House released! (Headed To Boston?)

[Pedro Cerrano]

You're missing the point. The fact that House only has 20 MLB at bats while guys like Fahey, Bynum, and Bako are on the team is part of the issue. We had a guy who showed the potential to be more valuable than at least 3 guys on our ML team, but we didn't even give him a chance to show it. Instead, we went with the crappy known commodities rather than taking a rather small risk with a guy who would almost certainly perform better than any of those 3. That's terrible mismanagement, plain and simple. It isn't about House being an all-star or even a regular MLer; it's about him not even getting a shot when he's shown the potential to contribute.

Frankly, I'll trust my own judgment over that of the Orioles and the Pirates, both of whom shouldn't be trusted with running high school car wash let alone a major league baseball team.

So, you believe you could do a better job of running the Pirates and the Orioles than the current GMs could? You could scout players better and manage the roster better? I don't know you but I'm inclined to disagree. Unless you're Frank Wren posting under an alias.

As I said, if this roster mismanagement was so terrible, you'd think that House would have gotten a shot by now. But other teams have passed on him as well. It's not like the Pirates were overloaded with talent blocking him. They let him go also.

[HoodGuy007]

Mr. Career Minor League Catcher

Bud Light Presents Real Men of Genius

(Real Men of Genius)

Today we salute you Mr. Career Minor League Catcher

(Mr. Career Minor League Catcher)

Unlike most minor leaguers who have to play their way into being released, you asked to be let go.

(Let me get away!)

Your work habit is so good, that between your VORP, your WARP3, and your PECOTA, you must have killed a man to be held back so long.

(Why couldn't it have been Peter Angelos!)

How many times have you wished you could be batting for Jay Gibbons, or Freddie Bynum, or Brandon Fahey? According to the front office, you can.

(If you play a video game!)

So crack open an ice cold Bud Light O' Catchis Minimus, you may not be wanted on a major league roster, but you'll always be starting in the eyes of the Hangout.

[Moose Milligan]

And that's the thing I don't get about stats. It's not like MLB GM's are looking at different numbers than people on the Hangout. They all see the same stats. They can all derive the same projections based on minor league numbers. The difference? GM's actually scout the players. Say a guy has a huge hole in his swing that doesn't affect how he fairs against bad AAA pitchers but MLB arms would eat alive. Stats say, "Wow, this guy can rake, let's give him a chance." The scouts say, "Well yea, he can play at AAA, but he isn't cut out for MLB."

Like I said, I have this feeling that JR House, if he were as good as many on here believe he is, would have seen at least 100 MLB ABs by now. Hell, even Jack Cust has that.

Yeah, but there's a strong feeling that even despite Moneyball, that GM's (especially the O's GM's) aren't looking at sabermetrics...they're more aligned with the Joe Morgans of the world...

My main beef is people act like these projections are the end all, be all and that JR House really would have had a good OPS for the O's this year.

Maybe he would have, but we'll never know.

No use crying over spilled milk. Let's look forward to what the next blundering dunderhead move the O's will make

[Moose Milligan]

Mr. Career Minor League Catcher

Bud Light Presents Real Men of Genius

(Real Men of Genius)

Today we salute you Mr. Career Minor League Catcher

(Mr. Career Minor League Catcher)

Unlike most minor leaguers who have to play their way into being released, you asked to be let go.

(Let me get away!)

Your work habit is so good, that between your VORP, your WARP3, and your PECOTA, you must have killed a man to be held back so long.

(Why couldn't it have been Peter Angelos!)

How many times have you wished you could be batting for Jay Gibbons, or Freddie Bynum, or Brandon Fahey? According to the front office, you can.

(If you play a video game!)

So crack open an ice cold Bud Light O' Catchis Minimus, you may not be wanted on a major league roster, but you'll always be starting in the eyes of the Hangout.

Now thats good stuff

[MemorialStadKid]

My God people. Calm down. I realize I am about to get seriously flamed for this, but House has about 20 MAJOR LEAGUE AT-BATS!! He is a career minor-leaguer. You guys can speculate all you want about how great he could be but, in my opinion, there is a reason why a few teams have passed on him. If he was this talented phenom some make him out to be you'd think a major league team would have at least given him a handful of at-bats at the major league level at some point, even as a September call-up. As it stands, he has had exactly 9 at-bats last year and the year before -- both career highs. If someone could explain to me how this correlates to being some Splendid Splinter I'm all ears, but I think the scouts and Front Offices of various Major League teams have a little more insight than the members here. Oh, by the way, we were all up in arms when we lost Josh Phelps. That was another move that many on here called "inexcusable" and "insane" and "moronic" etc etc. Well, the Yanks released him and now he can barely get playing time on Pittsburgh, a real lousy team that also, by the way, gave up on House.

I bash the FO as much as the next guy when they do something dumb, but I can't jump on board with this.

You know, I completely agree with you on this one as well. People are acting like we were in Game 7 of the ALCS vs. the MFY and we released Roberts, Tejada, Guthrie and Bedard before the first inning to replace them with Single-A talent.

To be absolutely honest, who cares about House? The Orioles have other guys and we have a trade deadline coming up as well as an OFFSEASON and apparently, House himself wasn't sure if he wanted to play baseball or football. I have never once understood why 50% of this board kisses the ground House walks upon and spits upon Freddie Bynum. From what I have seen of Bynum, he has been hustling and working hard. He might get better, he might not.

To pin the hopes of the entire franchise upon a minor league catcher and use this as a measuring stick for Andy McPhail's progress are possibly some of the dumbest things I have read on this board... and that's saying a lot.

MSK

[Pedro Cerrano]

Just out of curiosity, how successful are the clubs that use a purely sabermetric approach to managing their roster?

I know Boston has been successful (although Theo has made some real bone-headed moves, overshadowed by the 2004 season which gives him a free pass).

Beane has also had a decent amount of success. Who else? Will Oakland go after JR House? Seems like they could use a catcher with Jason Kendall in his twighlight years.

[CrimsonTribe]

So, you believe you could do a better job of running the Pirates and the Orioles than the current GMs could? You could scout players better and manage the roster better? I don't know you but I'm inclined to disagree. Unless you're Frank Wren posting under an alias.

As I said, if this roster mismanagement was so terrible, you'd think that House would have gotten a shot by now. But other teams have passed on him as well. It's not like the Pirates were overloaded with talent blocking him. They let him go also.

Yes, I think I could run the organization better than them. I'm not trying to sound cocky, but I really don't think I could do any worse. They are two of the worst run organizations in sports.

There are a lot of guys out there who just don't get shots for whatever reason and there are some who get shots for no apparent reason. Just because a guy hasn't gotten the opportunity doesn't mean he's not better than many guys in the bigs. We should have given him a shot to determine if he's a career minor leaguer or not. We're to scared to do that, and that's the problem.

[DrungoHazewood]

Damning exhibit #84,883,231 in the case Baltimore Orioles vs. Common Sense.

I've never seen an organization with less ability to identify and use talented but flawed ballplayers. I'm 100% certain that they'd have released about 1/3 of the roster of the 1983 Orioles, or sentenced them to 450 at bats in Rochester.

Blind stupidity.

[geschinger]

You're missing the point. The fact that House only has 20 MLB at bats while guys like Fahey, Bynum, and Bako are on the team is part of the issue.

Fahey and Bynum have roster spots because they do things that House cannot with their defense and legs. I don't know what the truth is about House's defense but I think it has been implied that it isn't very good. If he is a huge liability behind the plate then he really wasn't competing w/Bako for a roster spot. For him to have a role he'd have to replace Millar, Huff, or Gibbons. There is no way this team (or any team) was going to give up on Gibbons this soon w/as much money as he is still owed and I don't think a case can be made that he deserved a roster spot over Millar or Huff at this point.

Personally I might not have carried Bynum all year (when Tejada was healthy) but it would be Knott I have up rather than House since he can play a serviceable LF from everything I've read/heard.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Damning exhibit #84,883,231 in the case Baltimore Orioles vs. Common Sense.

I've never seen an organization with less ability to identify and use talented but flawed ballplayers. I'm 100% certain that they'd have released about 1/3 of the roster of the 1983 Orioles, or sentenced them to 450 at bats in Rochester.

Blind stupidity.

You know a ton about baseball, maybe more than anyone else here. Can you explain to me what the fascination with this guy House is? By all accounts his minor league numbers aren't that great -- they're good to be sure but nothing that jumps off the page and certainly nothing that warrants the reaction from this board.

I guess I simply don't see why this is such a big deal. It's not like we're the first team to give this guy his walking papers (and didn't he ask to be released anyway?). I mean people weren't this upset when we traded John Maine, who was a much higher regarded prospect at one point, actually played at the MLB level for us and was, by all accounts, one of the future members of our pitching staff.

[DrungoHazewood]

Everyone needs to realize that our Baltimore Orioles, 11th in the AL in runs scored and on pace to hit 125 homers, just released their 6th-best hitter. A week after calling up a guy with a .600 OPS at AAA.

[DrungoHazewood]

You know a ton about baseball, maybe more than anyone else here. Can you explain to me what the fascination with this guy House is? By all accounts his minor league numbers aren't that great -- they're good to be sure but nothing that jumps off the page and certainly nothing that warrants the reaction from this board.

I guess I simply don't see why this is such a big deal. It's not like we're the first team to give this guy his walking papers (and didn't he ask to be released anyway?). I mean people weren't this upset when we traded John Maine, who was a much higher regarded prospect at one point, actually played at the MLB level for us and was, by all accounts, one of the future members of our pitching staff.

Oriole hitting sucks. House is a very good hitter. They pigeonhole him, talk about what he can't do. Then they release him. Welcome to losing season #10.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Everyone needs to realize that our Baltimore Orioles, 11th in the AL in runs scored and on pace to hit 125 homers, just released their 6th-best hitter. A week after calling up a guy with a .600 OPS at AAA.

By what measure?

[Pedro Cerrano]

Oriole hitting sucks. House is a very good hitter. They pigeonhole him, talk about what he can't do. Then they release him. Welcome to losing season #10.

I'm not trying to start a fight, but don't you need more than mere numbers to come to a conclusion like that? He's a very good hitter in your eyes, but unless you've seen him play on a consistent basis, it's hard to make that determination. At least in my opinion.

[mweb]

Fahey and Bynum have roster spots because they do things that House cannot with their defense and legs. I don't know what the truth is about House's defense but I think it has been implied that it isn't very good. If he is a huge liability behind the plate then he really wasn't competing w/Bako for a roster spot. For him to have a role he'd have to replace Millar, Huff, or Gibbons. There is no way this team (or any team) was going to give up on Gibbons this soon w/as much money as he is still owed and I don't think a case can be made that he deserved a roster spot over Millar or Huff at this point.

Personally I might not have carried Bynum all year (when Tejada was healthy) but it would be Knott I have up rather than House since he can play a serviceable LF from everything I've read/heard.

Yeah, I would not have had Bynum on the team either, would have had Knott. And I would not have both Bynum and Fahey up right now, but again, Knott would be the guy I'd have up instead.

With House, it just comes down to how good his defense is. If it's servicable, he should be on the team, if not, it's hard to find a spot for him.