Lough DFA (Outrighted to Norfolk)

[Aristotelian]

I love how every move, no matter how minor, turns into a referendum on DD. Remember last year, when we were the team that would "out-opportunity" everyone else? DD brought in a bunch of AAAA types and it worked. He hit massively on Pearce, and to a lesser extent on De Aza, Paredes (for a time), Delmon, Webb, and TJ. Called up Caleb Joseph and hit gold there. Even Lough was contributing despite never hitting. Missed on a few guys (Meek, Weeks) but limited the damage.

This year he has been forced to rely more upon these types of players and simply didn't hit on any of them (Snider, Parmelee). The guys who produced last year have regressed (Young, Paredes, Pearce). Meanwhile, Norris imploded and Tillman, Gausman, and Miguel have all been inconsistent.

DD got on a nice hot streak last year, now he is unbelievably cold.

I thought the Webb/Bowen deal was the most mystifying. Hunter made sense to trade, I am curious to see what we have in Lake but expect more of the same.

[LookitsPuck]

Lough needed to go. I would have preferred to see Lake and Reimold go too. Call up Alvarez and Mancini along with Urrutia. What do we have to lose? Might as well see what they can do against major league pitching and get a read on whether they can help us next year.

As for Lough's defense...he may have elite range, but you can't be an elite defensive outfielder with a below average arm, no matter what dWAR says.

Below average arm? Didn't he nail a couple of runners at 2B from deep in LF like a week ago? Or come close to nailing 2?

Yes, Lough threw one terribly the other night. But so did Jones when throwing home against the Athletics. I don't care if the mound is in the way. You're in middle/shallow CF throwing home....get it there in the air.

[Can_of_corn]

I love how every move, no matter how minor, turns into a referendum on DD. Remember last year, when we were the team that would "out-opportunity" everyone else? DD brought in a bunch of AAAA types and it worked. He hit massively on Pearce, and to a lesser extent on De Aza, Paredes (for a time), Delmon, Webb, and TJ. Called up Caleb Joseph and hit gold there. Even Lough was contributing despite never hitting. Missed on a few guys (Meek, Weeks) but limited the damage.

This year he has been forced to rely more upon these types of players and simply didn't hit on any of them (Snider, Parmelee). The guys who produced last year have regressed (Young, Paredes, Pearce). Meanwhile, Norris imploded and Tillman, Gausman, and Miguel have all been inconsistent.

DD got on a nice hot streak last year, now he is unbelievably cold.

I thought the Webb/Bowen deal was the most mystifying. Hunter made sense to trade, I am curious to see what we have in Lake but expect more of the same.

Better then the bad old days when every move was about the owner.

[ArtVanDelay]

Lough needed to go. I would have preferred to see Lake and Reimold go too. Call up Alvarez and Mancini along with Urrutia. What do we have to lose? Might as well see what they can do against major league pitching and get a read on whether they can help us next year.

As for Lough's defense...he may have elite range, but you can't be an elite defensive outfielder with a below average arm, no matter what dWAR says.

Pretty sure his arm rates out as above average. I think it's hilarious that people think Lough has a candy arm because of one bad throw.

[MurphDogg]

Below average arm? Didn't he nail a couple of runners at 2B from deep in LF like a week ago? Or come close to nailing 2?

Yes, Lough threw one terribly the other night. But so did Jones when throwing home against the Athletics. I don't care if the mound is in the way. You're in middle/shallow CF throwing home....get it there in the air.

http://m.mlb.com/bal/video/v297981683/baltb-lough-shows-off-arm-nabs-loney-at-second

[LookitsPuck]

http://m.mlb.com/bal/video/v297981683/baltb-lough-shows-off-arm-nabs-loney-at-second

That's it! For some reason I thought it was the A's. But it was the Rays. Thanks! Rep to you.

[mcgraw238]

DD really sold this guy hard to the fanbase after his acquisition. I thought it was a good trade at the time and thought he would be a spark plug / grinder type with great D. It just didn't work out.

[SteveO]

I am far more concerned at this point that the Orioles have a minor league system that is ranked at or dang close to the bottom of MLB. That is not all a result of the Bundy and Harvey injuries. Its a result of the near abysmal lack of talent throughout the organization in the minors. This to me is of far greater concern moving forward that anything else. If your a team that does not want or like to spend in the FA market and you have very poor talent in your minor league system, your gonna be in for a rough ride. So unless DD can hypnotize Peter and convince him to spend internationally (youth) and spend in free agency, I gotta feeling things are gonna get even bumpier.

I have to laugh that anyone thinks that we are going to go out and sign big name guys to big contracts just simply because our payroll is going down with the guys who walk. That is not how the Orioles do business. Let me be clear here, I am not a fan of spending big money of FA, its the most inefficient way to improve your team. Given the lack of talent we have below the MLB level though, I don't see how the team gets better any other way. Just not sure the organization/owner is gonna swallow that bullet and do what it takes considering they were not willing to essentially swallow the one additional year that Seattle offered Cruz from what we were willing to do for a team that had legit World Series aspirations.

All the DFA's and other moves are rough this year, they don't concern me .01% of what is to come if we don't start fixing the farm system.

[Can_of_corn]

I am far more concerned at this point that the Orioles have a minor league system that is ranked at or dang close to the bottom of MLB. That is not all a result of the Bundy and Harvey injuries. Its a result of the near abysmal lack of talent throughout the organization in the minors. This to me is of far greater concern moving forward that anything else. If your a team that does not want or like to spend in the FA market and you have very poor talent in your minor league system, your gonna be in for a rough ride. So unless DD can hypnotize Peter and convince him to spend internationally (youth) and spend in free agency, I gotta feeling things are gonna get even bumpier.

I have to laugh that anyone thinks that we are going to go out and sign big name guys to big contracts just simply because our payroll is going down with the guys who walk. That is not how the Orioles do business. Let me be clear here, I am not a fan of spending big money of FA, its the most inefficient way to improve your team. Given the lack of talent we have below the MLB level though, I don't see how the team gets better any other way. Just not sure the organization/owner is gonna swallow that bullet and do what it takes considering they were not willing to essentially swallow the one additional year that Seattle offered Cruz from what we were willing to do for a team that had legit World Series aspirations.

All the DFA's and other moves are rough this year, they don't concern me .01% of what is to come if we don't start fixing the farm system.

There is a lot riding on the class of 2016.

[waroriole]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Duq on replacing Cruz/Markakis w Snider/Young/DeAza/Lough: "We thought we had some capable players to do the job, but it didn?t work out.?</p>? Dan Connolly (@danconnollysun) <a href="

">August 14, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I bet he does the same thing again this offseason.

[Frobby]

I also think Frobby is letting DD off the hook too easy by just writing off Parra's collapse as simply bad luck, considering all the signs were there that he was over performing. That's like betting during the middle of winter that tomorrow is going to be a bright, sunny day because there was some sun out yesterday. It's just bad process, and makes me anxious about Dan's decision making going forward.

Let me be clear about what I'm saying. I was against the trade because I thought he'd be more like the .737 OPS career hitter he was rather than the .886 OPS hitter he'd been in 2015. But now he has a .564 OPS for us and that's way below his capabilities. (And I expect him to improve that over the next 49 games).

The second point is that if you look at all the projections for De Aza, Snider, Young , Lough and Pearce, all five of them have underperformed by substantial margins. I did not expect them to replace the production of Cruz and Markakis, but there was no reason to expect all of them to be this pathetic. The odds against them all doing that badly were very low. It's not surprising that any one of them failed to meet projections, but it's very surprising that all of them did, by a lot.

[WEAVERMAN]

I'd love to go find all those posts suggesting that Lough, Snider or De Aza were likely to be better than Markakis this year. What a joke. Add in Young, and that's all four corner OFs who were on the OD roster who have been DFA. Clean sweep

I wasn't against Dan's plan, but it sure blew up in his face.

It didn't look like Duquette had a plan. Let's move on from Lough. A fine defender, that's it. He can't hit nor steal bases.

[TouchemAll]

It didn't look like Duquette had a plan. Let's move on from Lough. A fine defender, that's it. He can't hit nor steal bases.

Yea there was a plan there buy a LOT OF CRAP throw it against the wall see if any sticks.

Oppps none of it did BOOM...

[Guest rochester]

Don't forget "Rev." Jim

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1HvmtbZzA40" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I just played this scene for my kids the other day...

[kaerts111]

This is so ridiculously stupid. Why is Lake on this roster? He's a failed prospect that is just clogging the roster. At least Lough was an elite defender. Lake brings absolutely nothing to this team right now. Duquette is a disaster this year.

I'd love to go find all those posts suggesting that Lough, Snider or De Aza were likely to be better than Markakis this year. What a joke. Add in Young, and that's all four corner OFs who were on the OD roster who have been DFA. Clean sweep

I wasn't against Dan's plan, but it sure blew up in his face.

It's a shame we can't DFA Duquette - if we could, wondering if we could get a trade for him? - or if he ends up being released - would the Blue Jays pick him up? - I think not.