O's Interested In John McDonald

[Mackus]

Oh, you know you forgot the 4th thing.

The posters that troll JTrea without adding any substance to the discussion at hand.

Let it go. Any attempt by posters to get their fellow posters to cease responding to his nonsense is a good thing.

[Hank Scorpio]

Did you even look at McDonald's stats?

Nobody can justify this move, I'm sorry.

Signing McDonald would be a return to past practices.

BTW McDonald had a UZR/150 of -14.8 at 3B last season. I'd rather take my chances with Bell than to have McDonald be the stopgap there.

Acquring the McDonalds of the world, instead of going after a player like Hardy is our exact problem. We keep trying to buy these low cost guys and hope they overachieve or return to how they played 2 years ago.

Release Andino, trade for Hardy and move Izturis to the bench. Now we've got our obligitory light hitting utility guy that actually can hit a little.

What "move" are you referring to?

Count to ten.

[Ruzious]

Thanks bud.

It's bizarre. I watched a couple of the O's-Jays game this year, and this guy's name doesn't ring a bell at all. Guess I need to pay a little closer attention. :laughlol:

He's also the guy that walked once... in his last 156 plate appearances. I'm thinking that's not a good example for the rest of the kids.

[CSB Jack]

We could always trade for Hardy, or sign Scutaro or Gonzalez this offseason for instance. The SS pickings are thin next offseason I will admit, but then after 2011 you can go after Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins for example.

Why is it that I have such a problem with people who build their lineups for future years around signing multiple top free agents in every class? What is going to happen to turn the Orioles into the Yankees? We might not like it, but the Orioles are NEVER going to have the cash flow to match spending with the Yankees and/or Red Sox. So they have to be smart with their signings, trades, and draft choices, and put in place the organizational structure to identify and develop talent consistently, and supplement occasionally with free agent signings when it makes sense.

This year it does not make sense to give up their second round draft pick to sign a Type A free agent who isn't going to be a long term part of addressing a current area of need - preferably a power hitting corner infielder. There aren't any of them in this year's crop. Wasting it on a SS not named Hanley Ramirez would be folly compared with the still pressing need to stock the farm system with real prospects.

I'm all in favor of signing free agents that improve the quality of the ballclub and their ability to compete for championships. That will include some that will cost the team their top non-protected draft pick. But the Orioles will always have to work with some kind of player salary budget and can't ever expect to match the Yanks and Sawx dollar for dollar with free agent contracts.

And are you suggesting that the team trade for Hardy or sign Scutaro this offseason AND go after Reyes and/or Rollins after 2011??

[Hank Scorpio]

Exactly and Dierkes is constantly read by the like of Olney and Gammons for example to get the latest rumors or facts that are out there.

He's pretty well respected IMO and while he does have a few connections there isn't too much editiorial stuff. He does chats where he offers his opinion, but for the most part it's just a collection of newpaper and blog articles about anything about MLB.

If you had to assign a percentage to it, how often do the rumors we get here either from newspapers, MLBTR, Rotoworld, insiders, whatever... come to fruition?

If you had to take a guess, what would you say?

[Crazysilver03]

Let it go. Any attempt by posters to get their fellow posters to cease responding to his nonsense is a good thing.

Except the posts now aren't trying to get other posters to stop responding to him.

People are blatanly trolling him, you being one of them.

If you don't want to partake in a discussion with him, that is fine. But don't tell me to stop partaking in a discussion if I elect to. Also don't get upset when it is pointed out that people are breaking board rules and trolling posters.

[NewMarketSean]

If these rumors are true and if AM is targeting McDonald, I do think it's a cause for alarm. AM targeted Eaton during the offseason last year too. Why he targets certain guys is beyond me. You could pick a minor leaguers name out of a hat and he'd likely be better than Eaton or McDonald.

[JTrea81]

If you had to assign a percentage to it, how often do the rumors we get here either from newspapers, MLBTR, Rotoworld, insiders, whatever... come to fruition?

If you had to take a guess, what would you say?

Geez that's a tough one.

It all depends on what kind of rumors you are talking about.

If it's about being a favorite for trading for a player or signing a player by a specific team I'd say probably 40%. Typcially the rumors that have a player or team "on the verge" of doing something, I would say about 60% of those come true.

But as far as a team's general interest in a certain player or the discussion that occurs between teams and players, that's harder to put a number on IMO. The interest or the discussions might be there, but as far as the actual level of that interest or discussions, that's what might be overestimated or understimated.

[Hank Scorpio]

Geez that's a tough one.

It all depends on what kind of rumors you are talking about.

If it's about trading for a player or signing a player by a specific team I'd say probably 40%. Typcially the rumors that have a player or team "on the verge" of doing something, I would say about 60% of those come true.

But as far as a team's general interest in a certain player or the discussion that occurs between teams and players, that's harder to put a number on IMO. The interest or the discussions might be there, but as far as the actual level of that interest or discussions, that's what might be overestimated or understimated.

I'll help you out.

< 5%

I know it's easy to get sucked into media opinions and rumors. I used to hit refresh on this board every 30 seconds to see if anything new was posted by Rosenthal or Stark or Belkast, etc....

Do youself a favor and don't get sucked into it. You tend to take it to the extreme of expecting what they're talking about to actually happen, then when it doesn't you torch the organization, as if they were the ones leading you down this fruitless trail.

Keep it in perspective and try to keep yourself centered amongst tweets, whispers and reports from the winter meetings of Andy MacPhail having a closed door meeting with John Lackey.

Most of time, it doesn't mean jack.

Now, when someone is reporting that a deal has been struck, you can start getting your hackles up a bit. But prior to that, be dismissive. > 95% of the time, you'll be correct in your skepticism.

[Lucky Jim]

Oh, you know you forgot the 4th thing.

The posters that troll JTrea without adding any substance to the discussion at hand.

To be fair, the minute anyone added substance to the discussion, that person would be creating the substance of the discussion. There's no there here. Just a bunch of irrational bluster about a single tweet. It would be funny if it wasn't so common. And annoying.

[JTrea81]

I'll help you out.

< 5%

I know it's easy to get sucked into media opinions and rumors. I used to hit refresh on this board every 30 seconds to see if anything new was posted by Rosenthal or Stark or Belkast, etc....

Do youself a favor and don't get sucked into it. You tend to take it to the extreme of expecting what they're talking about to actually happen, then when it doesn't you torch the organization, as if they were the ones leading you down this fruitless trail.

Keep it in perspective and try to keep yourself centered amongst tweets, whispers and reports from the winter meetings of Andy MacPhail having a closed door meeting with John Lackey.

Most of time, it doesn't mean jack.

Now, when someone is reporting that a deal has been struck, you can start getting your hackles up a bit. But prior to that, be dismissive. > 95% of the time, you'll be correct in your skepticism.

Well as you might gather, I'm taking a different approach now. I was so optimistic last offseason, and I got burned very badly. This offseason, expecting the worst will only yield positive thoughts if we actually do something big, and less negative thoughts if we don't as my expectations will have been met.

So in short, expecting MacPhail to make stupid moves like signing McDonald is a lot healthier IMO than expecting him to go after JJ Hardy.

[Birds08]

I cannot honestly believe that people are flipping out about this. If anyone honestly believes MacPhail is targeting him as anything more than a bench player and late innning defensive replacement, you are kidding yourself. Can't wait until the season is officially over and we can start talking about players that may actually have a meaningful impact on our team.

[Hank Scorpio]

Well as you might gather, I'm taking a different approach now. I was so optimistic last offseason, and I got burned very badly. This offseason, expecting the worst will only yield positive thoughts if we actually do something big, and less negative thoughts if we don't as my expectations will have been met.

So in short, expecting MacPhail to make stupid moves like signing McDonald is a lot healthier IMO than expecting him to go after JJ Hardy.

Just try not to read into rumors or any "hot stove" BS.

Most of the time, by the time we hear about them, they're already dead in the water.

[Mackus]

Except the posts now aren't trying to get other posters to stop responding to him.

People are blatanly trolling him, you being one of them.

If you don't want to partake in a discussion with him, that is fine. But don't tell me to stop partaking in a discussion if I elect to. Also don't get upset when it is pointed out that people are breaking board rules and trolling posters.

I don't troll him, I don't respond to any of his posts.

I fully encourage others to start, though. I don't see how its breaking board rules for people to express their opinions that he makes this board a worse place.

[ejf1025]

John McDonald and Dave Jauss.

Where's the sense of scale?