A pair of former Oriole bats are still looking for somewhere to sign, and Baltimore has shown no interest in bringing back either Melvin Mora or Aubrey Huff, according to Dan Connolly and Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun. Here are some more Baltimore-centric tidbits from their piece:
- The O's may not be interested in Mora, but we heard earlier in the week that a few other clubs are. Mora confirms that several teams have been in touch with his agent, including the Rockies, Cardinals, and Angels.
- The Orioles are still looking to add a corner infielder. Although they've had discussions with Miguel Tejada's representation, "a reunion remains unlikely."
- The club would prefer to play Garrett Atkins at first base, rather than at third. The greater number of affordable first basemen left on the market, however, may force their hand.
- A handful of teams, including Baltimore, have extended minor league contract offers to Rich Hill, but the lefty has yet to make a decision.
I would love to see Miggy back on the Orioles but I think Adam LaRoche or Joe Crede would make the most sense.
I’m not too familiar with the O’s but I’m pretty sure there’s a player named Josh Bell who will be ready by the end of next year. Therefore, LaRoche is out of question, but Crede makes a lot of sense.
LaRoche is a first baseman and Josh Bell is a third baseman. If anything, Josh Bell will push Garrett Atkins to first.
Sorry my fault, I knew Bell was some type of corner infielder.
Thats still a really good point you make, Josh Bell, Matt Weiters, Brandon Snyder, Nolan Reimold, Felix Pie, Adam Jones…It seems like the O’s have a great young neucleus of players and I just hope that sooner rather than later Andy McPhail’s work will pay off. The AL East is a hard division to play in if you are the O’s or Jays but with some vets like Mike Gonzalez, Kevin Millwood, Roberts, and Atkins, I hope that they will benefit from all of the trades they’ve made and what not to improve their team.
Don’t forget Nick Markakis
Thats still a really good point you make, Josh Bell, Matt Weiters, Brandon Snyder, Nolan Reimold, Felix Pie, Adam Jones…It seems like the O’s have a great young neucleus of players and I just hope that sooner rather than later Andy McPhail’s work will pay off. The AL East is a hard division to play in if you are the O’s or Jays but with some vets like Mike Gonzalez, Kevin Millwood, Roberts, and Atkins, I hope that they will benefit from all of the trades they’ve made and what not to improve their team.
Sorry my fault, I knew Bell was some type of corner infielder.
LaRoche is a first baseman and Josh Bell is a third baseman. If anything, Josh Bell will push Garrett Atkins to first.
Crede is really terrible and has no on base skills what so ever. If Bell is going to be ready soon why waste money and a roster spot on Crede when in house guys like Michael Aubrey or Ty Wigginton can put up better numbers. Justin Turner could even start there until Bell is ready.
Yeah that’s true also.
Crede is terrible?? WOW when healthy Crede has ALL-STAR calibur skills.
Joe Crede has a career OBP of .304 and a career OPS of .748 – yes he has a good glove but offensively he is terrible
Crede is really terrible and has no on base skills what so ever. If Bell is going to be ready soon why waste money and a roster spot on Crede when in house guys like Michael Aubrey or Ty Wigginton can put up better numbers. Justin Turner could even start there until Bell is ready.
I’m not too familiar with the O’s but I’m pretty sure there’s a player named Josh Bell who will be ready by the end of next year. Therefore, LaRoche is out of question, but Crede makes a lot of sense.
Totally agree with your comment. Just hoping Laroche lowers that asking price. Maybe 2/14 IF he is lucky
This is why you have to love guys like Atkins, he’s got high upside, cost hardly anything, and can play either corner IF spot giving you a ton of flexibility on your roster and your free agent signings.
Agreed.
Seriously?? I’ll admit upside, but you gave him 4.5 million, thats NOT hardly anything for a guy who only hit .226 with only 9 homers and 48 rbi’s in 2009.
You mention his 2009 stats but nothing prior to that. I’m going with the theory that he got pull happy in 2009 trying to save his job, it backfired and messed up his swing even further, and that Terry Crowley can get him straightened out and back to 2006-2008 form relatively quickly. If so, then $4.5MM is a bargain.
Atkins has done nothing but regress offensively throughout his career. Oh and he can only hit in Coors also, not gonna be good in the American League.
Exactly. Atkins over his career (with that extreme production in Coors)05 – .337 wOBA06 – .410 wOBA07 – .368 wOBA08 – .337 wOBA09 – .291 wOBARemember, league average is around .330. So three of 5 seasons floating around league average to downright pitiful last year. Oh and again, thats playing half his games at Coors (where he hit .327/.385/.507/.892 v. .252/.324.411/.735 on the road)When you factor in his being a poor fielder, you have yourself one borderline player, at best.
Well, to be accurate, the Coors effect hasn’t helped him much. His splits bear out that he’s been as bad on the road as he was at home. Pretty much even. I think that strengthens the argument against him rebounding.
That being said, I’m not one to give too much credit to coaches, but Terry Crowley has a solid record of veteran reclamation projects. Not suggesting it’ll happen. It probably won’t, but at worst, Atkins continues to slide and he switches off with either Josh Bell or Snyder in games for the majority of the year. Opposing fans look at this and evaluate it based on the wrong measures. The Orioles are fielding a team to support a transition to the young nucleus, so it doesn’t make sense to invest in expensive stud players, or even just average ones since they’ll be expensive too.
You mention his 2009 stats but nothing prior to that. I’m going with the theory that he got pull happy in 2009 trying to save his job, it backfired and messed up his swing even further, and that Terry Crowley can get him straightened out and back to 2006-2008 form relatively quickly. If so, then $4.5MM is a bargain.
That’s a lot to you and me, but it’s “cheap” for a player who will be your starting 3B or 1B, or at least it’s below market value (i.e. 6-10M/YR for arb+ players). Yes, he may or may not rebound back to his past form, but he’s only on the team until Bell or Snyder force a promotion. Based on their AFL appearances, it looks like they’ll be ready 2-3 months into the season. It’s value.
Seriously?? I’ll admit upside, but you gave him 4.5 million, thats NOT hardly anything for a guy who only hit .226 with only 9 homers and 48 rbi’s in 2009.
This is why you have to love guys like Atkins, he’s got high upside, cost hardly anything, and can play either corner IF spot giving you a ton of flexibility on your roster and your free agent signings.
I think LaRoche and Atkins would be solid enough offensively on the corners for the Orioles. Both of those guys are going to hit around 25 HR and probably .800-.850 OPS. I don’t think they necessarily need a huge masher at one of the corner positions because they are going to have good power coming from two nontraditional power positions CF and C. I also think Bell and to a lesser extent Snyder will be ready to come up by the end of the season and next year can probably produce at about the same level that Atkins and LaRoche would this year.
Defensively I’m not too sure about Atkins at 3B but I would rather have him there than get pushed to 1B for Crede and his good glove but bad back and even worse bat. Tejada would be fine as a one year 3B but I think he is looking for a little more stability. Delgado if healthy is definitely an interesting option – he is remarkably consistently good year after year and I imagine he has a couple of good years left in him so I wouldn’t mind signing him either.
I also wouldn’t mind flipping Scott and then signing Vlad to be the DH as this team is desperately in need of a power RH bat.
I think LaRoche and Atkins would be solid enough offensively on the corners for the Orioles. Both of those guys are going to hit around 25 HR and probably .800-.850 OPS. I don’t think they necessarily need a huge masher at one of the corner positions because they are going to have good power coming from two nontraditional power positions CF and C. I also think Bell and to a lesser extent Snyder will be ready to come up by the end of the season and next year can probably produce at about the same level that Atkins and LaRoche would this year.
Defensively I’m not too sure about Atkins at 3B but I would rather have him there than get pushed to 1B for Crede and his good glove but bad back and even worse bat. Tejada would be fine as a one year 3B but I think he is looking for a little more stability. Delgado if healthy is definitely an interesting option – he is remarkably consistently good year after year and I imagine he has a couple of good years left in him so I wouldn’t mind signing him either.
I also wouldn’t mind flipping Scott and then signing Vlad to be the DH as this team is desperately in need of a power RH bat.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Aubrey Huff just announce his retirement. He just seemed to all of a sudden lose it last year and don’t see him getting much of anything from an AL team with the DH market flooded and him a really horrid 1B defensively. a ML contract can’t see him signing either with the good career he already had, just so few options except retiring.
pleast not melvin mora to the cardinals! please dear god. give the young dudes a chance..
You’d have to think even if they signed Mora that he’d only be guaranteed a bench role and a competition with Freese for 3rd in the spring.
There is no way on Earth the Os resign Mora. Mora and Trembley had a visible public spat midseason. Mora went to the media and vented it all. He was pouting because he wasn’t getting the playing time he wanted. Since the Os have been starting the youngsters as much as possible, there were less slots for vets and the productive vets got priority, which left Mora out. The Orioles were a few clicks from releasing him right there, that is, until Trembley and Mora had a closed door talk, and agreed to finish out the season professionally. It was a good thing for both parties to do it professional, but I think everyone who follows this team silently understands that there’s no chance on heck Mora comes back. No way.
Sorry Basemonkey, I should have replied to Ferrariman, I was talkin Cards and Mora. Nice assessment though!
I think a similar thing can be said of Tejada too. Once MacPhail took over, he went thru a thorough evaluation process of the whole team that took several months before making a move. One of the very first items was to trade away Tejada. One may think that that was a foregone conclusion for a rebuilding club, but one could also argue that Tejada by then, came to represent exactly the kind of player and attitude the Os did NOT want to encourage, a primadonna who “dogged” it and skipped out on team drills and practices.
Rich Hill. I really really really want him to succeed somewhere. I’m pulling for him. THough after seeing his absurd lack of control last year, it is extremely hard to imagine him catching onto an ML team at this point. He is probably holding out for the last pitcher signings, waiting out the market for a Spring invite audition with a team with holes in the rotation. He needs to realize that he’d be seen as a good depth signing as a AAA depth guy, than a SP/RP type on a weak pitching staff.