DeCinces-Ford deal: 40th Anniversary

[Grady]

Disco did have a closed stance, exaggerated one.  I really remember how good he was at hitting behind the runner. 

 He was a key player in the 83 WS winners

Edited January 29, 2022 by Grady

[drjohnnyfeva]

Could not for the life of me remember who played 3b in 1983.  Todd Cruz was a total black hole in my memory banks.  We didn't start the year with him, so who was supposed to be the starter there before he arrived.

Loved Disco Dan.  Hated his damn basket catches in the OF that occasionally, if not predictably, went wrong.  It was a thing on my LL team for about a minute until the coach yelled, "Don't catch like Disco or you'll be riding the pine!" to the cheering of fathers in the peanut gallery.

[Frobby]

13 minutes ago, drjohnnyfeva said:

Could not for the life of me remember who played 3b in 1983.  Todd Cruz was a total black hole in my memory banks.  We didn't start the year with him, so who was supposed to be the starter there before he arrived.

Rookie Leo Hernandez was our starter until Cruz arrived.  

[DrungoHazewood]

On 1/29/2022 at 1:32 PM, Tony-OH said:

If you ever look at the drafting by the Orioles from really the mid to early 70s on it was quite terrible. Add in no international presence and a limited budget, and it was clear that free agency and poor drafting really destroyed a once great franchise.

I'll offer up (and I'm mentioned this before) that the '83 Orioles draft was be the worst draft class in history.  Not one player they drafted that year made the majors, and only a handful even got cups of coffee in AAA.  The #1 Wayne Wilson never played above A ball, the #2 Mike Conley had a 7.11 ERA at Bluefield and never played again, and the 3rd rounder Mike Pavelka didn't sign and never played professionally.  The only player in the O's whole draft to get to the show was 7th rounder Mike Price, and that only because he managed the 2014-18 Reds.  As a player he never signed with the O's and eventually peaked with 44 innings in AAA with the Angels.

[DrungoHazewood]

As for the DeCinces-Ford trade, that was one of the low points of my childhood.  DeCinces was favorite player, I used to write up fan club newsletters and tack them to the wall of my treehouse.  I clearly remember my Dad's boss coming over for something and saying "Did you hear they traded Doug DeCinces?" and my heart just sank. 

It was salt in the wound that Ford was awful and DeCinces had some very good years with the Angels.

[DrungoHazewood]

7 hours ago, Frobby said:

Rookie Leo Hernandez was our starter until Cruz arrived.  

He hit .304 with 34 homers and 119 RBI across three different minor league teams in '82, so I wonder if they could have stuck with him a little longer.  Not like Todd Cruz was good.  The rest of the '83 season at Rochester he hit .343 with a .917 OPS.  Didn't play that well in AAA in succeeding years.

But at 28 he was in the Mexican League and hit .345-36-123 with a 1.047 OPS.  Teammates with Darryl Motley, who hit .370, and Union Laguna still finished 59-69.

[Tony-OH]

15 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I'll offer up (and I'm mentioned this before) that the '83 Orioles draft was be the worst draft class in history.  Not one player they drafted that year made the majors, and only a handful even got cups of coffee in AAA.  The #1 Wayne Wilson never played above A ball, the #2 Mike Conley had a 7.11 ERA at Bluefield and never played again, and the 3rd rounder Mike Pavelka didn't sign and never played professionally.  The only player in the O's whole draft to get to the show was 7th rounder Mike Price, and that only because he managed the 2014-18 Reds.  As a player he never signed with the O's and eventually peaked with 44 innings in AAA with the Angels.

Yeah that was a particularly bad year, but like I'm sure you know, there were many other just awful drafts. Honestly, the Orioles could have just put names on a dart board and had better drafts. I'm not sure what happened over this time and why the team went from finding so many great players to drafting guys who could not get out of A ball with early picks.

Gary Nichols did ok in 1997 with Werth and Hairston, but otherwise most of his drafts were disasters as well. DeMacio was ok, but blew too many first round picks. Jordan was better than people give him credit for with his pitching selections, particularly Rodriguez and Hall and of course he drafted Machado.

Let's hope Elias' drafts are what helps turn things around along with their international presence now. 

[BRobinsonfan]

On 1/28/2022 at 9:27 PM, SteveA said:

DeCinces just had to get out from Brooks' shadow.  He was a good player who was never going to be good enough for Baltimore fans.

 

I remember something similar that illustrates the point.  Brooks was retired and doing color commentary.  I can't remember if the game were on TV or radio but a hard grounder was hit down the third base line an in to left field.  Brooks made several comments about that being "a hard play for anyone and how good a defensive third baseman DeCinces was and how he normally gets a good jump on balls down the line.  There was a pause... and then the other announcer said "what Brooks is trying to say is that he would have had that one in his hip pocket."  

 

[Just Regular]

Having grown up on a lot of Brooks as the color guy, and enjoyed Palmer in recent decades, I do feel it is one of the blessings of Oriole fandom two of the greatest franchise icons have given so much to us after their playing days wrapped up.

I really hope Palmer gets the pleasure of getting to call the next good team.   Even in these dog years, I still hear and appreciate his enthusiasm and pride when an Oriole does something good at baseball.   I can't wait to hear the tone of his voice calling Grayson, and perhaps even Bradish, though there it is more because of the Arizonan high-fastball artist fellowship than breathtaking talent.

[DrungoHazewood]

On 1/31/2022 at 10:31 AM, Tony-OH said:

Yeah that was a particularly bad year, but like I'm sure you know, there were many other just awful drafts. Honestly, the Orioles could have just put names on a dart board and had better drafts. I'm not sure what happened over this time and why the team went from finding so many great players to drafting guys who could not get out of A ball with early picks.

Gary Nichols did ok in 1997 with Werth and Hairston, but otherwise most of his drafts were disasters as well. DeMacio was ok, but blew too many first round picks. Jordan was better than people give him credit for with his pitching selections, particularly Rodriguez and Hall and of course he drafted Machado.

Let's hope Elias' drafts are what helps turn things around along with their international presence now. 

In 1980 the O's best draft pick was Ken Dixon, with 2.4 WAR in his career.

1981 it was Tony Arnold, -0.1 WAR.

1982 it was John Hayban with 6.2, but just 0.5 for the Orioles.  Bill Ripken was also taken in this draft, career 5.9 WAR.

1983 was no one.

1984 was Jeff Tackett at 0.6.

1985 was Brian Dubois at 0.8.

1986 was Blaine Beatty with 0.5, but 0.0 for the Orioles. 

Finally in 1987 they picked Pete Harnisch, Anthony Telford, Steve Finley and David Segui.  Also Mike Mussina, but he didn't sign until they drafted him again in 1990.

So seven years of drafting and the very best player they got out of hundreds of players picked was Bill Ripken, whose entire career was worth less than a single decent Cal Ripken season.  From '83-86 they got nothing out of the draft.  You just can't compete when your drafting and development is that bad for seven years.  It's kind of amazing the teams from '89 into the late 90s competed.

For comparison, every Orioles draft class from 2010-15 was better than any of their classes from 1980-86.  And that's with a lot of players in those recent classes still active and accumulating more value.