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The O's plan to get into the playoffs: "Fingers crossed, you guys!"

interloper

By interloper
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interloper Hangout Grand Counsel

interloper

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I mean here are the Angels, the team we're directly competing with for the 2nd WC spot, and they made extremely bold moves to ensure they did everything possible to get into the playoffs.

And then the Orioles... I mean, I'm loathe to give up prospects as much as the next guy, but if you can't find a Top 30 dude you're willing to give up to get what would be a #3 starter in your rotation to help get you over the hump... what the hell are you doing? The plan appears to be "welp, hope we continue to out hit our pitching!" And if you've seen the Orioles in September, you know that won't be the case. August is their hot month, and with the cool weather comes the cool bats.

The lack of a definitive plan is startling, especially from Duquette who will jump at most chances to incrementally improve the roster by trading prospects. Gonzalez would have been more than incremental - he's better than Hellickson and he would replaced one of our 7+ ERA starters. 

To me, it's ridiculous to look at the current WC standings, and see the Angels name right in front of us, knowing they have now essentially added Adam Jones to their team AND a .750 OPS infielder. Meanwhile, we have shrugged and basically said, "fingers crossed!", while calling up a few minor leaguers who will barely play as it is. 

Once again the O's neither sell nor buy - this approach is weak, it's frustrating, and it won't result in much winning now or in the future.

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Enjoy Terror Hangout Grand Counsel

Enjoy Terror

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2 minutes ago, interloper said:

I mean, I'm loathe to give up prospects as much as the next guy, but if you can't find a Top 30 dude you're willing to give up to get what would be a #3 starter in your rotation to help get you over the hump... what the hell are you doing?

What #3 starter did the Angels add? 

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mdbdotcom Hangout Grand Counsel

mdbdotcom

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Unless they were going to acquire Samardzija or Verlander - who would be under contract for 2 more years - there was no reason to do anything. Gonzalez would have been nice, but I doubt if he'd make a difference this year and he'll be a free agent over the winter.

Looking at the schedules, I think there is a pretty high probability that the O's and Yankees will play around 50/50 vs. each other and the Twins and Angels will be the wildcard teams. 

So, we didn't give up a Hader or Davies this year, and I'm glad we didn't given the unlikelihood of making up a 3-game gap (in the loss column) with the Twins in 4 weeks without playing them head-to-head. 

Am I writing the O's off? Certainly not, but you have to know when to take a shot and when to stick with what you've got. I think they made the right decision.

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interloper Hangout Grand Counsel

interloper

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Just now, Enjoy Terror said:

Maybe the Orioles didn't have a player the White Sox wanted.

Maybe, but if you're going to stretch a little, now's the time. I just think it's a bad look. They got lucky with Beckham and they got what we thought they got with Hellickson. Gonzo is a quality start machine and that's all we really need to compete. We have a good or even great team when the starting pitcher doesn't immediately take us out of the game by giving up 6 runs, which two of our starters do on a consistent basis.

I think for most teams Gonzo doesn't move the needle much, but he absolutely does for this team. It's a big miss, IMO. And it makes it seem that our plan is to simply hope for the best.

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weams Hangout Grand Counsel

weams

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1 minute ago, interloper said:

Maybe, but if you're going to stretch a little, now's the time. I just think it's a bad look. They got lucky with Beckham and they got what we thought they got with Hellickson. Gonzo is a quality start machine and that's all we really need to compete. We have a good or even great team when the starting pitcher doesn't immediately take us out of the game by giving up 6 runs, which two of our starters do on a consistent basis.

I think for most teams Gonzo doesn't move the needle much, but he absolutely does for this team. It's a big miss, IMO. And it makes it seem that our plan is to simply hope for the best.

The Orioles purportedly rejected the White Sox deal for Gonzalez. 

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interloper Hangout Grand Counsel

interloper

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1 minute ago, weams said:

Gonzo is not a top 3 guy. 

You don't think he's a #3 on this Orioles team? I'm saying all this from the perspective of how he'd fit on this particular Orioles team. The most important thing he does is bump one of Tillman and Ubaldo and give the team an actual chance to win on that day.

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joelala All-Star

joelala

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I get the frustration interloper, but Gonzalez definitely is not a needle mover for us this season.  Like you said, we have two black holes in our rotation that need filling, and while he could fill one of them, he's also not a TOR guy, which is what we'd need to make a trade worth it, IMO.  Go hard or go home when trading at the deadlines. Gonzalez would have been another Hellickson-esque band-aid move.  The kind that has been made over and over again by this (dis)organization in recent years that has helped to put us in our current position. 

Standing pat was the right move.  Your frustration should be that we didn't address this disaster of a rotation last off-season.  That is the real crime here.  Its a fireable offense for Duquette.  Focus your frustration on that if you must haha.

 

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interloper Hangout Grand Counsel

interloper

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2 minutes ago, weams said:

The Orioles purportedly rejected the White Sox deal for Gonzalez. 

And I disagree with this move, unless they are asking for Harvey. The Orioles just decided they don't really care THAT much about making the playoffs this year. How else can you read this? I supported selling in July, don't get me wrong, but we're close now and if you're actually close, you just find any way to get into the playoffs. That's my view, anyway. 

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joelala All-Star

joelala

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6 minutes ago, interloper said:

 

I think for most teams Gonzo doesn't move the needle much, but he absolutely does for this team. It's a big miss, IMO. And it makes it seem that our plan is to simply hope for the best.

We disagree about this.

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