Sigh... the one that got away....

[DocJJ]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cortene01.shtml

[Moose Milligan]

It's not like he gave us a reason to hang on to him.  And then NY let him go a 2nd time, Seattle let him go, back to NY.  

IMO, it hurts more when a guy like Arrieta goes to Chicago, literally gets off the plane and turns it around right away.  Sure, it sucks that we had Cortes but others had him before he found his success, too.

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

7 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

It's not like he gave us a reason to hang on to him.  And then NY let him go a 2nd time, Seattle let him go, back to NY.  

IMO, it hurts more when a guy like Arrieta goes to Chicago, literally gets off the plane and turns it around right away.  Sure, it sucks that we had Cortes but others had him before he found his success, too.

 

Arietta would have been ok if the Orioles coaches didn't mess with his delivery so much, but with Cortes there was zero reason to think he would turn into good of a pitcher. Like you said the Orioles weren't the last team to give up on him. 

And giving away Zach Davies for Gerardo Parra is another move that ticks me off. Parra was having a career year and playing way above his head. He was due to have a correction and trading him from the NL to AL did it. 

[Moose Milligan]

4 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Arietta would have been ok if the Orioles coaches didn't mess with his delivery so much, but with Cortes there was zero reason to think he would turn into good of a pitcher. Like you said the Orioles weren't the last team to give up on him. 

And giving away Zach Davies for Gerardo Parra is another move that ticks me off. Parra was having a career year and playing way above his head. He was due to have a correction and trading him from the NL to AL did it. 

Yeah, that's another move that really hurt. 

On a similar note to Cortes, it's not like Gausman found success right away, either.  He went to Braves and was great immediately but then was terrible the next season.  He was alright for the Reds but they cut bait with him, too.

I suppose the one argument that could maybe possibly be made for keeping Cortes is that he was here on the 2018 team which was historically awful.  So we could have kept trotting him out there.  But the argument against THAT is that he was a Rule 5 guy.  And before the 2018 season started, we were kidding ourselves into thinking that maybe that team could be alright.  So when he crapped the bed in early April, well, it only made sense to offer him back to the Yankees because people still thought that team could compete and there was no room for a guy to be that bad.

And yes, the Orioles completely screwed Arrieta up with his mechanics.  They forced him to get away from what made him successful in college which was stupid.  

[SilverRocket]

This is a pure hindsight thing because he was one of the worst Orioles I've ever seen. He just didn't have the stuff at the time. He's added 3mph to his fastball since then, which has made all the difference.

Obviously now, I'd have put up with 3 extra losses in 2018 to keep him. If they somehow knew he could add that velocity then it would've been worth it.

[Emory Eagle]

I’ll never get over the Arrieta thing.  Just totally infuriating.

[Jagwar]

Heck... I'm still mad they traded away Don Baylor

[sportsfan8703]

But we kept Pedro Araujo that same season. Cortes was just too healthy to work out for us as a rule 5. 

[Can_of_corn]

I figured this thread was about baby Yaz.

[OriolesMagic83]

I'm just upset there haven't been any threads about how the O's let Jose Bautista get away.

[bpilktree]

The same people complaining about losing Cortes are the same ones that wanted to DFA Akin last season.   They are very similar as they had success in minors but then when they got to the majors they didn't have the stuff to get major league hitters out it was said so they dont get a lot of chances.  The problem with guys like that is they don't get the same opportunity as other guys that have so called better stuff.  You throw mid 90s and teams will give you more rope and if you don't make it there will be team after team wanting to fix them.  

[sportsfan8703]

Just now, bpilktree said:

The same people complaining about losing Cortes are the same ones that wanted to DFA Akin last season.   They are very similar as they had success in minors but then when they got to the majors they didn't have the stuff to get major league hitters out it was said so they dont get a lot of chances.  The problem with guys like that is they don't get the same opportunity as other guys that have so called better stuff.  You throw mid 90s and teams will give you more rope and if you don't make it there will be team after team wanting to fix them.  

Same with Lowther this year. We just don’t have the pitching depth just to DFA people. There’s not much in the system and we don’t draft it. 

[Sports Guy]

Lawlar got away.  Cortes was a rightful omission. 

[glenn__davis]

Yeah, no issues with letting him leave here, but, unpopular opinion, he is a joy to watch pitch.  Making hitters look absolutely silly.

[Jammer7]

12 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

Yeah, no issues with letting him leave here, but, unpopular opinion, he is a joy to watch pitch.  Making hitters look absolutely silly.

Absolutely. He added some serious funk to his delivery since we had him and he is fun to watch. Maddening to face, though.