Post-Christmas Roundup
The big news, as expected: the Ravens earned their spot in the playoffs today by manhandling the Jaguars down at M&T. The 27-7 final pretty much tells the tale. Jacksonville basically had no answer for anything the Ravens did.
Next up is a visit to the Dolphins on Sunday. As for the rest of the AFC, the Jets and Patriots both missed out, while San Diego capped off a fairly unbelievable late-season surge to sneak in at 8-8. It’d be nice if this proved something about never giving up and always having a chance, but in truth the only thing it proves is how weak the AFC West really is. Denver should be flat-out ashamed of themselves.
In Orioles news, the team is (as noted by Andrew) close to inking pitcher Mark Hendrickson. This isn’t the kind of move that’s going to excite anybody, but it’s necessary. I just hope the next free agent pitcher is a little more inspiring.
Also worth noting, the team’s spring training site drama keeps getting more complicated. I can’t say I’ve followed this closely enough to say what the recent news might mean, but it feels like the team is bargaining from a weak position. I hope they know what they’re doing.
Is anyone else excited by the Terps basketball team? I’m feeling like they might make some noise this year. They don’t have the presence to bang down low, but they have enough talent to compete. If they stay disciplined and creative I feel like they might be a very fun team to watch in ’09.
Finally, I’m putting the finishing touches on The Loss Column 2.0. The new look is cleaner and more spacious, and I’ve added a handful of cool new features. I feel like our third year will be the best yet. Feel free to keep offering suggestions on how to improve.
I don’t know how the Broncos feel about themselves, but while I’m ashamed, I’m certainly not surprised.
The Ravens looked really good against the Jags.
I think we’ll beat Miami pretty badly. Harbaugh, his staff, and the veteran Raven players have really gotten themselves focused and so wonderfully team oriented. Flacco is the real deal – very poised and an incredible arm.
The signing of Hendrickson is a yawn. Yes, it’s necessary to sign some rubber arms to grind out some semi-quality innnings, but hopefully the O’s can sign a pitcher with a better track record than this guy.
Rodriquez may be a decent stop-gap signing, e.g., buy time for Weiters development, plus add the “veteran” presence that is important to a winning team.
I question how many “quality” innings Hendrickson can give the Orioles, and say this is hardly a nessecity.
Also, to touch on a point from the last post: Mora hasn’t played above the mean in a while. So stop thinking that he has. And yes, Huff should still have a decent year, but there’s no way he duplicates his 2008 – and his improvement over his mean last year probably accounted for the Orioles having 69 wins instead of 64, as sad as that sounds.
How can you say that adding an arm to the pool of rotation candidates isn’t a necessity? Even if it is Mark Hendrickson.
By that logic, we should be signing the following guys, too:
Daniel Cabrera
Jim Palmer
Steve Trachsel
Neal Shaffer
Jaret Wright
Kyle Boller
Carl Pavano
Kris Benson
Josh Towers
Sir Sidney Ponson
Drew Forrester
Mark Prior
Rodrigo Lopez
Dave Gorbowski
Bruce Chen
Pedro Martinez
John Parrish
All cheap, all useless…but they’d be more arms to throw against the wall, and maybe you’ll get lucky with one of them!
In particular I think we’d strike gold with the fourth name on that list. And also with the sixth.
This just in: O’s will announce the signing of Jim Kaat at a press conference later on today. Why not? He has 288 career wins.
Mark Hendrickson.
What a shameful signing. Make that SHAMEFUL in all caps.
You all should be personally insulted — that they’re going to try and appease you and all other intelligent baseball people with this guy – who couldn’t post a sub 5.00 ERA in the National League over the last three seasons. Can’t go after a “quality pitcher” – they cost too much money. Why spend money when we’re not going to win anyway? In that case, why charge for tickets then? I mean, if hte team isn’t going to try to win, what reason is there to actually force fans to shell out money for seats to watch the games?
Mark Hendrickson is 35. We can’t possibly sign Derek Lowe – he’s going to be…………..36.
It’s amazing that they continue to do these kinds of things with a straight face.
Charlatans…
For accuracy sake…
Hendrickson is presently 34 and will be 35 in the ’09 season.
Lowe is presently 35 and will be 36 in the ’09 season.
Hendrickson’s career track record is: he stinks
Lowe’s career track record is: he gets people out and doesn’t allow many earned runs.
I thought about this signing a different way, and now I have a different take on it (don’t get excited):
I initially figured Hendrickson was here to effectively replace Daniel Cabrera (which was useless aside from grabbing us about a win or two and saving a million bucks), but I keep hearing that he’s here to replace Brian Burres as the swingman out of the bullpen.
Oh yeah, that’s the guy who needed replacing.
Hendrickson is distinctly better than Burres, so mission accomplished there…but why bother when we have the following potential long-relievers/spot starters:
Hayden Penn
Brian Burres
Danys Baez
Matt Albers
Troy Patton*
Chris Waters
Garret Olson
I mean, what does Mark Hendrickson add to this group of guys? The only answer I can figure is “veteran-ness”, which isn’t a thing at all and besides is dwarfed by the massive thing we’re facing called “good talent” in the three big lineups in our division. So I can’t figure this signing out from any angle at all. Ick. At least it wasn’t expensive. But it doesn’t at all change the shopping list:
2 starters, Markakian extension, do something with Roberts, catcher, first baseman.
*I heard earlier from Trembley that Patton would be at Norfolk this year, which is fine, but maybe he blows us away in Spring Training and ends up in this group anyway.