Orioles: Five things to know
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Some places, spring is about the hot new ace. Other places, spring is about health, or the leadoff man.
Here, it's about the biggest non-sequitur this side of "Boog's Barbecue" and "diet."
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| Brian Roberts says the club has 'conceded that it probably won't win.' (Getty Images) |
"I love the Orioles," says Brian Roberts, whose presence on the first day of full-squad workouts -- because of expectations he'll be traded -- was only slightly less surprising than it would have been to see a resurrected Wild Bill Hagy lead another "Orioles" cheer.
"I want to see this organization win. I signed my deal but, on the other hand, when you see two of the best players gone ... there are a lot of unknowns coming in.
"The organization essentially has conceded that it probably won't win."
You think?
Ace Erik Bedard and shortstop Miguel Tejada are gone. But in return the Orioles acquired 10 prospects to help restock a farm system that dried up a decade ago.
Unlike in recent years, there are no new flashy, expensive free agents in camp. But the Orioles did spend more than $7 million on their first two draft picks last June, an all-world catcher named Matt Wieters and pitcher Jake Arrieta.
There is little protection in the lineup for Nick Markakis -- the right fielder who hit .300 with 23 homers and 112 RBI last season -- causing some concern about how many good pitches he'll actually see this summer. But there is a new director of international scouting, John Stockstill, and a new five-year lease with a baseball facility in the Dominican Republic as the Orioles emphasize different ways of finding players.
"Don't get me wrong," Roberts continues. "I'm not disagreeing with what they're doing.
"I think it's the best chance they have right now."
The man directing this new way of doing things, president Andy MacPhail, quietly sat on the dugout bench on a cloudy and cool morning as the '08 Orioles worked out together for the first time.
He is the man who ultimately will decide whether Roberts, the popular leadoff man and a favorite of owner Peter Angelos, stays or goes. Rumors of Roberts being traded to the Chicago Cubs have been around so long that they're now officially old enough to shave.
He also is the man to whom Angelos has handed more autonomy than any other executive who has been employed by the Orioles' owner.
"There are 58 players in that clubhouse," MacPhail said as a steady rain wasted no time in putting a damper on the first big day of '08 for the club. "Thirty-one of them were not here a year ago.
"That's a pretty hefty turnover, even by baseball standards."
Even so, you still get a strong sense that it's only the beginning. By this time a year from now, that number may be even more drastic. Roberts is expected to be shipped away. Third baseman Melvin Mora is 35 and his numbers declined for a third consecutive year last summer.
Outfielder Jay Payton has become a spare part since the Orioles acquired star-in-the-making center fielder Adam Jones from Seattle in the Bedard trade. Designated hitter Aubrey Huff is available.
Though the player movement at the major league level is the most visible part, it isn't the only important aspect of MacPhail's determined efforts to fix an "infrastructure" -- his word -- that may as well have been publicly condemned from neglect.
"We're never going to be more successful than our ability to grow talent from our own system," MacPhail says. "Baseball America, a year ago, did a study that tracked minor league players from 1995, how many years they played in the majors, and of the 30 teams, the Orioles were 28th.
"That has to change. We just can't be OK at it. We have to excel at it."
It's one thing for the Orioles to be stuck in one of the worst ruts in franchise history, having compiled 10 consecutive losing seasons.
But what's worse is that while the O's have been getting their brains beaten in for the past decade, AL East rivals Boston and New York, in addition to winning, have continued to pour money into the farm system and have such bright young talents to show for it as Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy.
Losing at the major league level and being out-smarted in player development is a wickedly bad combination.
The new five-year lease in the Dominican -- at a facility owned by former big leaguer Junior Noboa -- is one of the key components of the Orioles new construction.
Another is the redeploying of Stockstill, the club's former director of pro scouting, into the newly created position director of amateur scouting.
The Orioles farm system has improved marginally over the past year or so. Scouting director Joe Jordan has been in charge for three drafts now and, going into 2008, Baseball America ranked the Orioles' system 17th in the majors.
Pitching at the major league level has been a significant problem for the past several years, which is why, of the 10 prospects coming the Orioles way for Bedard and Tejada, seven are pitchers.
More likely will be on the way when Roberts is moved. As the rain fell and the Orioles worked out, MacPhail acknowledged that there is "more than one team" interested in the second baseman. MacPhail said he doesn't see a deal on the horizon right now for Roberts, though given the direction of the organization, that remains a day-to-day proposition.
"It's hard not to think about it, not knowing what's going on," Roberts says. "We've got a lot more going on than I've ever seen here."
