Orioles officially ink Yovani Gallardo. 3 years, $35 million with a 4th year option.

Great. Now they're still definitely still mediocre. And they lose their first round pick in what's an already desolate farm system. All just to be a game or two better, and still behind the Jays, BoSox and Yankees. Excellent work.

Fowler should be coming too

Yu Darvish. 16 game winner. 3x Allstar now.

He pitched well that one time in the playoffs in 2012

Oh wait..

Hideki Irabu!!!

I didn't remember his name, sorry :(

Got to go for it before Chris Davis falls off a cliff I guess. Thatl be a only a year or two.

So an average offensive player who sucks at defense, and has to move to a corner spot, negating his primary source of value from playing cf, and forces them to give up another draft pick to further cripple a depleted farm. Excellent.

I don't get what Baltimore is thinking at all. They've spent most of their money this offseason on guys who were on the team last year. They've spent $53 million on O'Day, Weiters and Davis. Add in Trumbo's $9 mil and now they're $62 million in on 3 guys who were there last year and a league average bat who can't catch.

Just to put that in perspective, that could've bought them Justin Upton, Jordan Zimmerman and Johnny Cueto. I know Weiters taking the qualifying offer came ( RKO) outta nowhere, but to blow that kind of money and literally not improve at all is hysterical.

That doesn't even include Kim's modest deal and whatever it is they're gonna hand too Fowler.

What a clusterfuck offseason in Baltimore.

This offseason mostly flew by (certainly helps when your team doesn't start its offseason until November) but shit, this is going to be a long 6 weeks before the opener. Can't wait.

Guess I should work on my predictions. Pretty sure I've worked out my NL playoff picks (although injuries and shit in ST could change things).

AL is a whole other story. No fucking clue about that one. I see a few teams in the AL that I think will wind up being mediocre but I don't see any apparent dumpster fires that will help me with prediction division winners. Could see the top 6 picks in the 2017 draft all being NL teams because of how many crap teams are in that league.

Possibly one of the most exciting offseasons we've had in a while in terms of signings.

My NL predictions are Dodgers, Cubs and Nationals for the divisions, Cardinals and Mets for the wildcards.

AL is a little tougher. I think it'll be Houston, Detroit and Boston with the Royals and Rays as my wildcards.

Looking through past prediction history, I definitely tend to do better in terms of picking the playoff teams correctly for the NL. Partly because that league had less balance for a while and partly because it was the league I was way more familiar with.

My World Series predictions though have been atrocious, which I suppose is totally understandable given that the playoffs themselves are a crapshoot and trying to pick a winner 7 months early is nothing but a shot in the dark. Since I started doing regular predictions, my World Series picks have been:

2010: Yankees over Cardinals
2011: Phillies over Yankees
2012: Yankees over Diamondbacks
2013: Nationals over Angels
2014: Cardinals over Tigers
2015: Dodgers over Angels

jesus...I hate the Yankees and all that but they sure were my "when in doubt, just guess the Yankees" team for a while. Probably because they were until recently the one AL team I always felt comfortable assuming would make the playoffs.

Yankees coming in with a lot of question marks.

How's Sabathia going to be post rehab.


And now there's a report flying around that Chapman might be banned from spring training over this domestic abuse stuff.

oday is #8 on mlbs top 10 RP right now
Wieters can hit (as evidenced by his # in 14 before he got hurt .308/.338/.500 5 hr in 26 games) This being first full season back I expect his bat to come around as well.
Davis is Davis

The Orioles won't ever pay big $$$ for pitching so saying they could have gotten Cuetto and Zimmermann for what they gave those 3 is ridiculous.
I still see all the moves made as upgrades. Chen being the only major FA they lost was replaced with Gallardo for 1/2 as much money. He's essentially the same pitcher just not left handed.Gallardo gets flack for giving up hrs but Chen gave up 28 last year so..twice as many as Gallardo.

Dodgers open up the wallets for yet another international free agent. Cuban reliever Yasiel Sierra gets a 6-year, $30 million deal. Was agreed to a while ago but is only now official.

How is bringing back 3 guys they already had least year an "upgrade"? That doesn't make sense.

Saying them adding big pitching isn't ridiculous. Just because they have some dumb organizational stance on signing pitchers to big money (instead of one tool first basemen) doesn't make the fact that they blew money better spent elsewhere ridiculous.

What's ridiculous is they've poured tons of money into 2016 and they've only marginally improved their chances of winning. They're not better than the Red Sox, their pitching isn't anywhere Tampa's, their offense can't touch Toronto's. The only team they maybe match up with is New York. Maybe.

I love that you're trying to sell O'Day. He's been great for them
Wonderful. Now they're going to pay market value for him, in a position that has high turnover and is obscenely volatile. Remember when Jim Johnson was an "elite" reliever?

Weiters could bounce back. That one was out of their hands. Davis' deal is DOA. Everybody knows he's never gonna live up to the deal and nobody thought out bidding themselves, which will shortly prove to be futile, was a great, good or ever decent idea.

They could've instead spent that money on actually improving the team across the board instead of just repeating last year's roster and getting marginal players like Kim and Trumbo and a #3 starter.

BREAKING NEWS: Pablo Sandoval is still fat.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbxGiT7WAAAAxJp.jpg:large

Makes me miss mo Vaughn

Somehow the Red Sox have a really odd tradition in recent times where someone would always show up really overweight for camps.

Used to be Josh Beckett as the resident fat guy when he was with the team. Got to the point it was possible to accurately predict if he'd have a good or bad season depending on how fat he was during the camps.

The Orioles are going to win the AL East. The only team that remotely scares me is Toronto and their pitching staff is worse than the Os..a 41 year old coming off knee surgery and their "ace" has thrown less than 180 innings total in the last 2 years. Ooooh I'm shaking in my shoes

I'll bet you the Yankees own their ass all year...PUT UP OR SHUT UP pansi,,,

Yankees rotation is rudiculous. Outside of Severino who was a rookie and only pitched 60 some innings not one guy is without injury concerns.

How are the Orioles going to win the East when they're fielding the same team as last year with maybe one moderate improvement and didn't make not one significant upgrade?

Just like 2014

Lots of offense, average pitching, great defense and bullpen

Your blind homerism knows no bounds.

But other teams HAVE improved since 2014.

mattingly enforcing no facial hair rule

i don't know anything about anything anymore

Can't even begin to express the stupidity of enforcing facial hair rules on a professional sports team

Ill bet you the Red Sox finish ahead of them.

Let's bet. $200.

Jimmy Rollins to the White Sox on a minor league deal

He'll probably make the club as a utility glove

I only used that pic because he called me a homer and only pic i could find with homer in OS gear

Ill take that as a no.

I might do an over under Win total bet

Boston is 85
Orioles are 80
Toronto is 87
NY is 85
Tampa is 78

Toronto is probably the only team beside the Os that will go over

Article on fangraphs sums up the Orioles offseason perfectly; "but the Orioles still managed to bid against themselves anyway, rather than taking advantage of a soft market for offense and loading up on multiple players at discounted rates who could have provided more value overall."

On the button, as they say.

Who were they going to sign? The only holes they had were SP, 1B (before Davis resigned ) Corner OF, DH.

They signed Trumbo who can play 1B/DH
They signed Kim for OF
They signed Gallardo for SP
They still will probably sign Fowler for OF.

All of these moves were done relatively cheap.

No one expected Wieters to take the QO so nothing they could do about that.

Im not going to complain about the Orioles spending money to keep Davis when for years before they never would spend big money to kerp guys or sign free agents. Everyone is expecting the Davis signing to blow up in their face, but it csnt be any worse than Albert Belle, vlad Guerrero, Sammy Sosa, NOT resigning nelson Cruz after 2014, etc..

The only potential worry any Os fan has is thst Davis contract might hinder them from being able to resign Machado who will get a bigger payday than anyone gotbthis offseason..

Joey Bats says there will be no negotiations on the extensions with the Blue Jays. He let them know the amount of money he's seeking on his deal and he said he will not budge from that number under any circumstances. There will be no hometown discount, as he feels he's given them a 5 year hometown discount already.

He's not wrong. $14 million a year for him on his current deal has been a fucking steal. He'll be 36 next year but if he keeps up the big production some team will pay him way more than $14 million a year, even if it's a one year deal or something.

I've already pointed out who they could've signed. Lol at you trying to justify the Davis deal by mentioning three guys who spent 2 years on the team at the most. You act like Belle was an albatross and he wasn't. He was actually a productive hitter.

It definitely is going to be worse because they're paying him boat loads of money for more years than any of those guys. What a daft comparison.

Like I said, Justin Upton, Johnny Cueto, Jordan Zimmerman along with Kim, Trumbo if they'd like, and Gallardo and possibly Fowler would've all worked for the money they've blown thus far, and those first three would've made them better than they are now with bringing back 3 guys from the same team as last year. A brilliant strategy.

the Belle contract is specifically why for years the Orioles would not spend big moneybon free agents.

They had to pay him thev3 years he didnt plsy just to get some money back through insurance. The definition of an albatross

So you think, by comparison, Davis, who's getting paid more money, for more years, and well into his next contact or retirement, is better than a productive hitter who happened to get hurt? Can you explain how Davis' deal is in any way better rather than the same or worse?

Can you also please explain how blowing the about of money they did to essentially field the same team when they could've spent that money on countless other players who were actual significant upgrades instead of just carbon copying last year's team but with a higher payroll?

How is blowing your load on the same that wasn't a playoff team last year better than taking that money and signing two corner outfielders, one of which is an all-star, two top of the rotation starters, a #3 starter, a dh and and 4th of/dh for similar total dollars?

Could you please explain in what world that would be considered a good idea in. Instead of trying to get better, the Orioles just stayed the course, while everyone else in the division made a conscious effort to add.

Bautista on his last year? Unless the Blue Jays re-engage extension talks, he could be some serious trade bait come deadline time.

The new front office in Toronto is probably gonna let him walk. If Anthopolous were there, I'd firmly believe in their chances of retaining him. With the new regime, the recent offseason and lack of any real effort to build on last year tells me they're not giving any thought to keeping Bautista. At all.

Jays might be adding Jay Bruce, don't speak too soon.

Decent pickup assuming he's healthy but he's not a pricey player. I don't mean to say the new regime won't try to add or improve the club, which they're clearly trying to do. I just think the splashy, big name acquisitions of the Anthopolous era are now gone.

You will show Vladimir Guerrero some respect, droford

I like that Droford has championed such names as Mark Trumbo and Nate Mclouth, then complains about Vladimir Guerrero being a mediocre hitter to the tune of $7 million, which can't be any worse than paying Chris Davis over 3x as much.

Get rid of those sideburns Mattingly!

Nare had his 2nd best season in his career with the Os in 2013. 30 SBs were nice
Trumbo is an upgrade over what they had at DH last year.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/95...o9.gif.opt.gif

2011 seems so long ago

69-93 although they were 15-13 in Sept and elininated the red Sox in game 162. Which pretty much started the Orioles renaissance

Mclouth actually didn't have his best year in Baltimore but nice try.

I said 2nd best

good article on Gallardo

Don't know how anyone can say replacing Chen for Gallardo for 1/2 the cost wasn't an upgrade. Chen gave up 28 home runs last year. Gallardo plays right into the Orioles best strength (infield defense) with the ground balls. Don't really Care about the lower K rate if he's getting ground balls.

Because he's not. Gallardo just posted his best year ever. Unlikely he repeats. More likely he just replaces Chen in the rotation, rather than upgrades. That's the part you keep whiffing on. You can't upgrade if what you're adding only replaces what you lost. Had they kept Chen and signed Gallardo, it would've been an upgrade. As it stands it's more of a lateral move than anything else, and it cost them a draft pick.

I think he has better years when he was with the Brewers..most are saying his numbers are declining but it's only his k rate. Hrs getting more ground balls. Texas defense was shut last year they were 28th the os were 2nd. Ground ball pitcher in OPACY with that defense behind him will do well.

Wei Yin Chen had the 11th highest fly ball % in mlb last year. Gallardo had the 23rd highest ground ball %.

Chen is going from Camden Yards (222 hrs last year) to Marlins Park (111 hrs) he should pitch well for them.

Camden Yards was the top home run park last year and 4th over last 3years

I don't see Orioles winning the division easily at all.... I'm thinking its going to be a 5-horse race in the AL East for the majority of the year.....I personally don't think Orioles or Jays did much to get any better from last year, the Rays at least tried to and have tons of young (yet always unpredictable) pitching and you can never count out Boston or the Yanks....

And Chen was still a productive player. Gallardo replaces him. Great. But he just takes Chen's place. Can't upgrade when your losing players guy. They haven't done anything to add on to what they had from last year. Which is why their offseason is underwhelming despite spending loads of money.

I've given up trying to proven Gallardo > Chen

All other things equal Gallardo ground ball pitcher in home run ballpark with a team that shifts a ton and plays good defense is a Huge improvement over Chen who was a fly ball pitcher that gave up twice as many Home runs last year. The fact Gallardo had success in a home run park with thev3rd worst defense in baseball last year indicates to me he will have a good year and one much better than Chen could have had all for 1/2 of what Chen got from Miami.

Heh

Gallardo isn't doing to well on the physical apparently.

Grant Balfour 2.0

Ugh

At least the I'd were right on Balfour

Because what you're trying to prove isn't true. The only thing you can and have cited is homeruns allowed.

From a run prevention standpoint, you know, the primary job asked of a starting pitcher, Chen was better. 3.67 runs allowed per 9 innings to Gallardo's 3.71. Granted it's minuscule, but they peg them as even at best, not Gallardo>Chen. Their career numbers are in line as well. 4 runs per 9 for Chen to 3.98 for Gallardo. So where's the part that Gallardo is an upgrade? Regardless of his groundball rate, he's still giving up runs at a similar clip.

Innings pitched are similar too. WAR likes them all the same. Etc, etc, etc. There's nothing other than groundballs and money that you've cited to lead anyone but into Gallardo as more than a lateral move.

Okay, I think I take back what I said about Bautista. I mean he's definitely underpaid and all that and I understand him taking a hardline approach with his asking price, buttttttttttt..........




....supposedly his asking price is 5 years, $150 million. LMFAO if true. I could easily see someone going crazy and giving him $30 million for a year or something but there is no chance in hell a 36 year old player is getting that much for that long.

Yeah especially when they just re-signed Donaldson for literally half of that for 2 years

<iframe width="340" height="221" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_dHWL-uEgYI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Technically he's been that good since his rebirth in Toronto. But that's a shit ton for a guy who's gonna be 36 in year one of the deal.

It's generally a bad idea to pay players for past performance, no matter how much that player means to the team (see: Verlander, Justin)

Age-wise, the Jays could get around that problem by making Bautista their main DH hitter although would be crazy to do it for $30 million per year.

$20 million per year wouldn't be that bad compared to other DH hitters like Ortiz for some comparison.

I will fucking murder the Jays if they sign Bautista to that contract.

Don't worry, Gerty. I highly doubt they give him that money.

I don't even want him bach after this year to be honest. I'd rather they spend their money on Encarnacion.

Fowler to the os

Interesting news out of Denver. The Rockies put Jose Reyes on paid leave until his hearing on April 4th. After that, Commissioner Manfred will decide his fate.

Flip Trumbo and Schoop and I agree with Buster O

After missing all of last year with an injury, Cliff Lee still isn't officially retired but the writing is pretty much on the wall. His agent said it would take the "perfect situation" for him to return, which most take to mean coming back to Philadelphia on a guaranteed contract for more than the rebuild-focused Phillies want to offer.

Was naturally kinda forced to dislike the guy because he was one of the key cogs of Philly's string of 5 division titles, but he was a great pitcher. That 2009 season when he only walked 18 batters in 212 innings was absurd.

same. A 35+ year old outfielder, eating up tons of valuable funds to be used elsewhere, no thank you.....One year contract or nothing in my eyes....

After a couple red flags, Yovani Gallardo and the O's have agreed to a restructured deal.

2-years, $22 mil. with an option for a 3rd year.

Me Last year at this time
Well the good news is they didnt sit around this year. Msybe they'rethe AL version of the Giants

The Cubs sign Dexter Fowler to a one year deal with a second year option. Fowler wanted an opt out clause but Baltimore said no, so he walked away. Wow!

HOT STOVE

Jays sign Domonic Brown to a minor league deal. Nice little move.

Droford is sad because Fowler left the O's hanging.

I have no idea what the Cubs opening day lineup will look like now. Just looking at the OF, and ignoring the possibility of a Bryant, Zobrist or Baez, who do you sit among Schwarber, Heyward Soler and Fowler? I mean, yeah you could sit Schwarber against a lefty but he has to learn to hit them at some point otherwise he's a platoon player that belongs in the AL which means trade him.

At least the Jays have the option to not put Brown in the field.

I'd guess Fowler, Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Heyward, Zobrist, Montero, pitcher and Russell. God that's a ridiculously stacked lineup.

O's front office looking like real schmucks right now. The retooled Gallardo contract. And now they lose Fowler.

Sb nation just posted an article detailing the numerous nixed deals due to Baltimore's seemingly impossible physicals. Great offseason out there.

What's hilarious is that they didn't want to do the one year opt out due to losing a pick for a one year deal, but they'll lose a pick for a two year deal and, according to their medical staff, possible shoulder trouble as well. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

I rest my case that the Orioles front office literally has no plan in place to get better. What a clusterfuck.

Could of new rule changes are happening this season.

Mound visits are now strictly timed for 30 seconds and starts the moment a manager or pitching coach leaves the dugout.

Due to a few nasty incidents last year, sliding rules got changed both to lessen potential injuries and determine what counts as a legal slide from now on. Automatic double play out if any of the 4 situations don't happen from a slide.
Phantom out calls at 2nd base are now reviewable.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/so...165116380.html

Could be this year's Chris Colabello if injuries allow him to get out of Buffalo.....

That leaves Soler and Baez on the bench. Dear lord. I want a DH while this lasts.

If droford, with his Craigslist girls saga, was actually running the O's, would it surprise you?

I wouldn't be so staunchly anti opt out clause

I think they might dea Soler or Baez. Baez is blocked by better infielders, and may Baez has the lesser track record, but may bring more back just by being a shortstop.

If I'm the Padres, I'm calling the Cubbies now and seeing what they want for either Soler or Baez. Preferably Soler as there's a giant hole in left field, San Diego.

Should call the Orioles

Tyson Ross for Javy Baez and a couple of minor leaguers

Great, animal Sanchez already hurt

Deal. Do you guys have a starter that would become expendable?