Seth Smith is now off the market

[ChuckS]

Steve Pearce. Dariel Alvarez. Will Venable. Or anyone. And David Lough might be fine in left field without a concussion.

Do you reasonably expect Alvarez to be ready to contribute at the start of the year? De Aza/Pearce/Young are going to fill DH/LF. I'm just not looking forward to David Lough and his likely sub .700 OPS getting significant at bats at a corner outfield position. You can say what you want about the concussion affecting the early part of his season, but it's still a small sample size and I'll look to the fact that he didn't break into the bigs until age 26 and wasn't setting the minor leagues on fire by any stretch before he broke in as a bigger indicator of what he might do than two half seasons in the bigs facing favorable matchups.

Seth Smith was a quality option for OF/DH and just for overall depth because injuries can be expected. We missed the boat here. I'm sure we will add someone before the start of the season, it just sucks to see the better options dwindling due to our passive approach. .800 OPS's don't grow on trees anymore.

[backwardsk]

Dan Duquette and the Orioles FO.

We're doing the same old thing of waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. We've been doing that since the dark times. You'd figure they'd realize that this isn't a good way of doing things.

They did that in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and got lucky 2012, 2013 and 2014. When we balance the winning seasons with the losing seasons using that same strategy, my confidence will be there.

MSK

I wonder who entered into the equation in 2012 and wasn't there before.

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[Rich Mac]

We won't win anything without a power bat who comes up big?like Nelson Cruz.We had him and lost him because we wouldn't pay the price.I believe DD or Buck will regret not signing him.Davis is hard to count on as is Wieters and Manny. Jones is just not enough.

I don't think it is unreasonable to expect at least one of those three to step it up and produce some very good power numbers this year. I think the odds of your worst case scenario happening are about the same as Cruz having a mediocre follow-up to his monstrous performance last year.

[Rene88]

What's Garrett Atkins up to these days? Bet he would be a bargain.

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[Rene88]

We won't win anything without a power bat who comes up big?like Nelson Cruz.We had him and lost him because we wouldn't pay the price.I believe DD or Buck will regret not signing him.Davis is hard to count on as is Wieters and Manny. Jones is just not enough.

Thanks for speaking your mind on this issue Roy. Not all offseasons are created the same. Nothing left to replace the lost pieces. I hated seeing Nick go, but understood. Cruz's price wasn't that bad IMO.. But if you have a plan to replace the production, makes sense.

However, there are no pieces left to put together a plan that makes sense.

I am sure you will be criticized as well as myself but appreciate you posting some reality to the board.

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[Three Run Homer]

We lost two GOOD players. Not key. Tillman is key. Chen is key. Jones is key. Britton is key. I can go on...

Come on. You can argue that Cruz wasn't worth his contract, but you can't argue that Cruz wasn't key to the Orioles offense in 2014. He led the league in home runs!

Pretending that giving Nelson Cruz' at bats to David Lough won't have a serious negative effect on the offense is just whistling past the graveyard.

[scOtt]

The lack of respect is appalling, but you believe what you wish to believe. Anyone. I'll remind you of that comment in July!

Has nothing to do with "respect". I have all the respect in the world for Nick. But our front office balked after the medical reports, then he had LATE offseason surgery. Basically the same surgery as Reimold had. He's questionable to do anything this year. Questionable to justify the big buck for the next FOUR years. It's not disrespectful, it's realism.

Appall on THAT!

[scOtt]

Come on. You can argue that Cruz wasn't worth his contract, but you can't argue that Cruz wasn't key to the Orioles offense in 2014. He led the league in home runs!

Pretending that giving Nelson Cruz' at bats to David Lough won't have a serious negative effect on the offense is just whistling past the graveyard.

ONE player. A very good player but just one.

[Number5]

Come on. You can argue that Cruz wasn't worth his contract, but you can't argue that Cruz wasn't key to the Orioles offense in 2014. He led the league in home runs!

Pretending that giving Nelson Cruz' at bats to David Lough won't have a serious negative effect on the offense is just whistling past the graveyard.

David Lough will be getting the at bats of... David Lough. As of now, Pearce would be the primary recipient of Cruz's at bats. That stands to change soon, as it seems likely that another hitter will be signed.

[scOtt]

David Lough will be getting the at bats of... David Lough. As of now, Pearce would be the primary recipient of Cruz's at bats. That stands to change soon, as it seems likely that another hitter will be signed.

Pearce and Delmon.

[25 Nuggets]

The only thing that bugs me is that it's the Mariners again winning a bid from the Orioles.

The Orioles should leak something to the press like, "The Orioles are interested in B.J. Upton" so the Mariners trade for him. Ha!

[scOtt]

We won't win anything without a power bat who comes up big?like Nelson Cruz.We had him and lost him because we wouldn't pay the price.I believe DD or Buck will regret not signing him.Davis is hard to count on as is Wieters and Manny. Jones is just not enough.

I've said it before Roy. We CAN get by meekly replacing Cruz's stats. Sure he was a godsend last year but we lead the league in HRs. And Nelson was absent for a couple months too. We're more than just a bunch of bangers. On offense maybe not MUCH more than bangers, but we'll still hit our share without Cruz.

And whoever (whomever?) replaces Markakis is likely to bring something different and better to the table. Pitching and defense is our thing. And still plenty of 3-run homers. It's Earl's dream team.

Dan got this.

[scOtt]

The only thing that bugs me is that it's the Mariners again winning a bid from the Orioles.

The Orioles should leak something to the press like, "The Orioles are interested in B.J. Upton" so the Mariners trade for him. Ha!

A mini blessing. Seattle doing all this, Cubs doing all this, Miami... it's all out of our division. Silver lining.

[25 Nuggets]

Yeah. I wonder if there is the thought in the front office along the lines of, "we're still the best team in the division as is. We shouldn't mortgage any of the future for another guy." But I'd have jumped all over a Seth Smith for Mike Wright trade.

After taking a close look at the team, there is one gaping hole on the 25 man roster and that is Left Handed DH. Steve Pearce should not be the DH vs RHP, he should be taking bats away from De Aza (LF), Lough (RF) and Davis (1B) against LHP and sometimes RHP. If we're using current personnel, the guy that best fits the role is Jimmy Paredes, a switch hitter with a much better split vs RHP. But he's not batting 3rd or 5th in the lineup.

[hendu]

I agree with this. I listen to Rob and Vinny and they always seem to look for a reason to piss off Joe Flacco fans. Then the very next week, they look for reasons to piss off Joe Flacco haters. I do agree they try to get people riled up.

But what about the other sources? MLB Network tends to have some of the best analyses out there with a very fair hand at breaking down each team's strengths and weaknesses.

They also seem to feel that we should be making some kind of move to shore up the team for 2015.

Nothing expensive. Nothing flashy. But something better than NOTHING.

MSK

How can you possibly listen to Vinny Cerrato? He knows less about sports than my mother, and he's the most annoying person on the planet.