O's Offseason Update - Birds Bring In Travis Snider, Duquette Staying, Adam Jones Likes Pie
We’re getting close guys, football season is over which means Spring Training is right around the corner. As Banks wrote last week, the O’s were picked to finish last in the East again, which I love. This team thrives on shit like that, seems like someone’s always trying to set them back. Buck and the boys don’t care, they just win. In the last couple of weeks the O’s made a move to add some depth to the outfield, they held their FanFest, and we found out that Dan Duquette will be staying in Baltimore at least one more year.
Travis Snider
The Orioles made an addition to their outfield last week as they traded minor leaguer Stephen Tarpley and a player to be named later to the Pirates for outfielder Travis Snider. Snider isn’t the big name most O’s fans were hoping the team would bring in, but he’s a solid player and gives the O’s solid depth in the outfield.
The Blue Jays 2006 first round pick, and former top 10 MLB prospect had a rough first half of 2014 batting just .237 with 4 bombs and 14 driven in. He rebounded to hit .288/9/24 over the last two months though, which is promising. Snider should definitely be able to take advantage of the short porch in right at Camden. Look for him to be in the Lough/De Aza/Pearce rotation for the corner outfield spots. I’m sure we see him at DH at times too. While Snider isn’t a gold glove defender by any means, he can hold is own in the field and should be fine learning how to play the wall in right. He can play both corner outfield spots, has a pretty good arm, and can climb fences with the best of them. I guess this catch is okay…
FanGraphs projects that Snider will be an upgrade over Markakis this season, and I agree. He won’t play defense as well as Markakis, but he is younger, healthier, much cheaper, and brings more on offense than Nick did. This is a typical DD and Buck move- low-risk, high reward. I think this move works out well for the Birds. Don’t be surprised if he turns out to be the Steve Pearce of this season. And even when he strikes out he does dope shit like this. Welcome aboard Travis.
Dan Duquette
It finally appears that this Dan Duquette situation is over (for now.) The Jays announced that Paul Beeston will stay on as CEO and President for the 2015 season, but after that I’m guessing they will try and destroy our organization again by seemingly trying to take whatever they want. I’m glad this is over for this year and hopefully Dan, Buck, and the front office can put any hard feelings aside and focus on winning another A.L. East title. Duquette was present at FanFest last week and was actually cheered by the fans.
I think it’s bullshit the Jays can just try and take down the O’s from the inside and not be penalized for it, but whatever, they’re paper champions every year for a reason. Not a real threat to anyone, thanks for playing Jays.
Other Notes
-People say Baltimore is mostly a football town, tell that to the 15,000 plus fans that lined up at 9:30 am to get into FanFest. Adam Jones brought up several people from the crowd and pied them in the face. Just awesome, little kids, men, old ladies, it didn’t matter, they were all lining up to take an AJ pie to the face.
-The ladies of the Orioles were there too and they are all absolute smokes. Looked like the next crop of girls for the Bachelor. Shout out to Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Machado, and Gausman’s girl.
-O’s made some minor moves this week trading local fan favorite Steve Lombardozzi to the Pirates, and bringing back often injured outfielder Nolan Reimold. Wish Lombo the best in Pittsburgh, he didn’t seem like a “Buck guy” and it sucks he didn’t get a chance to stick around. I’m so over the Reimold experience. I like him, but the guy just can’t stay healthy. We’ll see how long he sticks around this time (o/u set at 14 games).
With just over two weeks until pitchers and catchers report, it’s looking like this may be the club we see going into camp. DD has talked about adding an infielder for depth and possibly someone else to the bullpen- possibly Phil Coke or Joba? Still some time to make a trade or two as well. Start getting excited for the season O’s fans, it’ll be here soon.