Alfredo Simon Getting a Payday?

Alfredo Simon was acquitted of an involuntary murder charge in the Dominican Republic.

As you probably remember, Simon was accused of shooting a man during a New Year's Eve celebration about 11 months ago. At the time, I thought that was the last we would see of Simon in an Oriole uniform. Evidently, I was wrong as he appeared in 23 games for Baltimore in 2011 (including 16 starts) and was one of the better starters for the O's late in the season.

But that's not why I wrote this blurb. It was because of this phrase that caught my eye and gave me a good chuckle:

According to local news website gentetuya.com, Simon is expected to sign a $12 million contract with the Orioles.

That, on first blush is a completely laughable concept. According to Cot's Contracts, Simon isn't even eligibile for arbitration until 2013. Why would you sign him to any contract before then? They never did this to, say, Jeremy Guthrie. Why take that risk?

Now, Simon was (a bit surprisingly) worth 1.1 WAR according to Fangraphs.com which places his value to the team at $5 million for 2011. Even if you think that FanGraphs is a bit too liberal with it's valuations, Simon was probably worth $3.5-4 million. If you spread that $12 million over Simon's remaining years of control, that's $3 million per season.

Sure, he might be worth that. But would you really want to bet on it? There is no way the Orioles will be looking to lock up the likes of Alfredo Simon, certainly not before he becomes eligible for arbitration.

Dan Duquette: Man of Desperation

A great post at Et Tu, Mr. Destructo that goes into great detail about the recent hiring of new Orioles GM Dan Duquette and puts it all in context.

I haven't commented on Dan Duquette or the entire GM search for Baltimore but this passage pretty much sums up my cautious optimism:

Duquette, though, is playing with house money. He's not like LaCava. He doesn't have a reputation to lose. His last job was running a sports camp for kids. If he fails, he returns to obscurity, just another good baseball man chewed up and spit out by an out-of-touch organization. No one would blame him for not being the guy who could turn the Orioles around. But if he succeeds, then the bitter, honorable failure of an owner's last desperate gamble for a pennant-winning team came to rest on the shoulders of an outcast who was kicked to the curb and stayed there for 10 years, achieved in the face of the league's two highest payrolls and its two best front offices.


Duquette is a desperate man. He is desperate for this job and is desperate for success. Desperate men will do damn near anything to succeed and are far more willing to do unorthodox things to make it happen. Like Jonathan Bernhardt states, he really has nothing to lose. And that could be really interesting to watch.

O's Unhappy with Ed Smith Stadium Cleanup

Two years ago, the Orioles and the city of Sarasota, FL had a public lovefest as Baltimore moved their Spring Training operations to the Gulf Coast.

According to Tampa Bay Online, the honeymoon is over:

As the costs of an environmental cleanup at Ed Smith Stadium reach $1 million, the Baltimore Orioles are saying the city of Sarasota needs to pitch in more money.

The Orioles last week requested $420,000 to improve poor drainage at its spring training practice fields, a problem the team blames on an old city dump buried beneath the facility.

City Manager Bob Bartolotta says the Orioles are "trying to make a convoluted argument" to get the city to pay for field upgrades that should have come from a $24 million stadium renovation funded by taxpayers...

The Orioles are calling for that field to be rebuilt and fitted with a system of underground pipes at a cost of about $415,000. The team is also calling for a geotechnical analysis to see if the three other practice fields at the 53-acre ballpark on 12th Street and Tuttle Avenue need drainage systems...

Last December, the city and county signed off on a $975,000 cleanup plan — more than $500,000 of it to drain an underground plume of water polluted with vinyl chloride, a compound used to manufacture plastic.

It sounds really messy, physically and legally.

You would think this would have all been worked out beforehand and maybe it was and they just see it different ways. But I do find it entertaining how quickly the relationship soured between Sarasota and Peter Angelos.

Anyway, none of this will affect Spring Training 2012 (any changes the O's are pushing for will be completed before the end of the year or after Spring Training is over) or the long-term prospects of the Orioles keeping their Spring Training home in Sarasota. Neither side is going to terminate this relationship over $500,000.

2011 Oriole Predictions Revisited

Better late than never, I figured I would revisit my pre-season predicitons for 2011 for the Orioles. Here they are (were):


If Brian Roberts plays in 130 games, I'm going with 80 wins. If he ends up on the DL, 76 wins.

Wow, I was really optimistic for 2011. Roberts did not play in 130 games, obviously. But the O's fell 7 wins short of my projections. I figured the pitching staff would struggle but not as much as it did. A top of the rotation that included Jeremy Guthrie, Brian Matusz and Zach Britton held much more promise than it delivered.

Zach Britton wins the AL Rookie of the Year. Yeah, Jeremy Hellickson is the odds on favorite but I think Britton comes up on the outside and catches him.


Dead wrong. Britton had his bright spots but Hellickson had a solid season (helped by the defensive team behind him) and is still one of the favorites for the award. Dustin Ackley, Eric Hosmer and others from a strong rookie class.

Adam Jones breaks out this season. A mild breakout, something like a .295/.340/.450. 20 home runs. But a breakout nonetheless.


Jones hit .280/.319/.466 on the year. I predicted a .790 OPS, he OPS'ed .785. He broke out with the power more than with his hit tool (25 homers). But pretty close

I can't predict playing time but Nolan Reimold will finish the season with a higher OPS than Vladimir Guerrero. So will Luke Scott.


One of the few things I was really right on was the Reimold versus Guerrero debate. Reimold finished with a .781 OPS, Guerrero with a .733 OPS. Luke Scott only had a .703 OPS but if healthy, I think he would have hit somewhere north of a .750 OPS. I'm calling this one as correct.

Jeremy Guthrie will, once again, have an ERA lower than his FIP. Probably significantly so.

Not really. Guthrie's FIP was 4.48 (xFIP was 4.47) and his actual ERA was 4.33.

Nick Markakis will hit 40 doubles. Again. Also will have at least a .360 OBP.

This seemed like a real no-brainer before the season but Nick didn't come close to that 40 double mark, only 31 this season. And he rallied for a .351 OBP late in the season. But I continue to have rose colored glasses when it comes to Nick. It was the worst offensive season of his career.

Matt Wieters hits 15 home runs. Anything else he does is anybody's guess.


He hit 22 homers, had his best offensive year yet and became one of the top defensive catchers in baseball.

Luke Scott will OPS north of .850.


Not exactly. Even if healthy, I don't think Scott could have streaked his way to that number.

Josh Rupe doesn't see May 15th in Baltimore. He sees it from Norfolk.


I had forgotten all about Josh Rupe until I reviewed this post. May 5th was his last appearance for Baltimore.

Zach Britton is in Baltimore before May 15th.


Injuries made this a near necessity in early April.

JJ Hardy will be a fan favorite by June 1st.


I'll vote no on this. On June 1st, Hardy was OPSing .730 with 3 homers. The rest of the way he OPSed .817 with 27 homers. He was winning hearts in June and July but not by June 1st.

Matt Albers will outperform most of the Oriole pen while pitching for Boston.


This was definitely true through, oh, right about the All-Star break. But Albers' late season struggles gave him a 4.73 ERA (worse than his mark for the O's in 2010) and although his strikeout numbers improved, he just wasn't very good in Boston.

Mark Hendrickson ends up playing a large role in the Oriole season. Take that as you will.

Hendrickson pitched 11 innings for the O's in 2011. Not. Even. Close.

Mark Reynolds hits 30 homers and has 200 Ks.


Reynolds exceeded even my great expectations by hitting 37 homers but fell just short of the strikeout predicition with 196.

The Saddest State of Affairs

OK, I'm going to be way out on an island, all by myself, with this opinion. I'm going to be far more alone than any of my opinions on Vladimir Guerrero.

I am not happy that the Orioles knocked the Red Sox from the playoffs last night.

Hear me out...

Firstly, last night was an incredible night of baseball. Putting on my MLB fan and amateur baseball analyst hats, it was amazing to behold. But as an Oriole fan, I couldn't get caught up in the big game atmosphere.

What was in it for the Orioles exactly? They were essentially deciding which of our AL East rivals made the playoffs. And we all got excited about that? Again, as a baseball fan, amazing stuff. As an Oriole fan...what do we take away from that? It's like sitting on the floor and begging for the scraps of Boston and Tampa's big game moment. This was not a big game for the Orioles. The difference between 68 and 69 wins is absolutely nothing. We were just living vicariously through good teams. And I couldn't help but being a little depressed by that state of affairs.

This is all we got out of it: Boston fans are obnoxious and we got to send them home with their tails between their legs. A short term thrill, I'm sure. "Yeah, Boston! This is our house! We ended your season! We get the last word for a change!" Awesome.

But even if you cared one way or another how the Rays/Sox playoff race turned out, I would make the argument that Oriole fans should have preferred Boston in the playoffs.

The knee-jerk reaction to the Red Sox collapse is that this will be a devastating blow to the organization. A death blow. A failure that will result in a changing of the guard and a decline of the team into mediocrity. I would love for that to be the case but that's probably not going to happen.

Boston fans are not clamoring for the heads of Terry Francona and Theo Epstein. Nor is the Boston press. While acknowledging that this collapse was really, really horrible, measured responses are being seen in most corners. No one in the Red Sox management seems to be in danger of being forced out.

Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Kevin Youkilis, Adrian Gonzalez, John Lester, Dustin Pedroia, Clay Bucholz and Jacoby Ellsbury are all coming back. They have prospects popping up all over the end of year Top 20 lists over at Baseball America. This is not the end of the Boston Red Sox. Win or lose, they will fill some holes, resign some guys, heal their injured and be right back among the favorites to take the division in 2012.

Tampa is a formidable organization but they have an Achilles Heel...they have no fans.

Even as dreadful as the Orioles have been, they have outdrawn the Rays 3 of the last 4 years. If the Rays start going to the playoffs on a regular basis...could the fan base start to gel? If you think battling the Yankees and Red Sox is tough, imagine the Rays with a decent source of cash flow. One of the best farm systems in baseball coupled with the cash to keep some of it? Scary.

If we had done this to the Yanks, I could see it being a bigger blow. With the new ownership, heads may have rolled in the Bronx. And they are an aging team with a fair, but not great, farm system. The Sox aren't going anywhere, not yet. The Orioles have enough hurdles to surmount without the Rays being perennial contenders too.

So I don't see the Rays as a fell good story. They aren't cute and cuddly to me. They are a threat. A sleeping giant. They are like Gremlins before they get wet. And I want to crush them like a bug before they become dangerous.

Perhaps I'm wrong about all this. Maybe this will hurt the Sox more than I realize. Maybe the Rays will always have cash flow challenges, no matter how much they win.

But I don't want to look back years from now and realize this game was the turning point that opened the door to a decade long Tampa Bay baseball dynasty. So I hope the Ranger sweep them, in humiliating fashion, right back to the Gulf Coast where they belong.

Guest Post from Donovan Moore: Is Matt Wieters Tired at the Plate?

Another guest post form Donovan and I thank him. I am also supposed to pass along that the August stats referenced in this post are through August 11th only. Enjoy!

This kind of seems like a funny question… what is being asked? Do we catch glimpses of the young catcher yawning in between pitches? Is he taking afternoon naps in the clubhouse? While those are certainly hilarious images—this is not what I mean.

More and more frequently I have been hearing conjectures and comments about how Matt Wieters’s offensive performance “could” or “would” be “better” if he wasn’t so tired out from catching so many games. On its face, this argument seems like it has the potential to be true. A young guy in only his second full Major League season at the most demanding position on the diamond must need some sort of grace period to get used to the wear and tear that catching puts on his body. The expectations put on Wieters’s expected offensive performance when coming through the ranks in the Minors were so extremely out-of-this-world that for him to have fallen so short of them must demand an explanation of sorts…right?

I decided that it could not hurt to attempt to investigate this subject statistically. To begin, I had to determine which stats I would investigate in order to see if the numbers would lend themselves to the argument that Wieters is in fact tired at the plate. The offensive numbers that I decided to take a look at were batting average (AVG) and slugging percentage (SLG). Batting average is the most basic statistic kept on hitters—what percentage of at bats does this guy get a base knock? However, I needed a statistic to qualify these base knocks--and that’s where SLG comes in. SLG is a measurement of how many total bases a batter gets per plate appearance, on average. The differences between a single, a double, a triple, and a home run are all given equal weight. A guy could have an AVG of .350, but if he only hits singles, it’s highly unlikely that he will be nearly as valuable as a guy who is batting .250, but hits a home run every hit.

When looking at SLG and AVG, it made perfect sense to me that if Wieters was in fact tired, he would get less hits (AVG) and they wouldn’t go as far (SLG). Having established which measures of offensive production will be used is one thing, but how does one measure how tired any given player is on any given day? I devised two ways to attempt to measure Wieters’s level of “tired” in any given game. In order to do this, I categorized every game that Matt has played in the 2011 season as either, “he didn’t have the previous day off,” “he had the previous day off,” or “he had the previous day and at least one more consecutive day before the previous day off”—including the first game of the season and the game immediately following the AS break. I took SLG and AVG numbers that he posted in games when he had the previous day off and compared them to his season base line.

This is what I came up with:

2011 season base line: .256 AVG .391 SLG

2011 “he had the previous day off”: .254 AVG .377 SLG

2011 “he had the previous day+ off”: .277 AVG .556 SLG

The only number among these that look anomalous is the .556 SLG when Matt has had more than one day off in a row. However, the other fishy number that goes along with having more than one day off for Wieters is his BABIP (batting average on balls in play). In these games, Wieters has a .357 BABIP. Given his LD% (line drive rate) in these games, his expected BABIP is .334. The couple of extra hits on these days have simply been a couple of extra line drives falling in for doubles. Wieters’s season LD% is 18.2 (for an expected BABIP of .302). His LD% in these games is 21.4%. He is outperforming his expected BABIP by .023 on during these games. During the season as a whole he is underperforming his expected BABIP of .302 by -0.016 with a .286 mark. Given the fact that these games where he’s been sufficiently rested have only amounted to 14 at bats for Wieters, I am pretty comfortable saying that the spike in SLG is due in part to small sample size, and in part to the fact that his BABIP (largely a “luck” statistic) is just simply higher on these days. Simply stated: Wieters have just been luckier in these 14AB than he has been during the rest of the season.

So, Matt is not performing phenomenally better on days after he has been rested or had a break. The other way to measure whether he is tired at the plate or not is to compare his season statistics per month. If he is tiring out over time, we should see a decline here. This is what I came up with after doing so:

April:  .260AVG /.493 SLG

May:    .278AVG /.344 SLG

June:   .247AVG /.383 SLG

July:   .235AVG /.376 SLG

August: .262AVG /.357 SLG

…or graphically:

Wieters AVG has more or less been stable monthly. The only number that really sticks out here is his .493 SLG in April. One could argue that after slugging the crap out of the ball in the first month of the season, Matt just got tired. However, I feel pretty safe saying that if Wieters truly was tired that the drop off in SLG would be steady instead of being drastic one month and then rebounding slightly again. I’m not comfortable saying that one outlier has any statistical significance.

The conjecture that Wieters is tired at the plate makes perfect sense on its face. However the stats just simply do not lend themselves to this argument whatsoever. Who knows whether this level of production will persist throughout his career, or if there is a big break out on the horizon for the Orioles’ young catcher? Either way, if he can maintain his current level of defense, he really doesn’t need to hit very much at all to be a valuable player.

Guest Post at MASNSports.com: There's No Defense

While my posts here are few these days, I am still posting over on the Orioles Buzz blog at MASNSports.com. This last post was about the woeful Oriole defense. Enjoy?

Guest Post from Donovan Moore: Freaky Friday Swap - The Luck of the Starting Pitcher

Hello again. This is yet another guest post by Donovan Moore, who I again thank profusely for giving some of his effort to keep some new content on here until I get back on track. Donovan gave this to me on Friday evening but I was working all weekend and did not see it until this morning. So any outdated references are completely my fault. But the meat of this post remains relevant...and fun.


It’s officially that time of year in baseball when following the Baltimore Orioles has become something that legitimately just really kind of gets you down. Posts about how bad the Orioles are playing aren’t particularly interesting to write. Lately, that’s about all there has been to write about—and consequently that’s all there has been to read about. As someone who not only writes about the Orioles but also reads a great deal about them as well, I have decided that at least in the immediate time being I am going to try to shift focus in the blog-O-sphere away from a tone of sulking, whining, and second-guessing. I’m not starting any sort of campaign against negative writing, because really the bottom line is that when the team one writes about is a really bad team, often times a disheartened reader would like to read someone write the angry things that he is himself thinking. I am also not attempting to write with a tone of seeming like I think that I am better than anyone who is writing negative things about the Orioles. The team is bad…in pretty much almost every way. We get it. I am not refuting it.

In the next couple of days, the non-waiver trade deadline will come and go and either the Orioles will make a few swaps, or they won’t. After the Orioles either make a couple of deals—or not—there will be a flurry of posts about the trades they managed to pull off, the treades they didn’t manage to pull off, and the trades that they didn’t manage to even look into (Colby Rasmus?). It’s really sort of difficult to not get sucked into the same day-to-day moaning and groaning that seems to come along with covering this Orioles team, however in order to do so, let’s imagine an alternate reality (you’ve got my attention, now…)!

This alternate reality is not one where the Orioles are actually a very good team, because—well I am not trying to hurt anyone’s brain just quite yet. This alternate reality is one where mainstream baseball recognizes the complete uselessness of the W/L statistic for pitchers! This idea came to mind when, not just but a few days ago, the on-air announcers for the Orioles game mentioned that the Orioles have scored nine runs or more six times this year, and that Arrieta had been the starting pitcher four of those times. This game became the seventh time the Orioles scored nine or more runs—and Arrieta was the starting pitcher again.

I would assume that any person reading this blog is already of the opinion that the W/L statistic for pitchers (particularly starting pitchers) is almost completely useless. The point of this post is not to argue this point. The point of this post is to demonstrate through example that the W/L statistic is rooted pretty deeply in luck. How will this be accomplished? Well, I am going to pull off a Freaky-Friday-type swap of the luck of Jeremy Guthrie and the luck of Jake Arrieta. Again, I am not formulating this as any sort of logical argument for or against the W/L statistic—I am merely using my magical luck-swapping skills in a demonstration purely for the enjoyment and excitement of onlookers. Let me also say that my intention is not to pick on Jake Arrieta. I chose these two pitchers for reasons that are pretty obvious. Jeremy Guthrie in this season (and really in other past seasons, too) has suffered from poor run support and terrible bullpen intervention. Despite the fact that he is pitching to a very respectable 4.33ERA, 4.36FIP, and 4.31xFIP he is leading THE ENTIRE MLB in losses (4-14). This really just does not seem fair at all. The won/loss record of a starting pitcher is typically the first one any person hears that is associated with the given pitcher. Guthrie’s 4-14 is simply not a good reflection at all of how he has pitched in 2011. On the other hand, there is Jake Arrieta. Arrieta is not the most lucky pitcher in the MLB or AL, but he does in fact receive the highest run support of any starting pitcher on the 2011 Orioles (Guthrie gets the lowest). For this reason, he is the obvious choice to be Guthrie’s counterpart in this Freaky-Friday-type swap. Arrieta’s current won/loss record is 10-7. He boasts a 5.12ERA, 5.28FIP, and a 4.31xFIP. These numbers are not awful by any measure, but they are worse than Guthrie’s—even though he mysteriously has a much healthier looking 10-7 won/loss record. Additionally (as of 7/28), each pitcher has made 21 starts on the year, with 11 of them being “quality” starts (6IP or more with 3 or less ER). Quality starts are a pretty good measure of what sort of chance a starting pitcher has given his team to win—with obvious exceptions, such as pitching 5 perfect innings only to get injured and leave the game.

Okay…time to wave the magic wand.

Bizarro Guthrie: 12-8 W/L record
Bizarro Arrieta: 5-12 W/L record

In order to achieve these figures, all I did was match up Guthrie and Arrieta’s starts (numbered 1-21) to each corresponding start and swap out their pitching performances in order to come up with a W, L, or nd. The bullpen performances after each of the pitchers left the game was left the same, as were the offensive performances of the Orioles.

This is quite obviously not a perfect measure because it fails to take into account many important factors that are impossible to adjust for. For instance, it is not exactly fair to correspond Arrieta’s performance against Seattle with Guthrie’s performance against Boston—but this is the best we’ve got without any actual magic.

A couple interesting things that I came across while plowing through all of the numbers for each of the 21 games that these two men have started in 2011:

Arrieta has only pitched into the 7th inning four times this year. He has not pitched past the 7th once.

Guthrie has one win stemming from a non-quality start. Arrieta has three.

Guthrie has eight (EIGHT!?!?) losses or non-decisions in a quality start. Arrieta has only one.

Due to poor run-support and bad performances by the bullpen, Jeremy Guthrie (the better pitcher of the two) has a far poorer W/L record than Jake Arrieta. 4-14 and 10-7 really do appear to be worlds apart—and neither truly reflects the true performances of the pitcher that they are assigned to. Arrieta has been luckier than your average bear, while Guthrie has been unluckier. If there were somehow a way to make W/L a fair measure of the performance of any given starting pitcher, each of these gentlemen would have their mark sitting somewhere between what it is now, and what their bizarro counterpart’s mark is.

Unfortunately, there is not really a way to make this statistic fair—it relies too heavily on things that are out of the control of the starting pitcher. Guthrie’s 14 losses lead all of the Majors. Given Arrieta’s luck, Guthrie’s 12 wins would be third best in the AL.

Donovan Moore: What is Jeremy Guthrie’s True Trade Value?

Thanks to Donovan Moore for another guest post!

With the trade deadline coming in just a matter of weeks, talks between potential trade partners will almost certainly heat up quite soon. The Orioles have already pulled the trigger on one small deal. With Hardy newly locked up through 2014, and Luke Scott fatally wounded, it would seem as though the Orioles’ only viable trade chips for 2011 are pitchers. Personally, I am a fan of having a fire sale that would have every Oriole that wouldn’t be a part of the next winning team up on the block. The problem with that however is that the MacPhail regime seemingly isn’t ready to go into full rebuilding mode. Andy’s contract expires at the end of the 2011 season, and it doesn’t bode well for his chances of contract renewal if he admits defeat right at the end of his first tenure.

The Orioles are not having a fire sale in 2011. The Orioles will very likely just make a few low risk/low reward swaps such as the one where they parted with dear old Nick Green (who?) for some guy who throws baseballs with his left hand. With that being said however, let’s take a look at just exactly how much the Orioles should be asking in return if they were to wise up and deal Jeremy Guthrie.

Unless Jeremy Guthrie suddenly turns into a 3-4 WAR pitcher (career average of ~2.2 WAR/year), he will never be more valuable than he is right now. He was more valuable yesterday than he is today, and even more so the day before that—but his arbitration years are almost over. Using a trade value calculator put together by Sky Kalkman of Beyond the Box Score, I have effectively estimated exactly how much value Guthrie has as of today.

The 2011 numbers have obviously been halved, seeing that the 2011 season is roughly halfway through. I estimated that Guthrie will post 1.2 WAR in the second half—because he posted 1.2 WAR in the first half. I used a going rate of $4.8M/WAR for 2011, and given the figures, estimated that Guthrie will have an excess value of ~$2.9M for the remainder of 2011. 2012 is Guthrie’s last arb year, meaning that he should command a raise to roughly 80% of his WAR value. For 2012, I used a going rate of $5.0M/WAR, and used Guthrie’s career WAR average (2.2) to estimate a 2012 salary of $8.8M. Given the going rate of $5.0M/WAR, in 2012 I have estimated that Guthrie will generate ~$2.2M of excess value. Add in the fact that I have estimated that Guthrie will be a Type B free agent (+$2.5M in draft compensation value), and his grand total of excess value through 2012 is ~$7.6M.

Notice the number of times I used the word “estimate” in the preceding paragraph. Without owning a crystal ball, it is not possible to know with any sort of certainty what Guthrie’s true value will be through the 2012 season, but $7.6M is very likely a fairly accurate estimation.

So… what type(s) of prospect(s) would come back in a trade where the excess value on one side is $7.6M? With much thanks to Victor Wang’s extensive research on prospect values it is possible to put a dollar amount on the worth of different types of prospects:

Obviously the only way to truly know the value of a prospect is to see whether he pans out or not…but that defeats the whole purpose of obtaining a player while he is still a prospect. The hope is that you have bought cheap and that you will be rewarded handsomely when the prospect pans out—but not every prospect does, and for that reason, Wang’s research has incorporated the possibility of any given type of prospect busting. The dollar amount put to any given type of prospect is an average of future values of all of the prospects in that category.

So in order to break even any potential trade for Guthrie, the Orioles would need to get back a Grade B hitter ($5.5M) + a Grade C pitcher 22 or younger ($2.1M). Given MacPhail’s affinity for pitching prospects, maybe he would look to get back a Grade B pitcher ($7.3M) + a Grade C hitter 23 or older ($0.5). These would be instances where the Orioles set themselves up to break even on a deal for Guthrie—but if offered anything more than these examples, they should definitely jump right on it.

Guest Post: Looking Back, Looking Forward

With work and real life robbing me of my blogging time, a kind reader, Donovan Moore, offered to contribute a piece. I told him it didn't have to be too ambitious but he submitted a mini-thesis looking back and the first half of the Orioles' season and some predictions of things to come. Thanks, Donovan!  Enjoy...

The Orioles have lost the last seven games in a row, 12 of the last 13, and 20 of the last 26.  It almost seems like an eternity ago that the O’s were hovering right around .500 and playing decent ball… because when the wheels fall off like they have in the past few weeks, time really seems to just drag on and on and on.  

The Orioles opened the 2011 season with a three game sweep against the defending AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays.  Afterwards, the O’s came home and took two out of three from the Detroit Tigers, and then handed the 2010 AL Champion Texas Rangers their first loss of the season.  The energy in Baltimore was palpable, and for one week fans knew what it felt like to cheer for a winner. The overwhelming success was short-lived however, as the Yankees, Indians, and Twins handed our beloved Orioles six straight losses—and everything was back to normal.

The Orioles went on to go 12-13 in April, 12-16 in May, 11-14 in June, and are currently 1-9 in July.  That makes for a total of 36-52—16 games under .500. 

The 2011 season has certainly been a story of a quirky cast of characters that I feel like I have gotten to know personally during their time with the team.  In order to properly review the first half of the season, it is necessary to look at each player individually and assess what they have done this season for the Orioles.  

           

Pitchers (Graph of values)

Here you can see the value measured in fWAR of every oriole pitcher to take the hill this season.  Guthrie and Britton are in the lead for starters, and Johnson and Uehara are the only relievers to post positive fWAR values besides Simon (0.2fWAR) and Hendrickson (0.1fWAR) in his one appearance so far.

Jeremy Guthrie

As a starter 3-11 114IP 4.26ERA 4.12FIP 4.11xFIP 5.84K/9 2.37BB/9 2.47K/BB 1.33WHIP

As a reliever 0-1 4.1IP 2.08ERA 3.19FIP 4.54xFIP 8.31K/9 4.15BB/9 2K/BB 1.15WHIP

Overall 1.5fWAR

Guthrie’s numbers in 2011 so far are pretty in line with his career numbers.  He is throwing a ton of innings, and at this rate will hit the 200IP plateau for the third straight year.  The only curious thing about his numbers so far this year is that for the first time in his big league career, Guthrie is not out-performing his peripherals.  The fact that Guthrie is able to consistently do this is a rarity that has been written on time and again, but just as there is no clear reason as to why he has been able to do it repeatedly, there is no clear reason as to why he is not doing it so far in 2011.

ZiPS for the second half:  5-6 92IP 4.50ERA 4.37FIP 5.58K/9 2.45BB/9 2.28K/BB 1.32WHIP

Chris Tillman

2-3 48IP 4.69ERA 3.60FIP 4.86xFIP 6K/9 3.75BB/9 1.6K/BB 1.60WHIP

Overall 0.9fWAR

Tillman pitched in the Major League rotation until May 30 when he was optioned to AAA Norfolk.  He had his ups and downs up in the bigs in 2011, but in the end he still couldn’t cut it. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been about two years since Tillman was down in Norfolk posting a 9.92K/9 with a 2.70ERA to boot.  He’s got a lot of work to do if he ever wants to reclaim the status of elite prospect, and he’s certainly not on the way to doing so--posting a subpar line of 3-2 4.30ERA 5.35FIP and only 5.2K/9 since being banished to Norfolk this year.

Zach Britton

6-7 104.1IP 4.05ERA 3.97FIP 3.88xFIP 5.52K/9 3.36BB/9 1.64K/BB 1.36WHIP

Overall 1.5fWAR

Rookie Zach Britton burst onto the scene early in 2011, getting the call to the Major League rotation when Matusz hit the DL before the season was ever underway.  In his first couple of months, Britton turned even his harshest critics into his biggest fans--posting a 2.84ERA in May and a 3.00ERA in June.  Britton, however has come crashing back down to earth, not earning a victory in a start since June 8^th and before that May 1^st.  After allowing 7ER without even getting out of the first inning in his only start in July, Britton was optioned down to AA Bowie.  Expect to see the spry lefty back up in the bigs after about 20 days—or the amount of time that it takes to cut his service time enough to put off his first year of free agency.

ZiPS for the second half:  3-5 69IP 5.09ERA 4.38FIP 5.61K/9 4.04BB/9 1.39K/BB 1.61WHIP

Jake Arietta

9-6 97.1IP 4.90ERA 4.92FIP 4.33xFIP 7.12K/9 4.44BB/9 1.6K/BB 1.4WHIP

Overall 0.4fWAR

Jake Arietta started the season in the Major League rotation for the first time in his career—and has stuck there so far.  Arietta has shown flashes of his potential this season, and has been the most consistent starter for the O’s other than Guthrie.  His walk totals are still entirely too high for him to have any sort of overwhelming success in the Majors, however it is nice to see that so far in 2011, his strikeout numbers are more in line with what he did in the minors –because last year they just weren’t anywhere close (4.66K/9 in 2010 versus 7.12K/9 in 2011 so far).  And, of course this wouldn’t be a blurb about Arietta without bringing up a guarded concern for those annoying bone chips in his elbow that flare up once in a while—only for him to claim adamantly that he can deal with them by simply stiffening his upper lip.

 ZiPS for the second half: 4-6 71IP 5.20ERA 4.73FIP 6.46K/9 4.69BB/9 1.38K/BB 1.59K/BB

Brad Bergesen

As a starter- 1-6 48.1IP 5.59ERA 3.89FIP 4.58xFIP 5.4K/9 2.79BB/9 1.93WHIP

As a reliever- 0-0 17IP 5.82ERA 4.72FIP 3.60xFIP 6.35K/9 2.65BB/9 2.4K/BB 1.18 WHIP

Overall 0.7fWAR

Bergesen too cracked the starting rotation at the onset of the 2011 season, however he didn’t stick there.  Beregsen struggled as a starter and was optioned back and forth from AAA Norfolk every five minutes until he was recalled for the last time on June 18^th to serve as a member of the bullpen.   Since joining the relief corps, Bergesen has been pretty much the same exact pitcher he was when he was starting—not good.

ZiPS (these are clearly for him as a starter—which he very likely will not ever be again unless as an emergency/spot starter) for the second half:  3-5 68 IP 5.03ERA 4.50FIP 4.79K/9 2.65 BB/9 1.8 K/BB 1.46WHIP

Brian Matusz

1-4 25.2IP 8.77ERA 7.4FIP 5.07xFIP 6.31K/9 3.86BB/9 1.64K/BB 1.99WHIP

overall -0.5fWAR

Brian Matusz started the season on the DL with an intercostal strain, and now his velocity has almost completely left him.  Matusz used to put on pitching performances that mainstream media outlets used to hail as “Masterful,” however recently the only thing Matusz has been a master of is breaking my heart into little tiny pieces.  I had the misfortune of watching him rehab at A+ Frederick on his way back from injury, and you had to be blind not to see red flags everywhere.  Instead of missing bats, he was consistently missing the strike zone.  When he was getting hit (which was often) he was getting hit HARD.  Luckily for him, most of the hard hits went right at people, and he escaped with only allowing 1ER in 4IP.  Once back in the majors, his fastball that used to break into the low 90s on occasion was sitting at 86-87—and he was paying dearly for it.  Since being optioned to AAA Norfolk on July 1^st, Matusz has allowed 6ER in 11IP.

Chris Jakubauskas

As a starter – 2-2 27.1IP 6.91ERA 4.93FIP 4.53xFIP 6.59K/9 3.95K/9 1.67K/BB 1.72WHIP

As a reliever– 0-0 15.2IP 5.74ERA 6.6FIP 4.84xFIP 4.6K/9 4.02BB/9 1.14K/BB 1.79WHIP

Overall -0.1fWAR

What is there to really say about Chris “Jabberwalky” Jakubauskas?  He was brought in to add pitching depth to the team, and he’s provided just-under replacement level production thus far in the bigs.  It’s a pretty sad state of affairs in Baltimore though when a guy like Jakubauskas is called on for a spot start, and sticks in the rotation for 6 starts.

ZiPS for the second half:  1-3 30IP 5.40ERA 5.09WHIP 5.1K/9 3.3BB/9 1.55K/BB

Mitch Atkins

0-0 7.2IP 8.22ERA 7.39FIP 4.44xFIP 4.7K/9 1.17BB/9 4K/BB 2.09WHIP

Overall -0.2fWAR

Atkins was another off-season depth signing.  Does anyone want to guess what organization he spent his entire career playing for pre-2011?  I’ll give you a hint:  think “who is the Oriole’s GM?”  Atkins is very likely a career minor leaguer, and if he is given the ball every five days in the bigs, he will very likely continue to pitch like one.

ZiPS for the second half: 2-4 43IP 6.49ERA 5.89FIP 6.07K/9 3.77BB/9 1.61K/BB 1.63WHIP

Alfredo Simon

As a starter – 0-1 4.2IP 5.79ERA 4.46FIP 5.71xFIP 1.93K/9 5.79BB/9 0.33K/BB 2.36WHIP

As a reliever – 1-2 21.1IP 4.64ERA 3.57FIP 3.94xFIP 7.17K/9 2.95BB/9 2.43K/BB 1.50WHIP

As an outlaw – 1.0ASM (Arrests on Suspicion of Murder)

Overall 0.2fWAR

I’m fairly certain that the Orioles didn’t plan on having Simon available to pitch this season--but as it turns out he was--and they needed the warm body desperately.  It didn’t take long after his return, for the Orioles to add Simon to their repertoire of roughly replacement level nobodies that they call the bullpen.  Hey! He even made a start, too! Cool!

ZiPS for the second half:  1-1 19IP 4.74ERA 4.06FIP 6.16K/9 3.32BB/9 1.86K/BB 1.42WHIP

Jason Berken

1-2 29.1IP 5.83ERA 5.41FIP 3.98xFIP 8.9K/9 3.63BB/9 2.42K/BB 1.60WHIP

Overall -0.3fWAR

These are highly disappointing overall numbers for a guy that last year looked like he would be a force to be reckoned with in the bullpen for the O’s.  Berken won a vacation to Norfolk, VA on May 21^st and he pitched well enough (3.86ERA, 3.63FIP) to be recalled on June 15^th.  Since being recalled, Berken has pitched to roughly a 3.00ERA.

ZiPS for the second half:  1-2 30IP 4.80ERA 4.19FIP 7.2K/9 3.3BB/9 2.18K/BB 1.47WHIP

Mike Gonzalez

1-1 31.1IP 5.46ERA 5.57FIP 4.12xFIP 8.62K/9 4.31BB/9 2K/BB 1.69WHIP

Overall -0.4fWAR

Gonzalez was um…   not exactly a fan favorite after he pitched to a 7.89ERA in April and May combined, all the while enjoying the second year of a lucrative contact to be the shut-down closer for this Baltimore club.  I remember back in May when calls for Gonzalez’s head on a platter were commonplace.  Gonzalez however pitched to a 1.64ERA in June, and he has been all but banished to exclusively low leverage situations. Every time I eye with envy Gonzalez’s numbers from 2004 with Pittsburg (3-1 43.1IP 1.25ERA 1.60FIP 11.42K/9 1.29BB/9), I can hardly bring myself to believe that our Gonzalez is even the same human being.

ZiPS for the second half: 1-1 23IP 4.70ERA 4.31FIP 9.39

Kevin Gregg

0-1 34.1IP 3.41ERA 4.68FIP 4.73xFIP 7.34K/9 5.5BB/9 1.33K/BB 1.49WHIP

Overall -0.2fWAR

Introducing Kevin Gregg, the below-replacement-level closer of your 2011 Baltimore Orioles!!  I am pretty sure Gregg made good on his entire stupid contract when he tried to punch out David Ortiz.  Gregg’s ERA has been serviceable in the first half—but don’t expect to see the same result in the second half without some serious luck.  With a FIP and xFIP both nearing 5, a sky-high walk rate, and a 1.49WHIP, Gregg is bound to crash back down to earth soon.  Despite what the television announcers for the Orioles say, there is no such thing as a closer that works better under pressure by giving up hits and walks before he finally escapes in a jaw dropping tightrope act—there are just bad pitchers, and Kevin Gregg is one of them.

ZiPS for the second half:  2-2 28IP 4.50ERA 4.03FIP 6.75K/9 3.54BB/9 1.91K/BB 1.46WHIP

Jim Johnson

5-2 52.1IP 2.75ERA 2.94FIP 3.11xFIP 6.02K/9 1.72BB/9 3.5K/BB 1.18WHIP

Overall 1.0fWAR

Jim Johnson leads all AL relievers in IP—by a margin of 5.1 innings, too—and is 8^th in fWAR for AL relievers (Incidentally, Gonzalez is dead last in this category, and Berken is second-to-dead-last).  J.J. is a bright spot on a team where bright spots are few and far between.  My only worry is that all of those innings will catch up to him, and he’ll either stop being available as much, or won’t be nearly as effective as he keeps his arm from falling off with tape and glue.

ZiPS for the second half:  5-2 29IP 3.72ERA 3.30FIP 6.21K/9 2.48BB/9 2.5K/BB 1.31WHIP

Koji Uehara

1-1 40IP 2.03ERA 2.91FIP 2.45xFIP 11.7K/9 1.8BB/9 6.5K/BB 0.75WHIP

Overall 0.7fWAR

Koji is pretty much awesome, and if I had a party I would totally want him and his sideburns there.  Although sis impressive 6.5K/BB leads all AL relievers— it is not nearly as impressive as 2010’s 11.0K/BB--but I’ll sure as hell take it.  A quick glance at the leaderboards for AL relievers shows that Koji leads in WHIP (0.75), and K/BB (6.50), is 2^nd in BAA (.155), 3^rd in xFIP (2.45), 5^th in BB/9 (1.8), and 6^th in K/9 (11.7).  I have not yet ruled out magic as the source of Koji’s awesomeness.  For some mysterious reason, ZiPS for Koji’s second half of 2011 aren’t available… let’s hope this isn’t a bad omen…

Pedro Viola

0-0 3.2IP 9.82ERA 13.05FIP 5.28xFIP 9.82K/9 4.91BB/9 2K/BB 2.18WHIP

Overall -0.2fWAR

Viola has posted decent numbers at AA this year (2.25ERA 3.31FIP), however he just hasn’t been able to have that translate into Major League success.  There are some pretty legitimate concerns such as his control, but we’ll see what the latter half of 2011 has in store for this young lefty.

ZiPS for the second half:  1-2 23IP 6.65ERA 5.44FIP 6.65K/9 5.09BB/9 1.31K/BB 1.83WHIP

Clay Rapada

0-0 12.1IP 7.30ERA 5.47FIP 3.73xFIP 9.49K/9 4.38BB/9 2.17K/BB 1.54WHIP

Overall -0.4fWAR

Rapada really isn’t as bad as his numbers show he has been in 2011.  Rapada should, however never be allowed to toe the rubber against a right-handed batter.  His splits reveal a 1.76ERA and 13K against lefties this year.  With how thin the O’s bullpen has been stretched this year however, Rapada ended up being used against righties on occasion and the result was almost always catastrophic (8ER allowed in 1.2IP).  Through little fault of his own, Rapada was outrighted to AAA Norfolk on July 1^st.

Josh Rupe

0-0 14.1IP 5.65ERA 8.19FIP 4.8xFIP 4.4K/9 3.77BB/9 1.17K/BB 1.53WHIP

Overall -0.3fWAR

Rupe was another depth singing in the offseason, and this one just really didn’t work out well.  In 32.1IP since accepting an assignment to AAA Norfolk early on this year, Rupe has posted a 6.40ERA and 4.19FIP.  Don’t expect to see him back in Baltimore orange and black.

Troy Patton

Overall 0.0fWAR

0-0 2.1IP 7.71ERA 7.24FIP 3.67xFIP 11.57K/9 3.86BB/9 3K/BB 1.29WHIP

Patton is a legitimate Minor League talent that just hasn’t been given the proper opportunity to make his mark in the Majors.   That’s more than can be said for half of the clowns in the O’s bullpen, so it’s puzzling as to why Patton hasn’t been given much of a crack at it.  In 42.1IP in AAA in 2011, Patton has posted a dominant 1.91ERA with a 2.87FIP to go along with it.

Jeremy Accardo

3-3 32.1IP 5.29ERA 5.00FIP 4.87xFIP 5.57K/9 4.73BB/9 1.18K/BB 1.67WHIP

Overall -0.2fWAR

Accardo was a reclamation project that Mister MacPhail seems to have abandoned—for good reason.  Accardo was outrighted to AAA Norfolk on June 22^nd to make room to recall Brad Bergesen.  Don’t expect to see Accardo back up in Baltimore any time soon—that is unless the Orioles get even more desperate than they were to keep him up here for so long in the first place.

Mark Hendrickson

0-0 2.1IP 3.86ERA 2.10FIP 2.10xFIP 3.86K/9 0BB/9 1K/BB 1.29WHIP

Overall 0.1fWAR

I wouldn’t be surprised if Hendrickson ends the season with a negative fWAR, however it’s hilarious to me that in one appearance he has already been more valuable than Brian Matusz, Mitch Atkins, Jason Berken, Mike Gonzalez, Kevin Gregg, Troy Patton, Pedro Viola, Clay Rapada, Jeremy Accardo, and Josh Rupe have been all season long.  If only “professionalism” and “veteran presence” could win ball games.

ZiPS for the second half:  1-2 31IP 4.94ERA 4.07FIP 5.81K/9 2.61BB/9 2.22K/BB 1.45WHIP

Position Players

Here you can see the value measured in wRC+, UZR(FRAA for catchers), and fWAR for the Orioles’ position players in the first half of 2011.  This graph does not overstate how bad Reynolds has been with the glove.

Matt Wieters

78G .264/.322/.406 .728OPS 8HR 34RBI .323wOBA 100wRC+ 5.0FRAA

Overall 2.3fWAR

What is there really to be said about the Switch Hitting Jesus himself?  Well, probably that right now he’s hitting at a league average level according to wRC+, but he is posting a 2.3 fWAR.  That’s right, the guy touted as being “all-bat” that had questions surrounding him concerning whether or not he could even stick at catcher is now among the elites at the position.  In fact, his 5.0 Fielding Runs Above Average in the first half leads all AL catchers. The reality is that if Wieters continues to put up defensive numbers like this, he’ll really never need to hit… but wouldn’t it be cool if he did?

ZiPS for the second half: .270/.337/.411 .728OPS 7HR 33RBI .331wOBA

Craig Tatum

11G .304/.393/.348 .741OPS 0HR 3RBI .336wOBA 109wRC+ 0FRAA

Overall 0.2fWAR

Tatum’s .304AVG is supported by an unreasonably high .389BAIP--hence why ZiPS have him hitting .225 in the latter half of the season.  Overall, Tatum has done a fine job backing up Wieters at the Catcher position, posting average defensive numbers to go along with silly offensive totals.

ZiPS for the second half:  .225/.278/.303 .581OPS 1HR 11RBI .262wOBA

Robert Andino

68G .263/.335/.316 .651OPS 1HR 7RBI .295wOBA 81wRC+ +0.2UZR

Overall 0.6fWAR

Andino has done a nice job filling in where necessary this year—even going on a tear enough to hit leadoff for a bit.  However, since his numbers have come crashing back down to earth, and it’s becoming evident that he will probably never reach what was once thought to be his potential.  In general, if a player is so devoid of power that his SLG is lower than his OPB, he better be a wizard with the glove or a terror on the base paths.  Andino is neither.

ZiPS for the second half:  .247/.296/.364 .660OPS 4HR 17RBI .293wOBA

Blake Davis

11G .259/.375/.333 .708OPS 0HR 2RBI .319wOBA 97wRC+ -0.7UZR

Overall 0.0fWAR

Davis wasn’t exactly knocking down the door to the bigs from Norfolk, but he was called up when Ryan Adams was optioned down.  He has been exactly replacement level in his 11 Games for Baltimore, and he is apparently not significant enough for ZiPS to have a second half projection for him.

J.J. Hardy

61G .278/.338/.498 .836OPS 13HR 33RBI .361wOBA 127wRC+ -2.1UZR

Overall 1.8fWAR

J.J. Hardy has been another one of those rare bright spots on this struggling team.  He seems to have, at least in the first half of 2011, returned to the form that made him one of the top-hitting Short Stops in the game with the Brewers in 2007 and 2008.  UZR+/- has him at -2.1 so far in 2011, which is a bit of a surprise given how solid his defense has looked.  It seems as if his future with the O’s is either extend him or trade him at this point.

ZiPS for the second half:  .269/.323/.443 .776OPS 8HR 26RBI .335wOBA

Derrek Lee

70G .235/.294/.372 .666OPS 9HR 28RBI .294wOBA 80wRC+ +3.2UZR

Overall 0.2fWAR

Lee has been sort of the anti-Mark Reynolds, being wonderful in the field and awful with the bat.  Not much to be said here.  He is old.  Something stupid about “veteran presence” could be added too.  He has been worth exactly $1M of that $7.25M contract so far.  Oops.  These projections for him are just way too optimistic.

ZiPS for the second half:  .260/.333/.430 .763OPS 9HR 34RBI .335wOBA

Mark Reynolds

87G .227/.346/.493 .839OPS 20HR 49RBI .366wOBA 130wRC+ -17.5UZR

Overall 0.7fWAR

Reynolds’s low BA is not as much of an issue as it might appear at first glance.  He is leading the O’s in OBP, OPS, HR, wOBA, and wRC+.  He is walking more (14.5%) than his career average (11.8%), and is striking out less (27.9%) than his career average (34.3%).  In fact, his 50 walks are good for 8^th in the AL.  Now… if only he wasn’t such a disaster in the field.  His 20 errors lead the league, and his FLD% is a disgusting .894%.  His glove takes away almost all of the value created by his bat.

ZiPS for the second half:  .221/.326/.484 .810OPS 17HR 42RBI .353wOBA

Adam Jones

87G .285/.328/.457 .785OPS 13HR 49RBI .344wOBA 114wRC+ -10.1UZR

Overall 1.4fWAR

The Gold Glove Adam Jones won in 2009 is a joke… at least as far as UZR is concerned.  If you include 2011, he has now posted a negative UZR in three consecutive seasons, which for defensive metrics is pretty much enough to make the conclusion that you’re not just seeing small sample size.  Jones has put up decent numbers offensively in the first half, with a .344wOBA.  It’s nice to dream about the offensive force Jones could be if he just had better plate discipline.  Among qualified batters in the AL in 2011, the only player who swings at a higher percent of pitches out of the zone than Jones is…you guessed it:  Guerrero. 

ZiPS for the second half:  .284/.333/.455 .785OPS 10HR 38RBI .344wOBA

Nick Markakis

87G .292/.339/.379 .718OPS 7HR 36RBI .322wOBA 100wRC+ 0.0UZR

Overall 1.3fWAR

Nick Markakis is doing again what he has been doing now for the third year in row…being right about average with the bat.  It seems as if our Nicky is doomed to be perennially mediocre… which is fine; just not at the rate the Orioles are paying him.  Markakis had a .204AVG at the end of April, but bounced back hitting .287 in May and .351 in June.  Markakis is 5^th in the AL in hits with 107.

ZiPS for the second half:  .289/.356/.425 .781OPS 7HR 35RBI .345wOBA

Luke Scott

63G .223/.305/.408 .713OPS 9HR 22RBI .313wOBA 93wRC+ -2.0UZR

Overall 0.1fWAR

For much of the season, Scott has either been out with injury or playing with injury.  Here’s hoping that his offensive numbers were just a result of playing hurt, and that he can get healthy as soon as possible.  Season-ending surgery might not be that horrible so long as he can come back healthy in 2012.

ZiPS for the second half:  .250/.335/.462 .797OPS 9HR 27RBI .346wOBA

Felix Pie

67G .223/.248/.273 .521OPS 0HR 5RBI .233wOBA 38wRC+ -5.3UZR

Overall -1.2fWAR

Felix Pie has just been downright awful in 67 games this season.  The fact that he keeps getting any playing time at all is an abomination.  If he had enough plate appearances to qualify, he would have the third worst fWAR total in the Major Leagues.

ZiPS for the second half:  .255/.299/.386 .685OPS 3HR 16RBI .301wOBA

Nolan Reimold

27G .257/.338/.443 .781OPS 4HR 12RBI .335wOBA 109wRC+ -0.6UZR

Overall 0.3fWAR

Nolan Reimold was freed from the Minors on May 20^th, but through no doing of his own.  Reimold was posting an awful .237/.329/.410 slash line at AAA.  Since being up in the bigs, his slash line looks a tad healthier.  Really, the only difference between the numbers he was posting in 2009 and so far in 2011 is the difference of a .316BAIP (2009) versus a .275BAIP (2011).  I’ll be the first--but certainly not the last--to say:  GET THIS MAN SOME PLAYING TIME!!

ZiPS for the second half:  .253/.333/.418 .751OPS 7HR 23RBI .336wOBA

Vladimir Guerrero

83G .279/.331/.309 .716OPS 7HR 31RBI .309wOBA 91wRC+

Overall 0.0fWAR

At the All-Star break, former All-Star and future Hall of Famer, Guerrero is showing signs that he could very well be done.  After signing an $8M deal with the Orioles this offseason, he has been worth exactly $0 of that deal at the halfway mark.  Yes, Guerrero is playing at exactly replacement level, with his wRC+ being below average.  His .106ISO is the lowest he has ever posted in a full season.  The second lowest was 2010’s .196ISO.  A .106ISO puts Guerrero in the company of such feared sluggers as Yuniesky Bentancourt, Chase Headley, and Michael Bourn.

ZiPS for the second half:  .287/.322/.340 .662OPS 9HR 33RBI .340wOBA

Brian Roberts

39G .221/.273/.331 .604OPS 3HR 19RBI .276wOBA 68wRC+ -0.7UZR

Overall 0.2fWAR

Did Roberts really play 39 games so far this year?  I guess it really just seems like he hasn’t been on the team almost at all since 2009.  The bottom line for Roberts is that no one can really tell when or if he’ll be back in uniform, and even when he was “healthy” this season, he wasn’t good. 

ZiPS for the second half:  .263/.340/.403 .743OPS 4HR 18RBI .337wOBA

Ryan Adams

9G .217/.280/.217 .497OPS 0HR 1RBI .235wOBA 40wRC+ -1.9UZR

Overall -0.3fWAR

Adams got a short shot at filling in at Second Base after Roberts went down and Andino cooled off.  He didn’t do much with the bat, and considering he is an “all-bat-no-glove” prospect, that didn’t warrant him staying in the bigs. I am surprised, however that he didn’t get more of an extended look in the Majors given his pretty good line of .288/.353/.416 in AAA this season.

Jake Fox

19G .188/.250/.396 .646OPS 2HR 4RBI .284wOBA 73wRC+ -2.4FRAA

Overall -0.4fWAR

Fox hilariously led the entire world in HR in Spring Training this year, and then showed us who he really was once the regular season started, appearing in only 19 games before being jettisoned off to AAA Norfolk.  Fox is currently mashing and always has mashed MiL pitching—this season to the tune of .275/.326/.514.  Don’t expect to see him back in Baltimore any time soon—if ever.

Brandon Snyder

6G .231/.412/.308 .720OPS 0HR 1RBI .345wOBA 115wRC+

Overall -0.4fWAR

Maybe Snyder could do something with a real shot in the Majors, maybe not.  But the Orioles will never know if they never give him a real look.  However, his pedestrian numbers down in Norfolk (.271/.326/.431 .333wOBA 105wRC+) aren’t exactly making a case for him to get any kind of extended playing time in Baltimore.

With a current rotation of Guthrie, Arietta, Jakubauskas, Atkins, and Simon things aren’t looking very bright at all for the Orioles.  With Matsuz struggling down in Norfolk and Britton stashed away at Bowie, it is hard to really find much to be excited about as far as the starting rotation is concerned.

             The Orioles are currently 1-9 in July, and the road leading to August doesn’t get any easier than the road leading from June was.  In the coming weeks, the Orioles play serieses against the Indians, Red Sox, Angels, Blue Jays, and Yankees—all of whom have a combined winning percentage of .554%.  .554% is the exact winning percentage of the Texas Rangers—so for the rest of the month of July the Orioles’ schedule averages out to playing the Texas Rangers…over and over again every day.

             It’s hard to imagine things getting any better at this point.  However, last season at the All-Star break, the 2010 Orioles were sitting at 25-59 and they were somehow able to find a spark under new Manager Buck Showalter to go 41-37 in the second half of the season (34-23 under Showalter).  If last season is anything to go by, there might still be hope for something positive to come out of the latter half of 2011 for the Baltimore Orioles yet.

Programming Note

Hello.

Some recent changes at work have added a lot of new responsibilities and a much larger work load on me right now. Since I worked on a lot of these posts during my lunch hour (which has become non-existent), my posts have become rare and, indeed, the short-term and possibly long-term future of Dempsey's Army is kind of in doubt.

I'm seeing a bit of light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully by mid-July I should be able to get things cranking again.

Thanks for your patience.

Blogger on Blogger with Matt Vensel

Blogger on Blogger: Where I answer some questions for BaltimoreSun.com's Matt Vensel or the worst YouPorn category ever? You decide!

This Week in Chat - 6/27/11

Hello there.

My TWiC entry for the week is up over here at Camden Depot. Enjoy!

This Week in Chat - 6/21/2011

Hello, again.

If you liked the "This Week in Chat" recaps I had been doing this season, I have started posting them with Camden Depot over at the ESPN Sweetspot blog. Here's the link to this week's rundown.

More on this space soon, I promise...

Guest Blogging for MASN.com Again

Hi! You miss me?

Well, you didn't have to. I was guest posting over at the Oriole Buzz blog on MASNSports.com this week and never had a chance to let anyone know. But there's a week's worth of posts over here.

Back to regularly scheduled programming next week.

2011 MLB Amateur Draft: For the Orioles, It's Got to be Cole

For most of last season, it appeared that the Orioles would have the first pick in the 2011 Amateur Draft and that Anthony Rendonwould be their third basemen of the future. As the end of the season neared, the Orioles seemed assured of the second pick, at least, and that if they didn't get Rendon, they would certainly get UCLA stud pitcher Gerrit Cole. But they kept playing well and ended up at #4. Nobody knew what to expect with the #4 pick.

But if you had told those draft saavy Oriole fans that Baltimore would still have a chance to get Gerrit Cole with the #4 pick, they would have been pretty happy about that.

And now, that just might happen.

I would love to have Rendon in the organization, assuming his medicals are good but he's not going to slip that far down. However, there is word that Cole might.

With the ascendancy of other pitchers in 2011, UVA lefty Danny Hultzen, UCLA hurler Trevor Bauer and Oklahoma high school wunderkind Dylan Bundy are all putting themselves in the conversation among the first three picks. So there are scenarios in which Cole could fall into the Orioles' lap.

And if that happens, they have to take him. He was the best pitcher coming into the season and I really don't think anyone else has unseated him. There are many devotees of Bundy among the Oriole fan base (whose brother Bobby is already pitching in the org for Frederick) but I'm sorry, I don't think he's better yet. Bundy is reportedly very polished for a high school pitcher but he's not more polished than Cole.

Don't get me wrong. Unlike last year when I would have been very disappointed if Baltimore had not signed Manny Machado, I don't think the O's can go wrong with any the talent available at #4. Bundy would be awesome. Hultzen would be an amazing lefty to pair with Brian Matusz and Zach Britton and would have a fast track to the majors. And there are other college arms who are intriguing.

But in the unlikely event that Cole slips....Baltimore has to pounce.


(I'll be on vacation next week, hence the early post on the draft. See you in 10 days or so when I do another round of guest posting for MASNsports.com.)

Vlad is Teflon. There's Nothing to be Done

In Vlad's dreams, Father Time takes the shape of a large parrot...

I was going to say that this post was not me picking on PressBoxOnline.com Oriole beat reporter Matt Palmer. But that would be disingenuous. I am totally going to pick on him to make a larger point.

Matt decided to give grades to various facets of the team for their performance up to the end of May. Here's a sample.

Infield
Grade: C-


...Hardy missed most of April with an intercostal strain, but in 25 games, has not made an error. Offensively, he's been decent, batting .234 with 12 runs driven in and nine runs scored.


Reynolds is no better now than he was when he arrived with the Orioles. He is batting .198 and has struck out 52 times, good for nearly one per game. At this pace, he'll miss .200 for the first time since 2007. Still, he has just seven home runs. If that's his bread and butter and that's not happening, something's wrong. His on-base, slugging and on-base plus slugging percentages are at career lows. He has nine errors and is halfway to the number he had last year...

Now, if we're just going to cite batting averages, hitting .234 is not "decent". Cesar Izturis hit .230 last season. But Hardy is up to .250 and will likely hit better so that's just nitpicking on my part.

And he is not at all wrong about Mark Reynolds. All those thing are absolutely true. Remember them.

Designated Hitter
Grade: B+


For the most part, the Orioles are getting what they expected out of Vladimir Guerrero. He has 23 RBIs with five home runs, so his power abilities are starting to diminish just a bit. Still, he changes the lineup's dynamics just by his mere presence. He leads the team in batting average (.295) and hits (61). The question remains, how long will he be in Baltimore? He's going to be attractive to American League teams with playoff hopes next month.

Let's take this line by line. Getting what they expected out of Guerrero? He is on a pace for 15 home runs so far. 15. Vlad has never hit fewer than 25 over a full season. That is NOT what the Orioles expected out of Vlad. His "power abilities are starting to diminish"? They've diminished! They're gone!

And there it is. Let's let this phrase lie for a second:

"Still, he changes the lineup's dynamics just by his mere presence."

Oh, it's OK then. Because Vlad is magic.

I am beginning to believe that Vlad is magic. He is able to make his poor performance look attractive to a whole lot of fans and media.

And how has this change in dynamic helped the club? This is one of the worst scoring teams in the American League. Only Minnesota, Seattle and Oakland are worse. (And we see how our offense stacks up against Oakland and Seattle in their home parks.) Vlad Guerrero is not a talisman. He's a washed-up hitter. Period.

And he is NOT going to look attractive to AL teams with playoff hopes. He stinks. Let's apply this phrase written about Reynolds to Guerrero.

Still, he has just (five) home runs. If that's his bread and butter and that's not happening, something's wrong. His on-base, slugging and on-base plus slugging percentages are at career lows.

All of the above statements are as true about Vlad as they are about Reynolds. Hell, Reynolds isn't even hitting that much worse than Vlad at this point. (.307 wOBA for Reynolds, .315 wOBA for Guerrero.)

And Guerrero gets a B+. It's just unbelievable.

Matt's not alone is his assessment. Many people think Vlad is having a fine season and is just peachy. It's the great Orange and Black swindle of 2011.

The Obligatory Nolan Reimold Post

Reimold in Norfolk...for the last time...

I haven't written about Nolan Reimold since his recall from Norfolk nearly two weeks ago which may seem odd since I kept the "Reimold in Exile" vigil on Twitter for 53 straight days.

Mostly, it's been because I had mixed feelings about the call up. Reimold was only called up due to injuries to other players and, after some struggles in AAA, Reimold was finally hitting his stride in Norfolk and I was afraid that he would ride the bench in Baltimore and not get enough at bats to help his development or help the team.

Those fears have turned out to be unfounded. Reimold has gotten plenty of ABs which is all I was wanting for the guy. Failure or success, I wanted Reimold to get his playing time in the majors. Not because he "deserved" it (which is such a nebulous concept anyway) but because it was best for the team to find out what he was and what he could be.

The fact that he has started so well is great. But mostly it's great that he is helping the team and it will help him get more playing time going forward. There is no vindication for me. Not yet.

(Of course, I think that even with the limited sample we have here, it is apparent that Reimold absolutely has the potential to be a good major leaguer. It was incredibly frustrating to see him dismissed by those who gave him absolutely no credit for 2009 but chose instead chose to judge him from 6 weeks of at bats in 2010. So I lied. There's a little vindication here.)

I mean, I saw how he played in 2009. I know he was not fully healthy last year. I know that a young hitter with good patience and good power has a fair shot at being successful in the major leagues. His .357/.455/.714 line through his first 10 games is not at all surprising to me. He's a good hitter. He won't hit like that all the time obviously but he's going to have stretches where he does.

I was just hoping he would get a good 400 plate appearances this season. I'm hoping the hit start will get him those chances and we can see how much (or little) he could help the team in 2012. When Vladimir Guerrero and Derrek Lee are long gone.