Daily Jolt: Real Hope in Baltimore?
The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morn.
Why Brian Roberts and why now? The Orioles haven't had a triumphing season this millennium. Andy MacPhail is entering his second full season in control of the team's baseball operations. The five-year intend, it would appear, is still several seasons away from coming to fruition.
Baltimore handed Roberts a four-year, $40 million contract extension over the weekend. He is 31, and that answer lingers. Why give Roberts $10 million a season when he figures to be on the down slope of his career before the O's are in any situation to win?
Roberts is a fan preference in Baltimore. Other than third baseman Melvin Mora, he is the longest tenured player on the team, and he has been one of the few star-caliber players in the Charm City during a decade of futility.
Of course, holding onto him because he has been a good fighter over the years or because the kids smile a little wider when he autographs their agenda is hardly causative to spend that variety of money on him. Sentimentality at the outlay of prudent affair determinations tin be the ruin of anyone baseball team.
But there's more to Roberts than his status as Mr. Congeniality at Camden Yards. Roberts is highly underrated -- promising the product of toiling on a losing team for his all important league profession. He gets on base at a well above mean clip,
discount mbt tariki, and is a menace to swipe a bag once he gets there. He has posted one on-base percent above .375 in 3 of the final 4 seasons and has stolen 36 or extra bases in every of the past 3 annuals. On top of that, he's a doubles machine, with 40-plus two-baggers in four of the last 5 years.
His Triple Crown numbers don't jump at you in the same direction as Chase Utley's or Dustin Pedroia's, but Roberts is one of the better second baseman and leadoff hitters around.
Even those numbers lonely aren't ample apt defend such a hefty extension, particularly as a actor who was named in the Mitchell Report. Roberts needs to be approximately and be playing by a lofty level when the O's climb a real dare against the repose of the AL East,
prince racquets, alternatively another he's best utilized as a trade funds.
Crazy as it sounds,
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nfl ravens jerseys, albeit a somewhat remote one, to challenge the big boys in its department very soon. The repugnant gist is nearly in place. Nick Markakis is juvenile and even more underrated than Roberts. Center fielder Adam Jones has a sky-high ceiling. Highly regarded prospect Matt Wieters could become the best offensive catcher in the game over the next season or 2.
What the Orioles lack is pitching. Prospects favor Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman and Jake Arrieta have high ceilings and could move fast via the inferior allies. To altitude it always off,
timberland 6 inch boots, the O's have quite tiny ashore the horizon at second found. Of way, they could submerge into free agency and hope for a bargain favor the an the Dodgers got with Orlando Hudson,
Tory Burch Reva, merely why change an of the few things namely has went in Baltimore this decade.
Roberts is one of the very best second baseman in the game and there is no manifest beneficiary visible waiting in the wings. The Orioles are going to need to reserve charting well over the next few seasons, and they are going to need a digit of things to work equitable right to wreck through in the cutthroat AL East. There's not reason Roberts can't be a chapter of that. It's all a matter of how quickly things come together.
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