote his MiLB failure doesn't completetly tell the story for me.

[RShack]

Come on guys, Fahey over LH.

LH is bad, but Fahey is far worse.

You're gonna get roasted by the folks who insist that OPS is the primary basis you use for designing your team, even up the middle, and even for stopgaps during a rebuilding year. Evidently, it's become the new religion.