An out of the box idea for winning the World Series

[bluedog]

I've been thinking a lot about if the Orioles were my team, what would be my strategy to win the World Series this year.

A couple of assumptions;

1. Money is no object (Angelos wants a ring and will spend to get it)

2. No one is untouchable (Angelos is getting older and future prospects mean nothing if you are not around to enjoy them)

Most of my thoughts have been around picking up starting pitchers like Rich Hill or Ervin Santana. But as we know, the price will be very steep even for mid rotation guys. So I started wondering if there wasn't another way to go that would be more realistic and potentially more effective.

The O's success since 2012 has relied upon scoring runs to get a lead and then going to a dominant bullpen once they have a lead. Why not more of the same strategy?

Here is the O's current pitching staff;

Tillman

Gausman

Gallardo

Bundy

??

Britton

Brach

Givens

Worley

Despaigne

Roe

Jiminez

Hart

Once O'Day is back, he probably takes Roe's spot. I am extremely confident that whenever the O's have a lead in the 7th inning, O'Day, Brach & Britton will close it out.

But those guys can't pitch every day and Buck can't use them to pitch 2 innings very often. So there's this problem of getting to the 7th inning with a lead and another issue with no overusing the big 3 down the stretch.

At first blush, the idea below seemed crazy, but the more I thought about it, the more confident I've become that it would make the O's the favorites to win the W.S. this year (at least from the A.L.)

Pull off a major deal with the hated Yankees for Chapman & Miller;

Tillman

Guasman

Gallardo

Bundy

Worley

Britton

Brach

O'Day

Chapman

Miller

Givens

Jiminez or Despaigne

Use Jiminez / Despaigne to save the pen in blowouts (either kind). In any game where the O's have a lead going into the 4th inning or beyond, you can run out Miller (vs. Lefties) or Givens (vs. Righties) to kill any rally and pick up the starter and then throw Brach, O'Day, Chapman and Britton at opponents to close the game out.

In the playoffs, with all the off days, is where this strategy would really shine. You could plan to use these 6 relievers to lock down a game from the 4th inning on and do it on consecutive days without any issues.

Use this strategy to win the world series, slap a franchise tag on Chapman and then trade both Miller & Chapman next year at the trade deadline to get back some of the prospects the O's lost.

What you guys think?

[Can_of_corn]

That the O's don't have the pieces to get Chapman and Miller.

[sevastras]

That the O's don't have the pieces to get Chapman OR Miller.

Fixed it for you. It sounds all good and everything, but we just wouldnt be able to pull off a trade for them.

What would be even better is that since the "starter" is only pitching about 4 innings, he could go every 4 days.

[Orioles4Life21]

There's no franchise tag in baseball.

[Just Regular]

Not necessarily this, but I would agree something like this is what Dan would like to, and we will only buy a #4 starter if the piggybacks are so bad in the next couple weeks we have to.

In October, our bullpen is our rotation.

The more the offense slugs and keeps our overall playoff odds high, the more Dan's going to be tempted to invest whatever we have in a dominant reliever vs. cromulent starter.

A starter acquisition is to get to October - a reliever does more to help us win there.

[weams]

There's no franchise tag in baseball.

Thank goodness baseball is different than that sport.

[Orioles4Life21]

Thank goodness baseball is different than that sport.

Agreed.

[bluedog]

There's no franchise tag in baseball.

Qualifying offer I meant.

[bluedog]

Fixed it for you. It sounds all good and everything, but we just wouldnt be able to pull off a trade for them.

What would be even better is that since the "starter" is only pitching about 4 innings, he could go every 4 days.

You don't think the O's have the pieces to get Miller or Chapman? I'm pretty sure Harvey, Sisco, Mountcastle, Mancini, Lee and Scott are good enough to put a package together for one or both of these guys.

[Can_of_corn]

Qualifying offer I meant.

Can't tag Chapman with a QO.

[Can_of_corn]

You don't think the O's have the pieces to get Miller or Chapman? I'm pretty sure Harvey, Sisco, Mountcastle, Mancini, Lee and Scott are good enough to put a package together for one or both of these guys.

I'd rather have quality than quantity.

If another team offers me a real blue chipper I'd go with that over a multi-player packed loaded with question marks.

[weams]

Can't tag Chapman with a QO.

He was traded in season. Baseball has subtly improved the cost to teams that try to buy, try, then sell.

[Tryptamine]

You don't think the O's have the pieces to get Miller or Chapman? I'm pretty sure Harvey, Sisco, Mountcastle, Mancini, Lee and Scott are good enough to put a package together for one or both of these guys.

They're going to want elite prospects or young currently mlb and performing talent, the orioles don't have those to offer, unless you want to give up Schoop for just Miller.

[Tx Oriole]

They're going to want elite prospects or young currently mlb and performing talent, the orioles don't have those to offer, unless you want to give up Schoop for just Miller.

I sure don't.

[Aristotelian]

I would be cool with some kind of weird alignment like 2 starters with 11 relievers. This type of trade would be great for that kind of strategy. When starting pitching upgrades are tough to find, it might make sense to build up a dominant bullpen.

I have always thought that the 1st inning is in some ways a high leverage inning. If you did a trade like this, you could start someone like Brach or Britton and then match up in the middle innings, and still have a couple of elite arms to close it out.