Or put another way Pete,

The soft news coming out of the warehouse further emphasizes how the organization is loaded with irrelevant, no talent, over-hyped, non print worthy players.....

When do you think the 'non soft' news will come Pete? Maybe another over the hill closer from Japan that becomes key to the O's rotation.... a move that brought attention to Japanese players about how bad the Orioles really were (see news clips out of japan about such)?

Can't wait!

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Pete's reply: I have no idea, but nothing of note can happen until at least the second week of November. The free agent market won't open until maybe November 15 at the earliest and nobody's allowed to announce deals during the World Series. My comment about soft news was because this is a quiet period all over baseball. Have you heard anything of great note other than the Manny Acta hiring?

Peter: This is probably worthy of a blog item on its own. The Orioles have made a terrible hire of a bench coach.

What's a bench coach for? Basically, to be a second pair of eyes, sounding board and strategist for the manager.

Jeff Datz, unfortunately, doesn't believe in statistics. So what's the point of having him on the bench? Trembley already is a bit of a throwback; he needs somebody who understands probabilities so at least he can make informed choices.

I don't see what Datz is going to bring to the bench; it's not like the players will respect his experience, he's not a hitting or pitching coach, and he doesn't know what OPS is. Granted, bench coach isn't a particularly important job, but a bad hire is a bad hire.

Here's a portion of an interview Datz did with Baseball Prospectus just before getting fired in Cleveland:

DL: The Indians organization is pretty data-savvy. Are you?

JD: I'm more of an old-school guy. I'm not a big numbers guy, no. I look at the player—this guy's a player, and this one's not. I'm not too into the numbers and data. I know that it's important. There is some value to it, but you still have to go out and play the game, so I'm more old-school when it comes to those things.

DL: Essentially, you haven't played a big role in supplying the manager with data?

JD: No, I'm not saying that I don't do that. We have the lineups, and that's what I was just doing for the past hour, getting our cards ready, and our lineups ready, so that Eric has his late-inning cards with versus right, versus left, what is his average this year versus his three-year, our late-inning bullpen matchups, like this guy is 0-for-3, this guy is 1-for-5. Oh, yeah. I have all of those numbers available. We have those numbers ready, and when game time comes, and the late innings come, boom, we have that right there in our pockets. So, I'm aware and updated, as far as that goes. I'm daily with each guy versus our guys, but as far as sitting there and saying, "Well, I know Rocco Baldelli's OPS," and this that and the other, no, I'm not studying that kind of stuff. I look at stats, yes. I look and know that this guy can steal some bases, and I know that this guy is tough to hit off of and whatever, but do I think that just because I can pull up a computer and look at a guy's numbers, and he has great numbers… is he going to be a great fit, or a great ballplayer? I'm not going to say yes to that, no. I want to see the ballplayer; I want to see the guy.

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Pete's reply: Was Bill James available?

Pete, I'm with you on the "Bill James" comment. In the quote provided by Section 34, Datz doesn't totally reject the use of stats, even says he uses them. I think the bottom line with him is that he was with the Indians' organization for the past 19 seasons and for much of that time Cleveland has been one of the better franchises in the game. Yeah, they were awful this years and have been up and down in the standings for much of the decade, but then losing players like Ramirez, Lee and Sabathia will take it's toll on just about any team not named the Yankees.

I wanted to make one last point about "An Evening with Brooks" not to beat a dead horse, but just to qualify what I said a bit and maybe make a slight "mea culpa."

I'm writing from Cincy, so obviously I don't have all the details. Sometimes that doesn't make a difference, but in this case it may. I noticed one of your readers suggested that the Orioles were among the groups hosting the event. True?

If so, that casts everything in a whole new light. I'd still like to see someone from the club be there (hey, Flannie's not doing much these days, couldn't they have gotten him out of mothballs?--LOL), but if they're sponsoring it, that should be enough.

Wayne, I don't know why you're ragging on Koji as "over the hill." His ERA was 4.05, which isn't outstanding but respectable. It would have ranked him in the top twenty among AL starters if he had had enough innings to qualify.

He was better when it mattered most, in those all-important games against AL East opponents. In four starts--Yankees (2), Rays, Red Sox--Koji only yielded 2.60 runs per nine innings. The guy isn't washed up; he can still pitch!

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Pete's reply: The Orioles and Crown Petroleum were the two major co-sponsors of the event, and Mike Flanagan was in attendance along with a lot of former Orioles and at least one member of the 40-man roster -- young Steve Johnson, who came with his dad.

Pete, Thanks for clarifying on the event. It makes me feel better about how things were handled. (Now, excuse me while I grab a towel and wipe the egg off of my face.--LOL)

By the way, has anyone ever figured out if Flanagan is still employed by the Orioles? I've heard talk about him maybe winding up as part of the O's telecast or broadcast team next year, I guess as a member of the pre- and postgame shows.

Ken,

Are you kidding?

So how many games/innings did Koji pitch?

And wasn't his MO that he couldn't stay on the field due to injuries?

And wasn't he put in the pen in Japan because he wasn't effective as a starter (in Japan) any longer?

You're giving this dude, this deal props?

Please tell me you're kidding? If so, funny stuff!

Actually Koji was put in the pen because of his hamstring injury flaring up and spent one year as a closer.

When his Japanese team found out he was leaving to go to the US, they "punished him" by making him a spot starter/reliever in his final year there. His numbers were still great however and he completely owned the WBC when he pitched.

lol,

Terrific O's spin......

Some of what you said is true oh mystical one.

Fact is though, he couldn't stay on the field (as we saw with the O's), and was a bust this year.

Any team projecting him to be able to pitch more than 5 inn's per start is a joke of a team.....

Come on now.....call things what they were and are. The Hype must stop in this town, once and for all.

Not sure if all of his games prior to '07 were starts, as it's difficult to find detailed Japanese League stats, but here are some numbers on Koji:

1999: 7.9 innings per game
2000: 6.5 innings per game
2001: 5.7 innings per game
2002: 7.8 innings per game
2003: 7.6 innings per game
2004: 7.4 innings per game
2005: No stats, maybe DNP?
2006: 7.0 innings per game
2007: 1.1 innings per game (closer)
2008: 3.4 innings per game (only 1 save, not sure what happened this season)

I don't know enough about Koji's history or the Japanese Leagues to make anything of those numbers. I'm just throwing them out there. Make of them what you will.

Just wondering...Dave unloads a true baseball man in Tom Treblehorn at the conclusion of his first half year which surprised quite a few baseball people. Then he personally picks his next bench coach & unloads him after 2 yrars. What exactly is he looking for? If he remains stubborn in his so very predictable moves...why even have an extra coach. Actually, come to think of it, I've never even see Trembley talk to anyone on the bench so where is this exchanging of ideas taking place?

When Earl Weaver was leading the REAL Orioles to championships, he sat next to and used pitching coach, George Bamberger as his right hand man. Didn't need a bench coach. Its a stupid concept. They aren't coaching any players from their seat on the bench. They barely even stand up. Wasted money that could go to another sub-par to mediore player.

Peter, the Pirates dealt for Iwamura and the White Sox obtained Teahen so things are already happening with OTHER organizations.

Excuses, excuses......