Craziest Orioles offseason and spring ever?

[Frobby]

Just to review the highlights:

- Wieters becomes one of the first players ever to accept a QO

- O's reportedly offer $154 mm to Chris Davis as the winter meetings open, then pull the offer off the table, then sign him for $161 mm five weeks later after flirting with Cedpedes for a day.

- O's reach a 3-year deal with Gallardo, then renegotiate it to two years when they see stuff on his physical. Part of the attraction is it allows them to use the 29th pick to get...

- Dexter Fowler, who reportedly reached a deal with the O's but then shows up in Cubs' camp.

- O's sign Kim, he starts off 0 for 23, then after he starts getting some hits they bench him and it leaks that they're discussing sending him back to the KBO.

- And it looks like a Rule 5 guy beat him out and will start.

- O's avoid arbitration with Miguel Gonzalez for $5.2 mm, then cut him at the end of spring training.

I left out the boring stuff, like Trumbo, O'Day and Alvarez.

What a crazy offseason. I wonder if the season will be equally crazy.

[NashLumber]

What a crazy offseason. I wonder if the season will be equally crazy.

I have the gut feeling that it will. Not sure if anything will surprise me after this winter and spring rollercoaster.

[25 Nuggets]

[canonfaz]

Nice recap. I found it crazy that we were still in on Cespedes even after Davis signed.

[DrungoHazewood]

Since there's no real way to categorize craziest offseason I'll give you credit because this was pretty crazy, but then nominate the 1898-99 offseason:

- The manager and part owner of the team, Ned Hanlon, entered into a partnership with Charlie Ebbets' Brooklyn team. Transferred himself to Brooklyn.

- Hanlon and his new partners worked out a "trade" where they sent future HOFers Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, Joe Kelley, and a few others to Brooklyn for a Hickory Farms Cheese and Sausage basket.

- The team's other future HOFers John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson were slated to go to Brooklyn, too, but convinced somebody that they couldn't leave because of their bar/bowling alley (The Diamond) in Baltimore.

- McGraw, aged 26, named player-manager.

- Despite the intention to send almost all the best players to Brooklyn, McGraw somehow acquired Iron Man McGinnity from a minor league team and kept him in Baltimore. He went 28-16 as a rookie, was eventually inducted into Cooperstown.

- Apparently not realizing what they had, Brooklyn allowed Jimmy Sheckard to move to Baltimore where he had the first really good year in what was a near-HOF career. They took him right back after '99.

- Acquired "Wagon Tongue" Bill Keister, who was a journeyman that had brief cups of coffee in '96 and '98, but hit .329 as a regular for the Orioles in '99.

- Acquired Candy LaChance, which was only remarkable because 19th century men apparently allowed people to call them things like "Candy".

1899-1900 was also crazy, but is easier to sum up:

- Orioles, along with Washington, Louisville, and Cleveland contracted out of existence. As far as I know 1900 is the only year in the past 140-odd years Baltimore had no professional baseball team in any league.

[Redskins Rick]

Frobby,

Spot on, as usual.

Very crazy off-season for sure, in spite of Drungo's history lesson.

[oriole]

I think we'll see a pretty even run differential while also be one of the leading offenses.

Hitters will love facing us, pitchers will hate facing us.

Team chemistry still seems top notch though which will undoubtedly make for a great season to watch.

[atomic]

You forgot all the leaks to the press by the club. Just seems the Orioles could be more professional about how they handle things.

[webbrick2010]

You get crazy when you have no plan going into the off season

[Aristotelian]

This really has been nuts. Mostly not in a good way. More highs and lows compared to last year, when DD was critiqued for focusing on minor deals such as Travis Snider (while letting Cruz and Miller walk). At different points, people were willing to give DD anywhere from an A+ to an F.

I would add that our starter candidates this spring have been epically bad. Not just one or two guys, but almost every guy in our top five entering the spring with some crazy bad ERA's. Tillman 7.24, Ubaldo 12.27, Gallardo 16.88, Miguel 9.78, Gausman injured, Mike Wright 4.79, Vance Worley 4.30.

Meanwhile, Tyler Wilson has the best spring but may not make the rotation, even with Gausman injured and Miguel released.

[survivedc]

Man those 1800's nicknames were something special. Infinitely better than just calling someone "(first letter here)-Rod"

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[duffaphonic]

Can power, defense, and great relief pitching trump below average starters? It all comes down to that? This will be Buck's toughest year. We'll find out if he's a genius.

[Redskins Rick]

You get crazy when you have no plan going into the off season

no plans, that is a pretty crappy thing to say.

I am sure they had a plan, but even the best plans, don't always work how you want them to.

Pretty sure adding a bat like Trumbo was in their plans, and signing Kim made sense on paper, just because it didn't work, doesn't mean they had no plan.

[brooks1083]

Can power, defense, and great relief pitching trump below average starters? It all comes down to that? This will be Buck's toughest year. We'll find out if he's a genius.

I think "below average" is being generous.

[survivedc]

I think "below average" is being generous.

To be fair, 3 of our pitchers have a pretty good track record of being average or slightly above average. Spring training hasn't given me much confidence in them repeating that, but I don't expect any of those 3 (Tillman, ubaldo, gallardo) to fall off a cliff.

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