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Camden Depot's Shepherd: Failed Physicals and Testing the Orioles' Success


Tony-OH

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Unless of course you think that the Orioles medical standards are too stringent

That's the whole issue in question. The point industry Balfour-backers are making is that MRIs for every pitcher Balfour's age will have something you can argue is a cause for concern, and that there is nothing substantively different from this set of MRIs that from recent MRIs that should raise the "red flag" outside of normal veteran pitcher stuff.

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Yes. However, it is the Orioles' doctors that are being "accused" is it not? Balfour, his agent, and now Rosenthal are the ones leveling accusations, not the Orioles.

I don't think the Orioles doctors should be condemned either. Dr Wilckens is pretty well renowned also. All three Orioles doctors agreed so they must have saw something. This story seems to be spiraling out of control. Would be nice if the Orioles move on and try to get some players.

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That's the whole issue in question. The point industry Balfour-backers are making is that MRIs for every pitcher Balfour's age will have something you can argue is a cause for concern, and that there is nothing substantively different from this set of MRIs that from recent MRIs that should raise the "red flag" outside of normal veteran pitcher stuff.

Which is fine, however there is also this undercurrent of thought that the O's did all of this as a negotiating ploy. That is a whole other kettle of fish.

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The Orioles' identification of a physical problem isn't what "screws up" a player's value. it's the player having that condition in the first place. By identifying that condition, the Orioles have done nothing more than protect their interests in a completely responsible manner.

Unless of course you think that the Orioles medical standards are too stringent, but are any of us in a position to make that determination?

I agree with the notion that there is more to a player's decision than just the dollars. Unfortunately for us Orioles fans, there is more for a player to be wary of with this team than a high standard of physical fitness.

The problem lies in the second offer. This is where the Orioles look like schmucks.

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Which is fine, however there is also this undercurrent of thought that the O's did all of this as a negotiating ploy. That is a whole other kettle of fish.

Meh. Two sides of the same coin. If you are going to ding a deal over typical MRI noise for a pitcher his age/experience (assuming the results are in fact consistent with his other recent MRIs), do you ever expect that two year offer to stick? Now, it could be there is something else there, in which case Balfour is just pissed something popped up at an awful time.

Put another way. If a lender has certain underwriting standards that would preclude them lending you money at a certain rate, and they knew it was almost a certainty they could not lend you money at a certain rate, would you be upset if they went through the process of trying to get you approval for that rate, only to ding you and then try to renegotiate more favorable terms for them? That's the "worst case scenario" from a reputational standpoint, as far as Baltimore is concerned.

At the very least, if you know you are going to be ultra conservative with the medicals, shouldn't you go above and beyond to deny any deal is in place? That would be Balfour's strongest argument. His stock plummets once he has a team say his medicals blew up a deal. From his standpoint, the Orioles took a harder stance than expected looking at medicals and torpedoed the deal in a public manner.

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He met his wife through one of them.

Has anyone asked if they are getting "consulting fees" for their input?

It is simple, if you want me to believe that the MRIs are then same then release both sets.

If instead you want to make accusations through the media that you know full well the other side can not publicly refute then I will not give you much credence.

Thats fair and my issue is not with the fact they elected to not sign Balfour its how the scenario played out.

If your team with stringent expectations related to the medicals then pursuing a guy with a KNOWN history of shoulder problems and reaching an agreement with him prior to having your people clear hom medically is just asking for a PR nightmare. Even the O's have said that Balfour's docs are not lying its a simple disagreement on the interpretation. If your going to hold people to a different standard than the norm its your responsibility as an organization to put in place mechanisms to protect yourself from these types of PR nightmares. Bottom line the O's really never should have considered Balfour with his history as an option if they intended to hold him to a standard he was unlikely to meet.

Maybe the O's are getting a bum rap maybe not. At the end of the day you cannot convince they could not have done more to prevent the PR nightmare that ensued.

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Thats fair and my issue is not with the fact they elected to not sign Balfour its how the scenario played out.

If your team with stringent expectations related to the medicals then pursuing a guy with a KNOWN history of shoulder problems and reaching an agreement with him prior to having your people clear hom medically is just asking for a PR nightmare. Even the O's have said that Balfour's docs are not lying its a simple disagreement on the interpretation. If your going to hold people to a different standard than the norm its your responsibility as an organization to put in place mechanisms to protect yourself from these types of PR nightmares. Bottom line the O's really never should have considered Balfour with his history as an option if they intended to hold him to a standard he was unlikely to meet.

Maybe the O's are getting a bum rap maybe not. At the end of the day you cannot convince they could not have done more to prevent the PR nightmare that ensued.

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Where is this PR nightmare everyone is speaking of? I know personally I could care less. Seems like good business to me. Anyone that thinks that this situation will in anyway hinder the Orioles chances of signing anyone doesn't know baseball. Going forward, if someone is afraid of an O's physical, I am not interested in that player.

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I don't know why the Red Sox get lauded for being smart because they knocked Napoli's deal from a 3 year deal to a 1 year deal, but the O's do the same thing (or try to) with Balfour and they get kicked to the ground for it. No one ever mentions that Sele broke down 2 years into a 4 year deal, or the Burnitz was terrible and injured the year after he failed our physical. They just lambast the fact that the O's like to be thorough when throwing around 8-figure cash. Which is understandable. If I signed a contract for 15 million dollars the company would probably take every legal precaution necessary.

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Where is this PR nightmare everyone is speaking of? I know personally I could care less. Seems like good business to me. Anyone that thinks that this situation will in anyway hinder the Orioles chances of signing anyone doesn't know baseball. Going forward, if someone is afraid of an O's physical, I am not interested in that player.

They aren't afraid of the physical, they are wary of spending time and effort negotiating a deal and not being told what standards are being used for one side potentially backing out. The way this played out, Baltimore reached a deal with Balfour, then killed his market value and offered a team friendly deal to him after.

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