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Fangraphs On the Oriole's Physicals


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http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/its-time-to-talk-about-the-orioles-and-their-physicals/

Importantly: the majority of players pass the Orioles physical. Maybe you could call it the overwhelming majority of players. Issues do pop up, and those generate attention, because ?pending physical? tends to be taken as a formality and it?s weird when it?s not. But the Orioles pass a lot of players. The system isn?t designed to fail 10 or 20 or 50 percent of those who go through it.

Very fair piece in my opinion.

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I don't think there's a single case where the Orioles backed off on a player or the player backed off because of the Orioles' physical and the Orioles were wrong about it.

From this article:

Balfour

Colvin

Jurrjens

Arroyo

Burnitz

Sele

Xavier Hernandez

The only one that possibly doesn't fit is Markakis, and the jury is still out on him only 1 year into the contract. In the Orioles' favor, they were concerned about Markakis' neck injury sapping his power, and he responded by having a season with 3 HR. He remained about roughly as productive but only did so by rather unexpectedly rebounding in BB rate and posting his highest BABIP since 2008.

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I wish the signings and physicals would be kept under wraps until everything is complete. Other than that I don't have a problem with the Orioles protecting their interests. They get slammed every time this happens, and some could be avoided if it wasn't"leaked" or reported before hand.

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I wish the signings and physicals would be kept under wraps until everything is complete. Other than that I don't have a problem with the Orioles protecting their interests. They get slammed every time this happens, and some could be avoided if it wasn't"leaked" or reported before hand.

Do you think it is the Orioles that leak it?

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I wish the signings and physicals would be kept under wraps until everything is complete. Other than that I don't have a problem with the Orioles protecting their interests. They get slammed every time this happens, and some could be avoided if it wasn't"leaked" or reported before hand.

In today's 24/7 media world? Good luck with that. Maybe if companies started ratting out all their media snitches, but even that's a hard task in and of itself. I don't know if people really want to turn corporate america into the CIA.

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Well it mostly defends the Orioles for having a tough physical.

That said, no other club gets the same flak for rescinding contracts based on failed physicals. The Orioles seem to be targets because the players that fail physicals are the ones that b***h and moan about it. Mike Napoli failed a physical that cost him $25 million in guaranteed money, and he happily took the 1 year deal. We have Xavier Hernandez, Aaron Sele, and Balfour all throwing huge fits when they fail. It's a bad look, but not one that's necessarily the Orioles' fault. Unless you consider picking whiny players to sign a fault of the front office.

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Do you think it is the Orioles that leak it?

I'd say that would make sense, because it brings the price of the player down. But on the flip side, and in the case of Balfour, another team could swoop in and sign them for less; because an angry player with options isn't going to sign with you anyway. So in a way, it's not totally in the O's interest to smear a player.

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I'd say that would make sense, because it brings the price of the player down. But on the flip side, and in the case of Balfour, another team could swoop in and sign them for less; because an angry player with options isn't going to sign with you anyway. So in a way, it's not totally in the O's interest to smear a player.

I meant leak the fact that they had an agreement in the first place. I think not. Not that they leaked the fact that the press conference which was being set up was canceled. Hard to hide that.

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