Orioles - DLed Sosa and Matos
Baltimore Orioles - Placed OF Sammy Sosa and OF Luis Matos on the 15-day DL.
Matos hasn’t been actually placed on the DL yet, but he will be with a broken finger (out for 6 weeks).
It’s a good thing the Orioles have built up that 10 game over .500 cushion - they need it. The O’s have had a marvelous start, but their offensive depth is non-existent. That Sosa’s production (a mediocre-at-best 269/325/454) will actually be missed really points to this team’s weakness. Walter Young is the only player in the minors that’s even remotely viable as a major leaguer (position-player, that is).
For the time being, the Oriole outfield will be some combination of Bigbie, Surhoff, Newhan, and Gibbons with the execrable Keith Reed being called up for one of the DLers and will be the last reserve. With Matos gone, the Orioles have one of the most top-heavy lineups I’ve ever seen - there’s simply nobody who’s about average, all Hall of Famer performances (Lopez, Tejada, Mora, Roberts) or replacement level or worse (All the outfielders, Palmeiro).
I hope the Orioles have noted this season that they’ve been winning in spite of >35 players, not because of them.
Dan Szymborski
Posted: May 11, 2005 at 12:49 PM |
91 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Related News:
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. RP Posted: May 11, 2005 at 01:22 PM (#1328362)In any event, this really sucks. Losing Matos esp. will be a big blow (and the Ump last night was incompetent).
Summary: Sosa's faking an injury because he doesn't want to face the fans in Chicago. Also, fraudpoopery about steroids.
You cannot be awarded firstbase on a HBP when you make an offer at the pitch. Matos attempted a bunt. He did not pull the bat back. It's a swing, not a hit by pitch regardless of what foolishness the O's announcers rant about. Someone on their production staffs should have referred them to rule 6.08- I believe.
They owe the ump an apology.
He did miss that swing that he called a foul on Cuddyer. The pitches on Surhoff might have been outside- both of them- but the second one wasn't low.
if young got called up, do you think they'd actually give him a shot? this freire fellow is tearing it up in ottawa, but i think he's like 31 or somesuch.
anybody notice that richard stahl (3HR/37K/35IP)and hayden penn (2HR/47K/41IP) are tearing it up in frederick?
Summary: Sosa's faking an injury because he doesn't want to face the fans in Chicago. Also, fraudpoopery about steroids.
Ugh, I don't think Sosa is the bitter one here. Mariotti sounds like a spurned 15 year old girl. I guess Sammy Sosa is on page one of his 'Burn Book.'
Best Regards
John
Penn is actually in AA Bowie, and he's quickly emerged as the O's best prospect. Stahl seems to finally turned it around, but who knows if he's a real prospect at this point. C. Ray is also pitching very well as a closer. If they trade Julio for a 1B or OF Ray could probably step in. (and Parrish could probably fill Julio's role anyway)
Good lord. It's amazing that he's getting paid a lot of money by a very prominent news outlet to write this stuff. Does he even have a shred of evidence that Sosa faked this injury? I'm sure if confronted he would just claim it's meant to be humorous, but that's baloney.
isn't it like ryan accusing nomar of 'roids? produce the body, you mutts!
Early nominee for the 2005 Robert Novak memorial ######### of Liberty award.
This is pretty weak to begin with, but even more so given that the O's will be playing at the Cell, not at Wrigley.
No, it is a failure of roster construction. The Orioles weren't even close to being prepared for one injury to a starting outfielder. When two of the three outfielders are Luis Matos, who has a dismal health record over his professional career and Sosa, who's ancient and had two injury-plagued season, that's an inexcusable offense.
I'm not even talking about having Victor Diaz as a spare outfielder; the Orioles didn't even bother to make sure they had a backup option that was even as good as a 5th outfielder.
The Yankees are a poorly constructed team and even they have better minor league outfielders. The best the Orioles can come up with is Bobby Darula, a 31-year-old journeyman who could hit 340/340 in the majors.
It's OK not to have a spare that isn't as good as Mike Cameron. It's not OK to not have a spare that isn't as good as Mike Vento.
I don't agree. Newhan is certainly capable of filing in if one OF goes down, and I'm pretty sure he's a lot better than Mike Vento (whoever that is). The Orioles probably should have found another OF to stash in AAA after Majewski went down, but that's hardly an unforgivable error.
When two of the three outfielders are Luis Matos, who has a dismal health record over his professional career and Sosa, who's ancient and had two injury-plagued season, that's an inexcusable offense.
Matos does have a dismal health record, but he was healthy coming into this season and there was no reason to expect him to go down after getting hit on the finger. That's not a predictable injury. Sosa I'll give you, but I think Newhan (and Surhoff to a lesser extent) was pretty good insurance for him.
Sure it is. What's the purpose of having a minor league affiliate that isn't equipped to supply players to the major league affiliate?
As for David Newhan, if the Orioles plan was to rely on the good utility guy who just had by far the best season of his professional career, that's not a point in their favore.
Matos does have a dismal health record, but he was healthy coming into this season and there was no reason to expect him to go down after getting hit on the finger. That's not a predictable injury. Sosa I'll give you, but I think Newhan (and Surhoff to a lesser extent) was pretty good insurance for him.
Just because Matos happened to go out on an injury unrelated to his health history doesn't mean that he wasn't a health risk to begin with. "Healthy coming into the season" and 3 quarters buys you a McPaper.
Okay. How about Julio, Bigbie, and Ponson for Hollandsworth, Patterson, and Prior?
Good one. I'm in an AL-only league, and had both Matos and Sosa, so now I'm looking at Newhan or Nook Logan. Ugh.
Let's say A. Jones and B. Jordan suddenly go down with injuries. Or Damon and Nixon. Or Podsenik and Rowand. What options do those teams have for replacements? Are they significantly better than the O's?
Todd Hollandsworth's available. Make us a (real) offer!
(Without looking, I can tell you that there's nothing in the Orioles system worth Mark Prior.)
In that case, pass.
I don't know if the Braves have anyone to cover for Jones, however, Kelly Johnson (.319/.444/.578) would probably be an improvement over Jordan
I don't think Matos was trying to put the ball in play on that pitch, but I'd like to see a replay. Anyone know where to find on on the web?
For the Braves, that PT would probably fall to Ryan Langerhans (in CF) and either Kelly Johnson, Bill McCarthy, or Andy Marte (if they moved Chipper back to LF). Both are pretty clearly better than what the O's have to offer.
For the Red Sox, we'd probably see Jay Payton full time in center, with Kevin Millar moving to a corner and Youkilis picking up the extra PT. They'd be short on backups, but that's workable.
The White Sox would be pretty well screwed at center, since you took out their top two CFs in your example. It could be any one of Timo, Everett, or Borchard, none of whom are up to snuff at that spot. They're better equipped at the corners (Gload, maybe), but clearly a cut below the BoSox, who are in turn a half-cut below the Braves.
The White Sox have Roosevelt Brown and Tony Alvarez hanging around.
As Vlad noted, the Braves have a ton of options without even mentioning that the Braves also have John Barnes. I think a Marte/Johnson/McCarthy/Langerhans/Barnes outfield is likely to outperform a Gibbons/Matos/Bigbie/Surhoff/Sosa one.
The starting RF? Are you kidding? It'll be Dubois.
He's really only had one halfway decent minor league season above the low minors (at New Britain in 2001; his Edmonton numbers in 2002 look good because of the park context but really aren't that impressive when you account for that). He doesn't really have that much power, and strikes out a lot, and because of that his OPS tends to be in the .800 range. He does get on base a fair amount, but he's not especially fast. He's a tweener; not good enough defensively to play CF, not good enough offensively to play a corner spot.
-- MWE
He's really only had one halfway decent minor league season above the low minors (at New Britain in 2001; his Edmonton numbers in 2002 look good because of the park context but really aren't that impressive when you account for that). He doesn't really have that much power, and strikes out a lot, and because of that his OPS tends to be in the .800 range. He does get on base a fair amount, but he's not especially fast. He's a tweener; not good enough defensively to play CF, not good enough offensively to play a corner spot.
-- MWE
-- MWE
Here's the rule:
6.08 The batter becomes a runner and is entitled to first base without liability to be put out (provided he advances to and touches first base) when_ ...(b) He is touched by a pitched ball which he is not attempting to hit unless (1) The ball is in the strike zone when it touches the batter, or (2) The batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball; If the ball is in the strike zone when it touches the batter, it shall be called a strike, whether or not the batter tries to avoid the ball. If the ball is outside the strike zone when it touches the batter, it shall be called a ball if he makes no attempt to avoid being touched. APPROVED RULING: When the batter is touched by a pitched ball which does not entitle him to first base, the ball is dead and no runner may advance.
So it shouldn't matter if the batter's hands are on the bat. (OTOH, maybe a lot umps have adopted your interpretation.) So the issue is whether Matos was "attempting to hit" the ball. I don't think he was, but I'd like to see a replay or some photos (haven't been able to find any so far).
There's a darned good chance they'd improve even if one of them was, as that still leaves a 50% chance that one of them would be Mondesi, and I'm not sure the falloff from Jones to whoever wouldn't be so severe as to outweigh the gain from putting, someone, anyone in Mondesi's spot.
The Orioles are apparently calling up Jeff Fiorentino to take Matos' roster spot. Fiorentino has 1 month of experience above short-season ball.
Source? The O's radio announcers are talking about Sal Fasano being called up.
Don't let Gibbons' numbers get in the way of your rant - if he's a replacement level RF, then so was Sosa.
boo.
Don't let Gibbons' numbers get in the way of your rant - if he's a replacement level RF, then so was Sosa.
Correct, Sosa was.
I'm now seeing that Bauer was sent out to Ottawa, so there will be three players coming to Baltimore - Reed, Fasano and... Fiorentino? I haven't seen confirmation yet.
Look for Fiorentino to go 0-3 with 2 Ks and be traded for Ice Williams.
up on the web, too.
Correct, Sosa was.
Not according to BPro. And neither is Gibbons.
Sheesh...the O's could win 100 games and the world series and you'd still b**** about them.
Is there anyone around here that actually likes their team? I guess the Red Sox fans.
Nah...I think the honeymoon is over. Foulke sucks, Wells sucks, they shoulda kept Pedro, etc.
I still like the Twins, especially after Rivas was benched and they cut down to three catchers.
VORP has both Gibbons and Sosa as a whopping 4 better than replacement on offense. Factor in defense and that's run or two better at best for both of them. Or do replacement-level players have to be exactly replacement to be replacement-level?
A team with a .656 winning percentage and a major hole is still a team that could be better. This is a competitive business; any team that's not actively trying to get better is a declining team.
The problem is that because posters put so much of their credibility into criticizing player acquisition strategies that they are almost forced into rooting against the actual team to show that 'their' hypothetical team would be the superior version.
It's a fun way to spend your days but an awful way to be a fan of a team.
I love the Cubs and I want them to succeed. If I didn't, why would I complain when they do stupid stuff?
Are you sure it's White Sox fans who bought all those tickets to boo Sosa?
White Sox fans don't buy tickets for anything. We prefer to sit at home and complain about Jerry Reinsdorf.
We've finally figured out the Pirates' strategy. They wait to see what MWE posts, then they do the opposite.
Sounds to me like a split second judgment call as to what Matos was doing. The umpire, who does not get to Tivo the at bat while making up his mind, should definitely be given the benefit of the doubt, and those who were criticizing him were off base.
Oh right...b/c no one should ever criticize umpires when they make split second judgment calls.
It makes perfect sense, I tell you.
The Fiorentino move is puzzling, but interesting. I hope he doesn't rot on the bench like Majewski did last year.
It's a little unfair to criticize the O's on their roster constrution here - Majewski and Midre Cummings are both capable OF fill-ins, and both were lost to injury in spring training.
Losing 2 starting OFs at once is a situation that very few mid-market teams are equipped to deal with.
They shouldn't even think about trading Mark Redman for prospects at the trading deadline :)
-- MWE
Seriously, it's not that hard.
Perhaps they did. Colorado was ahead of them in the pecking order for waiver claims, because they had a worse record.
-- MWE
After posting, I realize that Vlad might have been talking about Baltimore claiming Restovich, not Pittsburgh. Had Baltimore filed a claim, they'd have gotten Restovich ahead of Colorado; the waiver claim order is based on inverse order of record in the same league, followed by inverse order of record in the other league. So when TB put Restovich on waivers, Baltimore > Colorado > Pittsburgh. When Colorado DFA'd Restovich, Pittsburgh would have been ahead of Baltimore.
-- MWE
Is this still true? I thought that, as of this year, league no longer is a consideration (just as it isn't with the Amateur draft anymore either).
That's it exactly, Mike. Sorry for the confusion; I was responding to Dan in #79.
I think you could also swing it if your third catcher were your primary high-leverage PH, and Eddie Taubensee sort of guy. That way, there would at least be some tactical purpose for him sitting on the bench...
The Diamondbacks fans sure seem excited about their team.
It's funny: The DBacks got off to a relatively hot start, and their fans are crowing about how much better they are than everyone thought. The White Sox got off to an even hotter start, and their fans basically said, "Eh, they're not that good."
Chicago fans have learned from experience that they should temper their excitement.
Isn't this exactly why Fasano was recalled? The orioles have an excellent hitter at C and try to get him in the lineup as DH whenever he's not catching. This will happen even more often with Sosa out b/c Palmeiro and Gibbons will need to play every day. If Lopez is DHing and Gil catching, the Orioles are screwed if they want to PH for Gil late in the game. This could happen somewhat frequently over the next few weeks.
Mind you, I'm not endorsing the Fasano promotion. I'd rather have them DH Lopez less over the next few weeks and give Young some ABs, but bringing up a 3rd catcher right now is defensible.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main