Regretting Not Signing Andrew Miller?

[birrman54]

When you get a chance to lock up a 29 year old reliever, after his career season, for 4 years at 10 million a year, you just gotta do it.

You guys are the best.

The best time to judge an expensive multi-year contract is in the first week

[Redskins Rick]

The best time to judge an expensive multi-year contract is in the first week

Exactly.

How many articles have they done on all the big multi-year contracts, and the numbers are extremely low on the ones that actually worked out for the team?

[Crazysilver03]

Relievers are fragile and fickle, they sometimes flame pretty quick and hard to depend on them for more than a couple of years.

Look at Johnson and the down year last year was pretty bad.

But he got his mojo back with the Braves and back to what he was.

Let's wait for more than a week to say Johnson has his mojo back.

[Redskins Rick]

Let's wait for more than a week to say Johnson has his mojo back.

He didn't pitch one week last year at all, like he has so far.

I agree, SSS, but so far, he has been very good.

[clapdiddy]

You know it's a good thread when it's tough to distinguish between the sarcastic and serious replies!

I would have loved Miller on this team. We can't afford 10M dollars on 1 relief pitcher.

[birrman54]

You know it's a good thread when it's tough to distinguish between the sarcastic and serious replies!

I would have loved Miller on this team. We can't afford 10M dollars on 1 relief pitcher.

I actually think there's something to be said for preferring Miller + Garcia (or some other minimum salary option) for ~10.5M than Hunter + Matusz for ~7.5M. It's similar to what you see with starting pitchers, guys like Ubaldo/Feldman/etc get $10+M/yr but are very rarely difference-makers. Someone like Kershaw is easily 3x more valuable than Ubaldo, but it's the baseball equivalent of all your eggs in one basket.

[Frobby]

I thought keeping Miller was critically important and said so at the time. Much more important than Cruz or Nick. I think of Miller this way. We are collectively paying Hunter, Matusz, and Wright about the same as Miller would have cost.

Would you trade those 3 for Miller.....every day of the week and twice on Sunday. DD blew it not keeping Miller.

Well see about that. Hunter, Matusz and Wright threw 160.2 innings at a 3.19 ERA. Miller threw 62.1 at a 2.02 ERA. To justify the tradeoff you are talking about, you'd have to find two league-minimum pitchers to throw 98.1 IP at a 3.94 ERA or better. I know that teams do find guys like that, but it isn't that easy to do. You have to spend a lot of time sorting through the Evan Meeks and Josh Stinsons to find the Brad Brach.

[ShaneDawg85]

If our starters pitched better we wouldn't be 3-4. The offense has given them a chance, but it doesn't come down to the bullpen unless the starters can't do their jobs and hold leads. The entire pitching staff has been struck with home run fever during this home stand. Norris was atrocious, Tillman was almost as bad. Chen wasn't exceptional down in Tampa. The starters set the bullpen up for failure, and if they don't do well, this team is going to have problems regardless of how well the pen is doing. Andrew Miller doesn't fix that, and all of you know it.

[Redskins Rick]

If our starters pitched better we wouldn't be 3-4. The offense has given them a chance, but it doesn't come down to the bullpen unless the starters can't do their jobs and hold leads. The entire pitching staff has been struck with home run fever during this home stand. Norris was atrocious, Tillman was almost as bad. Chen wasn't exceptional down in Tampa. The starters set the bullpen up for failure, and if they don't do well, this team is going to have problems regardless of how well the pen is doing. Andrew Miller doesn't fix that, and all of you know it.

Its also early in the season. Kershaw got hammered the other night, it happens. I remember Palmer getting knocked around a time or two.

The SP is a good group of experience arms and they will bounce back.

[joeyc]

I definitely knew it. Get ready, it's going to happen all year long.

[Russsnyder]

I posted this winter that Miller had the best stuff of any reliever in my 50 years watching the O's. Several posters disagreed with my assessment naming a litany of relievers who they thought had better stuff than Miller. Some posters said Tommy Hunter could fill that void. The question remains does ownership want to win a championship, or just have a competitive team that will draw enough fans to bring in revenue? If we have Miller we are probably 5-2 right now. It is a long season but we gave up a top prospect for Miller. Right now the bullpen is a major concern. DD spent the winter trying to leave town while the owner spent his time trying to prevent him from leaving. It is so frustrating being an O's fan and season ticket holder. I know some Angelo?s apologist will respond saying that we have the 11th payroll in baseball. But we were next to last on international spending, with the Yankees and Red Sox cleaning up on prospects. That is coupled with losing Cruz and Miller. I said all winter on here losing Miller was a killer. We had a small window to put a championship team on the field. Did ownership do everything they could to set us up to win a championship? I say no!!!!

[Yardball85]

He was filthy as usual. Unhittable really. Compare that against Hunter and you see what money gets you (albeit a big amount of money).

I know Gina Geppi is going crazy on Facebook-ha ha. She LOVES Andrew Miller was quite upset we didn't sign him.

No. I like Andrew, but four years 36M is too much for a reliever.

[Nigel Tufnel]

I was in favor of signing Andrew Miller in the off season and he left for NY while DD was dreaming about Toronto. What a stellar shut down reliever almost Rivera like. We had him and decided to let him go after trading for him and not bid on him. I'm a season ticket holder and during the off season everybody I talked to was upset about Miller leaving. Very few comments about Cruz and Nick. If we had Miller our record would not be 3-4 right now. Buck is doing his best in his postgame interviews but Matusz should have faced Drew with the bases loaded tonight. Not Hunter! Buck thinks they would have pinch hit Headey if he would have brought him in to the game. Maybe....maybe not. Another tough loss. The pen has got to get better.

Remember that time when RShack referred to you as Section 8, because you were being crazy, and you got all mad because you thought he was calling you poor? Wish I could find that thread...

[Redskins Rick]

I posted this winter that Miller had the best stuff of any reliever in my 50 years watching the O's. Several posters disagreed with my assessment naming a litany of relievers who they thought had better stuff than Miller. Some posters said Tommy Hunter could fill that void. The question remains does ownership want to win a championship, or just have a competitive team that will draw enough fans to bring in revenue? If we have Miller we are probably 5-2 right now. It is a long season but we gave up a top prospect for Miller. Right now the bullpen is a major concern. DD spent the winter trying to leave town while the owner spent his time trying to prevent him from leaving. It is so frustrating being an O's fan and season ticket holder. I know some Angelo?s apologist will respond saying that we have the 11th payroll in baseball. But we were next to last on international spending, with the Yankees and Red Sox cleaning up on prospects. That is coupled with losing Cruz and Miller. I said all winter on here losing Miller was a killer. We had a small window to put a championship team on the field. Did ownership do everything they could to set us up to win a championship? I say no!!!!

Dont blame the ownership, we yelled and begged for the Ownership to not meddle and pretend to know baseball. Hire baseball people and get out of their way and let them do their job.

Now that we have that, we can't stand here and yell at them to do something.

Miller was not the best reliever in 50 years of baseball, it would be foolish to spend the piggy bank on one reliever.

[Rene88]

I know Miller got a big payday. I get it. I also know he went to the dreaded Yankees. That hurts a little more (I am sure the Red Sox feel the same way too).

All a matter of opinion I guess. I think we all know Peter Angelos has the ability to increase payroll substantially at any point. So we aren't the typical middle-market team. This will likely change when he passes and we will be hating life if his son's choose not to sell the team to a home-town group.

Regardless-everyone is entitled to their opinion. I welcome posters like MSK because there are few like him left that still posts here. Many have given up posting contrary views. It is good to read if you agree or not. Just my two cents.