The Orioles are looking for a backup catcher, an outfielder, starting pitching and relievers, executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette told Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Duquette hopes to make trades and sign free agents in the near future to address the team’s needs. Here are the details:
- The Orioles like Mark Reynolds’ defense better at first than at third. Duquette continued to downplay the likelihood of a major expenditure at first.
- Expect Matt Antonelli and Chris Davis to contribute at third base in 2012, though Duquette endorses the players in considerably different ways. "He looks like a ballplayer. He's got a good look about him, and he's a former No. 1 pick,” Duquette said of Antonelli. “If you take a look at Bill James' projections, they're projecting Davis to slug at .500 next year,” he said of Davis. Duquette added that he expects Antonelli to be healthy and likes his ability to get on base.
- Manager Buck Showalter prefers to rotate players in and out of the DH spot and Duquette will “be guided by [the manager's] preference." Don’t count on David Ortiz signing in Baltimore. “A 36-year-old DH would be a luxury for us," Duquette said.
- The Orioles will attempt to trade for a backup catcher and they have offers out to some minor league free agents, according to Kubatko (Twitter link).
- Earlier today, Jon Heyman reported that the Orioles have expressed interest in free agent Jason Varitek.
Interesting to hear a GM acknowledge using James’ projections.
Bill James Looooooooves Chris Davis and always has. He once projected him to hit .300 with 40HRs lol
Full quote: “If you take a look at Bill James’ projections, they’re projecting Davis to slug at .500 next year. Obviously, he’d have to mature and his approach would have to be consistent for him to do that, but he’s got that kind of capability.”
full quote:
I used to do projections for players just for fun. After we started
the Handbook (about 1990) John said “Why don’t we publish those
projections.”
“John,” I said, “those projections don’t have any scientific validity
whatsoever. I’m just messing around with formulas, playing around with
them. I can’t publish that.”
“We won’t say they have any validity,” John said. “We’ll just say we
do these projections, and you can take them for what they’re worth.”
So we started printing them, and people liked them, so we still do it.
– Bill James
-100 points for dan duquette
Dan Duquette seems out of touch. Reaching for straws, he’s promoting Chris Davis based on a Bill James projection lol. Did he watch any film on this guy? Antonelli is a good looking ball player? Great, this guy couldn’t his his weight for a few years in the minor leagues and we hand him a big league contract.
Did you do any actual research on Antonelli or did you just take a quick look at his numbers?
I researched and found numbers that at the big league level are tough to find but do exist, that warranted a big league contract. Cmon bro.
How did he forget to mention the clear need for an upgrade in the front office?
I kept reading the list hoping for Dan to mention escorts, in the hopes there is a chance he might smile once in a while during his interviews instead of coming across as an arrogant arse all the time.
What was the benefit of giving Antonelli a big league deal? They could of easily signed him to a minor league deal, heck he didn’t even get an invite to ST last year with Washington.
Apparently, there were multiple teams in on him and a major league deal was what set the O’s apart and brought Antonelli on board.
He had several offers and the major league deal is what made him choose the O’s over others. So, no, they couldn’t have easily signed him to a minor league deal.
Wow really? Even if they offered a minor league deal and threw in a pair of bear claws, that still wouldn’t be good enough? I had no idea Matt Antonelli was this offseason’s hot commodity.
This 1st sentence of this article cracks me up… “The Orioles are looking for a backup catcher, an outfielder, starting pitching and relievers,….”
With the exception of maybe a couple, what team isn’t? LoL!!
Oriole’s needs – A Major League Roster
Watch out. Jay Leno is gonna take you to court for stealing his washed up jokes.
Wow, people still watch Leno?
As long as there are people over 60, there will be people who watch Jay Leno.
I don’t know if they actually enjoy him though.
they just like the noise and the company
One must realize this when bloggers are commenting on Duquette’s comments on Antonelli. When Andy MacPhail left the Warehouse @ Camden Yard, he was in a hurry and left everything and I mean everything. His relative Lee the IV, Klentak, the Stockstills, his pet cat Garfield, and a refrigerator full of Orange Kool-Aid. I say this because it explains why Duquette is saying what he is saying. When Angelos finally hired Duquette and handed him the keys to his executive office, Duquette went inside to check out his new office, he found the Kool-Aid and drank it, rather heavily mind you. As such after drinking it, he decided to give Antonelli not only big league contract, but he promised to say nice things about him each and every day. One of those nice things was to infer that Antonelli is the next Roy Hobbs, because the Orioles need a “Hero” and Antonelli is his man to provide this heroism. I hope this provides some light on the situation.
Well if it was purple flavored cool-aid who can blame him, that stuff is delicious
IMO main needs are a back up catcher that can survive the year on a ml roster and some live arms who will give innings. Heck I wouldnt mind looking into the keep your fingers crossed and pray for a mericle bin, Webb, Bedard, Sheets… well as long as the price is right.
As for Antonelli he is on a ml contract but if he sucks a big on in spring training he can always be cut. If Douquette saw something there and the only way to get him in the door was a ml contract then why not. He’s probably better then some of the other bums on the 40 man roster anyway
Looks like more of the same to me.
No major expenditures on free agents. Counting on 26 and 27-year-old “prospects” to succeed after years of failure.
Oh well. At least Duquette isn’t going to waste money on 36-year-old DH’s…
Nah. Duquette is just being realistic about where the team is at right now. Couldn’t say that for the past few GMs.
Wow if Varitek sign with the O’s he’ll be helping out the Sox more than if he was playing with them. Valentine will have Big Papi running if he signs again.
“A 36-year-old DH would be a luxury for us” – Vladimir Guerrero was 36 when he signed with Baltimore. Looks like Duquette is knocking previous management a bit.
He should. That signing was not good.
I’d go as far to say any signing where you double your offer with no other suitors in sight is not good.
Serious question: Why don’t the Orioles try Josh Bell at third base to start the year or Mark Reynolds at third and Bell at first? I thought Bell was supposed to be legit.
serious answer: because bell sucks
He’s really that bad? So bad that Chris Davis and Matt Antonelli are better options?
Somewhere between AA and AAA, Josh Bell lost the ability to take a walk.
Why is Davis doing third? he can’t field.
the last time the Orioles lost 100 games was in 88, more than 2 decades ago…but I’m not optimistic about this current “direction”
It’s already being run a lot smarter than it has been in a while. At least Duquette isn’t going after a bunch of overpriced washups like his predecessors did.
Compare what he spent on Matt Antonelli vs what MacPhail spent on Garrett Atkins.
The offseason is still very young…. he might