The Better Than You Remember Thread

[LookinUp]

2 hours ago, ChuckS said:

Rodrigo Lopez is a pitcher who I think was undervalued.  He was pretty good on some bad O's teams. 3.8 WAR in 2002 and 4.8 WAR in 2004. 

I agree with those who say Pearce was underrated.  

 

I wanted to say Rodrigo Lopez. Nice pull. 

The other two guys are more recent:

1. Miguel Gonzalez. He had an ERA+ of 130 in 2012 with a 3.0 WAR. I still think he should have started in the playoffs.
2. Koji Uehara. He was awesome for us in both 2010 and 2011 (ERA+ of 146, 246). He was never the guy for us because of JJ and Britton, but he obviously could have been. Would have saved us from ourselves if we never got Davis, though I can't say that trade was all bad.

[tntoriole]

 

Jerry Adair...from 1961-1965 he had total of 7 WAR, then lost his second base position to Davey Johnson in 1966 and was traded in June 1966 to White Sox for Eddie Fisher. 

Another guy was  Curt Blefary...he had consecutive 3+ WAR seasons 1965-1967 with total of 10.2   I know he is an Oriole HOF, but still it impressed me lookng back on it. 

[DrungoHazewood]

18 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

Another guy was  Curt Blefary...he had consecutive 3+ WAR seasons 1965-1967 with total of 10.2   I know he is an Oriole HOF, but still it impressed me lookng back on it. 

Plus I know a guy who's uncle once said Blefary was pretty good in the field, so he was more Gold Glove caliber than Nick Markakis.  And for some reason that reminded me... Luis Hernandez was a darned good player, way better than Miguel Tejada.

[Grt 2BA FL Gator]

22 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

I wanted to say Rodrigo Lopez. Nice pull. 

The other two guys are more recent:

1. Miguel Gonzalez. He had an ERA+ of 130 in 2012 with a 3.0 WAR. I still think he should have started in the playoffs.
2. Koji Uehara. He was awesome for us in both 2010 and 2011 (ERA+ of 146, 246). He was never the guy for us because of JJ and Britton, but he obviously could have been. Would have saved us from ourselves if we never got Davis, though I can't say that trade was all bad.

The trade was actually good, borderline great, compared to how Texas used him and how valuable Hunter and Davis were for us. 

The funny/sad part about it is, Davis was an amazing pick up in that trade. A cornerstone guy for our years of winning that had underwhelmed in Texas. Ultimate buy low. 

Sadly the contract is going to overshadow everything else. 

[LookinUp]

Yeah. He definitely produced. Starting in 2012, Davis' WAR was 1.7, 6.5, 1.7, 5.3, 3.3.

By comparison (not that we can) Koji's WAR in those years was: 1.4, 3.6, 1.8, 1.3, .7. 

Tommy Hunter even put up 1.9 in 2013.

That stupid contract though. It ruins everything.

[DrungoHazewood]

36 minutes ago, jtschrei said:

Does Fred Lynn make the list? 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lynnfr01.shtml

Played for us at the end of his career. 4 seasons. WAR: 1.8, 2.6, 1.0, 2.2. 

 

 

Lynn was fine.  But he was signed as the biggest free agent star Baltimore would see from 1975-1995, part of the Lacy/Wiggins/etc package that was supposed to keep the late 80s Orioles in contention.  But we know how that went... he was in his mid-30s, missed a third of the season every year, and should have been playing left after he'd lost a couple steps.

This is why Elias is doing what he needs to do.  We need a self-sustaining farm system a lot more than we need 76 wins as quick as possible.

[TGO]

3 hours ago, Palmoripken said:

He got diagnosed with colon cancer his first year here. He certainly was a great talent that couldn’t stay healthy. Hope retirement has been good to ED. I enjoyed rooting for him as my grandfather too was a colon cancer survivor.

https://www.mlb.com/news/former-red-eric-davis-hitting-coach-at-edi/c-243637526

[TGO]

2 hours ago, now said:

Here's an old favorite of mine, at least with perennial hopes pinned to him: Jay Gibbons. He actually had a good year in 2005:

2005	28	BAL	AL	139	518	488	72	135	33	3	26	79	0	0	28	56	.277	.317	.516	.833	118	252	15	1	0	1	3	9

Good ol' Captain Pop Up.

[Ohfan67]

3 hours ago, Dipper9 said:

Great topic.

My poster boy for this is Albert Belle.  Everyone always blasts that signing and its commonly used as an example of why Angelos was against long term high dollar deals, but the fact is his on field statistics were fantastic for the Orioles, and if not for the injury things may have turned out very differently.  

That said, he's still an assclown!  

Ugh. He had one excellent year and one slightly above average year for the O's. I hated, HATED that the Orioles signed him. The day his signing was announced was one of the lowest days of my Orioles fandom. It was a deal with the devil from my perspective. There's some things you don't do to win IMO and signing Albert Belle was one of them for me. Yuck, yuck, yuck. 

[Ohfan67]

4 hours ago, TonySoprano said:

He was an Angelos favorite, called the owner, Uncle Angelos.  1994, the Orioles brought in Chris Sabo to play 3B; Angelos had other ideas.   (Interesting footnote, Peter hired Regan after he couldn't get LaRussa, talk about missing big time)
 

Baltimore Sun Sept. 29, 1994  https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-09-29-1994272110-story.html

 

 

What damning and tone deaf quotes in that article. I forgot just how bad Angelos "sounded" back in the days when he talked to reporters. He tried real hard to be a George Steinbrenner type owner. 

[Ohfan67]

Really enjoyed Eric Davis when he was the O's. Good memories. 

[Ohfan67]

I don't think Pearce was underrated on the board. I remember quite a bit of love for Steve. 

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

Ugh. He had one excellent year and one slightly above average year for the O's. I hated, HATED that the Orioles signed him. The day his signing was announced was one of the lowest days of my Orioles fandom. It was a deal with the devil from my perspective. There's some things you don't do to win IMO and signing Albert Belle was one of them for me. Yuck, yuck, yuck. 

Did you feel the same way when the O's signed Young and traded for KRod?

[Ohfan67]

16 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Did you feel the same way when the O's signed Young and traded for KRod?

I was definitely not happy with those moves, but the Belle signing bothered me a lot more. The contract was bigger, the signing was more prominent, and I really, really loathed Belle. I knew who Delmon Young was and a little of his history, but I learned more about him after the signing. I knew some of his KRod's history before the signing, but he was barely on my radar. I just hadn't paid him much attention. I knew he had done crappy things, but to me he was just one of the names in the general media blather about bad sports characters. I actively loathed Belle before the signing. 

p.s. Belle for me is how some O's fans feel about Jeter, but then add the off field stuff that Belle did. 

[Can_of_corn]

17 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

I was definitely not happy with those moves, but the Belle signing bothered me a lot more. The contract was bigger, the signing was more prominent, and I really, really loathed Belle. I knew who Delmon Young was and a little of his history, but I learned more about him after the signing. I knew some of his KRod's history before the signing, but he was barely on my radar. I just hadn't paid him much attention. I knew he had done crappy things, but to me he was just one of the names in the general media blather about bad sports characters. I actively loathed Belle before the signing. 

p.s. Belle for me is how some O's fans feel about Jeter, but then add the off field stuff that Belle did. 

Fair enough.