Orioles "Appear to be the Leading team of interest" to Get Samardzija

[Norfolk orioles]

If Tillman had a 3.80 ERA, Jimenez and Gonzalez had a 3.90 ERA, and Chen had a 4.03 ERA (which are completely realistic expectations), the starters would have a solid 3.85 ERA right now and the team ERA would be 3.74, good enough for 5th in the AL.

I believe the team has the internal options to improve the pitching. These guys are going to pitch better. And the marginal upgrade, if at all, from Gonzo to Samardzija isn't worth what would be going the other way. Not even close.

You just made an entire argument from "if". Reality is quite different. Tillman, jiminez and Chen are all struggling big time and none of them is a lock to turn it around any time soon.

[CA-ORIOLE]

He doesn't remind me of him at all. Didn't Brown through a really heavy sinker? Gausman doesn't even throw a sinker. At any rate, I don't see Gausman being even as good as Brown potentially.

I already pointed out that Gausman is throwing mostly 4 seamers down in the zone now. So, yeah I know that difference. The build and mechanics look very similar to me.

[Jonesy10]

You just made an entire argument from "if". Reality is quite different. Tillman, jiminez and Chen are all struggling big time and none of them is a lock to turn it around any time soon.

Yep but all 3 of those starters are underperforming as much as Samardzija is overperforming.

If Samardzija finished the season with a 3.20 ERA in 220 innings his ERA the rest of the way will be 3.97. That's likely where his ERA will end up at the end of the season.

[Can_of_corn]

He doesn't remind me of him at all. Didn't Brown through a really heavy sinker? Gausman doesn't even throw a sinker. At any rate, I don't see Gausman being even as good as Brown potentially.

I already pointed out that Gausman is throwing mostly 4 seamers down in the zone now. So, yeah I know that difference. The build and mechanics look very similar to me.

Doesn't he also have what he calls his one seam fastball? Which is more of a sinker?

[CA-ORIOLE]

Doesn't he also have what he calls his one seam fastball? Which is more of a sinker?

Yeah, my assumption is they want him to command his 4 seam first. Which he has obvious issues with.

[Stotle]

The devs; sure. Being the new president and identifying that your new club hasn't developed a decent starter in the last ten years other than Erik Bedard and rerouting your approach to building the team is not a bad thing as far as I can tell. As long as there is a plan I guess.

Not really the "new" press anymore. If there were problems he is responsible for them now.

[atomic]

I'd prefer giving up Gausman, honestly. Just personal bias on my part. I haven't been impressed with his ML/MiL performances thus far, and his inefficiency/wildness bothers me.

That said, my uneducated guess would be that the Cubs would look for Gausman, Harvey/ERod, and another player (at least) for Samarjawhatsit. Not sure who the third player might be, but I'd expect to hear names like Wright, Berry, etc.

I would give up Gausman for him as well. I don't think he takes as much as you think. He is 5.8 career WAR pitcher. Gausman and a secondary prospect should get him.

[DrungoHazewood]

I bet a lot of people here 4 years ago wouldn't trade. Matusz , Arrieta , Britton , Hobgood how did that work out?

Yea, let's just assume that nobody is ever going to work out, so we'll trade them for much more expensive players that the budget can't support.

[Stotle]

Still walking slightly more than three batters per nine in the minors, which I'm not fond of. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't his pitch counts been fairly high for the number of innings he's thrown each start (IIRC, it took 93 pitches for him to get through his 6.1 inning, high water mark start).

I haven't seen his starts, so I don't know what to make of his numbers, exactly. He's limiting MiL hits, but is that a product of solid command and advancing secondaries, or is he simply overmatching MiL hitters with stuff that's mostly plateaued? Is he wild in the strike zone, or is he locating for the most part? I'm glad to see that his recent starts have been better, but those numbers alone don't really tell the story, IMO, that spells the difference between "future O's starter" and "trade bait."

Striking out over a batter an inning is going to drive up pitch counts. Three walks per nine is not so bad considering he's limiting batters to fewer than 7 hits per 9 innings pitched. He isn't a frontline MLB starter yet, and he'll need to make adjustments when he's promoted. For some reason stories like Stephen Strasburg and Jose Fernandez have made adjustment periods look more like failure, and it's simply not the case (in my opinion).

[Norfolk orioles]

Yep but all 3 of those starters are underperforming as much as Samardzija is overperforming.

If Samardzija finished the season with a 3.20 ERA in 220 innings his ERA the rest of the way will be 3.97. That's likely where his ERA will end up at the end of the season.

It would be interesting to see how he adjusts to life in the al east. He would have a much better defense behind him in Baltimore than he currently does in Chicago, if I'm not mistaken......I don't honestly know the cubs defensive abilities off the top of my head, but I would guess we have the better defense.

[Jonesy10]

It would be interesting to see how he adjusts to life in the al east. He would have a much better defense behind him in Baltimore than he currently does in Chicago, if I'm not mistaken......I don't honestly know the cubs defensive abilities off the top of my head, but I would guess we have the better defense.

Yep. That's true. Really, if we trade for him or not I don't think I will be upset. There are arguments to be made to trade for him and not trade for him. He's definitely a good pitcher. I just don't know if he's a big enough upgrade to warrant giving up what it would take to get him.

[MurphDogg]

At any rate, I don't see Gausman being even as good as Brown potentially.

Even as good as Brown? Kevin Brown is one of the 25 best pitchers of the last 30 years. The fact that he didn't get more Hall of Fame votes is silly. I personally don't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame but he was good enough to be on the ballot for 10 plus years and better than some pitchers like Jack Morris who nearly got elected. There are worse pitchers than Kevin Brown in the Hall of Fame.

[Jonesy10]

What argument?

I'm desperate to improve the team. That's my argument. I'm not setting out to make a reasoned case here, I'm telling you what my opinion is. Which is: go get this guy because we need him right now and our ace (Tillman) and #2 (Ubaldo) and #3 (Chen) are super bad at this whole pitching thing. Yet we are still very much in the hunt for the division lead.

Who gets knocked out of the rotation then? One of our 2 best pitchers in Norris and Gonzo?

[Norfolk orioles]

Send McFarland down, use Chen in long relief, spot starts or possibly just let him take over any game that our starters can't get deep in.

Chen is completely ineffective once he gets to 90-100 pitches anyways. He probably would be better suited out of the pen anyways.

[weams]

Even as good as Brown? Kevin Brown is one of the 25 best pitchers of the last 30 years. The fact that he didn't get more Hall of Fame votes is silly. I personally don't think he belongs in the Hall of Fame but he was good enough to be on the ballot for 10 plus years and better than some pitchers like Jack Morris who nearly got elected. There are worse pitchers than Kevin Brown in the Hall of Fame.

Plus, Kevin Brown used steroids to get as awesomely good as he was.