Brian Roberts to retire

[russ snyder]

Right, so the bat/helmet thing was ill-advised, but no one would have said "oh yea, that'll end your career!" In fact, no one would have thought anything of it.

There is no doubt that it was a freak injury.

However this seemingly innocuous act will be brought up at the conference.

Most acts out of frustration like this ( throwing bats, helmets, etc.) have the potential for poor results.

[AZRon]

Are you suggesting that Roberts' bat impacted his helmet at 95 mph? I think it was probably less severe than the backswing that hit the Royals' catcher the other day and he didn't so much as leave the game.

As to Brian Roberts, it wasn't how hard he tapped his helmet with his bat; it was how frequently. I witnessed him exhibiting his frustration in this manner dozens of times.

[russ snyder]

I think a catcher also has a mask on, a mask designed to deflect impacts.

The Royals catcher wears a batting helmet which is more effective than the hockey mask type when there is contact from a backswing.

[Can_of_corn]

The Royals catcher wears a batting helmet which is more effective than the hockey mask type when there is contact from a backswing.

Drungo mentioned backswings, I was talking about foul tips. Foul tips are more likely to impact the mask.

[auzzy98]

I wonder if the Angels fans give Kendrys Morales as hard of a time as some Orioles fans give Brian. He celebrated a walk off grand slam or something and jumped on home plate and broke his leg. It was a freak accident that cost him the rest of the year, and he was their best offensive player at the time. I bet they don't

[weams]

I wonder if the Angels fans give Kendrys Morales as hard of a time as some Orioles fans give Brian. He celebrated a walk off grand slam or something and jumped on home plate and broke his leg. It was a freak accident that cost him the rest of the year, and he was their best offensive player at the time. I bet they don't

It was a completely different scenario. And they chose not to sign him back when the opportunity presented itself. They made him sit out a year to get any contract at all and then when they thought they could use him, they got him back on a much smaller financial investment. And Kendrys was not a steroid user. Many Brian Roberts fans did not like that about him.

[russ snyder]

I wonder if the Angels fans give Kendrys Morales as hard of a time as some Orioles fans give Brian. He celebrated a walk off grand slam or something and jumped on home plate and broke his leg. It was a freak accident that cost him the rest of the year, and he was their best offensive player at the time. I bet they don't

Not sure.

I wonder how many times Morales forgot how many outs there were or how often he put it on cruise control on a routine grounder or fly ball?

[auzzy98]

Not sure.

I wonder how many times Morales forgot how many outs there were or how often he put it on cruise control on a routine grounder or fly ball?

Probably as much as any other player did. Plus he is fat, so maybe even more than the league average

[auzzy98]

It was a completely different scenario. And they chose not to sign him back when the opportunity presented itself. They made him sit out a year to get any contract at all and then when they thought they could use him, they got him back on a much smaller financial investment. And Kendrys was not a steroid user. many Brian Roberts fans did not like that about him.

You have no idea if Morales was a steroid user or not. No one knows if anyone is a steroid user anymore, unless they have tested positive or admitted to it.

[weams]

You have no idea if Morales was a steroid user or not. No one knows if anyone is a steroid user anymore, unless they have tested positive or admitted to it.

Right. Except that Roberts was. And I gave Morales the benefit of the doubt.

[russ snyder]

Probably as much as any other player did. Plus he is fat, so maybe even more than the league average

So according to your "logic", overweight players are prone to giving less than full effort on the field.

To that end, the only explanantion for Roberts' lack of effort and concentration is that he was a prima donna. ( He is "skinny" by your definition)

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Guest]

You can have any opinion of him you like. I'm not trying to convince anyone anything.Sometimes it's better to just enjoy the fan experience from a player. I will say though that anything I've ever said about Roberts I've said while he was an Oriole. I certainly haven't changed my tune because of him signing with the Yankees.

But I will say that as a lifelong Oriole, one who supposedly cared about traditions and the fans, why does he sign with a Division rival at the end of his career for a $2 million pay day? Could you imagine Cal or Brooks or Palmer doing something like that? He made $40 million over four years for 1 WAR of production, partially due to injuries sustained due to his own actions. Although I was happy he signed with the Yankees (due to the fact I knew he was done and not good for the kind of clubhouse Buck likes to have), shouldn't that come into consideration if you think he was a guy who was all about the Orioles and their fans?

Again, I'm fine if you want to be a fan of Brian Roberts, but let's not act like he was a saint who only thought about the Orioles and their fans. Brian Roberts was a good player for the Orioles when a sudden and "unexplained" (who was it explained?) power surge led him to put up six very good seasons. He was good at PR, said the right things in public and was "cute" so he was easily a female fan favorite.

But, when was the last time you heard a player talk about his leadership or help? Who did he make better on the team? Did he get fed up losing, or did he just kind of accept it and allowed his hustle to waver at times? When was the last time you saw Nick Markakis or Adam Jones job down to first base on a fly out? when was the last time they forgot how many outs there were in a game? When was the last time you heard them announce themselves the starter in spring training after missing basically two and half years?

I know it's hard to think your favorite player might not be the guy you thought he was, but I think it's disingenuous to downplay the vast amount of available information that backs up that Roberts may not have always been about the team and fans, but just maybe, about himself first. Again, be a fan of him all you like, but know people are not just making things up about Roberts because he signed with the Yankees (especially since the Orioles showed no interest in resigning him despite having no clear option at 2nd base this past offseason).

I think you answered your own question:

why does he sign with a Division rival at the end of his career for a $2 million pay day?

The Oriole had no interest in keeping him, he still believed he could play, and the Yanks were the only team to ante up.

[weams]

I think you answered your own question:

The Oriole had no interest in keeping him, he still believed he could play, and the Yanks were the only team to ante up.

I am sure that Brian's career did not end the way he wished. I am sure that he never thought that the Yankees would release him.

[auzzy98]

[/b]

So according to your "logic", overweight players are prone to giving less than full effort on the field.

To that end, the only explanantion for Roberts' lack of effort and concentration is that he was a prima donna. ( He is "skinny" by your definition)

Thanks for clearing that up.

Good grief man, that was a joke. Guess I need to be more blatant with my sarcasm

[Frobby]

I don't remember all of the details, but didn't Roberts make an out, get frustrated, and then just kind of bopped himself on his batting helmet with the bat? Who in the world would think that could cause a concussion? You see football players bump helmets without thinking about it, and this can't be that much more severe, it just happened to be a freak thing.

Maybe I'm missing some crucial detail, but I always thought this was a pretty innocent thing that just happened to line up all wrong.

Exactly. I remember when he did it, and it looked like nothing. He had a split second reaction to a bad at bat, not premeditated in any way, and it cost him 2 years of his career. Freak thing. We've all done something stupid in the heat of anger that had some unintended consequence, his unintended consequence was just very extreme.