Questioning MacPhail's moves...

[TheHustler]

On the other hand, his trades for Tejada and Bedard were very good.

[Miller192]

I agree with what you say here NMS, especially about Hendrickson and Eaton.

It seems that the Orioles are the last stop for aging veterans on their way to retirement.

I have a tough time understanding how these two can be an effective placeholder for us this year.

The problem is, I don't have a solution or alternative to them being here. It's not my job to solve that riddle but I really don't know how we improve there without a) changing the makeup of the roster or b) promoting the kids now.

[TheHustler]

I agree with what you say here NMS, especially about Hendrickson and Eaton.

It seems that the Orioles are the last stop for aging veterans on their way to retirement.

.

I guess there are very few good free agent pitchers out there and a lot of teams competing for them. Last year we were just looking for any kind of warm body to get us outs. If anyone wants to look into how many free agent quality pitchers were out there, we can then look at why the O's didn't get them.

[Skeletor]

I think everyone is making too much of a deal about MacPhail saying he "targeted" Eaton. It's not like we wanted him all along and were willing to trade anyone of significance for him. He was a guy we were tracking probably because it was known he was going to be released and perhaps we could have had Steve Trachsel 2007 for the league minimum. We gave up nothing to get him and he's had two starts. Get pissed off when he's here in June.

[marty41]

I agree with what you say here NMS, especially about Hendrickson and Eaton.

It seems that the Orioles are the last stop for aging veterans on their way to retirement.

I have a tough time understanding how these two can be an effective placeholder for us this year.

The problem is, I don't have a solution or alternative to them being here. It's not my job to solve that riddle but I really don't know how we improve there without a) changing the makeup of the roster or b) promoting the kids now.

You TRY to solve the problem by replacing the likes of Eaton and Hendrickson with the second tier arms in the minors. You don't rush a Tillman, Arrieta or Matusz but there are several tier two guys like Bergason, Patton, Pauley and Waters, just to name four, who should be able to do a heck of a lot better job than Eaton or Hendrickson. And who knows, maybe one will turn out to be major league material.

[TonySoprano]

You guys are forgetting the reason Hendrickson was signed.

"Our scouts really like him; we feel there is some hidden value there," club president Andy MacPhail said.

source - Baltimore Sun, January 1, 2009

[Sports Guy]

I wasn't a fan of the Hendrickson signing but as a reliever, he has shown himself to be pretty good.

I think AM was wrong on the Penn/andino trade...Penn should have been kept..Now, since he wasn't, i am glad he got some kind of potential for him but still, Penn was the better guy to keep IMO.

I think he went with the wrong placeholders and should have just dropped Freel.

This roster can easily look a whole lot better with guys getting healthy and making some roster moves...By the time Hill and Mora get back here, our roster SHOULD look like this:

1st- Huff

2nd- BRob

SS- Izturis

3rd- Mora

LF- Pie

CF- Jones

RF- Markakis

C- Wieters

DH- Scott

bench: Andino, Zaun, Wigginton, Montanez

Guthrie

Koji

BB

Hill

Pauley

Sherrill

JJ

Ray

Sarfate

Albers

2 of Baez, Hendrickson and Walker

That is how I think it should look by the time Hill gets back(mid to late May?).

That's not a bad roster...As the season goes on, we can evaluate Pauley, Albers, Sarfate and the 2 vet relievers that we have kept and see if any of them need to go...And of course, Hill will be a wild card.

The offense is pretty much set...The only thing that will be left to decide(other than potential trades of Scott, Mora and Huff) will be does Pie stay the starter or does Reimold get brought up and finally given his chance?

Best case?: Pie proves he can play at this level and 2 of Scott, HUff and Mora are dealt and they bring up Reimold to play the OF but mostly DH full time.

[Sports Guy]

You forgot Wigginton, assume you mean him over Salazar.

Yea I do. I want Salazar up now..until Mora is back.

[DrungoHazewood]

- Adam Eaton was "targeted" during the offseason. Keyword is target but we don't know how much stock he put in Eaton, ever. Did he target him as an Esteban Loaiza resurrection project? Or a place holder for one of the kids? The bottom line is that AM wanted Eaton for whatever reason and mentioned Eaton's quality starts last year as a positive. So far Eaton has been horrendous and everyone but AM knew he would be, even for a place holder.

- Mark Hendrickson was signed because "he throws strikes". Meanwhile, Hendrickson leads the team in walks with 9 in 14 IP and needed 102 pitches to get through 5 IP today.

- Trading Hayden Penn. Despite walking Daniel Cabrera, Penn has not allowed a run in 6 IP. As the pitching looks worse and worse, so will this trade. AM decided to go with the likes of Brian Bass, Adam Eaton and Mark Hendrickson over a 24 year old Penn.

- Keeping Ryan Freel on roster. Yeah, he was a salary dump on the Reds side of the Ramon Hernandez trade. But AM could have eaten Freel's salary and been happy with getting back Justin Turner. Freel is completely redundant on this team and the O's desperately need a power RH bat off the bench. Meanwhile he's been vocal about his limited role on the team. However, I do hope he is OK after getting hit on the head today.

Those are the biggest ones I can point to thus far. Am I missing any? Do you disagree with any of these?

The only thing I have a problem with is Eaton. I don't have the foggiest idea what anyone saw in him. I would have felt much more confident in a waiver wire pickup a couple days before opening day.

Hendrickson was slotted as a swingman, which is defensible. I still think Freel plays a role that Montanez or Reimold can't - utility guy who can play the infield and run and have an OBP north of .330. Maybe he's done, but maybe not. Penn I had no problem with letting go, and getting any kind of feel for his future based on six innings is even more insane than judging Pie on his tenure here.

[bumblebee]

Without commenting on any of these moves I'll just say that our schedule is extremely tough to start the season (so the runs per game should come down a bit). But, should we continue to receive these types of pitching performances the changes we all expect will come sooner than later.

But, give it a few more weeks. Then we'll know where this team is headed.

Wouldn't it be great if the O's could balance the tough division schedule by playing weak teams like... the O's.?!

[catjuggler]

On the other hand, his trades for Tejada and Bedard were very good.

the Tejada trade was very good. The Bedard is/will be GREAT.

[Roll Tide]

In regards to Penn, he is pitching in an enormous ballpark now. That will help him, no matter what. I don't have a feeling either way about that trade.

As for Eaton, he isn't that good, but we didn't have tons of other choices to start the season. That is still no excuse, save that he was cheap for the O's. However, there were two other guys that we had the best offer out to. The problem was that they chose against Baltimore.

Hate to disagree ...But they did have other options. AM chose quanity over quality. They refused to pay for any quality either with $$$$$$ or talent. The front office is to blame for what they will do to your brother & the rest of the bullpen. Guthrie is the only quality starter we have. Uehara is still pretty much a ? & maybe you go into your season with him as your 4 or 5. The Boston writer that bashed the Orioles rotation was right about his thoughts on our rotation with the exception of Guthrie.

I agree with not rushing Tillman, Arrieta, & Matusz.... I said we needed to find 2-3 quality guys to sign to 2-3 year deal this offseason. Took a bashing from all thos that believe all of the big 3 plus will be ready to open next season & effective. Having too many quality sp options is a good thing.

I'd much rather have Penn & Olson in my rotation today rather than Eaton, Hendrickson, & Simon. I wish Bergy the best & hope he is ready. I dont think he is any better off now than if he started the season in the rotation. So basically my guess is AM & company didnt think he was ready. Certanly not because we had better options.

[Jdan14]

Hind sight is 20/20. He has done a better job then anyone else as GM this team has had in the past decade. Give the man a chance, stop *****ing about every player who doesn't pan out, who by the way, is not a part of our future.

IMO, get off the Penn thing. It's just annoying. He got raked all spring and in his past performances in the bigs has just gotten shelled. There was no reason to give him a chance here. He is pitching in the NL East now, not the AL East. He probably would have given up 2 or 3 in 6 IP for us this year, then people would be complaining that we didn't trade him.

[Singleton]

My view is that you evaluate each move at the time it was made w/o the benefit of hindsight. Was it a reasonable risk/reward? And then, you evaluate it some time later based on the outcome.

I have no problem admitting that I thought signing Eaton, given his minimal price, was fine at the time. Hendrickson was ok as a swingman. I liked the Ramon trade and thought Freel is an acceptable 25th man. While Penn pitched terribly in ST -- I thought it was hard to justify casting him away in favor of guys like Bass who have no past, present or future.

It's too soon to evaluate the outcomes though Eaton looks like a total bust. Hendrickson has been about what I expected which would look better if he were in the role they envisioned. As for Freel, I totally do not get all the commotion. He's the 25th man. With our lineup, when healthy, the 25th man shouldn't play much. I'd rather see Lou take his cuts in AAA and get the call when there's pt (as there seems to be now) then cut freel and have lou rot on the pine.

Strangely enough, my biggest beef is the way the team is handling young players. I don't like the way Liz has been handled. They've messed with his role and brought him up with little pen experience and threw him to the wolves.

They've destroyed his confidence and his value for no reason. I'm not saying he was going to be a superstar but he wasn't handled well and his time in Baltimore is likely done and we will have nothing to show for it.

Once upon a time, Penn, Liz and Olson had value. In a few weeks, none of them may be with the organization and we may have nothing to show for it.

Not impressive.

[alexei606]

Strangely enough, my biggest beef is the way the team is handling young players. I don't like the way Liz has been handled. They've messed with his role and brought him up with little pen experience and threw him to the wolves.

They've destroyed his confidence and his value for no reason. I'm not saying he was going to be a superstar but he wasn't handled well and his time in Baltimore is likely done and we will have nothing to show for it.

Once upon a time, Penn, Liz and Olson had value. In a few weeks, none of them may be with the organization and we may have nothing to show for it.

Not impressive.

Exactly. Liz has been totally mishandled. There is no reason for him to have been brought up like he was and the results have been disastrous for him, the team and his value. Penn was given away and Eaton, Bass were kept? Crazy. I have always hated the Olson/Pie deal and believe that the O's didn't handle Olson correctly either. A travesty all around if Andino proves to be the best player obtained for those three.