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I have been fairly critical of the Orioles off-seasons over the years but this philosophy of growing arms (not yet successful) and buying bats has seemingly been effective for us. We definitely need to have better success with young pitching, but looking at the big name (and big $$) arms out there that are now injured and out makes me wonder if we might actually being doing this the right way...Kershaw, Greinke, Price (marginal success this year)....thoughts?
That was really more MacPhail's philosophy and he hasn't been around since 2011. Duquette has spent on reduced price (due to draft pick cost) FA arms in Jimenez and Gallardo with the results that you would probably expect from those guys at this point in their careers.
Where Duquette has succeeded is finding hidden gem values in guys like Kim, Pearce, Gonzalez and Pearce while they were here, and even Trumbo to an extent (he's making $ but his value is beyond his cost).
I think the O's have been more willing to spend on guys they're familiar with, like Jones, Hardy, O'Day, and Davis. It will be interesting to see what the plan is with Manny.
Good points. I still feel like the current front office is reluctant to splash with pitching. Duquette has had a lot of luck finding those budget fill ins that over perform...I'll take it!
They're never going to go "all in" on a FA pitcher unless he's homegrown... maybe...Quote:
Originally Posted by cealex1223
Pitcher health is just too volatile and non-finesse guys are high risk to break down. The O's don't have the ability fiscally to rebound from a contract like the one Boston just put down for David Price if it goes south. While I think Price will be OK in the long run, I wouldn't put money on him being worth the dollars he's getting.
Spending high on FA pitching is a formula for failure...I think they are doing it right in trying to draft / trade for the young, developing pitchers. And while that has worked on the back end (Britton/draft, Brach/trade) it has not been nearly successful on the front side.
While they have built up a nice lead, I ultimately think the lack of quality starting pitching is going to be their demise. The supposed ace of the staff (Tilman) and high-ceiling young starter (Gausman) can't seem to win a game unless they are given 5+ runs...the rest are a bunch of #3, #4 and #5 starters (at best).
Completely agree...
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnBKistler