Baltimore stole shortstop J.J. Hardy from the Twins after the 2010 season for a pair of non-prospects —

I remember some here panning this deal because "what's the point?" Well, the Orioles may or may not keep this going, but the point is when you are trying to build with young players I don't think you can always tell when the window is going to open. Putting forth a pretty good team when those prospects are MLB-ready is probably a good idea, so long as its not hurting your player development.

Also really glad to see Darren O'Day have success. I love his delivery and never really understood why he was ditched by other teams.

Wouldn't Johnny Damon have made some sense for this club? Or Vlad Guerrero? Derrek Lee?

Wouldn't Johnny Damon have made some sense for this club?

After the Rays filled their DH spot with Luke Scott I made the assumption that Damon was destined to be the Orioles DH this season. It was very surprising to me that it never happened.

Can the Orioles Buck History and Stay Above .500?

Yes.

Cubs should trade Dempster to the Orioles.

Wouldn't Johnny Damon have made some sense for this club?

Wait a few weeks and they may be able to get him. Unless he turns it around fairly quickly, he can't be long for Cleveland.

This is a very good article, I found it to be an engaging and interesting read.

To the posts above - I’m not sure how Damon, Lee, Vlad, or Scott really fill any holes.

They already have a logjam of guys rotating through 1B/3B/DH that are basically the same:

ZIPS wOBA projections

Reynolds: .340
Betemit: .322
Davis: .319
Johnson: .305 (.336 Marcel)

Scott: .334
Vlad: .321
Lee: .332
Damon: .325

They need a real 3B more than anything else. And no I don't mean Miguel Tejada.

Rany is the greatest, except that he's only 12 days older than me and he makes me feel like crap when I look what he's been able to accomplish in his professional lives compared to what I've been able to accomplish in my single professional life. One of my favorite baseball writers of all time.

So what position does Buck History play? Sounds kind of like a catcher's name to me.

Cubs should trade Dempster to the Orioles.

Indeed... Since I've already earmarked Garza to fetch Profar from the Rangers, might as well get Manny Machado from the O's -- when did Dylan Bundy sign? Maybe we can just PTBNL him until he can come over, too.

So what position does Buck History play? Sounds kind of like a catcher's name to me.

It's Matt Wieters' mild-manner alter-ego.

The O’s need a veteran starter pretty badly. I bet they’d trade Bundy for Dempster straight up.

I remember some here panning this deal because "what's the point?" Well, the Orioles may or may not keep this going, but the point is when you are trying to build with young players I don't think you can always tell when the window is going to open. Putting forth a pretty good team when those prospects are MLB-ready is probably a good idea, so long as its not hurting your player development.

Wait, I'm the biggest Orioles critic here, and I don't think I said that about the Hardy acquisition. I think I said that it's very likely it doesn't amount to much.

Wouldn't Johnny Damon have made some sense for this club? Or Vlad Guerrero? Derrek Lee?

Pretty sure they tried most of that already.

Is Andy MacPhail still running the show over there?

If so, Thed needs to get on the phone because Andy is very fleeceable...

Sadly, as we all know, the Orioles will never be able to win the World Series again until the year AFTER Buck leaves...

I'm totally going to name my child Buck History. Buck History Brown, now THAT is a baseball name.

Is Andy MacPhail still running the show over there?

Dan Duquette.

But maybe Theo can convince Duquette to build a championship quality team for him again. /km

If so, Thed needs to get on the phone because Andy is very fleeceable...

That's a strange comment. MacPhail has plenty of faults, but that's not one of them. If anything, he sometimes demands too much and isn't willing to pull the trigger on a fair deal.

Last year, the Orioles won six of their first eight games, and as late as June 10 were a respectable 30-31.
In 2009, the Orioles began 6-2 on the way to a 64-98 season.
In 2008, the Orioles started 6-1 and played .500 ball for the next three months
In 2007, the Orioles opened with an 11-7 record
The 2006 Orioles started 11-7
The 2005 Orioles won 17 of their first 24 games, and on the morning of May 27 they were 30-16 and leading the AL East by 4.5 games.
In 2004, the Orioles started 10-5
In 2003, the Orioles started 16-13.
In 2002, the Orioles hung around .500 for most of the season;
In 2001, the Orioles managed to stay at .500 through May 28
In 2000, the Orioles started 11-5.

Other than 2005, the O's have a history starting off the first 1 or 2 weeks decently before sliding into mediocrity and then collapsing in August/September. This start though is different from the past, with the exception of 2005, in that it's mid May and the O's are 9 games over .500. Rany is trying to paint of picture that is business as usual with the O's when his own facts show that isn't the case. With exception of 2005, the O's have never this far over .500 6 weeks into the season. At this time of the season, the O's are usually sitting around .500 give or take a couple of games so I'm not sure why Rany is taking lengths to point out that this is a pattern when it isn't. The information he presented was more relevant when the season was two weeks old. At this point, as Rany points out, it's way to early if the O's can stay in the race. Probably not and I see this team as more of a 79 win team, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

It's a fantastic performance from a collection of unheralded arms, and the Orioles deserve credit for crafting such an effective pen from a bunch of spare parts. But let's be frank: These guys were spare parts for a reason.

I'm not sure why having a heralded set of arms matter. The relievers are playing over their heads and Rany makes a good point about the number of innings pitched, but I think it's possible to fashion a good pen from a collection of unheralded arms.

I remember some here panning this deal because "what's the point?"

Regarding Hardy, given what the O's gave up, I loved the deal then. I don't remember much panning of the deal because it couldn't hurt and who else were the O's going to run out there.

That's a strange comment. MacPhail has plenty of faults, but that's not one of them. If anything, he sometimes demands too much and isn't willing to pull the trigger on a fair deal.

I suppose if you want to blame his boy wonder, Ed Lynch, for some of the truly astoundingly awful deals made under his VP BB Ops watch... what is he, Jamie Dimon?

That's a strange comment. MacPhail has plenty of faults, but that's not one of them. If anything, he sometimes demands too much and isn't willing to pull the trigger on a fair deal.

I agree. If MacPhail was still with the O's, he would not have traded Guthrie for Hammels and Lindstrom. And he held on to Aubrey Huff for too long for precisely the reason you mentioned.

Fair enough -- I didn't follow his pre-Oriole trading history very closely. He made a number of excellent deals for the Orioles (Bedard for Jones+, Hayden Penn for Andino, Gonzalez for Strop, Uehara for Davis and Hunter).

The 2012 Orioles look a lot like the 2011 Pirates....

On May 16th, 2011, the Pirates lost their 6th in a row to fall to 18-23 on the season, with a -32 run differential. They were in 4th place and 6 games out of first place.

Can the Orioles Buck History and Stay Above .500?

Yes.

I say no. Even if they are a true talent .500+ team (possible), can an entire division finish above .500? I don't think they're better than Toronto.

I say no. Even if they are a true talent .500+ team (possible), can an entire division finish above .500? I don't think they're better than Toronto.

I think it's exceedingly possible that everyone else in the AL outside the Rangers and maybe Tigers has an even money or better shot at finishing below .500, so I would say it's absolutely within the realm of possibilities.

Even if they are a true talent .500+ team (possible), can an entire division finish above .500?

Its not that unheard of. A seven team division once finished at .500 or better. Granted, it was a balanced schedule back then, but you cannot overstate how crummy the AL Central is.

The 2000 NL West was 6 Padres wins away from having everyone above .500.

On May 16th, 2011, the Pirates lost their 6th in a row to fall to 18-23 on the season, with a -32 run differential. They were in 4th place and 6 games out of first place.

And you've forgotten what happened the next few months, with people speculating whether the Pirates would finish over .500, or even WIN THE DIVISION?

And you've forgotten what happened the next few months, with people speculating whether the Pirates would finish over .500, or even WIN THE DIVISION?

Yes, I know that happened. But what specific similarities do you see other than they are both teams with a history of losing that were outperforming expectations?

Why do they remind you of the 2011 Pirates rather than the 2008 Rays? or the 2006 Tigers? Or the 1989 Orioles? Or the 2005 Orioles?

I'm totally going to name my child Buck History. Buck History Brown, now THAT is a baseball name.

I'm not sure your daughter will appreciate that.

In 2005, the Only O's position player worth a spit under 30 was Brian Roberts and errr... Jay Gibbons (eeek) ,

In 2005, the O's veteran players include Rafael Palmeiro (age 40), Sammy Sosa ( age 36) Javy Lopez (age 34) BJ Surhoff (holy shite!) . that's a pretty impressive collection of has been.

The Current O's whom have taken the field for any extensive amount have their oldest player in 30 year old Wilson Betemit, almost everyone is around age 26-30 (mostly in the 26-28 range) . very likely peak talent age.

The pitching side is a bit less optimistic as the 05 O's also had a collection of fairly young pitchers with some similarities to the current staff, you had a youngish left hander with good control (both named Chen too lol) and back then Bruce Chen could still hit 90 on the gun. both have highly touted but struggling propsects. the 05 staff had Bedard and also BJ Ryan too, so talent wise they were fine but the result was pretty catastrophic outside of Chen and Bedard.

Still, I figure everything taken together there's still a lot more to like about the current team than the 05 version, true we're not sure yet if any of them would put up HOF caliber career like Sosa / Palmairo, or even really great peak like Tejada / Lopez. but there's at least a chance they do that,where as the chancse of those guys repeating that in 05 was obviously terrible.

I'd feel at least .500 is within the realm of possibility, after that it really may depend a bit on how the other teams really do.

It's actually possible that the first 2012 edition of the Battle of the Beltways could be between first place teams. Pretty sure not too many people saw that coming; I know I didn't.