Duquette's offseason, in hindsight

[survivedc]

Good points on all, but not getting starting pitching when everyone knows that that is the most important part of the game is inexcusable. No matter what else you do, you can't win a championship without starting pitching. Fortunately for Dan, Buck has masterfully--as usual--mixed and matched. BTW, I was blasted for suggesting we sign Desmond. It is working out quite well for Texas, however.

The "most important part of the game," is scoring more than the other team. Your starting pitching doesn't have to be masterful, it just has to get you by, which ours has done so far. Not to say that's necessarily a winning formula but it has worked for the Royals who beat a clearly better pitching team than them last year.

[TradeAngelos]

I yearn for a day that Dan Duquette has a 300m payroll to appease what every single fan wants, at every single position, every single offseason.

I won't be holding my breath.

[Tony-OH]

As an adamant detractor of Duquette offering Wieters the QO, I'll admit I was wrong on this one. Though we don't know how Joseph would have played with regular playing time vice his backup role, adn the fact that Pena played pretty well while here, resigning Wieters has been plus to the club so far. The fact that his signing did not affect the Orioles resigning Davis and O'day made it less of a concern, but still, I'm happy I was wrong and that Wieters is having an All-star year.

[Cavspider]

The OP doesn't address the acquisition of Despaigne and Worley who I think DD hedged his bets with a bit in the pitching department. Both have been useful and may play a greater role as it seems we need relievers/spot starters who can go multiple quality innings.

[El Gordo]

Most of those are about right' date=' but the question is, which pitcher should he have gotten?[/quote']No one can say. But don't let that stop the nega nances from blaming DD. If you need to blame someone, blame PA for not allowing 25-30 M AAV for SP with opt outs.

[Frobby]

As an adamant detractor of Duquette offering Wieters the QO, I'll admit I was wrong on this one. Though we don't know how Joseph would have played with regular playing time vice his backup role, adn the fact that Pena played pretty well while here, resigning Wieters has been plus to the club so far. The fact that his signing did not affect the Orioles resigning Davis and O'day made it less of a concern, but still, I'm happy I was wrong and that Wieters is having an All-star year.

I think that decision worked out well for all concerned. We're getting the benefit of his good year, Matt has probably enhanced his value for this offseason, and we'll give him another QO and this time probably get the pick.

I do worry about what we do at C for next season if Wieters leaves, now that Joseph looks like a much more shaky proposition than many people thought. Personally, I know he's capable of hitting much better than he has this season so far (.420 OPS), but realistically his .633 career OPS is about all I'd expect. We do have some talent in the minors, but I don't see anyone there who can just step in and be a no. 1 catcher on Opening Day next season.

[LookitsPuck]

Yes, and neither was anyone else, for less than 25-30 M AAV. Where's Latos now? If we cant offer opt outs, our hands were tied. As disappointing as Gallardo has been so far, It would be worse if we had just stayed in house.

Are you entirely confident that it'd be worse? The guy has a 6.10 ERA and has been injured half the year.

[El Gordo]

Are you entirely confident that it'd be worse? The guy has a 6.10 ERA and has been injured half the year.

Not confident, never, it's baseball, but there is a chance he can be serviceable the rest of the way. He is touching 92 occasionally, and he knows how to pitch. Which is more than I can say for some of the others. Without him we'd be stuck with Wilson, Wright, Despaigne, and Worley.

[atomic]

Good points on all, but not getting starting pitching when everyone knows that that is the most important part of the game is inexcusable. No matter what else you do, you can't win a championship without starting pitching. Fortunately for Dan, Buck has masterfully--as usual--mixed and matched. BTW, I was blasted for suggesting we sign Desmond. It is working out quite well for Texas, however.

We got Gallardo. What pitcher that signed a multi year deal without an opt out would you have beaten the contract they got?

[Frobby]

We got Gallardo. What pitcher that signed a multi year deal without an opt out would you have beaten the contract they got?

You never know exactly what it would have taken, but I would have beaten the Tigers deal for Zimmerman.

[Aristotelian]

You never know exactly what it would have taken, but I would have beaten the Tigers deal for Zimmerman.

Me too, and quite a few of us on the board were advocating for him. The collective wisdom response was that he wanted to be in the midwest and would not so much as return a phone call even if we had offered David Price money.

[backwardsk]

You never know exactly what it would have taken, but I would have beaten the Tigers deal for Zimmerman.

He wanted to go to the Midwest. We have no idea how high the Tigers would have gone. They could have tapped into the Upton money.

[crawjo]

Good points on all, but not getting starting pitching when everyone knows that that is the most important part of the game is inexcusable. No matter what else you do, you can't win a championship without starting pitching. Fortunately for Dan, Buck has masterfully--as usual--mixed and matched. BTW, I was blasted for suggesting we sign Desmond. It is working out quite well for Texas, however.

Not sure what great moves were out there to be had. The guy I wanted Baltimore to sign was Mat Latos, and he's now unemployed. Chen has been bad, Scott Kazmir has been mediocre. Who could we have signed that would have paid dividends? The mistake was trading Davies last July. I'm not too hung up on letting Miguel Gonzalez go. His numbers are okay but I'm not sure he could survive with all those starts against the AL East.

[Rene88]

Good summary as usual Frobby.

I was strongly against MW and the QO and boy was I wrong. Plus, I thought Joseph should be our starter...well, double wrong.

Do you think the Orioles sign him LT? I think they might.

I think Joey doesn't get enough love, great selection.

Per usual, everything DD touches with starting pitching fails. This is why I am strongly against any deadline moves in our already baron system.

What about passing on Fister who I wanted?

Fowler : still makes my blood boil. Imagine this team with Trumbo as DH and Fowler in the OF....wow.

Matusz shouldn't have been tenders last year and this year, head scratcher.

[LookitsPuck]

Things I liked:

Matt Wieters QO. Think it was necessary. And I also thought he wouldn't accept. But he accepted, healthy and having a fine little season.

Joey Rickard. This club has minimal depth in the OF and a lot of DH types...so nice to see them try an OF with the Rule V. He's been a solid platoon player w/ Kim.

Kim. Loved him even during ST. Hated the way Duquette and Buck treated him. But nice they finally came around. He's been superb.

Trumbo. I dug it because Clevenger was obviously an extra piece and Trumbo plays nicely in OPACY. $9m isn't awful.

O'Day. Aside from what's happening now...but he's been a model of durability, consistency and effectiveness. I think it'll be fine in the end.

Worley. Solid piece and not guaranteeing him a rotation spot. Been versatile and reasonably priced.

Things I'm meh about:

Resigning Davis. I really wanted them to resign Cruz and let Davis walk. But I guess his contract with all the deferred money isn't the end of the world. He's solid defensively, a good clubhouse guy and not ancient in age. But I fear for the last 2 years of the contract.

Not signing Chen. But only with the assumption that they'd sign another competent pitcher.

Alvarez. I'm leaning towards dislike, but only because he's a terrible fielder..and is pretty much platoon worthy. So, he restricts what the O's can do. I'd rather a defensive type be on the bench. But right now we have pretty much an entire OF and bench of DH's aside from Jones.

Things I hated:

Gallardo. Especially since they had an out with our doctor's essentially failing him...but they signed him anyway. It's a double blunder.

Cutting Gonzo. Just beyond dumb since he was optionable and cheap.

Tendering Matusz a contract. So, we don't have the money for an optionable and decent starter in Gonzo, but we have the money for an expensive LOOGY?

Trading Matusz and a comp pick to the Braves. Double whammy. More pissing away of comp picks because of mistakes by Duquette (Ryan Webb and Matusz anyone?)

Not signing a legit starting pitcher. Our depth stinks.

Duquette's attitude towards the farm system. He says it's better than the pundits say...but it's every bit as bad.