Loewen Released, Other Orioles Moves
The Orioles reshuffled their major-league roster today by releasing former first-round pitcher Adam Loewen, among other moves. This seemed confusing at first, but (as Schmuck points out) it looks like it’s nothing more than a restructuring move.
Also on their way to the minors: Bierd, Fahey, Cherry, Fiorentino, Santos.
If you’re interested in how the various prospects are faring in the Arizona Fall League, here’s a nice roundup from the O’s on Deck blog.
The short version? Matt Wieters is still a monster.
As for baseball in general, I have this to say: what the Rays have done reconfirms both my love of baseball and my hope for the downtrodden O’s.
To see a young, mostly homegrown team with a (relatively) tiny payroll slay the giant that is the AL East, then make a seemingly impossible run through the playoffs, is to be reminded of everything that makes baseball both different and great. Not perfect by any stretch, but certainly great.
Here’s hoping they cap it off by stomping Philly, for whom it’s well-known that I have no love.
I was willing to believe that if the Red Sox won game 7 that baseball was fixed. I’ve thought that before. In a game so screwed up by money, I thought that the lack of Red Sox in the World Series would seriously hurt FOXs ratings bad enough that it simply could not be the Rays in the World Series.
Even the fact that they forced a Game 7 leads me to believe that TBS was milking the Red Sox for viewers, and there’s still some massive baseball conspiracy going on. Am I paranoid or is this something other people think about too?
I get where you’re coming from on an emotional level, but there’s no way baseball is fixed. It just isn’t possible for an outside entity to exercise control over the hundreds and hundreds of variables that decide the outcome of a given baseball game.
On another topic, I’ll be curious to see what ratings look like for this Series. You’ve got a major media market in Philly, but the Rays (and Tampa) are utterly inconsequential on a national level. I wonder how all of this will play in the West and Midwest. My guess is that it’ll be a pretty low-rated affair, which is a shame because the Rays are a great story.
David Price did not have a regular season win or save and has both in the postseason. What’s more, Tampa Joe left him in to close out game 7 of the ALCS against the defending champion Red Sox. Fucking BALLSY, and it paid off. Hello, closer for the World Series. I mean, a 24-yr old lefty that throws 97 and isn’t fazed by the biggest inning of the biggest game in Rays history. Can we get a guy like that?
Well it appears, according to Heyman (and yes, I know he sucks, but he’s probably right on this) that the Yankees have targeted Lowe, Burnett, and Sabathia, and hope to sign two of them. They’ve also made Tex a prime target. If they get Sabathia, Burnett, and Tex, which they honestly could, I will once again wonder why any of us even bother.
I’m now completely on board that the O’s have to make a big run at Burnett, if only to keep him away from the Yanks. They have to wedge themselves in there somewhere.
The Cardinals are cutting ties with Mark Mulder. He’s a terrible injury risk, but I wonder if a guy like that might be a good fit here at the right price (by which I mean “very low”). If he can overcome his injuries he might be a steal.
Also, agreed @sci on Burnett. Something tells me, though, that he won’t end up here. I think somebody’s going to overpay to get him, and it won’t be the O’s.
I waffle on Burnett. He’s as injury prone as they come, with only two exceptional years to his name: his two walk years. He has shown ability to compete successfully in the AL East, but the price tag on him is going to suck, and we can’t bank of an injury-prone guy to be the cornerstone of an otherwise young and inexperienced rotation (Guthrie notwithstanding). So I waffle.
Really though, I know in my heart that we’ll probably end up Paul Byrd, Jon Garland, or Carl Pavano. Or maybe all of them. Hey, what’s Jaret Wright up to these days?