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From Today's Callis Chat on ESPN


laxtonto

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He was up to 96 in the Arizona Fall League after dropping another 25 pounds. Kid has the best work ethic I've ever seen.

Frankly I've got my fingers crossed that neither Hendry nor MacPhail budge on Pie (if that's really the staredown that's happening), just so the deal falls apart and Gallagher stays.

I'm probably drinking some serious coolaid, but a mature young righty with a mid-90s heater, good offspeed stuff and a great makeup would sure look sweet between Hill and Lilly. Let Lieber keep his seat warm for half a year or so and then plug him in and have one more rotation spot solved for the next 5 years.

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Don't need both? Why don't the orioles need more talented players?

"When it comes to talent, baseball teams are ravenous blood-sucking monsters, always wanting more...more...more! And if you give it to them, you'll get plenty back in return."

Rep points for first to pull that reference.

I would rather pick the CF I want (Pie or Jones) & trade the player we have left of Bedard or Roberts to improve another postion. The O's IMO have too many holes to get 2 blue chip CF's & leave Millar at 1B, LH at SS.

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I would rather pick the CF I want (Pie or Jones) & trade the player we have left of Bedard or Roberts to improve another postion. The O's IMO have too many holes to get 2 blue chip CF's & leave Millar at 1B, LH at SS.

But if you have them both, there's no way to tell which one to keep. Not yet. It's dumb be in a big hurry to ship one out. For all we know, the guy you ship out of town could turn out to be Willie Mays. What's the big rush? You wanna be the guy who traded young Willie Mays for some SS named Greene? Why would you wanna "flip" one of these guys so quickly, before you know how good they are?

Is it because you think AM's job is a quick fix job? Do you think he can wheel and deal and fix the team lickety-split? Well, he can't. Forget it. The fastest way he could possibly do it involves keeping both of those guys long enough to see who's for real. The worst possible thing he could do would be to rush around "flipping" guys before he knows what he's got. It's *necessary* that this takes time. Just because he makes big dramatic trades, that does *NOT* mean that "rebuilding" becomes an instant crash-course process that gets done in a winter or two. That's just not how this works, unless it's an Actual Miracle. Now, miracles do happen sometimes, but you can't exactly bet on them. Better to take some time and see who you've got before you go "flipping" them. It's not like a used car lot.

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I prefer to have one or the other in the Orioles OF (CF) & more of a power hitter in LF. Much like the Red Sox & Yanks do!

Luke Scott is approximately a .290 EqA hitter, and an average defender in left.

Adam Jones and Felix Pie are both at least +10 defenders in center. If memory serves, the typical adjustment from CF to LF is about 10... so we could expect either of them to be approximately 20 runs better than Luke Scott on defense. Assuming 550 plate appearances (or 125 more than Scott has ever gotten in his career), that leaves us with a situation where Pie or Jones only has to put up a .260 EqA in left to be as useful as Luke Scott.

In other words, Pie or Jones would only have to hit like Shannon Stewart did last year (.290/.345/.394), to be dead even with Scott in terms of value as a LF, simply because of their defensive prowess.

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But if you have them both, there's no way to tell which one to keep. Not yet. It's dumb be in a big hurry to ship one out. For all we know, the guy you ship out of town could turn out to be Willie Mays. What's the big rush? You wanna be the guy who traded young Willie Mays for some SS named Greene? Why would you wanna "flip" one of these guys so quickly, before you know how good they are?

Is it because you think AM's job is a quick fix job? Do you think he can wheel and deal and fix the team lickety-split? Well, he can't. Forget it. The fastest way he could possibly do it involves keeping both of those guys long enough to see who's for real. The worst possible thing he could do would be to rush around "flipping" guys before he knows what he's got. It's *necessary* that this takes time. Just because he makes big dramatic trades, that does *NOT* mean that "rebuilding" becomes an instant crash-course process that gets done in a winter or two. That's just not how this works, unless it's an Actual Miracle. Now, miracles do happen sometimes, but you can't exactly bet on them. Better to take some time and see who you've got before you go "flipping" them. It's not like a used car lot.

That's not what he is saying. He doesn't want to trade for Jones and Pie, and then flip one of them. He is actually saying that the O's should decide which one they want...Jones in the Bedard deal, or Pie in the Roberts deal...then trade whoever was left between Bedard and Roberts for someone other than a centerfielder.

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That's not what he is saying. He doesn't want to trade for Jones and Pie, and then flip one of them. He is actually saying that the O's should decide which one they want...Jones in the Bedard deal, or Pie in the Roberts deal...then trade whoever was left between Bedard and Roberts for someone other than a centerfielder.

Got it.

[* Gilda Radner *] Never mind.

If he gets them both anyway, I figure it's because of he wants to solve CF this winter. I think he targeted CF, and that's the problem he's trying to solve. Getting both Jones and Pie gives him an excellent chance to succeed, much higher than just getting one of them. By getting both, he doesn't have to worry about CF, he can cross it off his list for now. Then, after he sees who he's really got, he decides what to do with the other one. ("Get good talent, and then sort it out.")

I don't think he's trying to fix everything at once. I'm about 99.9999% sure that he's not even thinking about how to solve everything at once. I think he wants to solve CF so it's solved. I think he thinks that Scott maybe-solves LF. But he's not sure. So, if he somehow gets Jones and Pie to go along with Scott, then between the three of them, there's a damn good chance that he can quit worrying about the OF. Then he'll worry about something else. If you try to fix everything at once, all you're doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic.

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Problems with the above:

Gallagher has been steadily adding velocity for over a year. A jump from the high-80s to 91-92-93 is really what got him on the prospect map in the first place, and allowed him to shed the "fringe/finesse" label. The weight loss may or may not have something to do with it (and really the cause is irrelevant anyway), but the jump up to the mid-90s in the AFL is just a continuation of a development that's alrealy been underway for some time... not at all unprecedented for a kid that's 21.

During his September callup, Gallagher was asked to pitch out of the bullpen for the first time, basically ever. That's a big transition in and of itself, let alone jumping to the show at the same time. That alone makes a comparison to Hayden Penn, whose 14 MLB appearances have all been starts, rather silly.

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