Q&A with Stacey from Camden Chat

by Jesse on May 6, 2010 7:20 AM EDT in News

(With the Orioles coming to Minneapolis for a long weekend series, I exchanged a few questions with Stacey from Camden Chat. Be sure to drop by CC for all your Orioles needs, and of course my Q&A will be posted there sometime today. Thanks to Stacey for approaching me!)

1. I think it's fair to say that Orioles fans probably expected a bit more out of the gate from certain guys offensively, particularly Luke Scott and Adam Jones. Are these just slow starts, or can you nail down some specific reasons these guys are struggling?

To say that Luke Scott is struggling is actually quite kind. Luke has actually been ice cold since the start of the second half in 2009, which makes his slump much more alarming. Fan Graphs actually just wrote an article about Scott saying that he's been the victim of bad luck and simply needs to wait it out, but I don't know about that. He looks late on a lot of pitches and when he does make contact he seems to pull a lot of sad ground balls. I'm holding out hope that he'll find his stroke and go on one of his home run rampages, but the longer we wait, the less confident I am.

Adam Jones, for him I think it's a slow start based on troubles that he's always had. He's always been a free swinger and he's taken that to the extreme so far this year. He swings at way too many pitches outside the strike zone and pitchers know it. It's become a common sight to see Adam chasing a pitch that's breaking into the dirt. He has shown signs of snapping out of it over the past few weeks and we're all hopeful that he'll continue to do so. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Adam Jones is just 24 years old. He'll reach the 1500 plate appearance mark this season and I fully expect him to rebound from his slump and develop into the player he's been projected to be.

2. From an outsider's perspective, I feel like the Orioles overpaid for Garrett Atkins. How do Orioles fans feel about bringing him in? Was this a signing that was appreciated?

Ha ha ha. No, this signing was not appreciated, and yes, the Orioles did overpay. It was actually a really confusing signing. Atkins had declining numbers 2007-2009 for the Rockies, so much so that he lost his starting job and the Rockies had no interest in bringing him back. And yet, for some reason, Andy MacPhail went out pretty much on the first day he could and signed Atkins to a $4.5M contract. It was then and still remains a mystery why MacPhail thought Atkins, who'd been declining in the National League while playing at Coors Field, would suddenly improve in the AL East.

To this point the Atkins signing looks like a total bust. He hasn't been able to hit, he's no great shakes at first base, and he just lost his starting job to rookie Rhyne Hughes, who was called up from AAA Norfolk on April 24th. He did play all three games in the Yankees series that just ended, twice at first against CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte (Hughes is a lefty), and once at DH in place of the slumping Nolan Reimold. He responded with six hits which undoubtedly means he'll get playing time against the Twins. But that doesn't mean he's any good.

3. The last I read about Brian Roberts was something along the lines of: Nobody knows when he'll be back. What's going on here? Because even at 32, I have to believe he was still one of the overall better second basemen in the league.

Nobody knows is pretty much the case. His injured back has kept him from doing any baseball related activities since April 9th and he recently had a setback where the medicine he was taking made him pretty ill. It's now looking like Roberts will be out for the entire first half of the season, maybe more. The Orioles miss him a lot. Ty Wigginton has done a fine job filling in for him offensively at second base, but his defense isn't quite what Orioles fans are used to, and that's even with Brian losing a step over the last couple years.

4. Brian Matusz is off to a decent start. I know he's been towards (if not at) the top of the Baltimore prospect lists coming into this season. What does he do well?

Brian Matusz came into this season as the Orioles top rated prospect, and Baseball America him the rated 5th best prospect in baseball. He has now made 14 starts at the major league level and he just keeps getting better. Matusz has four above averages pitches: fastball, changeup, curveball, and slider. He has very good command and good movement on all of four. His money pitch, however, is the change up. It sits at about 82 mph, which is 8-9 mph slower than his fastball. He's thrown it for a strike 77% of the time this season with major leaguers swinging and missing well above the major league average. Plus, it's just beautiful. You'll see.

5. Matt Wieters has a lot of tools and looks like he could be an exciting player. What can you tell us about his strengths and weaknesses?

Part of what makes Matt Wieters so valuable (and so hyped when he was a prospect) is the fact that he is good at pretty much every aspect of the game. He is a switch hitter who is capable of getting on base and hitting for power from both sides of the plate. He has a very strong arm and has thrown out 7 of 17 trying to steal this year. Only Miguel Olivo, Jose Molina, and Jason Kendall have thrown out more (although you can hardly count Kendall since 21 have been successful against him. Ouch). That 41% success rate is third among everyday catchers to just Yadier Molina and Joe Mauer. Not bad company.

As far as his weaknesses, I think for him it's less about what he can't do and more about giving him time to adjust to the pitchers. He's just 23 years old (he'll turn 24 later this month) and he's already shown himself to be one of the more valuable catchers this year. Though it's only been about a month since the season started, if you look at his game logs you'll can see a pattern where he hits well for a week, then goes three games without a hit, then picks it back up again. Right now it seems that pitchers are doing a pretty good job of getting him out with pitches low and away, so I imagine once he figures out how to deal with that he'll be back on track. But if you are looking for something he's not good at, watch him run. You might think you accidentally put your TV on slow motion, but you didn't. He is that slow.

6. I have to ask because I know I'd be frustrated--what's it like being in a division where you're constantly under the thumb of financial heavyweights Boston and New York? Clearly baseball has a long way to go towards leveling the playing field, and it goes a lot further than simply a salary cap.

It's definitely frustrating and one of the things that makes it hard to be optimistic about the team. When you look at the Orioles in a vacuum, they have more talent in their system than they did even a few years ago and look poised to improve (although they haven't shown it this season), but when you compare them to the Red Sox and Yankees they still have so far to go that it seems unattainable, especially when you take into account the fact that those teams have the resources to fix any mistakes and go out and buy the best talent on the market without much competition.

The Orioles haven't actually had to directly deal with any of that over the last decade or so, though, as they've been wholly dysfunctional and would have been no matter what division they played in (more on that below), but the Blue Jays are a good example of the consequences of playing in the same division as those two teams. In the past 12 years the Jays have had 7 winning seasons, four where they've won 85 games or more, and they've never finished less than 10 games out of first place. The Rays have of course found a way to succeed, but even they are reliant on everything going right in a season to stay in contention as they can't afford to make up for any big injuries or unforeseen ineffectiveness the way those other teams can.

I don't know how to fix the problem, but I don't think a salary cap does it. I don't like the idea of realignment; the AL East belongs to the Orioles just as much as the Red Sox and Yankees, and I feel that any success they'd achieve if they were shifted somewhere else would always have the afterthought of, "yeah, but they had to change divisions to do it." Maybe it's a pride thing, but one thing I know is that when the Orioles are good again, there will be no question of their legitimacy.

7. Another touchy subject, but one I have to ask about as a genuine baseball fan: the Orioles have finished better than 4th in the AL East once since 1997--apart from the aforementioned resources issue, what's kept them in such a prolonged funk?

Wow. How long do you have? I'll do my best to keep it concise. You've no doubt heard of the shenanigans of Peter Angelos. It's hard to imagine, but when Peter Angelos first bought the Orioles, the fans didn't hate him. He spent a lot of money on free agents, hired good baseball people (Pat Gillick as GM, Davey Johnson as manager), and the O's started winning. But around the time they were actually contending, something happened. The specifics are unclear but a lot of Orioles fans believe that in 1996, with the O's about 10 games out of first place near the trade deadline, Pat Gillick began looking for trade partners for Bobby Bonilla. Peter Angelos put the kibosh on trading him and the Orioles surged in the last third of the season to capture the wild card. The belief is that this event firmly put Angelos into the position of micro-manager. He and Gillick were never the same, and Gillick left after the 1997 season. Likewise, Angelos didn't like that Davey Johnson wasn't accommodating to his whims. Johnson resigned after the 1997 season on the same day he was named Manager of the Year.

After that series of events, Angelos surrounded himself with a yes men and incompetents who would allow him to avoid conflicts like he had with Gillick and Johnson. They continued to sign free agents and ignore building a proper farm system. When Albert Belle's hip went bad, Angelos got gunshy on signing FAs, but they had no farm system to fall back on. For most of the 2000s the Orioles had no clear plan and made dumb move after dumb move, giving money to bad players, losing draft picks, and telling the fan base that the moves would create a contender.

In 2007, Peter Angelos finally realized it wasn't working, and that's when he hired Andy MacPhail. Under MacPhail, the Orioles finally seem to have a cohesive plan, building around young talent and using the draft and trades to stock the farm system. MacPhail's plan is to build the core of the team this way and supplement it through free agency when the Orioles are finally close to contention. Unfortunately Baltimore has become a Siberia of sorts for quality free agents. The team has been so bad for so long that good free agents will undoubtedly have better options. It remains to be seen how MacPhail will handle this issue when the time comes.

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#7 is why the Orioles and I are on a break.

I was born an Orioles fan. I’ll die an Orioles fan. But watching this team… it’s been like watching a drug-addict sibling. You start by insisting he’s just fine, there’s no problem, it’s just a rough patch. But then the behavior continues, and you start saying, well, okay, he shouldn’t be acting like this, but it’s just a phase, he’s got to try new things, he’ll grow out of it soon. When he doesn’t grow out of it, you start trying to help — get him into rehab with some new doctors, constantly express your love and support and devotion, assure him you’ll be there no matter what, but if he loves you too, then he has to try. But eventually, you have the cold sick feeling that it’s never going to get better, nothing’s going to change, or rather if it is going to change, it will only be because he’s lost everything. Your support hasn’t been supporting, it’s been enabling. So you don’t answer when he calls your phone, and you delete the voicemail without listening to it, because you know it’s going to say things like “I’m doing so much better! Have you seen Matt Wieters?” and then you’ll get your hopes up only to have your heart broken again and you just can’t take it anymore.

I actually had a nightmare last week about sitting in Camden Yards (the most beautiful ballpark in the world) and being the only fan there. The players kept looking to me to cheer but I obviously wasn’t loud enough. Woke up crying. It’s an emotionally scarring thing, to be an Orioles fan. (This is one of the reasons I can get irritable around here when people get frustrated with the Twins. Seriously, guys, you don’t know what suffering is.)

One day Angelos will sell the team (please God let it be to Cal), and on that day I will return. Until then, the most I can do is read Camden Chat, which really is one of the best sports blogs on the ’net. Thanks, Stacy, for all you do. (And thanks, Jesse, for doing the interview!)

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 9:21 AM EDT reply actions

Wow

That sounds rather horrible. I am curious, though. what brought you to the Twins?

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. ~ Terence Mann

by John Veldhuis on May 6, 2010 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Not the handsomeness of Joe Mauer.

Definitely not.

by Jesse on May 6, 2010 11:13 AM EDT up reply actions

Until this year, I actually never found Mauer sexually attractive.

This year is different. I think he changed his haircut. Or maybe it’s the contract.

My heart is fully devoted to Nick Blackburn’s eyelashes, though.

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions

When I read that you woke up crying,

my wish for you was that Kevin Slowey and Blackburn would show up to give you hugs. For they are: The Hug Brigade.

I always loved that one.

by FoulJack on May 6, 2010 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions

That would be made of so much win.

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I married a Minnesotan and moved here.

Trust me, had he lived in a city without a major league team, it probably would have been a deal-breaker.

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions

Do you think they'll ever put Cal in charge of the franchise?

Because that would be amazing.

by Jesse on May 6, 2010 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Cal is rumored to be interested in working in the front office

But nothing is imminent.

Sometimes I just want to talk about beer, blowjobs and baseball, y’know? -2632

by Stacey on May 6, 2010 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions

He had that awesome interview not that long ago.

He was very coy. It was the first time I had hope in awhile. (And by “hope” I mean "feeling that perhaps we’ll become a functional franchise before I die.)

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't know,

a lot of Twins fans double as Vikings fans. There is a lot of suffering there I hear (I wouldn’t know, I’m not one of them).

Let's go my team!

by Armaskarhu on May 6, 2010 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions

Same here.

GO PACK GO!

I always loved that one.

by FoulJack on May 6, 2010 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Not to be insensitive

But we do know what it is like to have miserable teams (Twins in the late ‘90s), Timberwolves currently, and Vikings’ heartbreaking losses every year it seems like. I’d almost argue the latter is more painful as a fan because you are so close. As for the Timberwolves, I’ve stopped paying close attention to them because they are even worse than the Orioles (you may think that’s not possible, but it is). In other words, it’s not painful to have dreadful teams because they don’t get your hopes up. Boring yes, frustrating definitely, but not traumatic by any stretch of the imagination.

by Sheldon on May 6, 2010 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions

I'd say the difference is the dyfunctionality.

There’s a difference between a bad team and a dysfunctional team. When they’re bad, you can settle into a sense of expectation, and there’s always the possibility that in the next year, things might turn around. But the fact is, as long as Angelos owns the team, the Orioles are screwed. If there’s the tiniest sign of advancement you can count on him to fuck it up. The ownership is crippling the team and that means there’s nothing that can be done. It’s wretched.

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Also, I do have to say...

…not to negate the pain of the late ‘90s for the Twins, but that was only half a decade, and within a few years of having won two World Series titles. This year will mark the 13th year of losing seasons for the O’s, and we haven’t been to the World Series since 1983.

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Wow, Robin

I know how you feel, believe me. Although rather than a drug addicted sibling, I’ve always called the Orioles my abusive boyfriend. They keep telling me things will be different this time, and I WANT to believe them. They make a few gestures and I always come running back, then they burn me and I wonder how I let myself get fooled.

Sometimes I just want to talk about beer, blowjobs and baseball, y’know? -2632

by Stacey on May 6, 2010 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm a fan of that analogy too.

But I had to go with drug-addicted sibling because, sooner or later, you usually leave the abusive boyfriend. But you can’t ever really leave your sibling. They’re family no matter what. The Orioles will always be my team, no matter what I do. :sigh:

http://www.realityfish.com

by Robin G on May 6, 2010 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions

No, you don't leave him

and eventually he kills you. Quite apt.

Sometimes I just want to talk about beer, blowjobs and baseball, y’know? -2632

by Stacey on May 6, 2010 3:01 PM EDT up reply actions

How much patience will Angelos have with MacPhail?

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on May 6, 2010 11:47 AM EDT reply actions

That's the million dollar question

And the Orioles slow start this season has brought it to the forefront. If Angelos did realize he needed to let the baseball people do their thing without interfering, at what point does he say to himself, “It shouldn’t be taking this long, this obviously isn’t working.”

I will say that since MacPhail took over in 2007, we have barely heard a peep from Angelos. He used to be in the news a lot, rumored to squash trade ideas (Angelos loves Brian Roberts and personally put the kibosh on at least one trade involving him), tell the front office what they should be doing, making bold statements to the press like, “We’re going to compete this year. I know we’ve said that before but this year it will happen.” right before the O’s go on to win 70 games. I know he’s still around but that seems to have stopped. But after so many years of dealing with it, we all just keep wondering when the other shoe will drop.

Sometimes I just want to talk about beer, blowjobs and baseball, y’know? -2632

by Stacey on May 6, 2010 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions

with a name like that

he just screams wordplay

by twinscrazy_german on May 6, 2010 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Jesse's Q&A is up at Camden Chat

Thanks again!

http://www.camdenchat.com/2010/5/6/1460210/inside-information-q-a-with

Sometimes I just want to talk about beer, blowjobs and baseball, y’know? -2632

by Stacey on May 6, 2010 12:18 PM EDT reply actions

great read

I think this should be done more often (with other blogs) :)

by twinscrazy_german on May 6, 2010 12:51 PM EDT reply actions

+1

No doubt. I learned more about the Orioles today than the sum total of all my previous knowledge.

Let's Go Twins!
Minnesota Wild Off-season: In Fletch We Trust.

by redheadzeb on May 6, 2010 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Okay, that sentence is weird, but I think you know what I mean ;-)

Let's Go Twins!
Minnesota Wild Off-season: In Fletch We Trust.

by redheadzeb on May 6, 2010 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions

That sentence just blew my mind.

I always loved that one.

by FoulJack on May 6, 2010 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, can we get an interview with SSS?

That might be fairly entertaining. :)

"A-Rod has that arrogance about him. I’d drill him." -Bert Blyleven

by fischean on May 6, 2010 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Could you slip in a reference to the WhiteSux while you are at it?

I always loved that one.

by FoulJack on May 6, 2010 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions

The Orioles have been surprisingly bad so far

I thought they’d be an ok team, albeit one burried in the AL East. Losing Brian Roberts is obviously pretty huge, but it seems like the other big thing is the disappointing play of Adam Jones and Matt Weiters, two guys you’d like to see playing like young all-stars. Weiters has been ok, but hardly a star and Jones has been pretty terrible. Considering how much the Orioles play the evil nations/empires of baseball, I’m always rooting for them to win, so hopefully they come around a bit (just not against the Twins).

by Luke in MN on May 6, 2010 1:17 PM EDT reply actions

I like the post

it is cool to hear what the Orioles fans are thinking in a quick summary before they come in. Nice job

by Rickfansince76 on May 6, 2010 2:28 PM EDT reply actions

Rec'd

I really enjoy these Q&As with people from other blogs. I hope we see more of them.

"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"Positive happines come whit sucess if you no have that is all bs" -Ozzie Guillen

by less cowbell, more 'neau on May 6, 2010 5:52 PM EDT reply actions