Orioles sign Chris Owings

[eddie83]

8 hours ago, wildcard said:

Why?

 

7 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

We thought the same thing about Yolmer Sanchez last year, so Elias has surprised us before. Odor has looked really bad so far. Now, he very well may still make the team, but Mateo and Urias need to play everyday and Gutierrez and Owings can hold down 3B so really, besides his left-handed stick, he seems redundant right now.

This is fair. I just assumed there was something they liked that made them go after him that a dozen spring bats won’t change. 
 

I was thinking they may play Mateo at 3rd some. Have to see. The LH option did play a role for me. 

[Tony-OH]

51 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

 

This is fair. I just assumed there was something they liked that made them go after him that a dozen spring bats won’t change. 
 

I was thinking they may play Mateo at 3rd some. Have to see. The LH option did play a role for me. 

It may not change, but I'm just saying is that Sanchez was released after being terrible all spring so I could see the same thing happening to Odor. The thing is the Orioles need left-handed hitters.

[Jammer7]

7 hours ago, eddie83 said:

 

This is fair. I just assumed there was something they liked that made them go after him that a dozen spring bats won’t change. 
 

I was thinking they may play Mateo at 3rd some. Have to see. The LH option did play a role for me. 

Mateo is terrified at 3B. Better off putting anyone else there.

[Tony-OH]

It appears that the Orioles are looking at Gutierrez, Owings and Nevin at 3B mostly this spring. I expect Gutierrez to start the year as the 3B and Owings to make it as a utility, especially with the 28-man roster to start the year. Nevin may share some 3B time with Bannon at 3B in Norfolk. 

[Sports Guy]

34 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

It appears that the Orioles are looking at Gutierrez, Owings and Nevin at 3B mostly this spring. I expect Gutierrez to start the year as the 3B and Owings to make it as a utility, especially with the 28-man roster to start the year. Nevin may share some 3B time with Bannon at 3B in Norfolk. 

If that doesn’t scream trying to be competitive in 2022, I don’t know what does!

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

If that doesn’t scream trying to be competitive in 2022, I don’t know what does!

You can keep saying that, but who was available that would be better for a year? The Orioles have plenty of 3B candidates by next year so who was going to make the team better for one year at 3B?

I don't think it's quite as easy as what you think. 

I do think 3B is a weakness for the this team this year but it won't be soon enough. 

[Sports Guy]

13 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You can keep saying that, but who was available that would be better for a year? The Orioles have plenty of 3B candidates by next year so who was going to make the team better for one year at 3B?

I don't think it's quite as easy as what you think. 

I do think 3B is a weakness for the this team this year but it won't be soon enough. 

Brian Anderson was/is a possibility.  Coming off a bad year but good with the glove and very good OBP.  

We saw other third baseman dealt like Chapman and Filefa.  
 

There are players around the league blocked that could have potentially been had.  

There are always options out there better than AAAA players who aren’t real MLers.  It just takes some effort and desire to be better.

[Pickles]

3 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Brian Anderson was/is a possibility.  Coming off a bad year but good with the glove and very good OBP.  

We saw other third baseman dealt like Chapman and Filefa.  
 

There are players around the league blocked that could have potentially been had.  

There are always options out there better than AAAA players who aren’t real MLers.  It just takes some effort and desire to be better.

If it was so easy to do better than replacement players, the very concept itself wouldn't exist.

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, Pickles said:

If it was so easy to do better than replacement players, the very concept itself wouldn't exist.

It is easy..but you have to want to be better.  Or at least it’s easy to acquire players that have a higher upside, whether or not they pan out remains to be seen. The Os don’t want that.  They don’t want to spend money.  They don’t want to trade players.  They want to sit back and wait for everything to happen and be as cheap as possible.

Replacement players, when making no money, have their place on teams and in the league.  But starting at a major position isn’t one of those places…especially 4 years into this “rebuild”.  It’s one thing to do it in year one or even year 2.  Year 4?  No, that’s not justifiable.

[Tony-OH]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Brian Anderson was/is a possibility.  Coming off a bad year but good with the glove and very good OBP.  

We saw other third baseman dealt like Chapman and Filefa.  
 

There are players around the league blocked that could have potentially been had.  

There are always options out there better than AAAA players who aren’t real MLers.  It just takes some effort and desire to be better.

Brian Anderson is under $4.4 million contract with the Marlins. How do you know he's available? You wanna trade prospects for him? 

That's the problem with your theory Rob, you always just assume guys can be had and that Elias just doesn't want to do it. I think Elias knows his 3B is filled from 2023 and beyond and he's not going to trade away prospects to fill a hole for 2022.

Crazily, Gutierrez was worth 0.8 WAR in 47 games with the Orioles last year. I have no idea how he was worth 0.6 oWAR with the numbers he put up, but that's what it says. Now I don't think Gutierrez is the longterm answer here or anywhere else, but he's fine as place holder and Owens gives a little depth. 

 

[Sports Guy]

9 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Brian Anderson is under $4.4 million contract with the Marlins. How do you know he's available? You wanna trade prospects for him? 

That's the problem with your theory Rob, you always just assume guys can be had and that Elias just doesn't want to do it. I think Elias knows his 3B is filled from 2023 and beyond and he's not going to trade away prospects to fill a hole for 2022.

Crazily, Gutierrez was worth 0.8 WAR in 47 games with the Orioles last year. I have no idea how he was worth 0.6 oWAR with the numbers he put up, but that's what it says. Now I don't think Gutierrez is the longterm answer here or anywhere else, but he's fine as place holder and Owens gives a little depth. 

 

Well, I said Anderson was a possibility..which is another way of saying he MIGHt be available.

Therefore, I’m not assuming anything.  I also was accused of assuming Chapman would be available And yet, guess what happened.

There are very real reasons why Anderson could be available.  And if he’s not, other guys are.

Either way, it’s not hard to upgrade from Guttierez and the team chose not to.  

[Frobby]

I’m open minded to the possibility that Kelvin Gutierrez could turn out half decent.   He hit very well the last few weeks of the season, he hit well in the Dominican Winter League before he got hurt there, and he’s hitting very well this spring (.385/.529/.615).    Maybe something has clicked for him.  I don’t mean that I expect him to be an above average hitter, but maybe he can outdo his career .615 OPS in 386 PA by a substantial margin.   I’m not expecting him to, but it won’t shock me.   His MiL numbers are not awful.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

6 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m open minded to the possibility that Kelvin Gutierrez could turn out half decent.   He hit very well the last few weeks of the season, he hit well in the Dominican Winter League before he got hurt there, and he’s hitting very well this spring (.385/.529/.615).    Maybe something has clicked for him.  I don’t mean that I expect him to be an above average hitter, but maybe he can outdo his career .615 OPS in 386 PA by a substantial margin.   I’m not expecting him to, but it won’t shock me.   His MiL numbers are not awful.

Same. I think Kelvin Gutierrez has the potential to be good enough to hold down 3B until a better prospect rises up from the farm system. At the very least Gutierrez will play quality defense and if he can hit around a .700 OPS he's going to be playing daily. 

[Sports Guy]

31 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m open minded to the possibility that Kelvin Gutierrez could turn out half decent.   He hit very well the last few weeks of the season, he hit well in the Dominican Winter League before he got hurt there, and he’s hitting very well this spring (.385/.529/.615).    Maybe something has clicked for him.  I don’t mean that I expect him to be an above average hitter, but maybe he can outdo his career .615 OPS in 386 PA by a substantial margin.   I’m not expecting him to, but it won’t shock me.   His MiL numbers are not awful.

Look, every once in a while a guy comes out of nowhere.  It’s not impossible and I would rather he get the third base at bats vs anyone on the team or in the organization that is close to or ML ready.(this is until Westburg and/or Henderson push their way up here this year)

But there isn’t much reason to believe he is all of a sudden going to start to hit.

He had over 2200 at bats in the minors and his career OPS is 741 and he never had an 800 OPS at any level.

[jabba72]

54 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m open minded to the possibility that Kelvin Gutierrez could turn out half decent.   He hit very well the last few weeks of the season, he hit well in the Dominican Winter League before he got hurt there, and he’s hitting very well this spring (.385/.529/.615).    Maybe something has clicked for him.  I don’t mean that I expect him to be an above average hitter, but maybe he can outdo his career .615 OPS in 386 PA by a substantial margin.   I’m not expecting him to, but it won’t shock me.   His MiL numbers are not awful.

Im willing to be surprised. 3B is kind of the weak link of the team other than SP.