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Roch: O's may look to get a big bat this offseason


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Getting a big bat doesn't necessarily mean through FA.

Trading for Adrian Gonzalez wouldn't be against anything MacPhail has said. So don't eliminate that as a possibility based on the "evidence" of MacPhail's comments while in the Minnesota broadcast booth or anywhere else. Its certainly reasonable to think a trade for a huge bat like that is unlikely, but not with the reasoning that MacPhail has said we won't be looking to free agency until after next year.

He would have to deal pitching to get it, which I don't think he will do. That leaves free agency.
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Has anyone seen the highlights of Fielder blowing up at teammates after a poor play/loss? I think it's happened the past two years.

I'm curious if anyone has considered how he might react to being on a team that is filled with young players who might struggle and being on a team that is fighting to reach .500 instead of fighting for a wild card.

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He would have to deal pitching to get it, which I don't think he will do. That leaves free agency.
That doesn't eliminate it based on his comments about pursuing one in FA next year, which was my point.

'Not thinking he'll do it' is a whole lot different than saying 'MacPhail has said he won't do it'. That's all I'm getting at here.

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Has anyone seen the highlights of Fielder blowing up at teammates after a poor play/loss? I think it's happened the past two years.

I'm curious if anyone has considered how he might react to being on a team that is filled with young players who might struggle and being on a team that is fighting to reach .500 instead of fighting for a wild card.

If we get Fielder and still have Tillman, Matusz, and Bergeson in the rotation, we will not be struggling to reach .500.

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If we get Fielder and still have Tillman, Matusz, and Bergeson in the rotation, we will not be struggling to reach .500.

*rolls eyes*

Fine. Change it to "a team that is above .500 but not in the race for the playoffs." You completely missed the entire point of my post.

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*rolls eyes*

Fine. Change it to "a team that is above .500 but not in the race for the playoffs." You completely missed the entire point of my post.

Maybe I should have been more clear. If we don't have to give up one of Matusz/Tillman/Bergesen and we add Fielder, I think we will contend next year. You may not agree with this, but that is what I meant. I truly believe that a big bat like AGON or Fielder or Holliday is what this team needs most.

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So you think one bat will be a +20 game difference in record?
Right, because obviously he isn't counting on any improvement at all from any of the young guys from this year to next, the entirety of the improvement would come from Adrian Gonzalez.

Come on, if you're trying to have a good debate here, at least bring arguments that have some legitimacy.

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So you think one bat will be a +20 game difference in record?

...

Yeah, I don't know how you came to the conclusion that I meant that. Adding a big bat will take a lot of pressure off of the rest of the lineup. Our offense has been terrible hitting with runners in scoring position this year. If we had a big hitter in the middle of the lineup, I feel the rest of the lineup will be much more balanced and will produce a lot more runs. Also, the pitching (both starting and relief) will be much improved next year. The team will be better even if we do nothing this offseason, but the addition of a hitter like AGON or Fielder will give us a chance to compete.

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You're right. My apologies.

I guess I just have a hard time believing that if they can contend with Fielder (due to the youngsters progress) that they wouldn't be able to contend without him. How many wins can one bat be? He's listed as just under 5 WAR on fangraphs, and the Orioles are 21.5 out of the wild card. Even if you're going with Huff's WAR for the season, that's only a 6 win increase (if I understand that value correctly), which would still leave them more than 15 games out of the wild card. Obviously the kids will improve, but I don't think they're going to be 15 games better. I think they will take their lumps, as most young players do.

But sorry for the argumentative post earlier.

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You're right. My apologies.

I guess I just have a hard time believing that if they can contend with Fielder (due to the youngsters progress) that they wouldn't be able to contend without him. How many wins can one bat be? He's listed as just under 5 WAR on fangraphs, and the Orioles are 21.5 out of the wild card. Even if you're going with Huff's WAR for the season, that's only a 6 win increase (if I understand that value correctly), which would still leave them more than 15 games out of the wild card. Obviously the kids will improve, but I don't think they're going to be 15 games better. I think they will take their lumps, as most young players do.

But sorry for the argumentative post earlier.

I agree that adding Fielder or Gonzalez won't make us contenders independent of a lot of improvement from our young guys.

But, obviously adding those guys will help. How much depends on what we'd have to give up for them and what those guys would become. If Brandon Snyder can become a 2.5-3 WAR 1B (which I think is reasonable) then its only a 2-3 win improvement to go get Fielder or Gonzalez, and losing Arrieta, Reimold, Hernandez or whatever else it takes to get one of those guys probably would more than make up for that.

I think I prefer the idea of waiting a bit longer before splurging for one of the big bats. While the names change, there is usually a big guy available if someone is willing to pay the price for him. I don't think the urgency is quite there for us to need to go out and spend a ton of talent and money to land a big hitting 1B.

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