Yesterday, Thursday was huge, not only because they won, but because a trade was made that could impact the future of the Baltimore Orioles. I’ll speak briefly about the game, and onto the trade.
The Orioles won yesterday afternoon, defeating the Kansas City Royals, 7-3, to take the split in a four game series; however, the victory perhaps came at a high price as Brad Bergesen left the game due to injury.
Bergesen (7-5) went seven innings on the afternoon and got the win, but had to leave the game because he got drilled by a Billy Butler liner that got him on his left shin. Matt Wieters – who was catching – snared the ball and threw out Butler, but Bergesen was hurt and after leaving the mound, he would collapse in the dugout.
At the end of the day, Bergesen didn’t break his leg – which is great – and is still ailing with swelling on his leg. One would think he would skip his next start to recuperate.
The Baltimore offense jumped on Kansas City starter Luke Hochevar (who took the loss and is 6-4) early as Ty Wigginton hit a solo shot – his seventh – to give them an early 1-0 lead. They busted open in the fifth as the Orioles scored four times off a Nick Markakis RBI-single, and then Aubrey huff had a three-run double.
The Orioles pounded the Royals some more as took a 7-0 lead in the sixth inning thanks to a Brian Roberts RBI-double and a Felix Pie RBI-single.
Kansas City finally scored in the seventh off a David DeJesus RBI-single, and scored twice more in the eighth off a Joe Buck two-run homer – his 4th of the season.
The big news out of the day aside from the victory over the Royals was that closer George Sherill was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two minor league prospects — third baseman Josh Bell and pitcher Steve Johnson (the son of former Oriole and MASN/the Fan analyst Dave Johnson).
From what I know now about this deal, perhaps Andy MacPhail could have gotten more; however, he did get some value for Sherrill. It looks like Bell is a power hitter in the making, while Steve Johnson has potential as a back-of-the-rotation guy or an arm in the bullpen.
From MASN Sports: Josh Bell is a switch-hitting third baseman, who is 22 years old.
He is currently batting .296-11-52 with Double-A Chatanooga and has 30 doubles in 94 games. He goes 6’3″, 235 pounds. He has an on base percentage of .386 and a slugging percentage of .497. This year he is hitting .212 vs. LHP and .335 vs. RHP. Bell was a fourth-round draft pick by the Dodgers in 2005. He is from Lantana, Florida.
Power is one of his best tools and some scouts rated his power as 70 on the 20-80 scale. On defense he is said to have a strong arm but his range is not great.
Steve Johnson is a 21-year-old right-hander from Baltimore and the son of O’s radio and TV broadcaster Dave Johnson. Steve was just recently promoted to Double-A Chananooga and pitched six shutout innings with seven strikeouts last Monday night. In two Double-A starts, he is 1-1, 1.69.
Earlier, in the California League at Inland Empire, he went 8-4, 3.82 in 16 starts with 102 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings.
The Orioles are building for the future and Bell along with Johnson are two more pieces in the puzzle. Will they be up in 2010 – probably not, and they may not pan out in the long run. However, at this point, anytime you can move a 32-year old closer to two solid minor leaguers, it’s a risk worth taking especially considering that the organization isn’t going to contend at least for a few seasons.
It sucks to see Sherrill leave, but he’s going to a winner and he’ll have a chance to see the playoffs and become part of something big in Los Angeles. He would not have had that chance for a while in Baltimore. It’s not to say that Sherrill was not a good closer for Baltimore; however, he’s not in the elite class such as a Mariano Rivera or Jonathan Papelbon. I’m sure the team has someone in the pipeline who could reasonably fill Sherrill’s shoes down the road.
