Britton for Wright and $4M

[wildcard]

What if the Yankees had other trades in works for Wright, and that Britton was their first choice. There was no guarantee that Wright was going to a free agent. The Yankees were going to have to pay him $4m as the buyout for his 2007 contract. So they give that to the Orioles or another team and get a body back in return.

Possible, but I don't think it is likely. It surely did not hit the press that there was any competition. Let see if it comes out over time.

[shroombal]

I think its a good trade for us! Jaret Wright is going to be good for 13-15 wins...and that's something someone couldn't get for us last year. He's quite a bargain for someone who pitches that well. Even though it decimates our bullpen, I'm sure our front office has plans to make a run at a few relievers in FA, and perhaps one more SP in free agency.

[NewMarketSean]

Still mulling over this trade and if it is a good deal for this team to make at this time. As it stands now, I think this wasn't a very good trade, but then again I thought the Benson trade was excellent at the time and that changed. Time will tell.

But what I am wondering is this...

1. IF we covted Wright, why not trade the Yanks a lesser reliever and pay Wright his full salary? Benson is making more than Wright and they average similar numbers for their careers. Are the O's that concerned about $4 million dollars that they would let their second best bullpen pitcher go to get a mediocre SP?

2. I thought the plan was to stockpile young pitching and win with it. I know you can dip into the stockpile for trades, but again... we got Rick Helling, Jr. It's not like we traded for some hot prospect or proven guy. This especially concerns me because Ray and Britton were the ONLY bullpen guys that you could count on in 2007. Now it's just Ray.

3. When does the "Mazzone Factor" end? We've seen what he's done for Lopez, Chen and Ortiz. Zip. Now we've got another mediocre pitcher who "Flourished" under Mazzone, who pushed for this deal to be made. I am starting to think that Mazzone thinks too highly of himself and the FO thinks too highly of Mazzone.

4. What does this do to Hayden Penn?

5. What does this mean for R. Lopez?

The bottom line is this. I am scratching my head a bit right now, but if it leads to bigger and better trades down the line, then fine. But when we are told that the plan is to win with homegrown pitching -- and then trade away our #2 bullpen arm for a mediocre journeyman pitcher, I have to wonder what the FO is thinking.

[hauser9999]

Living in New York and being an O's fan I see a lot of yankee games on Yes Network. Wright pitched very well for the Yankees in the second half. If he got 1 runner on base in the 5th or 6th Joe T would pull him.Torre had no confidence in the guy.Trust me Torre has big time favorites and Wright wasn't one of them.In the second half he probably pitched second best next to Wang for the yanks.Stop scratching your head this plays out well for the O's

[DiggetyDon]

First of all, the fact that Britton was our "#2" bullpen guy shows how much depth we lacked there last year. Britton wasnt much, he had a decent fastball he could spot, but he threw it 98% of the time, the league will be sitting on it this year and he will get bombed, just watch.

This trade gives us more pitching, and frees up a Penn trade or a RLO trade, or both.

As of right now the rotation is set at Bedard, Benson, Cabrera, Loewen,Wright

It's not a head scratcher move at all, Wright could be a 4-5 starter or a good arm out of the bullpen, it gives us depth, and like Duq said, its just the first move, theres more on the way.

[CharmCityCrab]

So we can't see into the future but you've got Chris Britton's whole career mapped out.

I probably should have added the modifier "in my opinion" to my statement. Fair enough. But I don't think it's going that far out on a limb to imply that Britton, an out of shape guy with one pitch, may not be on the fast track to long-term big league success. Jarrett Wright, on the other hand, is already a successful major league pitcher. Not a great one, mind you, but successful enough to stick and be a solid back of the rotation guy *at minimum* (Assuming nothing dramatic happens -- obviously even the best pitcher in the world can suddenly be no good in baseball -- but I'm talking based on reasonable probabilities) if he stays healthy, and who arguably has a lot more upside than Chris Britton has (Maybe even #1-#2 starter upside, he's been in that position before, although obviously with the term "upside", I'm not saying he's going to do it). I just don't see the downside of this trade.

Could Britton surprise us all and become the next coming of Lee Smith? Sure, it's possible, but in about the same way that the 2007 World Series featuring the Orioles playing the Nationals is possible. Possible, but not very likely. I just really liked this deal, to the point where I'm honestly shocked that the sentiment seems so divided. So I apologize if I'm wording things a little too strongly. It just caught me off-guard that this move isn't being near-universally celebrated amongst the Orioles Nation (Um, maybe I need to come up with another term, that sounds a bit too Red Soxish).

[Sports Guy]

I probably should have added the modifier "in my opinion" to my statement. Fair enough. But I don't think it's going that far out on a limb to imply that Britton, an out of shape guy with one pitch, may not be on the fast track to long-term big league success. Jarrett Wright, on the other hand, is already a successful major league pitcher. Not a great one, mind you, but successful enough to stick and be a solid back of the rotation guy *at minimum* (Assuming nothing dramatic happens -- obviously even the best pitcher in the world can suddenly be no good in baseball -- but I'm talking based on reasonable probabilities) if he stays healthy, and who arguably has a lot more upside than Chris Britton has (Maybe even #1-#2 starter upside, he's been in that position before, although obviously with the term "upside", I'm not saying he's going to do it). I just don't see the downside of this trade.

Could Britton surprise us all and become the next coming of Lee Smith? Sure, it's possible, but in about the same way that the 2007 World Series featuring the Orioles playing the Nationals is possible. Possible, but not very likely. I just really liked this deal, to the point where I'm honestly shocked that the sentiment seems so divided. So I apologize if I'm wording things a little too strongly. It just caught me off-guard that this move isn't being near-universally celebrated amongst the Orioles Nation (Um, maybe I need to come up with another term, that sounds a bit too Red Soxish).

How about this:

Wright throws 130 innings, leaves after this year and Britton is a solid, cheap reliever for our division rival for the next few years.

That is worse case and to be honest, that scenario is about 1000% more likely than Wright being a #1 or #2 starter.

[4thebirds]

Still mulling over this trade and if it is a good deal for this team to make at this time. As it stands now, I think this wasn't a very good trade, but then again I thought the Benson trade was excellent at the time and that changed. Time will tell.

But what I am wondering is this...

1. IF we covted Wright, why not trade the Yanks a lesser reliever and pay Wright his full salary? Benson is making more than Wright and they average similar numbers for their careers. Are the O's that concerned about $4 million dollars that they would let their second best bullpen pitcher go to get a mediocre SP?

2. I thought the plan was to stockpile young pitching and win with it. I know you can dip into the stockpile for trades, but again... we got Rick Helling, Jr. It's not like we traded for some hot prospect or proven guy. This especially concerns me because Ray and Britton were the ONLY bullpen guys that you could count on in 2007. Now it's just Ray.

3. When does the "Mazzone Factor" end? We've seen what he's done for Lopez, Chen and Ortiz. Zip. Now we've got another mediocre pitcher who "Flourished" under Mazzone, who pushed for this deal to be made. I am starting to think that Mazzone thinks too highly of himself and the FO thinks too highly of Mazzone.

4. What does this do to Hayden Penn?

5. What does this mean for R. Lopez?

The bottom line is this. I am scratching my head a bit right now, but if it leads to bigger and better trades down the line, then fine. But when we are told that the plan is to win with homegrown pitching -- and then trade away our #2 bullpen arm for a mediocre journeyman pitcher, I have to wonder what the FO is thinking.

1. Over the past three seasons Wright has been healthy for 2 of them. Coincidently, when healthy, his numbers are at worst a #4 pitcher. Given the Mazzone factor he could possibly be a #3 guy for just 3 mil. That is a bargain.

2. I wouldn't have considered Britton a lock to make the '07 roster. He had a great 1st half of the season, but was horrid and later demoted later in the year. A guy like Liz could very easily take his place.

3. If Mazzone doesn't turn the pitching staff around in year 2, you have a great point.

4. This move creates depth in the system. If Penn is ready, he gets a spot, if not, he either goes to the BP or enjoys the weather in Norfolk.

5. At this point Lopez is about as useless to the Orioles as that other Lopez guy we at one time had high hopes for.

[CharmCityCrab]

Not really a need...Rlo could do the same thing and Rlo is much more likely to throw 180+ innings.

Wright was significantly better than Lopez was last year, though. Honestly, if Lopez didn't have such a history of inconsistancy, after last year's performance I'd suspect that he'd lost it for good. With his career history as it is, though, I do think Lopez will rebound a bit if he follows historical trends, and he's certainly a guy who, if we can't trade him, I'd let compete for a role in camp, or provide some AAA depth. If I had to pick now in November either Wright or Lopez to start the year in the rotation, however, I'd take Wright in a heartbeat. Lopez's era of like 6.00 or 7.00 over a full season last year makes me very wary to count on him for anything (Not saying don't give him a chance in the spring if we can't trade him, not saying he couldn't be good -- just saying if we head into spring training with Lopez as a mortal lock to make the roster, something is dreadfully wrong). Besides, one can never have enough pitching -- and the Orioles have way, way, too little, in my view.

There wouldn't be much demand for Wright and they certainly wouldn't have to be in a bidding war for him.

Pitching is a valuable commodity. I'm not saying Wright would have gotten huge bucks on the open market, but I do think several teams would have been interested and would have cost far more than $3,000,000; and I also think with a choice very few players will choose a team like the Orioles over a contender or a team judged more likely to contend, so it's not unreasonable to suspect we wouldn't have been able to snare him. Just my two cents. I've been known to be wrong occasionally.

He has 2 pitches but doesn't throw his curve enough. He is young, he can learn, can't he?

He might be able to learn. Some guys can, some guys can't. I guess I'm kind of assuming here with Britton that the Orioles, who know him a lot better than we do, decided that he was unlikely to be able to learn to throw a second or third pitcher efficently and consistantly, or saw other problems there. Could they be wrong? Sure. They certainly have been about some guys in the past. But, based on what I know, this seems like a good deal right now.

[Go_Os]

Still mulling over this trade and if it is a good deal for this team to make at this time. As it stands now, I think this wasn't a very good trade, but then again I thought the Benson trade was excellent at the time and that changed. Time will tell.

But what I am wondering is this...

1. IF we covted Wright, why not trade the Yanks a lesser reliever and pay Wright his full salary? Benson is making more than Wright and they average similar numbers for their careers. Are the O's that concerned about $4 million dollars that they would let their second best bullpen pitcher go to get a mediocre SP?

2. I thought the plan was to stockpile young pitching and win with it. I know you can dip into the stockpile for trades, but again... we got Rick Helling, Jr. It's not like we traded for some hot prospect or proven guy. This especially concerns me because Ray and Britton were the ONLY bullpen guys that you could count on in 2007. Now it's just Ray.

3. When does the "Mazzone Factor" end? We've seen what he's done for Lopez, Chen and Ortiz. Zip. Now we've got another mediocre pitcher who "Flourished" under Mazzone, who pushed for this deal to be made. I am starting to think that Mazzone thinks too highly of himself and the FO thinks too highly of Mazzone.

4. What does this do to Hayden Penn?

5. What does this mean for R. Lopez?

The bottom line is this. I am scratching my head a bit right now, but if it leads to bigger and better trades down the line, then fine. But when we are told that the plan is to win with homegrown pitching -- and then trade away our #2 bullpen arm for a mediocre journeyman pitcher, I have to wonder what the FO is thinking.

It was not a good trade. We shouldn't have had to give up Britton. I would have been ok with it if we didn't give up a cheap, reliable, major-league proven middle reliever.

[Sports Guy]

At least Wright had a 4.32 DIPS last year.

[CharmCityCrab]

How about this:

Wright throws 130 innings, leaves after this year and Britton is a solid, cheap reliever for our division rival for the next few years.

That is worse case

Alright, what you describe is a worse case scenario that could, but probably won't, happen, granted. But if the worst case is that the Yankees have a so-so reliever and our risk on a 4th starter doesn't pan out, that's not exactly doomsday in my book. And, in my view, the likelyhood is that Wright is a solid 3, 4, or 5 guy for the Birds in 2007 and that Britton is pitching for whomever the Yankee's new AAA affiliate is in 2007 with little big league success on a long-term basis in the years following. We could all be wrong, but I don't see anyone saying that Britton has any serious chance to be a good closer someday or anything like that -- it's not like we traded away Daniel Cabera (Now, *that* I'd be upset about).

[CharmCityCrab]

I would have been ok with it if we didn't give up a cheap, reliable, major-league proven middle reliever.

To call Britton "reliable" and "proven" is a bit of a stretch, in my view. He's had one good year in the big leagues, but even during that year didn't pitch so well or consistantly that he didn't get sent down to the minors for a while towards the tail end of it.

[Sports Guy]

Alright, what you describe is a worse case scenario that could, but probably won't, happen, granted

.To say it probably won't happen would mean you are ignoring every piece of statistical evidence and are relying on hope.

We could all be wrong, but I don't see anyone saying that Britton has any serious chance to be a good closer someday or anything like that

First of all, why mention anything about Britton closing? Is that the only valuable spot for a reliever?

And Britton, at the young age of 24 and fresh off of a very strong MiL career and a solid rookie season, has potential to be a closer down the line as he gains more confidence in his curve, perhaps adds another pitch and just gains experience.

The odds are more in favor of Britton being a very solid reliever than Wright staying healthy, throwing 180+ innings and being good for us for a few years.

[Pushmonkey]

It was not a good trade. We shouldn't have had to give up Britton. I would have been ok with it if we didn't give up a cheap, reliable, major-league proven middle reliever.

Not to pick on you, but reading about 200 pages on how Britten is a savior has me thinking. How proven is he? How many innings in the majors has he pitched? Does having him come in a clutch situation give me hope? I know the answer to all of these adds up to he is expendable. How many people can honestly say they heard of Britten before this year? How many fans will be like "oh man we lost Sir Sid again!!!"?