Assessing the Orioles' possibilities at first base
Dan Connolly: I had a few minutes to kill while I was in the Nashville airport Thursday before I boarded my plane to come back to Baltimore, leaving another MLB winter meetings behind.
So I signed onto my Twitter account and announced that I'd be taking Orioles questions for a little bit. Within five minutes, I had about 60 questions sent to me. I answered a few of them before I had to get in line for the flight.
As I headed to the line, I passed by Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette and told him I'd give him my phone so he could answer a bunch of the questions. He laughed and said it was great to see how much interest there was in the team.
I'd say at least half of the Twitter questions I received Thursday had something to do with the Orioles' first base situation, whether it was inquiries about Chris Davis or Mark Reynolds or the club's potential trade or free agent targets.
Now, with news Sunday night that Reynolds agreed to a one-year, $6 million deal (plus incentives based on plate appearances) with the Cleveland Indians, I figured this would be a good time to look at the Orioles' first base options, analyze several candidates and add any updates or thoughts I might have.
The possibilities:
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Chris Davis
At this point, he is the Opening Day starting first baseman (with Nolan Reimold, Wilson Betemit and Danny Valencia potentially filling Davis' primary DH role). Davis was supposed to be the main guy last year, but frankly, he did not play as well at first as he or the club would have liked. Eventually, Reynolds seized the job and Davis was moved all around the diamond (and to DH). Before Davis came to Baltimore, he had a reputation of being an above-average first baseman. Haven't seen that yet, but Davis -- and manager Buck Showalter -- believe he still has the potential defensively.
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Comments (11)
Add / View comments | Discussion FAQeasywriter--Go easy with mark Reynolds. I would pay 3X for Youkils. He is going to play 3B. reynolds cannot play 3B. It also tells you how poorly people think of Reynolds. You say Reynolds had 37 Hrs in 2011 but only had 86 RBIs. That seems impossible unless you are a bad hitter. BTW He also led the league in strikeouts that year. We cannot have another .220 hitter in our lineup who strikes out when men are on base and pitchers pitch them tough. We need hitters. And right now we only have 2 very good hitters. Hopefully Manny becomes the 3rd.
Reynolds signed with Cleveland for one year at $6 million. His buddy, J.J., says he talked to Reynolds frequently and knows he would have signed for less to come back here. So, what does that tell you? The Orioles didn't want him back at ANY price. Go figure. What a bargain he would have been at $5 million, which is dirt cheap for someone who hit 37 homers in 2011. And especially for a team that now has not one single legit power threat, or #4 hitter. And people wonder why the Orioles had 14 straight losing seasons. Senile Kevin Youklis got $12 million from the Skankees. Are you telling me he's more than twice as valuable as Reynolds? Duh, no.
Yes, give Chris a bigger glove. Give him a chance to improve by letting him play 1st base.
Get Terry Crowley and Brady Anderson to work with all the players on their hitting practice. It will give them a different perspective than the one they now have.
