Author Topic: ORIOLES  (Read 490165 times)

James Ford

  • Member
  • Posts: 5620
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1185 on: September 30, 2013, 04:06:27 pm »
Why not just go see them when they are in Chicago playing the White Sox? No doubt the tickets are cheaper and easier to get. Nice stadium, too. Wrigley Field is just full of asshole bros.


I went to four games last week and had the best time!  Last two games were especially great.  I will miss Camden Yards in the winter!  Season tickets for me next year.  And heading to Chi-town to see them play on the road.  Should be a good two series!  I love Wrigley.


Went yesterday - what a mob scene.  So many early arrivers to get the bobblehead.  Great day, great time, great win.

Planning a trip to Chicago as well.  How are you going to get tickets?  Can you do that through the rep?

atomic

  • Member
  • Posts: 2093
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1186 on: September 30, 2013, 04:32:00 pm »
Why not just go see them when they are in Chicago playing the White Sox? No doubt the tickets are cheaper and easier to get. Nice stadium, too. Wrigley Field is just full of asshole bros.


I went to four games last week and had the best time!  Last two games were especially great.  I will miss Camden Yards in the winter!  Season tickets for me next year.  And heading to Chi-town to see them play on the road.  Should be a good two series!  I love Wrigley.


Went yesterday - what a mob scene.  So many early arrivers to get the bobblehead.  Great day, great time, great win.

Planning a trip to Chicago as well.  How are you going to get tickets?  Can you do that through the rep?

Because the White Sox play in a shitty part of town.

K8teebug

  • Member
  • Posts: 4124
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1187 on: October 01, 2013, 09:06:28 am »
We are going to both the White Sox and Wrigley.  I've been to Wrigley twice and I love it there.  Plus, my favorite bar in Chicago, Gingerman is across the street.

K8teebug

  • Member
  • Posts: 4124
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1188 on: October 01, 2013, 09:07:50 am »
I went to four games last week and had the best time!  Last two games were especially great.  I will miss Camden Yards in the winter!  Season tickets for me next year.  And heading to Chi-town to see them play on the road.  Should be a good two series!  I love Wrigley.


Went yesterday - what a mob scene.  So many early arrivers to get the bobblehead.  Great day, great time, great win.

Planning a trip to Chicago as well.  How are you going to get tickets?  Can you do that through the rep?

The two times I went to Wrigley I bought them online during the public onsale date. It is annoying, but I got tickets.  We might just go the Stub Hub route this time for that game.

atomic

  • Member
  • Posts: 2093
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1189 on: October 01, 2013, 10:18:19 am »
I went to four games last week and had the best time!  Last two games were especially great.  I will miss Camden Yards in the winter!  Season tickets for me next year.  And heading to Chi-town to see them play on the road.  Should be a good two series!  I love Wrigley.


Went yesterday - what a mob scene.  So many early arrivers to get the bobblehead.  Great day, great time, great win.

Planning a trip to Chicago as well.  How are you going to get tickets?  Can you do that through the rep?

The two times I went to Wrigley I bought them online during the public onsale date. It is annoying, but I got tickets.  We might just go the Stub Hub route this time for that game.

I bought tickets by riding my bike up to Wrigley Field the day of the game. 

Gingerman is the one place I ever did an Internet Message Board meet-up. 

James Ford

  • Member
  • Posts: 5620
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1190 on: October 01, 2013, 10:38:19 am »
I was able to do the same, two years in a row. The second year we ended up not able to go, so I sold them on stubhub and made a fortune. Should probably try to do that every year.

I went to four games last week and had the best time!  Last two games were especially great.  I will miss Camden Yards in the winter!  Season tickets for me next year.  And heading to Chi-town to see them play on the road.  Should be a good two series!  I love Wrigley.


Went yesterday - what a mob scene.  So many early arrivers to get the bobblehead.  Great day, great time, great win.

Planning a trip to Chicago as well.  How are you going to get tickets?  Can you do that through the rep?

The two times I went to Wrigley I bought them online during the public onsale date. It is annoying, but I got tickets.  We might just go the Stub Hub route this time for that game.

vansmack

  • Member
  • Posts: 19722
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1191 on: November 18, 2013, 12:32:39 pm »
Orioles facing a run of tough choices
November, 17, 2013
By Buster Olney | ESPN.com

Chemistry alone can't keep the core of the Orioles together. It'll take a pile of money, too.
The Red Sox have won the World Series three times in the past 10 seasons. The Yankees have made the playoffs all but two seasons since 1995, capitalizing on a record payroll. The Tampa Bay Rays are generally viewed within the industry as having the best-run baseball operations department and the most symbiotic organization.

Welcome to the world that the Baltimore Orioles inhabit, where they must try to find elbow room. The Orioles won 93 games in 2012 and made the postseason for the first time in 15 years, but they drifted back to 85 wins this past summer and now face a winter of extremely difficult decisions.

The Orioles? payroll grew from $67 million in 2009 to $92 million in 2013, and because of raises built into signed contracts for the likes of Nick Markakis and Adam Jones, and because Baltimore has more than a half-dozen arbitration-eligible players, the payroll could easily climb to $100 million without a significant upgrade.

This goes a long way to explaining why Orioles GM Dan Duquette cast a wide net at the GM meetings last week, encouraging teams to present their best offers on catcher Matt Wieters. This goes a long way to explaining why rival front offices are speculating the Orioles might be cornered into a tough choice of cutting free Jim Johnson, a closer with 101 saves over the past two seasons, by not tendering him a contract.

Baltimore?s offseason will more closely resemble a typical Rays winter, with payroll management a central concern. So although it?s always fun to wonder if Baltimore might get into serious bidding for the likes of Carlos Beltran, Matt Garza or Ubaldo Jimenez, the Orioles? greater concerns are internal.

And they start with Chris Davis and Wieters. Davis is relatively new to stardom, finishing third in the AL MVP race in 2013 with 53 homers, after hitting 33 homers in 2012.

Because it has taken some time for the first baseman to establish himself, he has accumulated just over four years of service time, meaning he?s eligible for arbitration for the second time this winter. According to MLBTradeRumors.com, Davis is in line to make about $10 million in arbitration this winter.

While the Orioles have had at least some internal talks about a long-term deal with the first baseman, the gap between what they could be willing to pay him and what he could be worth on the open market seems to be growing.

Similarly, they?ve had no luck in working out a deal with Wieters, whom they drafted and developed and relied upon as a leader. Wieters, 27, has been a decent offensive player, hitting 67 homers over the past three seasons and posting OPS marks of .778, .764 and .708 in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.

The Orioles would like to sign Wieters to a long-term deal, but the team seems to be speaking a different language in negotiations. The counter it received before the 2013 season was something in the range of the eight-year, $184 million deal signed by Joe Mauer. Baltimore will not do that deal.

Wieters is represented by Scott Boras, who typically takes his clients into free agency, and is eligible for free agency after the 2015 season.

Davis? agent: Scott Boras. And Davis, too, is eligible for free agency after 2015.

Wieters is in line to make about $8 million in arbitration in 2014, when Markakis will make $15 million, in the final guaranteed year of his current contract, and when Jones will earn $13 million. J.J. Hardy is in the last year of his contract and is set to earn $7 million. So the Orioles could have more than $50 million in salary to just those five players -- none of whom is a starting pitcher.

Officials in other organizations are doing the Orioles? math, as they evaluate trade possibilities, and they figure that something has to give; they figure that Duquette will have to slash somewhere. Maybe the Orioles would actually dump Wieters if they would get a decent prospect in return. In a winter in which the prices for free-agent outfielders are rocketing northward, maybe they can find a taker for Markakis, who is an emotional leader for Baltimore.

Some executives look at Johnson as perhaps the most painless cut. The Orioles? closer was extraordinary in 2012, posting 51 saves, and while his performance regressed in 2013, he still had 50 saves and is in line to make about $10.8 million through arbitration in 2014. "For a team that has payroll issues,? one rival official wrote in an email the other day, ?this is too much money.?

A lot of teams view closers in the way NFL teams view kickers -- mostly interchangeable, with few exceptions. When the 2014 season opens, there may be only two teams using the same closers they had at the outset of 2012: the Braves, with Craig Kimbrel, and the Phillies, with Jonathan Papelbon. Koji Uehara went into spring training in 2013 at No. 4 on the Boston bullpen depth chart and wound up throwing the final pitch of the World Series after a dominant second half -- which said a lot about Uehara and about how quickly a closer?s performance can change.

But for the Orioles, the closer has been much more integral than for most teams, because of how their games have played out. Baltimore has not gotten a lot of production from its rotation, leaving many save chances on the table for the bullpen.

Note who had the most save opportunities in 2012:

1. Cincinnati, 74
2. Baltimore, 73 (tie)
2. Milwaukee, 73 (tie)

And 2013:

1. Baltimore, 84
2. Kansas City, 73
3. Pittsburgh, 70

The Orioles aren?t in position to substantially upgrade their rotation this winter, although they can reasonably hope that Kevin Gausman will have a greater impact in 2014. So if they are to contend again next season, they?ll need a dominant bullpen -- and if Johnson is not the closer, then who is?

There are sacrifices built into every hypothetical this winter. If Johnson, Wieters or Markakis isn't moved, how could the Orioles make upgrades elsewhere? If they aren?t going to work out long-term deals with Wieters or Davis, when is the best time to try to trade them? And if they do work out deals, what other parts of the roster must be adjusted as a result? Everybody with the Orioles would love to retain Nate McLouth, for example, but where will there be enough money left over to make even that happen?

This will not be an easy winter to be part of the Orioles organization or an Orioles fan.
27>34

shemptiness

  • Member
  • Posts: 3332
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1192 on: November 18, 2013, 06:14:49 pm »
New uni patch to be worn next year:


atomic

  • Member
  • Posts: 2093
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1193 on: November 18, 2013, 07:48:43 pm »
Wieters and Jim Johnson basically did nothing this year of value so I don't know what they would get in arbitration.  I am sure Wieters could get a current player of value in return so I can see trading him.  You still need someone to catch.  Jim Johnson might be hard to trade as no one will want to pay his arbitration number.  He might get released.

stevewizzle

  • Guest
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1194 on: November 18, 2013, 08:12:18 pm »
A lot of teams view closers in the way NFL teams view kickers -- mostly interchangeable, with few exceptions. When the 2014 season opens, there may be only two teams using the same closers they had at the outset of 2012: the Braves, with Craig Kimbrel, and the Phillies, with Jonathan Papelbon.

small tangent, but is cincinatti considering chapman as a starter? 

Wieters and Jim Johnson basically did nothing this year of value so I don't know what they would get in arbitration.  I am sure Wieters could get a current player of value in return so I can see trading him.  You still need someone to catch.  Jim Johnson might be hard to trade as no one will want to pay his arbitration number.  He might get released.

for weiters... if i was another team, i'd love to trade for him. seems like a buy low situation and better value than buzzkill mccann. 

vansmack

  • Member
  • Posts: 19722
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1195 on: November 18, 2013, 09:05:06 pm »
small tangent, but is cincinatti considering chapman as a starter?  

Every off season this gets discussed and the thorn in the road was always Dusty Baker.  Now that he's out of the picture, who knows, but if I remember right, last season even Chapman said he wanted to just be the closer, right?
27>34

vansmack

  • Member
  • Posts: 19722
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1196 on: November 18, 2013, 09:08:35 pm »
Jim Johnson basically did nothing this year of value so I don't know what they would get in arbitration.  Jim Johnson might be hard to trade as no one will want to pay his arbitration number.  He might get released.

50 saves not going to look like "nothing" on paper to an arbitrator.  All he's done is led the league in saves for two straight seasons.

I dare the Orioles to release him.
27>34

stevewizzle

  • Guest
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1197 on: November 18, 2013, 09:48:58 pm »
small tangent, but is cincinatti considering chapman as a starter?  

Every off season this gets discussed and the thorn in the road was always Dusty Baker.  Now that he's out of the picture, who knows, but if I remember right, last season even Chapman said he wanted to just be the closer, right?

yep, i mean, who wouldn't? and he wouldn't be nearly as electrifying as a SP. 

but maybe after missing the playoffs, presumably losing arroyo in free agency etc., cueto not staying healthy, they push for him to transition...

atomic

  • Member
  • Posts: 2093
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1198 on: November 18, 2013, 10:16:08 pm »
Jim Johnson basically did nothing this year of value so I don't know what they would get in arbitration.  Jim Johnson might be hard to trade as no one will want to pay his arbitration number.  He might get released.

50 saves not going to look like "nothing" on paper to an arbitrator.  All he's done is led the league in saves for two straight seasons.

I dare the Orioles to release him.

Replacement level player and he has a lot of something that is a meaningless stat. DD will not pay him 10+ million a year. 

atomic

  • Member
  • Posts: 2093
Re: ORIOLES
« Reply #1199 on: November 18, 2013, 10:18:17 pm »
A lot of teams view closers in the way NFL teams view kickers -- mostly interchangeable, with few exceptions. When the 2014 season opens, there may be only two teams using the same closers they had at the outset of 2012: the Braves, with Craig Kimbrel, and the Phillies, with Jonathan Papelbon.

small tangent, but is cincinatti considering chapman as a starter? 

Wieters and Jim Johnson basically did nothing this year of value so I don't know what they would get in arbitration.  I am sure Wieters could get a current player of value in return so I can see trading him.  You still need someone to catch.  Jim Johnson might be hard to trade as no one will want to pay his arbitration number.  He might get released.

for weiters... if i was another team, i'd love to trade for him. seems like a buy low situation and better value than buzzkill mccann. 

If Weiters gets traded we willget something of value back. Orioles won't give him away.  He asking for Joe Mauer money which is insane.