Orioles Scouts Banned from Korea

SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap)—The South Korean governing body of baseball has banned scouts from the Baltimore Orioles in Major League Baseball (MLB) from attending local games, after the Orioles signed a teenage pitcher in a controversial move.

  The Korea Baseball Association (KBA) announced Thursday it has informed the MLB commissioner’s office and the Orioles of its decision, saying scouts from all major league teams in the future signing Korean student athletes not in the final years of their schools will be banned from KBA-sanctioned games. That will include all national high school and university tournaments, often frequented by major league scouts.

  The Orioles in January acquired pitcher Kim Seong-min, a 17-year-old left-hander about to enter his final year in high school and reportedly signed him for US$550,000.

  The Orioles’ signing also stirred a controversy about major league clubs’ poaching of young South Korean players. While major league clubs are free to sign any Korean player they wish within the rules, including undrafted high school students or graduates, baseball officials here have long complained MLB clubs’ signing of players can make it difficult for South Korea to develop youth baseball programs.

Korean baseball’s governing body bans Orioles scouts in wake of Kim signing

The backlash from the Orioles’ signing of a 17-year-old South Korean pitching prospect continues.

The Korean Baseball Association, the governing body of South Korean baseball, has banned Orioles scouts from all KBA-sanctioned events, according to a report by Yonhap News Agency. This includes national high school and college tournaments that are often frequented by major league scouts.

The ban will extend to major league teams that sign Korean players before their final year of school in the future, Yonhap reported.

This all started last month, when the Orioles signed Kim Seong-min, regarded as the top left-handed pitching prospect in Korea, to a contract reportedly worth $550,000.

The move raised the ire of the Korean Baseball Association (KBO), which filed a formal complaint to the MLB commissioner’s office that the Orioles violated protocol in signing Kim. The KBO contends that the Orioles should have first inquired with the KBO about Kim’s availability before attempting to sign him.

North Korean media has spun this story into saying that the fiendish imperialist-dog south now forbids young people from being watched by birds, in fear that they may fall under righteous praise of Kim Jong Un that they sing with their every song.

RLYW: CAIRO 2012 v0.5 and More Somewhat Useless Projected Standings

These look more realistic to me than the last set I ran with Marcel.  Probably a bit high on the Yankees, but since CAIRO was created to make the Yankees look better than they are that stands to reason.

Former MLB outfielder Danny Clyburn shot, killed in Lancaster

RIP, Danny Clyburn...

Danny Clyburn Jr., a former baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, died in a Lancaster shooting early Tuesday morning, police say.

Clyburn, 37, was shot at about 2 a.m. at a home at 618 N. Market Street, Lancaster police said.

An autopsy is scheduled for later today. Lancaster County’s Chief Deputy Coroner Karla Knight Deese would not say where Clyburn was shot or how many times he was hit.

Witnesses told police that a man was arguing with Clyburn just moments before he was shot.

Derrick Lamont Mcilwain, 36, of Lancaster, has been arrested and charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Mcilwain turned himself in to authorities early Tuesday, police said, and he is in the detention center awaiting a bond hearing.

...After being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992, Clyburn played outfielder in the Major League for three seasons - two with Baltimore (1997-98) and one with Tampa Bay (1999) - according to Baseball-Reference.com. Playing in 41 games, he hit four home runs with a batting average of .211.

Rockies get Guthrie from Orioles

The Colorado Rockies made a significant addition to their rotation on Monday, acquiring right-hander Jeremy Guthrie from the Baltimore Orioles for right-handers Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom, according to a major-league source.

Guthrie, 32, likely will be the Rockies’ No. 1 starter. He was scheduled to go to a salary arbitration hearing Monday; he asked for $10.25 million; the Orioles offered $7.25 million. He is eligible for free agency at the end of the season.

Hammel, 29, will replace Guthrie in the Orioles’ rotation, while Lindstrom, 31, will move into a late-inning role in their bullpen. Both are under club control for two more seasons, and their combined salaries in 2012 will be in the range of Guthrie’s.

Thanks to Calm Bill.

Melewski: One vote against the possibility of bringing Manny Ramirez to the O’s

More Steve Barber ~ Less Haley Barbour!

Having said that, I don’t want him hitting for the Orioles.

Even if he shocks everyone and has a monster year in 2012 for someone, I don’t want to see that at Camden Yards. Ramirez has done way too much wrong in his career and, if Cal Ripken Jr. is a role model for kids, this guy is the opposite of that.

It starts with his current 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy, which was reduced from 100 games. I can’t get out of my mind the incident a few years ago where he allegedly pushed a much, much older Red Sox front office employee over a ticket dispute. He was arrested last September and charged with domestic battery.

That is way too many “issues” for me. I am not making this decision but it’s pretty clear where my vote would stand if I had one.

Plus, I watched the guy dog it many nights on the bases and in left field at Camden Yards only to see him hit a key homer later in the game to the adoring Red Sox Nation and for a club management which chose to overlook the former because he could deliver the latter. He was just Manny being Manny.

Let him be that somewhere that is not Baltimore in 2012.

A’s, O’s leading suitors for Manny Ramirez

Well, I guess every 500 home run hitter plays in Baltimore at one point of their career.

The Korea Times: High school sophomore joins Orioles, drawing ire of KBO

A Korean high school sophomore has signed a minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles in Major League Baseball (MLB), a transaction that had local baseball officials concerned about further departure of young talent.

The Orioles announced on their Web site that they have signed Kim Seong-min, a 17-year-old who pitched for Daegu Sangwon High School, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Dan Duquette, the team’s executive vice president of baseball operations, was quoted as saying Kim is “one of the top amateur left-handed pitchers in South Korea” who has “an excellent curveball and very good control.”

While several high school graduates have been signed by major league teams before entering college in the past, Kim is only the second sophomore to ink a deal. In 1997, Bong Jung-keun, formerly with the Atlanta Braves and now with the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), was the first to sign with a U.S. club before entering his final year in high school.

In light of Kim’s signing, the KBO plans to file an official complaint with the MLB over the exodus of young baseball talent, officials said.

“In the name of KBO Commissioner Koo Bon-neung, we will soon send a letter to the MLB, telling them to refrain from indiscriminately signing players,” said Yang Hae-young, the KBO’s secretary general. “If things do not change, we will either visit the MLB commissioner’s office in person, or team up with leagues in Japan and Taiwan to confront major league teams’ hegemonic rookie signings.”

Will inform band tonight that we are now “The Hegemonic Rookies”.

RLYW: Too-Early Marcel 2012 Season Forecast

Crikey, such excitement in the NL West!

This is current through Francisco Cordero signing with Toronto, and assumes Prince Fielder at 1B and Miguel Cabrera playing a terrible version of 3B for Detroit in 70% of their games, and DHing in 25% of them.

Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson injured in fall, misses charity baseball game

But Robinson was not able to attend the annual Joe DiMaggio Legends Game. He was recovering from injuries sustained when witnesses said he fell backwards more than 6 feet off the back of a stage Friday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

During the pre-game dinner Friday night, players were sitting on an elevated stage with three rows of seats. Each row was higher than the one below it. Immediately behind the stage was a curtain with no wall or support behind it.

Robinson, 74, was sitting in the top row.

“After all the interviews were done, he leaned back thinking there was a wall behind the curtain, but there was no wall,’’ said Johnny Elias, a retired bullpen catcher for the Montreal Expos.

“He tumbled backwards and broke something. He could’ve broken his neck. He fell back about 6 to 8 feet. One of my friends who is a doctor went behind there to treat him.’’

Elias and other players today Robinson had two fractures in his rear shoulder area, including a broken clavicle.

“When he got up he figured he’d lean back to get up and there no wall behind him, just a curtain. Woomp — the chair went over,’’ Elias said.

Thanks, I guess, to Potter.

Camden Depot: Orioles’ Pitching Years, Options, Cuts

Jon Shepherd offers a model for thinking about pitching staffs as we look forward to spring training.

I have not compared this year’s 40 man roster heading into Spring Training to any other year’s, but it feels as if there is a great deal of roster inflexibility this year.  This post is to run down the current stable of arms and try to determine how many spots on the team are actually up for competition, who that competition is, and who is most certainly going to be placed on waivers.

MASN: Duquette on Betemit

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette keeps placing emphasis on improving the Orioles’ on-base capabilities, and he feels that he took another step in that direction by signing infielder Wilson Betemit to a two-year deal with a vesting option for 2014.

Betemit has posted on-base percentages of .378 and .343 the past two seasons. And he’s been better hitting from the left side, which also appeals to Duquette.

“We like his bat, and if you take a look at what he’s done the last two years against right-handed pitching, he’s got an above-average average and above-average in getting on base and above-average power,” Duquette said.

“His value to us is as a hitter on the left side. His best position is batting. From the left side, he presents capabilities to hit for average and power. And we’re putting emphasis on improving our on-base percentage. If you look at some of the players we’ve acquired and signed, like Matt Antonelli and Ryan Flaherty, they all have good on-base capabilities. That’s something we’ve made a conscious effort to address and continue to address.”

Thanks to EddieH.

Brady Anderson: Matusz is ‘a different human’

HALF-MAN, HALF-BEAST…BUT ALL ORIOLE!

Orioles Hall of Famer Brady Anderson, making his first appearance since being appointed special assistant to executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette, said today at FanFest that the difference between Brian Matusz a year ago at this time and Brian Matusz today is the difference between night and day.

“He’s like a different human as far as his mentality and his dedication and the raw numbers, what type of athlete he is, he’s not the same,’’ Anderson said of the left-hander.

...Also, if you’re not strong mechanically, you’re going to break down. Think about what they do for a living. Think about what pro athletes do for a living. You can’t do average things and expect to be extraordinary.”
“You’re asking a guy who’s 6-2, 190 pounds who throws the ball 190 miles per hour. You’re talking about very, very elite people and you train like an elite athlete.”

Camden Depot: Rick Peterson Breaks Fewer Pitchers?

Jon Shepherd takes a first look at Rick Peterson’s record in keeping pitchers off the disabled list.

Rick Peterson and his pitching lab will apparently be in full effect for the Orioles in 2012.  His analytical technique has been hailed as a major prevention tool against injuries.  I have disabled list numbers of starting pitchers from part of his tenure with the A’s and all of his tenure with the Mets, giving us a time line from 2001 to 2007.  I also have disabled numbers of Orioles’ starting pitchers in 2009 and 2010.

Kiwi teen signs with Orioles

Makes sense, the O’s can’t fly either.

MLB Trade Rumors: Bartolo Colon Agrees to Sign With Unknown Team

Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.

Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.

[Wei-Yin] Chen gives Orioles left-handed starter

I didn’t see an NMA animation for this, unfortunately :-(

In the latest move of the ongoing effort to stabilize their starting rotation, the Orioles officially signed left-hander Wei-Yin Chen out of Taiwan on Tuesday, agreeing to a three-year contract that includes a club option for 2015…

“It’s a unique situation based upon his age, the fact that he’s left-handed, our need and the acquisition cost was really [just] the cost of the contract,” Duquette said of Chen, who was not subject to a posting fee because he was released by the Chunichi Dragons…

Chen spent the past four years with the Dragons in Japan’s Central League, going 38-30 with a 2.48 ERA in 117 games (88 starts). The lefty posted a 2.68 ERA in 25 appearances last season and will be the first Taiwanese-born player in Orioles history, as Duquette, who also signed Japanese pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada earlier this offseason, continues to ramp up the organization’s international efforts.

Chen works off a fastball that routinely clocks in between 92-94 mph, and he is lauded for his exceptional command and use of a “slurve-like” breaking ball for his out pitch. His signing, coupled with Wada and the club’s trade for Dana Eveland, gives the O’s depth at the starting pitching position, fostering competition among their young hurlers and ensuring that setup man Jim Johnson will remain in the bullpen… While Wada could also be moved to the bullpen depending on what happens in camp, Chen figures to be solely used as a starter.

Former Oriole Luke Scott signs one-year deal with Tampa Bay

Luke Scott: Rebirtherr.

Luke Scott, the outspoken, energetic slugger who spent four seasons in Baltimore and was named the 2010 Most Valuable Oriole, has agreed to a one-year deal with the division-rival Tampa Bay Rays that includes a 2013 option, according to an industry source.

Exact terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Scott, 33, was in his final year of arbitration after making $6.4 million in an injury-marred 2011 that ended in July, when he decided to have season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. In December, the Orioles decided not to tender him a contract—he would have made at least $6 million and likely more—and allowed him to become a free agent.

There was talk that the club wanted him back on a lesser deal, but the Orioles never made a push this offseason to re-sign him.

Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects: Baltimore Orioles

Bundy: From Ann Rule to Oriole Way…always with the damn restrictions.

1. Dylan Bundy, rhp
2. Manny Machado, ss
3. Jon Schoop, inf
4. Parker Bridwell, rhp
5. L.J. Hoes, of/2b
6. Nicky Delmonico, 3b/1b
7. Ryan Flaherty, inf/of
8. Jason Esposito, 3b
9. Xavier Avery, of
10. Dan Klein, rhp

Angelos is now on his eighth different GM since buying the Orioles 18 years ago. MacPhail lasted the longest, at four and a half years. Before him, Angelos ran off baseball icon Roland Hemond, who left after the 1995 season; Hall of Famer Pat Gillick, who fled after 1998 despite making the AL Championship Series twice in three years; Frank Wren, who lasted only one season and has found success as GM of the Braves; Syd Thrift, a recycling experiment similar to Duquette that lasted three years; and Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan, who served as a two-headed GM for three years before Flanagan did a year and a half on his own.

Angelos has done a poor job of creating a unified baseball operation pulling in the same direction toward a shared goal, instead fostering an atmosphere where departments seem to function as autonomous units. Duquette, of course, pledges to change that. Empty promises have remained one of the few constants with the Orioles during the last 14 years.

Rafael Palmeiro to the Hall of Fame: Let voters handle steroid issue

Rafael House: The first shelter for the HOF-less.

The 2013 ballot is expected to be a more accurate barometer of how the Steroid Era will be viewed comparatively to baseball history. Palmeiro acknowledges he’ll be curious, too.

“Next year, I think, will be the telling story about what all this means. It’s going to be interesting,” Palmeiro said. “You have guys that were all-time greats, and so we’ll see how the voters are going to look at all of us. The guys [newly eligible] next year will give us a better indication what the future holds for all of us, I guess.”

...“I am not sure what to make of that. I was surprised about Juan Gonzalez, that he totally dropped off the ballot,” Palmeiro said. “I think what McGwire did for baseball—going for the [season] home run record—I think he was one of the great players of our time. It’s just hard to see something like that happen to him, and for myself, for that matter. We’ll have to see what happens next year, whether I go up or down. I don’t have a clear picture of what the future holds, what it’ll mean for me.”

For his part, Palmeiro said he watched the Hall of Fame telecast Monday but wasn’t expecting a change in fortune from 2011.

“I didn’t really watch it that closely this time around. Obviously, I am disappointed again, but it is what it is. It is tough to think [87 percent] of the writers are not seeing me as a Hall of Famer,” Palmeiro, 47, said. “Maybe they will one day, I don’t know. At the rate that it is going, if it happens at all—and it may not – it looks like it will happen when I am an old man.”

Murray Chass: NO TWO SIDES TO AN MLB.COM SELIG STORY and MORRIS UNLIKELY TO MAKE IT

Murray Sez… have a Bud and a Jack chaser

When I left The New York Times in 2008 after having written for the newspaper for 39 years, the first offer I received to continue writing came from a high-ranking Major League Baseball official who was in position to offer me a job as a columnist with MLB.com. My initial reaction was to say no, but some people urged me to reconsider and at least talk about and consider that possibility.

Accepting that offer would have turned out to be more economically lucrative than what I have done with this Web site the past three and a half years. But money isn’t everything. Writing for MLB.com just didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

How could I have gone to work for the organization I had spent my professional life covering? Wouldn’t I be compromising my professional ethics by accepting a salary from people I would be in position to criticize and question if necessary? ...

To be sure, MLB.com serves a purpose, even for baseball writers, for whom it can serve as a 30-team research site in one location and a source of comprehensive statistics that are not mingled with WAR and VORP and all of those other metrics, as their advocates like to call them.

But then there are the self-congratulatory articles that can induce nausea. I guess we don’t have to read them, but they are there as propaganda for fans to see and be taken in by. Yes, baseball propaganda. I had never thought about it before this moment, but that’s what it is. ...

And maybe someday, perhaps when he retires, whenever that is, Selig will be big enough to allow an MLB.com columnist to write the truth about collusion and his role in the labor wars.

By the way, this column was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Based on e-mail I have received from critics of Morris and me, the Hall of Fame should take the vote away from baseball writers and simply establish statistical guidelines for players’ election. The players over the line make it, those under don’t.

Such a system would eliminate what is perhaps the greatest debate in sports, but that wouldn’t bother the stats zealots. Their numbers tell them who should be in the Hall of Fame, and the writers would be wrong if they disagreed.

That system would also eliminate the aspect of the voting that they hate most. Their opinion doesn’t mean beans. The writers’ opinion means everything.

Cameron: Adam Jones, Unfinished Product

I can’t imagine why the Braves would balk about trading their starting LF, a #3 starter AND “prime” pitching prospects for a new Jeff Francoeur…

Former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announces retirement

Melvin’s salud of a thousand delights!

According to a report out of Venezuela, former long-time Oriole Melvin Mora announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Thursday while in his home country.

Mora, who will turn 40 in February, was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks last June after hitting .228 in 127 at-bats for the Diamondbacks. He said earlier this winter that he wanted to play again if he could find the right opportunity, but apparently that did not happen.

Mora was traded to the Orioles by the New York Mets in July 2000 as part of then-GM Syd Thrift’s fire sale. He played for the Orioles for the next 9 ½ seasons spanning 1,256 of his 1,556 career games. He made two all-star teams for the Orioles and, in 2004, batted .340 with 27 homers and won a Silver Slugger and Most Valuable Oriole honors.

MASN: Duquette on Prince Fielder: “We’re monitoring the market”

...and we hope to get him in Baltimore during the twilight of his career!

I mentioned that Baseball America projected Ryan Flaherty to be the club’s designated hitter in 2015.

“Flaherty’s a pretty good player,” Duquette said. “He had 20 homers and 30 doubles last season (between Double-A and Triple-A), which speaks to the quality of his bat. That’s a lot of extra-base knocks. I kept hearing that we got a good bat, and that came from some other clubs. And I like that he’s from Maine. Those guys are really dedicated to the game.”

I couldn’t let Duquette off the phone without bring up Prince Fielder’s name again. Heck, everyone else is doing it.

“We’re monitoring the market,” Duquette said. “That’s a good way to put it.”

So to review: The Orioles retain interest in Fielder, but not at his current price. It will have to change dramatically.

They’re not “out,” so they must be “in.” But they shouldn’t be classified as a favorite to sign him at this point.

Boston Red Sox - Red Sox have more competition than ever - The Boston Globe

This week’s Boston Globe Sunday baseball column.

Orioles make sweeping changes to scouting department

Duquette’s taking an unconventional approach in his scouting department:

Instead of having a professional scouting department, as most organizations do, Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette has decided to severely minimize that faction as he emphasizes video evaluation on the pro level and a need for more scouting in the amateur ranks.

The club’s two big league scouts, Bruce Kison and Dave Engle, will continue in their roles. However, the six remaining pro scouts, most of whom who had specific organizations assigned to them, have been offered jobs as amateur scouts, preparing reports on draft-eligible players. That list includes Jim Thrift, who was the Orioles’ advance scout – he would watch and then issue reports on teams the Orioles were about to play – and Lee MacPhail IV, who had been the pro scouting director. He was demoted to pro scout last month. ...

Although it is not unprecedented that an organization would sever much of it pro scouting operation – the Washington Nationals scaled back dramatically a few years ago – it is unusual. But Duquette has shown more of a desire for statistical analysis and will be using more video for scouting purposes.

Can scouting from video replace scouting in person? I’m inclined to think that, like scouts and stats, the tools should be used to complement each other.

There’s also this: Orioles have added economic adviser to help evaluate players.

Stephen Walters, a Loyola University economics professor, is now also working for the Orioles, providing financial and statistical valuations of players to help Duquette make personnel decisions. Walters believes he is the only such adviser employed by a big league team, though, “if [other clubs] have them, they are not talking about them.”

Orioles sign Japanese lefty

Wada relief.

Rule V Results

1.Astros take Rhiner Cruz from Mets.
2.Twins take Terry Doyle from White Sox.
3.Mariners take Lucas Luetge from Brewers.
4.Orioles take Ryan Flaherty from Cubs.
5.Royals take Cesar Cabral from Red Sox; traded to Yankees for cash.
6.Cubs take Lendy Castillo from Phillies.
8.Pirates take Gustavo Nunez from Tigers.
  21.Braves take Robert Fish from Angels.
22.Cardinals take Erik Komatsu from Nationals.
23.Red Sox take Marwin Gonzalez from Cubs.
  25.Diamondbacks take Brett Lorin from Pirates.
  29.Yankees take Brad Meyers from Nationals.

MASN: Lee Thomas on Duquette: “Some people missed the boat on him”

Duke: The Lost Engine of Thomas.

Dan Duquette and Lee Thomas are working together again. Thomas was hired today as a special assistant to the Orioles’ executive vice president of baseball operations.

...Thomas said he has kept some tabs on the Orioles in recent years.

“I guess the last year or two I have, and especially since Buck (Showalter) came over and now even more since Dan came over. I don’t think people know how good Dan Duquette is. I really don’t. I think there is a lot of people out there that missed the boat on him. He and Buck, I think, are going to work great together and if Dan gets him the right players, I think you will see great things happen. I really do believe that,” Thomas said today at the Winter Meetings.

Just how does Thomas feel he will aid Duquette most?

“No. 1 is whatever he wants me to do. I can do a lot of things for him. I can do stuff that maybe he doesn’t have the time to do. I have no problem calling anybody to get things moving for him,” Thomas said.

...Duquette pointed out that Thomas signed Johnny Damon for him when he was with Boston.

“That was one of the last contracts we did and Lee did that contract directly with Scott Boras. That scene in ‘Moneyball,’ where Boras said, ‘I just got off the phone with Dan,’ that’s not true’” Duquette said.

Orioles get Teagarden for minor leaguer Henry and a player to be named (Viola designated)

The Orioles have acquired catcher Taylor Teagarden from the Texas Rangers for minor league pitcher Randy Henry and a player to be named, who is also expected to be a low-level minor leaguer.
[...]
The team designated left-hander Pedro Viola for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Teagarden.

Rangers catching prospects: And then there were none.