Orioles Sign Adam Eaton

I can't imagine this deal working out for Baltimore, which says a lot when it's a minor league deal and a $400K salary if he makes the team.

Umm....

Ew.

Oh stop acting like it's a huge contract it's a no risk move if it works out (which it won't) they have another decent pitcher.

"Hard to believe that this guy was once traded for Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez."

Hard to believe that a single person in the world thought that trade was a good idea at the time.

Eaton was mediocre before getting traded, and was never worth those two guys, even before they broke out.

Thank god Towers made that trade.

Think about where San Diego would be if they didn't have Gonzalez and Young..

That'd leave them with like one good starter (Peavy) and two good position players (Giles, Headley).

Don't really see a problem with this. If he can fill some innings at the back of the rotation while we wait for the youngsters to get a little more minor league experience. I agree it is unlikely he will help much but we had Steve Trachsel in the rotation for a while last year- this is on par with that IMO.

Eaton is pretty much on his way out of baseball and desperate for an opportunity to stay in the majors. He's already been released from a few clubs.

The Os are swooping in to stash him in the minors (which he'd probably accept since many clubs will have their staffs nearly set by now), and he gets a call-up to bridge some innings here and there if an injury happens. Around June or July this addition might be seen as a great depth move that saves a young arm being forced to go longer with a young arm that obviously needs some space to work some things out like Liz, Penn, or Hill. Eaton's basically protection from calling up Matusz, Tillman, and Arrieta before they're ready.

XD23-

But you should want the young guys to pitch. Having Eaton pitch instead of the young guys is just wasting their development time while receiving poor production to pay Eaton.

There's simply zero reason to add Eaton, because I sure as hell wouldn't want him on my team taking away innings from my young guys.

I'd much rather see Radhames Liz out there than stupid Adam Eaton.

I'd rather have a pitching machine set to slow pitch on the mound, than adam eaton.

scribbletone,

If you have a young arm that hasn't yet pitched 150+ total innings (or consecutive seasons of significant innings) in a single season yet (part of development is just building up stamina and strength), or if you have an arm that has not yet conquered their command issues, then the odds of that pitcher adjusting to the majors goes way down. Sure, you can call him up earlier than other cubs might, and I do believe if a kid is good he'll be good no matter what, but you only run the risk of putting him in a situation where the club has no choice but to certain things. Having an abundance of alternatives is not a bad place to be.

One of the reason why the Os have been in a bad situation with the pitching in recent years is because they've called up all of their kids too quickly. All that has done is create a lot of injuries to young golden armed kids who haven't yet pitched consecutive full pro seasons, and, accelerated their service time clock. The service time clock for the Os has less to do with the salary as much as it accelerates the time the player has to work out his issues. Believe me, scribble, I agree with you that Eaton would be a bad move if he were to block a kid from moving up. That being said, that's never going to happen. There is no way on Earth Eaton will block any Os prospects.

At best he works up some value, gets called to the bigs to fill in for an injury, and nets a prospect in a midseason trade; At worst, he gets released soon with nothing gained or lost; In between, he occupies a slot in AAA Norfolk, sending a message to the young arms below him to force the issue because they won't get call-ups just handed to them anymore. Personally I think it's a win-win situation. The Os would be paying a random organizational player the same amount at AAA anyways, why not a guy who has had ML experience with incentive to move up?

I thought the Padres were going to get him no doubt, I guess their pitching staff is set. Or maybe they don't have 400k to spend on a decent starter?

"I thought the Padres were going to get him no doubt, I guess their pitching staff is set. Or maybe they don't have 400k to spend on a decent starter?

Posted by: J M | March 01, 2009 at 06:39 PM"

They probably do, but Eaton isn't decent.

lol @ all of the bitter Philly fans

No.

The Jays beat em to that!! lol

A guy to fill up space, nothing more. Fits the MO of the O's at the moment, young talent and old space-takers.