Roch: Rick Adair Talks About Jake

[Barnaby Graves]

Nothing against Arrieta. But this looks so bad for the Orioles.

[JR Oriole]

Nothing against Arrieta. But this looks so bad for the Orioles.

Good. This has been a 25 year problem for us. Learn from it and commit to making it better....if we have any clue how. Whatever Tampa, San Francisco, and the Cardinals do to develop pitchers....do that. Whatever we do....stop doing that. It doesn't work.

[MagicBird]

Apples and oranges.

But both are fruit.

Any time you make a comparison its for the similarities, not the differences. And the differences do not negate the validity of the similarities.

[brianod]

Personally, I've never celebrated the failures of my family, friends or favorite teams. Trading Jake was the second worst move this organization ever made and I don't enjoy watching his success.

[Barnaby Graves]

Good. This has been a 25 year problem for us. Learn from it and commit to making it better....if we have any clue how. Whatever Tampa, San Francisco, and the Cardinals do to develop pitchers....do that. Whatever we do....stop doing that. It doesn't work.

Yeah I agree, I hope this is the death of all that TTTP BS and making guys stop throwing their pitches and pitching away from their strengths.

[MrOrange82]

Yeah I agree, I hope this is the death of all that TTTP BS and making guys stop throwing their pitches and pitching away from their strengths.

You've never struck me as a gullible or naive poster, so I hope it doesn't sound harsh when I say...that's adorable.

And suddenly I feel sad.

[Barnaby Graves]

You've never struck me as a gullible or naive poster, so I hope it doesn't sound harsh when I say...that's adorable.

And suddenly I feel sad.

Heh, you are right, unfortunately

[OsEatAlEast]

I think the O's have often been guilty of over coaching. They draft Ben McDonald and right off the bat they tell him he can't throw the forkball anymore. That was his bread and butter with LSU! I remember Pete Harnisch being very vocal about the O's screwing up his delivery. So yeah saying it's been a problem for at least 25yrs isn't stretching the truth.

[fansince71]

Definitely stings....i mean i have no problem with a guy leaving us and turning his career around but this is insane. Jake has put together about 20 starts that are better than anybody that's ever pitched! Crazy!

[LookitsPuck]

Proud of Jake. Absolutely embarrassed for this organization. Have they done a single thing right when it comes to starters?

Bundy - got rid of his most effective pitch out of high school. Hurt.

Gausman - yo-yo'd, bullpen, rotation, back to bullpen...thrown in rotation again...zero time to work on his slider or curve. Regressed.

Harvey - Hurt.

Arrieta - traded along with Strop for Feldman and Clevenger. Dan bought way too high for Feldman who had below average stats prior to SSS. Cubs tinker with him for ~2 months, and he's instantly a better pitcher. Unreal. 9 million pitching coaches. TTP.

Matusz - TTP (time to plate) issues with Buck. Goes from a promising 1st rounder to being a LOOGY.

Britton - Former starter now dominant closer

Not even counting the brazillion starters we ruined/didn't pan out over the last decade+.

Don't get me started on trading Josh Hader (21 years old, lefty with a SO/9 nearly 10 in the minors), Stephen Tarpley (22 year old lefty in A ball with a 2.48 ERA, 8.1 SO/9, 1.9 BB/9), Zach Davies (3.71 ERA in only 6 starts for the Brewers at age 22), Eduardo Rodriguez (dominates in Red Sox minors then pitches to a 3.85 ERA in ~120 IP for the Red Sox). Oh, did I mention that Hader, Tarpley and ERod are all lefties?

The only meaningful SP depth that we have are absolute longshots to crack the rotation and pitch well (Gunkel, Lee, Wright, Miranda). Most see Wright as a (wait for it)...reliever. I guess you have Tyler Wilson, but what is his ceiling?

It's just downright ridiculous how poorly this club drafts and develops. And I'm not just talking about starters...I'm talking about position players as well. Is there anything immediately available in the minors from a positional player standpoint that can be an impact player?

It's just so incredibly frustrating.

[Ball Legend]

Dude put up video game numbers this season. Just crazy.

Since Aug. 1, 12-0 with a 0.37 ERA.

This is like Bo Jackson in Techmo Bowl. Not fair.

[Going Underground]

I talk to a lot of people past and present with the Orioles and formerly with the Orioles.Rick Adair was NOT a positive influence on the Orioles young pitchers they all say.I don't know Rick Adair, I have nothing against him personally, but based on what I hear and have heard Rick Adair held back a lot of talented pitchers for various reasons.Ultimately of course, this is on the athlete and his ability to move forward with the talent.Having said that, and I hate to be cryptic but I am trying to protect identities, Adair had his own demons and issues and part of that adversely effected the pitching staff. Ultimately that is why he didn't return.

I will repost this tidbit:

Multiple sources said that Arrieta's problems in Baltimore stemmed in part from a strained relationship with former Orioles pitching coach Rick Adair, an old-school type who was not particularly receptive to young pitchers with free-thinking orientations. "Rick was hard on young pitchers," said one current Orioles player who declined to be named.

Another person familiar with the situation referred to Adair as a "my-way-or-the-highway guy with a cookie-cutter approach" that didn't resonate with Arrieta. Pitcher and pupil butted heads over hand positioning and numerous other subtleties of the craft.

In hindsight, Arrieta declines to single out Adair for his travails with the Orioles. But he acknowledges that his mind was cluttered with too much unproductive advice in Baltimore. He wasn't unlike dozens of other prospects who wind up feeling stifled and confused when an organization spends too much time dictating and not enough time trying to find a middle ground.

"It's not like a pity-me kind of thing," Arrieta said. "There are players in those type of situations every day, in the minors and at the big league level, whose careers are set back because of different individual circumstances.

"It's been that way forever, unfortunately. Maybe it's based on an overload of information or a constant focus on the wrong things. It's hard to have success here in the major leagues, let alone consistent success, if you're worried about variables that you cannot control."

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13...-determination

[FanSince88]

I'm sorry, but I can't understand how two short years after someone can't hit the strike zone to save their life and costs the Orioles a postseason bid in 2013, he's suddenly pitching to a 0.75 ERA in the second half and shutting out the team with the second-best record in the ML.

I don't believe in coincidences. I think someone was unhappy in Baltimore for whatever reason, and decided not to play very well so he could leave. Just my two cents. Something doesn't add up here.

[Redskins Rick]

So he tanks it, by having a mass removed from his elbow that was impacting the way he pitched, just to get out of town.

SMH

Sorry, I don't buy into this.

[clapdiddy]

I think it all goes back to changing your coaching to meet the needs of individual pitchers. Just my opinion, but I think we try to make every pitcher do certain things and that approach doesn't always work. I'm not basing this off of anything other than Buck's love of time to the plate, and the "banning" of the cutter for minor leaguers. I'm guessing that there are other things our development team does that go along these lines as well, though I am not privy to any of that.

Plus, Jake needed out of here. It was obvious that he had talent, but it wasn't going to happen here for whatever reason.