I think Gerty is hitting the pitching staff lineup on the button. I don't expect them to finish last. I think they're as good as a Yankees team built on old bats and whose pitching staff is a hard sneeze away from being on the dl.

I also like their ability to just cream everyone on offense. I'm thinking they'll finish second or third, pushing for a wildcard.

Maicer Izturis announces his retirement. Meaning that somehow, someway, Bartolo Colon is the last former Montreal Expo to still be active in the big leagues.

Uncas ain't going down without a fight.

Hutchison will get a shot at long relief....If he pitches decent, he won't get DFA'd.....

He's gonna have to beat out Chavez and Sanchez which I highly doubt he will.

First baseball game on the radio ofvthe year...yay

MLB overturns Chase Utley's suspension for breaking Ruben Tejada's leg.

So his actions were deemed bad enough to lead to a rule change yet not bad enough to warrant keeping him out for 2 games? Nice job, Manfred.

Chavez going to be 5th starter..... Sanchez in 7th/8th where he belings with Storen & Osuna, leaves Hutchison longman role.....I see his competiton as Gavin Floyd....

Watched NYM/DET on a stream this afternoon on my off-day from work, Detroit pitching depth seems a bit concerning....

I think Floyd beats out Chavez and Drew gets dfa'd.

Pedro Alvarez to the Orioles on a 1-year deal.

Nothing like another no on base strikeout machine.

C'mon DRay, I came to this thread looking forward to your Brian Kenny-esque rant and that's all you've got? Lay it on me.

Lol. Not much to lay on. He's a one trick pony that can't catch, so you have to pretty much dh him. He probably has some value there but for Baltimore, I don't get the move. They don't have anybody to get on base, and Alvarez is essentially a right handed hitting Mark Trumbo, but at half the cost.

Lol at the Orioles trading for Trumbo at near $10 mil and acquiring the same player for half the cost. I cannot fathom how the front office there keeps a job. They don't draft or develop worth a shit, they don't sign any players that improve the club, they make shorter sighted trades, no organizational plan, etc.

I just don't see what Alvarez brings that they don't already have. It's kind of mind boggling how bad Baltimore's offseason been seeing as they've spent a fuck ton of money.

Word on Os forums is the RF situation sucks and expect Davis to play more RF with Trumbo at 1st and Alvarez as DH.

A stellar defensive lineup. Plenty of runs saved in that situation.

Lol my beer league softball team puts out a better defense than the O's.

Well last year they were the 2nd best team defensively in baseball. LF is looking like Joey Richard who has speed and supposedly good defense so basically the only difference is whoever plays RF..oh and full year from Schoop who only played 86 games at 2b and a full year from Weiters who is good glove catcher.

So yeah the defense is gonna be terrible

If Davis is playing RF and Trumbo is at first then yes that's terrible. Wieters has been hurt the past two years and I doubt you're getting a full year out of him.

At least they have Manny at 3B

Hopefully they don't peak too early

Jays won't fade http://www.tpwwforums.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Davis or Trumbo in right is a lose/lose. Weiters hasn't been average defensively in 3 years, and God knows what the Asian import is going to do. If Alvarez has to play defense it's even worse.

Jered Weaver's fastball was clocking in between 78-80 MPH yesterday. Christ. Even for early spring that is dreadful. R.A. Dickey throws harder knuckleballs than that.

Chris Davis can play RF pretty well better than Trumbo anyway

Uh no he can't. Unless you have some numbers to back that up (you don't), in no way can you concretely say Davis plays outfield well. Like, at all. He's not even a good first baseman over his career.

Going from train wreck to car crash in outfield defense isn't much of an improvement. Of course you will dance around criticising the Orioles so I'm not stunned. But it's a legit problem and they have 3 guys who can't catch who will all be getting regular at bats, two of which have to play the field. It's a bad mix.

Lol Jesus, that's 3mph lower than Buehrle's avg fastball last year

Davis is 6"3 225-230 with no speed. Unless you hit the ball right at him he's not going to get to anything in the outfield.

But maybe if he doesn't peak too early he will make the play.

From july of last year

If Trumbo is terrible then Davis is better even if he's just average

144 innings is less than 20 games. He doesn't grade out "adequately". According to the numbers he was below average in a less than ab20 game sample size. You run him out there for a full year and he's well below average.

Not to mention, your missing the point. The point isn't who's better, it's that they're both awful and the defense is going to stink no matter who they run out there. Hence, their defense is going to be bad.

Jarrod Parker, veteran of 2 Tommy John Surgeries and a surgery to repair a broken elbow last summer, has injured his elbow again 12 pitches into a bullpen session today.

God damn...poor guy

He's probably done.

Haven't even read any stories on the injury. But how much damage can the elbow take?

He apparently has some degenerative spinal condition which is impacting his velocity.... I cannot see how anyone can pitch through that.....

Mets waived Ruben Tejada. Damn. He's gotten more shit than just about any Met since Reyes left (mostly well deserved) but I can't help but feel bad for him that his final moment in a Mets uniform was getting his leg snapped by Utley.

In a case where threatening actually worked, Dillion Gee was gonna use his opt-out clause with the Royals if he wasn't added to the 40 man roster. He was, and moved a guy to the 60-day DL to make room. Heh.

That happens a quite a bit with Major Leaguers who have no choice but to settle for a minor league deal, and guys with 6+ years of experience have automatic out clauses.

Actually this is a pretty nice read from CJ Nitkowski about it:

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-...ue-deal-021315

Adam LaRoche retiring out of nowhere and not taking his $10M+ guaranteed money is a bit strange...

possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever read

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: LaRoche chose to retire after <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhiteSox?src=hash">#WhiteSox</a> prez Ken Williams told him that he no longer could bring 14-year-old son into clubhouse.</p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/710181381834297344">March 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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