Orioles Pitching Strategy compared to competition

[vab]

Hopefully the purse strings will be loosened allowing the club to play in the free agent pitching market this winter. We'll see how the arms for bats philosophy works at the deadline and in the offseason. With an SP prospect or two coming through and continued success picking guys off the waiver wire/minor trades I think they can piece a good staff together with quality and depth but it's always going to be tough with the rash of injuries they've had this season. 

[LookitsPuck]

13 minutes ago, vab said:

Hopefully the purse strings will be loosened allowing the club to play in the free agent pitching market this winter. We'll see how the arms for bats philosophy works at the deadline and in the offseason. With an SP prospect or two coming through and continued success picking guys off the waiver wire/minor trades I think they can piece a good staff together with quality and depth but it's always going to be tough with the rash of injuries they've had this season. 

Yup. Think the main issue is nearly all ball clubs are able to sign pitchers for multi-year contracts except for Elias. You look around the league and rotations are made up of FA signings, players via trades, international signings, and draft picks. The O’s haven’t had the predictability of a FA starter year to year in quite some time.

The rotation now is trade (Burnes), draft pick (Grayson), trade (Kremer), 1 year deal (Suarez), trade (Povich). And before he was hurt: Bradish (trade).

Is trading for starting pitching sustainable? I don’t think so. When they were rebuilding it was, but they do need to hit on some international pitchers and get 1-2 FA pitchers on multi-year deals so you don’t keep trading your future away (I was really high on Showalter, btw). 

[casadeozo]

42 minutes ago, LookitsPuck said:

That’s not concerning at all. Burnes, Bradish, Suarez all acquired by Elias. Tyler Wells, Cade Povich as well.

The strategy can work. And there are some potential options in the minors: McDermott, Johnson.

Think Elias has done wonders at piecing together a bullpen.

I do think he needs to trade for a controllable starter, and Rubenstein needs to open that pocket book in the offseason.

My greater point was we clearly do not Have the depth other successful organizations have. The Rays are now trading starters due to their depth at starting pitching.

Johnson is in AA and is potentially a roster casualty in the off season. McDermott with his control is trending towards a bullpen arm. 

[LookitsPuck]

1 hour ago, casadeozo said:

My greater point was we clearly do not Have the depth other successful organizations have. The Rays are now trading starters due to their depth at starting pitching.

Johnson is in AA and is potentially a roster casualty in the off season. McDermott with his control is trending towards a bullpen arm. 

Strongly doubt Johnson is a roster casualty at all, regardless of him having to be on the 40 man. 

It's very possible that McDermott is a bullpen arm, but he's meaningful depth as a starter. 

I think the main issue here is that teams shouldn't be relying on minor league depth to immediately step in and be effective, especially when they're a competitive team. There are very few Paul Skenes out there. Bradish came up and struggled, Grayson came up and struggling, now Cade Povich is doing similarly. 

For me, this is less of an issue of minor league depth via the draft and more of an issue of previous ownership not doing multi-year deals for starters and previous ownership and GM doing very little in the international market. The international market is going to take time, but if they can get anywhere near where the Astros were with it, it's less of a concern.

Right now Elias's approach to starting pitching is clearly via trade. Guys like Bradish, Povich, Burnes, Irvin have currently contributed to the major league roster. There are some future arms from the draft, but Elias is over-indexing on the trade route and trying to find diamonds in the rough in FA (see: Albert Suarez). Think Elias really needs the FA market to better supplement things because, to be honest, the draft with starters is a crap shoot where the O's are drafting and more saddled with risk than position players. 

 

Edited July 15 by LookitsPuck

[Frobby]

I’m going to toss in a couple of quotes from Chris Holt from last week:

“When we get to that end of Day 2 and all of Day 3, and we are choosing pitchers, we have evaluated a vast, vast plethora, a number of pitchers, so that we are making decisions for the best players when it’s time to take them,” Orioles director of pitching Chris Holt said.

* * *

Holt said: “You can go look for the best player on the board or look for the best fit on what you can develop. I think we’re very clear on what we value. It doesn’t always necessarily mean a guy who’s a high-profile guy. We have a way of evaluating things on a very baseline level that allows us to zero in on who we like and why.”

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/orioles-mlb/orioles-pitching-development-zach-fruit-NGAWZMBBSFFQBOL5ZLKARO3BSE/?schk=YES&rchk=YES&utm_source=The+Baltimore+Banner&utm_campaign=4afe5120f4-NL_ALRT_OR_20240711_1200&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4afe5120f4-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]&mc_cid=4afe5120f4&mc_eid=6750f74ac9

Bottom line, the O’s think they can develop pitchers they acquire late in the draft that have the attributes they like even if those pitchers don’t have a high profile.  

But as Tony points out, the next inning thrown in the majors by an Orioles pitcher drafted during the Elias regime will be the first.   
 

[O-The-Memories]

I don't see McDermott as a starter ever with his lack of control. We traded DL Hall and I think they are similar. Povich I'm very iffy on still. We need more pitching somehow.