Here's a roundup of what national media outlets are saying about the Orioles-Cubs trade, which sent pitcher Scott Feldman and catcher Steve Clevenger to Baltimore in exchange for pitchers Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop.
** CBSSports.com's Danny Knobler says that acquiring Feldman doesn't make the Orioles AL East favorites, but it should help them get to October.
They're 29th in baseball in team ERA. They need pitching. They need another starter they can count on.
Feldman gives them that.
He's not exciting, but they weren't going to get exciting for what they had to offer. For Feldman, they gave up two guys they'd basically given up on for this year, Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop.
** Yahoo's Big League Stew blog thinks the Orioles landing Feldman will have some impact on the AL playoff race.
Success for the Orioles means that Feldman continues to give good innings. He's got a 3.46 ERA with 67 strikeouts and .227 batting average against in 91 innings. His Fielding Independent Pitching has been consistently under 4.00 the past three seasons. Adding Feldman also keeps him away from those teams who might rival the O's for a playoff spot. Feldman's not glamorous, but he's good enough to get people out.
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** FanGraphs.com's Dave Cameron analyzed Feldman from a statistical perspective, noting that last winter he called the Orioles' new pitcher one of his "favorite undervalued free agent options."
You know the drill at this point; Feldman is better than his ERA suggested last year and not as good as his ERA suggests this year. Ignoring the year to year fluctuations in results show the new-and-improved Feldman to be roughly a league average starting pitcher. Since 2011, when he returned with the cut fastball as a new weapon and changed his approach to pitching, Feldman has thrown 247 innings and posted a 103/92/96 (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) line. Opposing hitters have posted a .304 wOBA against Feldman during that stretch.
** SBNation.com's Nathan Aderhold expects Feldman to be a worthwhile addition to the Orioles' starting rotation -- especially given who they were using as a fifth starter.
Feldman's career ERA is a full run higher than he's posted this season, but if he can maintain some semblance of his early-season success, he should be a huge upgrade over Freddy Garcia -- who the O's have relied on for much of the last three months.
** Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija told the Chicago Tribune that the trading of Feldman is "a shame."
"I don't think this team improves by trading Scott Feldman," Samardzija said. "He was one of our better pitchers. He's thrown a lot of innings, a solid dude, a solid guy in the clubhouse.
"It's a shame to see him go, and the same with Clevenger. A great dude to have around, a great teammate who played the game hard and played the right way. It's unfortunate. Just hope the guys they get in return are comparable and bring the same attitude to the field every day that those guys brought."