Connolly: Ruben Tejada leader for O's UIF job

[wildcard]

7 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Chico Salmon, Lenn Sakata and Jeff Reboulet say hello.   Every good team has a guy like this.   

Yep they all added something whether it was hitting Randy Johnson or catching.

[mdbdotcom]

20 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Chico Salmon, Lenn Sakata and Jeff Reboulet say hello.   Every good team has a guy like this.   

And don't forget Johnny Temple. He was only with the O's in '62, but he was our guy when it came to the cow-milking contest between doubleheader games.

[Number5]

11 minutes ago, mdbdotcom said:

And don't forget Johnny Temple. He was only with the O's in '62, but he was our guy when it came to the cow-milking contest between doubleheader games.

Johnny was voted in as a starter in the 1957 All-Star game, along with 6 other Reds, when fans in Cincinnati stuffed the ballot box.  As a result, the fan vote was taken away.

[TommyPickles]

I wouldn't be upset about Reuben Tejada as the utility infielder. He looked solid with the glove last year. Be nice to have some speed somewhere on the bench too though.

[mdbdotcom]

1 hour ago, TommyPickles said:

I wouldn't be upset about Reuben Tejada as the utility infielder. He looked solid with the glove last year. Be nice to have some speed somewhere on the bench too though.

Maybe Roger McDowell will sprint to the mound. Would that constitute speed on the bench?

[LookitsPuck]

On 12/1/2017 at 3:28 PM, wildcard said:

Flaherty played on some of the best teams the O's  have had in the last 20 years.  He was a contributor to those teams.  Not a leader or a regular but someone that Buck used to put together a winning combination.  

And that's fine. I don't want to diminish Flaherty's contributions. But was his 1.7 WAR over 6 seasons really worth having to carry him all year in 2012...just to save a few bucks per year? 

I guess what I'm driving at is the Orioles value the Rule V far too much for it to hamstring the team for 3/4 of a season. 

It'd be one thing if the team wasn't a contender. Then the roster spot doesn't matter. But how many competitive teams field Rule V guys year in and year out for as long as the O's do? 

[Luke-OH]

21 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

And that's fine. I don't want to diminish Flaherty's contributions. But was his 1.7 WAR over 6 seasons really worth having to carry him all year in 2012...just to save a few bucks per year? 

I guess what I'm driving at is the Orioles value the Rule V far too much for it to hamstring the team for 3/4 of a season. 

It'd be one thing if the team wasn't a contender. Then the roster spot doesn't matter. But how many competitive teams field Rule V guys year in and year out for as long as the O's do? 

The Orioles have acted more like a rebuilding team with their rule 5 selections, especially guys like Garcia and Santander who definitely weren’t going to help the team the year they were picked.

That said there are players who have a chance to help the team this season, Burch Smith, Luke Bard, and Nate Orf for example are SP, RP, and Utility candidates respectively who are older finished product players. They have demonstrated success in AAA and they are super low risk, because if they aren’t playing well, you just return them.  

[wildcard]

8 hours ago, LookitsPuck said:

And that's fine. I don't want to diminish Flaherty's contributions. But was his 1.7 WAR over 6 seasons really worth having to carry him all year in 2012...just to save a few bucks per year? 

I guess what I'm driving at is the Orioles value the Rule V far too much for it to hamstring the team for 3/4 of a season. 

It'd be one thing if the team wasn't a contender. Then the roster spot doesn't matter. But how many competitive teams field Rule V guys year in and year out for as long as the O's do? 

Buck valued Flaherty because he could bring him in for defense or to cover for a injured player and he would hold his own without giving up errors at multiple position.  If you are evaluating his offense you are not looking at the way Buck does.  You want to argue with Buck about how to run his club, have at it.

[Frobby]

8 hours ago, LookitsPuck said:

And that's fine. I don't want to diminish Flaherty's contributions. But was his 1.7 WAR over 6 seasons really worth having to carry him all year in 2012...just to save a few bucks per year? 

I don’t think the O’s used Rule 5 to save a few bucks.    They used it to take a guy from another organization who they thought could help their team and maybe had some upside.     The upside never really panned out, but Flaherty was OK as the utility guy.

[LookitsPuck]

11 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Exactly right.   If the O's thought Flaherty was nothing more than a decent and versatile glove man whose ceiling was just that, it was a dumb move.   Flaherty was a 1st round pick and had OPS'd over .900 in AA that year.   They took a shot on a guy with some power who might be a future regular 2B or 3B and in the meantime could handle the utility role.    As we can see, getting a guy to do what Flaherty provided is not rocket science.    The drop off (if there is any) from Flaherty to someone like Tejada is miniscule.

Garcia was taken for upside more than to fill a role.   Same for Santander.    

I wrote a pretty lengthy piece on here that the guys that the O's have selected from the Rule V in the Duquette tenure have largely amounted to zilch. We're talking about 6 years of hampering roster spaces for very little gain. 

Ryan Flaherty, TJ McFarland, Jason Garcia, Joey Rt ae Pickard, Anthony Santander, Michael Almanzar

I understand the upside argument. But what I'm saying is in the end the Orioles ended up getting very little production at the expense of a roster spot. Really the only benefit for the O's so far has been cost. 

I *get* that Flaherty had 1-2 decent seasons. But by and large I'd rather the O's (when contending) to not hurt the overall club's flexibility. 

[Number5]

Almanzar didn't take up a roster spot.

[Ruzious]

O's actually guaranteed Tejada 1.35 mil and he gets additional 600K if he makes the ML roster?  That's according to Jon Heyman.  Makes no sense to me.  We saw him last year, and we saw a very limited player.    

 

[SteveA]

3 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

O's actually guaranteed Tejada 1.35 mil and he gets additional 600K if he makes the ML roster?  That's according to Jon Heyman.  Makes no sense to me.  We saw him last year, and we saw a very limited player.    

 

The words "if in majors" would indicate to me that the money is not a guarantee.  

[backwardsk]

12 minutes ago, Ruzious said:

O's actually guaranteed Tejada 1.35 mil and he gets additional 600K if he makes the ML roster?  That's according to Jon Heyman.  Makes no sense to me.  We saw him last year, and we saw a very limited player.    

 

I read it as 1.35M if he makes the majors. He could also earn an additional 600k.  I don't believe it's guaranteed.

Also, what do people think of Goins?

[Ruzious]

7 hours ago, backwardsk said:

I read it as 1.35M if he makes the majors. He could also earn an additional 600k.  I don't believe it's guaranteed.

Also, what do people think of Goins?

You could be right, but I still think $1.35 mil for making the major league roster is over-paying for him.  This is what it said in mlbtraderumors.com: 

Following the Orioles’ announcement of a new minor league deal with Ruben Tejada, Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reported (on Twitter) that the infielder’s deal comes with a $1.35MM base salary and another $600K of available incentives if he makes the Major League roster.

Goins seems pretty much the same as Tejada, imo - the kind of utility infielder you should be able to find at any time for the veteran minimum.