Last night the Nee York Yankees traded away their star catching prospect, slugger Jesus Montero and other pieces to the Seattle Mariners. In return the Yankees got Mariners rookie sensation Michael Pineda. Still not finished, the Yankees also consummated a deal for Los Angeles Dodgers free agent Hiroki Kuroda.
The Yankees have officailly set their rotation leaving them room to dump struggling AJ Burnett to free up salary or maybe even trade struggling young starter Phil Hughes.
One question comes to mind, why would the Mariners do this? Montero is a catcher in theory, but all reports have him as being a well below average backstop. His bat is supposed to be stuff of legend, but Seattle is such a vast ballpark I’m not sure how well a power bat like Montero will really play there. Pineda is young, cheap and talented – very talented. This seems like such a lopsided deal right now, lopsided in the Yankees favor. I could sit here and try to soothe the hurt of this by quoting stats that have Pineda being far more human away from Seattle. I could talk about Pineda’s fly-ball tendencies and how those will bite him a bit in the wind-tunnel of New Yankee Stadium; but I won’t because it doesn’t really matter. Pineda is a Yankee, as is Kuroda. They will drink the same magic elixir as Bartolo colon did last year and be co-Cy Young winners.
The Orioles signed Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-Yin, and it is a great move. He was considered the best Japanese pitcher coming out this year not named Darvish. The step is a bit bigger than that former statement implies but the fact remains that the guy is talented. If Chen were signed by one of the powers of the AL East it would have been headline news on ESPN. And the Orioles got him, he is young, cheap and has serious upside. It was a great move.
No one really cares.
No one cares because no one has heard of Chen, so therefore it is not a “real” move. For example, the other night I was hosting a symposium of my colleagues at a local tavern. We were discussing many things: politics, war, novels, literature, beer, eventually the conversation turned to the Orioles. On his way out, a stranger interjected: “The Orioles need to stop building monument parks and alter walls and GET BETTER PLAYERS!” I mentioned Chen, he rolled his eyes and walked away. Until the Orioles announce they have signed Prince Fielder that one man will not be satisfied and any other move will be nothing more than some sort of dodge to scam fans out of their money.
To fans like him, and there are many, they see the Orioles host of small moves no matter how competent they may be and shut down. They see what the Yankees did last night and they get angry. What Duquette has done so far this winter has largely been organizational and behind-the-scenes moves that offer no real predictions on the year ahead. Will the appointment of a Minor League Hitting Coordinator help the major league team in 2012? Who knows, probably not. But is it good in the longterm? Yes! That is what this organization has desperately needed. These are the types of moves that help over the next couple of years and beyond.
The truth of the matter is this: Any significant improvement we see in 2012 will come from within. Matusz, Britton, and Arrieta; Markakis, Reimold, and Wieters. If all of these players begin to play the game as they were all expected to play then the Orioles’ future prospects will look a lot better. But if this group of core players continues to be stuck in neutral in 2012 then it will be a long time before another statue gets added to that memorial park beyond the centerfield wall and that one patron will never be happy.
