On the night that playoff baseball returns to Baltimore for the first time since 1997, we take a break from the action to catch up on the latest news and stories making headlines around the American League…
- Orioles general manager Dan Duquette says there's no need to increase the team's payroll for next season given Baltimore's current success, says Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). The Orioles' payroll for the 2012 season saw the team spend $82MM — down $6MM from one season ago.
- History says that the Red Sox will have to pay a steep price to the Blue Jays if they hope to secure John Farrell's services next season at manager, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. Most recenly the Marlins sent the White Sox their fourth- and fifth-best prospects in exchange for manager Ozzie Guillen. The trade proved to be an ill-fated one for Miami as the front office may not retain Guillen for the 2013 season.
- O's manager Buck Showalter has done a masterful job taking undesirable pieces and shaping a competitive club under his tutelage, says Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. "I kind of noticed this right when I got here," Nate McLouth said. "He's the kind of guy who even when he's not looking at you, he's watching you. He knows what's going on. All the time. Everywhere."
- Mere days after the death of his newborn child, Athletics reliever Pat Neshek and his wife turned to baseball as a tool to aid in the mourning process, writes Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News. Neshek returned to the team on Saturday after tragedy struck on Wednesday to retire two batters in a row and successfully guide the A's out of a jam. "You could just see the emotion in his eyes," said Derek Norris. "You could see how much it meant to him."
This is exactly the time the O’s need to invest in the team. A couple pitchers would go a long way in keeping the team competitive next year.
Agreed. We will see if they will pony up for a grainke/haren/santana or even marcum?
I think Haren would be a perfect for in Baltimore. He can still pitch, plus he brings a veteran presence to a young pitching staff in need of a leader. Haren, Hammel, Chen, Gonzalez, …another Fred agent?
I wonder if the Orioles will make a run at Jake Peavy.
Of course Dan haren can still pitch. He would be a 1 maybe a 2,at worst, on most teams. La just needs to save a bit of money.
Tillman has definitely earned a spot in the rotation. Might want to think about letting Gonzalez, Matusz and Arrieta battle it out in ST for the 5th spot. Would love to see a true top-of-the-rotation type like Peavy/Haren/Greinke in Baltimore
Honestly, what Neshek did was incredible. I know if it were me in the situation he was in I could not pitch just a few days later. I hope it has helped guide him and his family through a tough situation.
I pray that it was for the best intentions, but when you come into 2012 on a minor league contract, you’re pitching for your next contract, and that might be what he decided to do by showcasing that he can still pitch. The sympathy factor might get him a bit of a bump in salary; I don’t blame him since you have to take care of your loved ones.
Really? At a time like this you think he is pitching for his next contract?
Hard to say we don’t need to raise payroll with the starting pitching situation what it is. However, hard to doubt a guy when he was instrumental in finding cheap talent this season.
Good game tonight… I have no more fingernails.
Thank you Yankees fan, that was a veyr nice thing to say(type).
That Russell Martin home-run hurt. I was sitting on the third base line last night. That ball kept on floating, floating and floating till it went three rows deep. It hurt.
Actually I believe everything in the 9th hurt..ha ha.
Nate McLouth’s description of Showalter may be the creepiest description ever. (Unless… Buck is Santa Claus?)
Nate’s Sharon Stone and Buck runs the Sliver clubhouse and Orioles housing complex.
He sees them when they’re sleeping/he knows when they’re awake/he knows if they’ve been bad or good/so be good for goodness’ sake
Happy with the status quo is exactly the wrong attitude for the O’s to have. Plus, they’ll have players like Wieters in arbitration, so salaries are going up.
I think they mean more of we don’t need to raise payroll for expensive free agents. Obviously if they keep the exact same team payroll will raise a bit
Maybe I just don’t get it, but I don’t see the point in giving up compensation for a manager. Just get somebody else, the manager doesn’t really make that much of a difference anyway unless you’ve got a team that needs its hand held.
Decent track record ones? Maybe. Ones not close to getting fired on their on accord anyway (Guillen) and Farrell, who may be on the hot seat anyway I just don’t see as worth compensation and this starts with Charlie O’Finley demanding (and receiving) TOP compensation for a useful (and good) manager in Chuck Tanner after the ’76 season, when he traded Tanner to Pittsburgh for one of the best defensive Catcher’s in the game by the name of Manny Sanguillen, whom if played now would be the best all around Catcher **in** the game by a country mile.
before that you just saw player managers getting traded, not flat out managers.. So.. Something else Charlie “O” brought to the game..
…” the manager doesn’t really make that much of a difference anyway…” Betting Orioles’ fans disagree .
Whitesox, marlins fans would be in there disagreeing to
You could use the argument against Showalter as well, since as soon as he was canned in New York and Arizona those teams won the World Series.
The Orioles were just as bad last year under Buck as they were under Sam Perlozzo and Dave Trembley. I’d pin their success more on not giving 86 starts to pitchers who posted an ERA over 5.
Also helps that Arizona went out and spent on Schilling and Johnson the year and others the year after he left.
And in New York? Or Texas?
Nonsense all around. The Yankees won the WS after steadily improving 3 years in a row under Showwalter. Steinbrenner removed him only because he could not stand sharing the credit after years of mediocrity.
In Arizona, he built the organization and had it poised to win, but had issues with players and differences with Colangelo. Brenly was the beneficiary of his work. When has Arizona been back to the WS since then?
The Orioles have shown improvement the last two seasons since Showalter took over. Neither Perlozzo, Trembley nor Samuel have gotten anything close to the results he has gotten. The O’s finished last in 2011, but played well for most of the year, they just faded at mid-season. Under the aforementioned managers, their seasons always ended in May.
A quick look at the records will tell you all you need to know.
Baltimore was terrible last year. They gave 86 starts to pitchers with an ERA over 5. That’s why they finished last. In 2011 the Boston Red Sox also weren’t a god awful team and Toronto finished at .500 — a quick look at the records will tell you that Baltimore performed much better against these two teams in 2012.
I’m sure there’s some reason for why Buck didn’t win anything in Texas — the pitching, right? But it wasn’t the pitching last year in Baltimore, right? And the entire time Joe Torre was winning divisions in the Bronx it was because of Buck Showalter’s left over magic, right? Nothing to do with Gene Michael and Brian Cashman using resources to get the best players, right?
Terry Francona sure was terrific in Philadelphia, wasn’t he? St. Louis sure fell apart without Tony LaRussa.
So according to you, managers are not important. It’s all about pitching. My point is that a manager does make a difference, you’re concentrating on pitching and pretty much dismissing what Showalter’s done.Last year, he was worthless, now he’s just going along for the ride, because the team has better pitching, correct?
Worthless is quite a bit more dramatic than what I’ve been saying. Managers can only manage the tools [players] they are given.
If they have better tools, they’ll get better results.
Much love to Pat Neshek, his wife and their families on this incredibly sad situation.
So Nate McLouth is saying, in other words, that Buck Showalter is comparable to Santa Claus…
“Most recently the Marlins sent the White Sox their fourth- and fifth-best prospects in exchange for manager Ozzie Guillen.” And the Sox got a junk RP in return for one of the hottest GMs in the game. What a total hosejob.
Toronto is going to be like the monkey that gets caught in the trap because they won’t let go of the food they’re holding. They don’t want Farrell anymore, but want a big free lunch in return for letting him go to the Sox. As a result, they’ll end up with Farrell managing in Toronto again next year with predictable results and the Sox will get someone else who will do just as well (or badly) as Farrell would have.
Whatever the outcome, you can bet the ranch that sports radio will whine about it all season long.
any reasonable offer and the Jays will let Farrell go. Jays whatever else you say are a reasonable team. They sign players to fair contracts (Bautista,Encarnacion)
and let’s face it no manager except Frank Robinson has hit 300 while managing.