Late Innings

I’m reading THT’s Lost in Transactions for this week, written by Evan Brunell. He first chimes in on Koji Uehara, the Japanese control expert that Baltimore signed back on Tuesday:

The Orioles will put him back into the rotation and Uehara has the potential to pair up with Jeremy Guthrie to finally give the team a decent front of the rotation.

He then chimes in on yesterday’s trade with the Cubs, which sent Garrett Olson to Chicago for Felix Pie:

I like this deal a lot for the Orioles … the Orioles get the better “reward.” Pie can be an All-Star outfielder, while it’s doubtful Olson will ever make an All-Star Game.

He also quips on the Orioles’ playoff chances for next season:

Reports have the team interested in Braden Looper; if they can do that they could surprise in 2009. The three heavyweights in front of them are terrible luck; put them in any other division, give them Looper and you have to consider them a playoff contender.

Regular readers to this blog know that I’ve been wanting the Orioles to grab Pie for a year now. I also want them to grab Looper badly as well. They have two solid starters for now, and will probably patch in the rest with arms in the Liz, Henderson, Waters, et al. Having a third arm in the mix will add more competition, at least until the talented young arms make their way to the rotation. Chris Tillman and Jake Arietta should be on the roster some time during the season, and if Brian Matusz moves as quickly through the minors as Matt Wieters did, he’ll be in Baltimore Summer 2010.

The team currently has a very athletic, talented outfield. All three of their outfielders are “five tool” players, natural center fielders who will cover a lot of outfield ground next season. There are questions within the infield as well, whereas three quarters of their infield are free agents this season, and their shortstop is a free agent after 2010.

Nonetheless, the moves have been good the past few days, and it’ll be fun to see this team perform. The lineup can hit (big time), they have great defense (something Andy MacPhail preaches), and their bullpen is very solid. The starting pitching… well they need to bring in another arm. Still this off-season has left me optimistic… and them extending Nick Markakis was brilliant. At 65MM over six years, he’s not getting a hometown discount (it’s more Alex Rios money), but he’s one of the most coveted outfielders in the game. And if you take Fan Graphs’ new statistics seriously, Markakis is worth 24MM a year. Again, these are moves that the Orioles should be making, and I’m finally glad to see that they’re doing it.