Comments on: “The Advantage of Facing the Orioles”

By: Miles

Miles — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:11:58 +0000

@Andrew – The point I’m trying to make is that the Orioles haven’t had bench guys in recent seasons who come at league minimum. Worse yet, they’ve been paying the Deivi Cruzs and Kevin Millars of the world decent coin to start when they are not even worth that kind of money as bench players (witness Millar in Toronto this season).

In any case, Salazar had posted a 1.050 OPS down at Norfolk. I’ll take that on my bench any day of the week. Could be a Melvin Mora-esque late bloomer.

By: ryan97ou

ryan97ou — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:17:42 +0000

when i got on here last night in the 7th, there were 12 comments…now this post might go down in TLC history. in september, when i’m hating baseball-life, i am gonna go back to this post and re-read it.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:09:50 +0000

@Miles – I didn’t say they were worthless. They clearly are not. In fact, Andino’s worth will be high as long as he doesn’t get paid much (which is kind of a catch-22 for him).

Which is my point – these guys are valuable because they don’t cost anything. Their value is as a cost-benefit win for the Orioles. They’re bench guys. And that’s great – I like Andino a lot in that role, or even as a starter (provided the rest of the offense can make up for him), but they are not particularly valuable, because these kind of guys come a dime a dozen.

Just because the O’s haven’t had one of these guys in a while doesn’t make their value go up.

Dan…I think this means we’re stuck with both of those dudes until at least the end of the month, probably. So buckle in.

By: dan the man

dan the man — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:04:09 +0000

Looks like Koji is out for at least 2 months, according to Roch.

Now what? Hernandez and Berken both just got a little more time. Hill, too, maybe. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Tillman replace one of Hill or Berken. Preferably Hill since Berken at least has a fastball worth a damn.

By: Miles

Miles — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:58:00 +0000

@Andrew – I’ll gently disagree with you insomuch as they both lack in value.

Andino’s value lies in the fact that he (at this point, and I’ll grant you any sample size concerns you want to raise) provides the same production as Izturis at a fraction of the cost. If the Orioles want to sign that big bat to plug up a hole at third base, that’s valuable money to have.

Salazar does provide pop off the bench. When was the last time we had that? Remember the halcyon days of 2006 when Brenden Fahey was playing left field? Or 2002, with the immorta Jose Leon as your Designated Hitter?