Baltimore Orioles 2012 Offseason Recap and Preview

February 15, 2012

I know the more hardcore Orioles fans might not like it, but the highlight of their season, from a national perspective was game 162:

Grade: C+

Notable Additions:

Wilson Betemit, Luis Ayala, Endy Chavez, Armando Galarraga, Jason Hammel, Matt Lindstrom, and Pat Neshek.

Notable Subtractions:

Luke Scott, Jeremy Accardo, Jeremy Guthrie, Mark Hendrickson, Felix Pie, Jai Miller, and Ronny Paulino.

Why?: This is almost the opposite of the Blue Jays’ situation in that the best players the Orioles lost were better than the best players they gained, but ue to the sheer number of players gained, did they end up improving on their team. As for the pictures, if you don’t know, I usually put up the picture of the player I perceive to be most notable in both the addition and subtraction categories. For this entry I put up Wilson Betemit and Luke Scott.

Betemit I really have no defense of other than that there really was no player that stood out to me. I could have just as easily put any of four players up as the picture, but I was feeling indecicive and Betemit was at the second on the alphabetically ordered list and he signed for the most years of any of the players. Luke scott on the other hand, I did pick more carefully. I know that for many, the instinct would be to put Jeremy Guthrie as the pictured subtraction, but I took into account the opportunity cost of losing Scott. With Guthrie, he would have been here for another year and the Orioles would have lost him for nothing (well a draft pick, but you know what I mean). With Scott, they probably would have signed him for a few years, and they also would have been getting a better player than they saw last year where as Guthrie has a potential to improve, but would have been less likely to.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all I have to say on the subject.

Predicted Record Range: 62-67 wins I just see the rest of the division getting that much better that there won’t be enough wins for the Orioles to win more games even with their roster improvements.

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Written by Mateo Fischer Posted in Offseason Recap and Preview Tagged with addition and subtraction, Armando Galarraga, Baltimore Orioles, Endy Chavez, Felix Pie, grade C-, Jai Miller, Jason Hammel, Jeremy Accardo, Jeremy Guthrie, Luis Ayala, Luke Scott, Mark Hendrickson, Matt Lindstrom, national perspective, opportunity cost, Orioles, Pat Neshek, Ronny Paulino, sheer number, subtractions, Wilson Betemit