While I was distracted this weekend with family Christmas parties, heartbreaking football games, and Internet outages, the Orioles cut ties with Daniel Cabrera, failing to tender him a contract by the midnight deadline on Friday night/Saturday morning. This ends the five-year tenure of one of the most frustrating performers ever to wear an O's uniform. A 6'8" pitcher with a nasty attitude and an arm speed of ninety-plus miles per hour will get all the chances in the world, and the Birds surely used up a lot of those chances. It doesn't matter how unhittable your pitches are if they seldom find the plate, but Danny's problems were compounded by an increase in hits by opposing batters. His velocity started to tail off, and the team was convinced that he was injured, though they couldn't find any concrete evidence. That was enough to scare them away from a probable $5 million contract for 2009. While I cannot fault Baltimore for settting Cabrera free, and I will not miss the few dozen headaches per year that he caused, there's still a nagging feeling that he will win 15-18 games somewhere and make us look bad. Who knows?
Showing posts with label 2008 upper deck first edition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 upper deck first edition. Show all posts
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Daniel Cabrera, 2008 Upper Deck First Edition #143
While I was distracted this weekend with family Christmas parties, heartbreaking football games, and Internet outages, the Orioles cut ties with Daniel Cabrera, failing to tender him a contract by the midnight deadline on Friday night/Saturday morning. This ends the five-year tenure of one of the most frustrating performers ever to wear an O's uniform. A 6'8" pitcher with a nasty attitude and an arm speed of ninety-plus miles per hour will get all the chances in the world, and the Birds surely used up a lot of those chances. It doesn't matter how unhittable your pitches are if they seldom find the plate, but Danny's problems were compounded by an increase in hits by opposing batters. His velocity started to tail off, and the team was convinced that he was injured, though they couldn't find any concrete evidence. That was enough to scare them away from a probable $5 million contract for 2009. While I cannot fault Baltimore for settting Cabrera free, and I will not miss the few dozen headaches per year that he caused, there's still a nagging feeling that he will win 15-18 games somewhere and make us look bad. Who knows?
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Chad Bradford, 2008 Upper Deck First Edition #145
Rebuilding means saying goodbye to veterans, even sentimental favorites. Chad Bradford was one of the Orioles I liked the most, even though he didn't make it through his second season in Baltimore. I've always enjoyed the unusual throwing motion of submarine pitchers, and Chad used that odd delivery to his advantage as one of the quietest, most effective relievers in baseball. He almost never gives up home runs (making the moon shot that Manny Ramirez hit off of him for his 500th career longball that much more remarkable) and doesn't walk a lot of guys. He doesn't get a lot of attention because he shrinks from the spotlight and middle relievers are by and large an anonymous bunch. Hopefully now that he's back in a pennant race, Chad will get his due - whether he likes it or not.I'm sorry to see Chad Bradford go, but I'm glad that he'll get a chance to win some hardware. I'm even happier that he'll be doing so for the Tampa Bay Rays, who the O's should see as kindred spirits (as well as a blueprint for future success). Chad will still be fighting the good fight against the Yankees and Red Sox; as an Orioles fan, that's all I ask.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
