After my initial aversion to Reynolds I now agree he can be an asset. If we use him primarily as a DH and let him occasionally fill in as a corner infielder to give us the best lineup he can give us a good bat plus a lot of flexibility.

Agreed. He is essentially doing better than could have been reasonably expected. Not complaints about the trade.

He sure does hit some bombs! The 368 ft hr off burnett last night looked like a bunt compared to some of the dingers he's hit. His defense seems to have gotten a little better too...this trade was a double thumbs up!

Offensively, Reynolds is a predictable set of statistics that you can throw into the the linuep. I wish his defense was more steady, because this whack-a-mole philosophy at 1st base is tiresome. I'd love to see him cement his position at 3rd for years to come. Power at the corners, defense and OBP up the middle. Sprinkle in some major league caliber pitching, and you've got yourself a team. Reynolds and Hardy have been very good acquisitions for this team. Jones is starting to blossom as a top tier centerfielder. It seems we will simply have to adjust our expectations downward for Markakis and Weiters, but they can be contributors. Roberts is done, so the blueprint to Major league respectability should include a 2nd baseman, run producing 1st baseman and left fielder, DH with any power... Goodbye Vlad, wish we had you 5 years ago. Accomplish that with a complete overhaul of the entire pitching staff, then we've got something. I'm sure that these minor flaws will be addressed in the offseason, enabling next years dramatic turn around. Sorry... couldn't resist, but at least I tried to type that last sentence with a straight face.

I, for one, am glad we have Reynolds. He hits the long ball, drives in runs, and shows good plate discipline. While his defense at 3B has rightly been criticized, he's been playing very good defense at 1B, better than anyone expected.

I agree with you, Pete, that MacPhail's major trades have turned out well, and if what we saw last night from Tommy Hunter was any indication, MacPhail made a steal trading Koji for Hunter and Davis. Whatever Davis may bring after coming off the DL will only enhance the lopsidedness of this deal.

But Wait! There's more! Going by the numbers--and there's really nothing but numbers--Reynolds is one of the very best home run hitters in baseball. At age 27, he has 151 career HR's. Among other 27-year-olds, Prince Fielder has an amazing 220, Ryan Braun 153. David Wright, who's 28, has 180. No one else Reynolds's age or a year older is ahead of him. That's some pretty rare company, and I'm excited about watching him play over the next dozen years.

youre right on here we got what we thought we get , a hiiter who could aproach 40hr 100rbis and hit about 230, if we had the pitching it would even make this trade look even better.

Earl had it right...pitching, defense and the 3 run homer...in that order. We needed to bolster the pitching, starting and relief, before anything else. Doesn't matter how Reynolds and Hardy did without addressing the pitching first. And, no, we shouldn't have relied on a bunch of young kids....need a good mix.

We make these things too complex; it's really pretty basic.

Nice, positive Orioles piece Peter (in such a difficult and emotional time). Thank you...... Reynolds can also play a few positions and apparently has been a real good clubhouse presence. The trade has been benfecial to both teams, which is what is supposed to happen right? Although the record doesn't reflect it the organization is in better shape now than when Macphail arrived.

Plus his defense has gotten better. He plays first really well.

By the way, Fielder did say he was willing to DH. Don't know if he said that to impress the Yankees and Red Sox , or its just some ploy to help set the table for the post-game meal.

I agree. Reynolds also has a pretty good OPS. While his defense hasn't been great, and the strikeouts are concerning he doesn't hit into double plays that much. More than I can say for Guerrero. AM also made a calculated guess regarding Hernandez, who no one knew for certain based on his track record was going to have the year he has.

As wonderful as it would be to sign Prince Fielder, I would rather see the Orioles pick up a third baseman and leave Mark at first. Better yet, they could sign Fielder and a third baseman; between the two of them, Mark & Prince could cover first and DH.

I'll take Reynolds. You're correct, 30 hr guys are hard to find. And Reynolds now gives the O's options. Maybe they don't need to find that power-hitting first baseman after all. Reynolds has looked terrific at 1B, and his erratic throwing arm is not such a liability there. So the O's can seek a power-hitting 3rd baseman OR 1st baseman in the off season. But don't look now, there are a couple of promising first basemen in the O's minor league teams.

J.J. Hardy was a great addition, and Adam Jones is terrific compensation for Bedard. I still think the pitching staff and the up-and-comers in the minors could give the O's a strong pitching staff, but adding 2 more rotation-ready starters should be a high priority. The O's need to have a middle-of-the-pack starting rotation before they can aspire to be a .500 level team.

I agree Peter and I do believe he can be a better contact hitter at the plate...maybe in the .250 range which would be more than adequate. I haven't watched enough games of him at third base really, but I do like him at first a lot.

Peter,
What is Mark Reynolds? He's basically Adam Dunn (in his peak years) at about a fraction of the cost. In any given year, there's only a handful of 30+ HR guys in both leagues. So, it's good to get one of them, and not even pay for it at market rates, to boot. It's a good move.

I know it doesn't feel like it because the young pitching has disappointed so badly, but both of the trades MacPhail made this offseason were far-and-away extremely successful ones. Both Hardy and Reynolds are having stellar rebound years. How many times could you have said that in the last decade?

Now if we could just find a way to pluck a jewel out of the pitching scrap heap in '12, we might be onto something.

Marks defense at first base coupled with his power at the plate make him a no brainer to take that position the rest of this season and in 2012. His numbers make him the perfect choice. Andino has been playing well at third and his stick has gotten better, though power numbers wil always be light. J.J. makes up for that. We can only hope this scenario plays out.

Pete,

I quite agree with you. Mark has an outside shot at a 40-HR season (ESPN.com is projecting 38), and who was the last Orioles to go that high, Albert Belle.

This was a great trade by Andy, especially when you consider that is just entering his prime years (he doesn't turn 29 until August 3 next year) and has shown he can handle the glove at first (really, at third, too, if he can cut down on the bad throws).

You mention how fans are disappointed how the team has struggled again, and that's true, but very little of that can be laid at the feet of Andy and Buck Showalter, it just can't.

One only need to look at the serious run of injuries to several key players that the O's have had to endure from Day One up to the present, not to mention how usually solid players such as Nick Markakis had unexpected slumps to start the season, to realize that this has more to do with not having a deep enough bench, than to anything they did or didn't do, especially MacPhail.

If someone wants to complain about the signings of Derrick Lee and Vladimir Guerrero, that legitimate as they were gambles that didn't pay off, but still there is only so much anyone in the front office can do at the moment, when the top free agents don't want to play for a perennial loser in Baltimore.

Very little of the O's continuing woes since MacPhail took over can he rightly be asked to shoulder. Yes, there were duds like the Garrett Atkins signing, but again, there was only so much he has been to do, with minimal interest from the top players to sign with the Orioles, limited resources with which to sign them even if the do want to come here and far more attractive offers from GMs who can offer as much or more and for clubs who are playoff contenders every year instead of bottom feeders.

Maybe a player the caliber of J.J. Hardy signing a three-year extension, along with some solid core players and some highly touted prospects, will finally sway a name player to disregard conventional wisdom and join the Orioles. A strong finish from the team down the stretch would help quite a bit.

Are you seriously trying to make a case for Mark Reynolds? The guy has struck out over 200 times in 3 straight seasons. If that's not a record, it has to be close. The worst part is, he strikes out when the pressure is on. He is also a below average fielder. He is making over 5m this year, while David Hernandez and Ryan Roberts(D-backs current 3rd baseman) are making under 900k combined. But the only real thing that matters is the W-L. D-backs are 73-59 after a last place division finish in 2010. The trade made last December is a big reason why the D-Backs went from worst to first this year. Orioles can have Reynolds and his 30 home runs, I'll take a division title any day.

Agree, Andy's four major trades were outstanding. Other trades were helpful: Aubrey Huff to Detroit for Brett Jacobson who was half of the JJ Hardy trade. Catcher Ramon Hernandez for prospects Waring and Turner who both have real talent. Turner is starting for Mets.
George Sherrill for Josh Bell (Norfolk). Greg Zaun for Rhyne Hughes (Norfolk). Oscar Salazar for Cla Meredith.

Better yet, Reynolds is fielding at first base much better than he did at third. If at all possible, first should be his spot next year and we should go out and buy ourselves a mediocre 3B, which is all that we can afford.

But money usually goes for bats, not fielding, so our brand spanking new third baseman should be a good fielder. Also, if he can stay healthy for a week or two over the course of the season, Chris Davis is said to play third base, and we already have him.

Bottom line - Reynolds should stay at first unless he hates it over there, and from the looks of him, it seems that he's actually having fun.

Those few trades will loom very insignificantly over Andy's legacy in Baltimore. I wanted his plan to work, but the fact is is has been a miserable failure. It's not about a few exceptional players, it's about a team that has yet to coalesce and McFail never put a complete team together, not once, plus he kept Trembley around, hahaha.
You make Reynolds sound better than he is, forgetting that he was bad at third base, but he is a good player and I'm glad he's on the team.
As for McFail, BE GONE and take Angelos with you.

Pretty good first year in the American League. I'm comfortable with him at first, or splitting time between first, third and DH.

I believe that Prince Fielder is going to be a free agent at the end of this season, and heard that Washington might try to lure him to their team, whatever the Orioles can do, don't let that happen; I think he'll look better wearing an Oriole uniform

You are absolutely right that we knew what we were getting when we traded for Reynolds. He's a guy that's going to whiff around 200 times a year, hit 30-40 booming HR's ( not many of his just clear the fence) and hit for a relatively low average. We also knew that he wasn't a gold glove infielder. He certainly did not disappoint any of those expectations. He has however shown that he has more potential to fill the void at 1B than anyone we have currently in our system. I think that the O's would be well served to encourage him to work on his first base skills in the off season and pursue through trade or free agency a third baseman. Josh Bell certainly isn't the answer. Let's unload Luke Scott and Brian Roberts if someone will actually take them and get a cornerstone at the hot corner. Just a frustrated fan's opinion!

No one can knock the Jones, Hardy, and Reynolds trades - they have all turned out well for the O's, now and into the future. (I hope the O's keep Reynolds at first as he is very good over there).

McPhail’s failure is assembling a pitching staff and defense that can consistently compete at a high level. His biggest mistake is that he banked on the fact that all four of our young pitchers would mature at the same rate. The odds are against that happening (a mistake I believe we all made), but Andy McPhail should have known better. He has also failed to stock our farm system with players that have major league potential. Four year of drafting sixth or higher is sufficient time to stock the minor league system. Although we are not barren, we do not have sufficient talent to make an impact at the major league level.

Most of all, he failed to change the culture of the team and organization. In that area, we are about the same as when he took over. The O's need to measure themselves against the best and work to get to that point - That has not happened. When you are as low as the O’s are, you cannot make small moves to turn it around. Tinkering here and there with a fundamentally flawed product only gets you a marginally improved but still flawed product. This is what we have done over the past thirteen plus years. It may work for short periods of time as we have seen, but everything is revealed in a 162 game season. We have never been built to get through a full season. Injuries and other issues seem to kill us because there is no foundation or depth.

We need to take a newer, smarter, bolder approach to improving the club. Andy McPhail with his methodical ways is not the one to do that.

The Tejada trade is "pretty much beyond reproach?"

The five players acquired have not done a whole lot for the O's. Mike Costanzo was a bum and is out of baseball if I am not mistaken. Matt Albers was allowed to leave and is thriving for the Red Sox. The entire time that Dennis Sarfate was here I was hoping that he developed a solid go-to pitch called a strike, but he never did. The so-called jewel of the trade was Troy Patton, who came to us injured, has never lived up to the PR, and is currently away from the team to deal with his DUI.

The only argument you would have is for Luke Scott, who was arguably the most streaky and inconsistent hitter in the major leagues during his time here. Everyone loved to talk about how Luke could put a team on his back for a few weeks, but people failed to mention that he could bury a team for the next few weeks. Not to mention the fact that he is a terrible fielder, and is probably going to be non-tendered after the season. Oh, and please do not mention that he was voted O's MVP last year. He did not have any real competition.

Oh, and one more thing. MacFail gets so much credit for the Bedard trade, but that was only possible thanks to the Seattle GM at the time Bill Bavasi, who deserves the title of worst GM ever.

Beyond reproach? Scmuck, it seems that you are still under orders to be nice to the O's.

Nice work, Pete. I couldn't agree more. I assume I get the first comment because everyone else's power is out, so I'll take advantage of the moment, and say that I thought Reynolds was a great acquisition from the get-go. It was so disappointing to see so many of our young arms falter, because David Hernandez really was disposable back when we got Reynolds. We had an excess, and we brought in a need: a power-hitting right-hander. The guy can be frustrating with the strikeouts, but he never gets cheated. He's been everything we expected and more. If he can keep developing into about a .250 hitter, he has over .480 slugging and .802 OPS (and leads us in walks by 23) already. He's definitely a future number 5 guy, if not cleanup hitter.

Hey, pete, has reynolds tried to k less this season or has it just happened. Agree w/your piece, w/reynolds at 1B. Otherwise not so much.

Reynolds is pretty much a lock for 40 HR at this pace, something that hasn't been done by an Oriole in 13 years. And if he can get to 44, that'll be the highest total since Brady's 50 in '96. Anyone who would rather have Hernandez needs to have their head examined, especially since there's no way he puts up those numbers if not pitching in the NL West.

I think Reynolds is the Os answer for a power hitter at first. Defensively he looks like a completely player there. Also Wietters should be used at first alittle more often in an effort to keep him from wearing down during the season. With Vladdy likely gone after this season Chris Davis can be used at third, left or DH. Whats your take on this Peter?

I didnt like Mark at 3rd - way too many errors, players bunting on him even when he played in but I love him at first. I hope he stays there.

Four trades in four years is not a lot to hang your hat on. And while none of the trades deserve an F, let's not think they were all A-plusses either.

Bedard - Fair enough. Getting Adam Jones alone makes that worthy of no less than an A-minus, so without further investigation, I will grant an A-plus on that one.

Tejada - Getting four players in return given the Oriole situation and lack of farm system automatically deserves a passing grade. Sarfate has regressed every year and didn't pitch at all in 2011. Patton has found a niche at Norfolk. Albers is now in Boston after 146 games in Baltimore with a 4.60 ERA. Scott has offered decent major league play. With no blue chip players or players with subsequent trade value, this deal gets a B-minus.

Hardy - The early returns on this trade look good -- much better than good in fact. Hardy has done better than expected and has been more durable than expected. He has been one of my few 2011 predictions to pan out. But it all comes with the "so far" caveat.

Although a separate issue, signing him longer term is a gamble but getting him without doing so would have cheapen the trade. The signing him is linked to the trade, rightly or wrongly, and time will tell if this deserves a permanently high grade or if like the Roberts' signing, the Orioles have bought into fool's gold.

For the record, I like the trade and I like the signing. If one chickens out signing this dude, they'll never sign a difference maker.

(For the record, I was in favor of signing Roberts, too. But, I was also in favor of trading him within a year of doing so when he had a boatload of value.)

Minnesota got Hoey and Jacobson. Hoey has struggled in 17 games with the parent club while owning a 3.15 minor league ERA including 3.01 at AAA. At 28, Hoey's time is running out but he may be a quality major league reliever at some point. Jacobson, 24, has pitched well in the minors but never above AA.

The Twins may get a higher grade on this trade eventually and MacPhail may get a lower grade on this trade eventually. The early returns suggest a solid A.

Reynolds - This was the point of the "rap." The sub-point supposedly is how easy it is to find good middle relief and how difficult it is to find a 30-HR guy no matter what. The Orioles have had over 300 pitchers since the last playoff game (14 years times over 20 pitchers each year including 24 so far this year), and only 28 have had 61 appearances. Hernandez still has a month to go. Only eight have had at least 30 appearances with an ERA of 2.61 or better – Julio and Groom in 2002, Ryan in 2004 and 2005, Johnson and Bradford in 2008, Sherrill in 2009, and Uehara in 2011. So while technically correct – a 30-HR guy is more difficult – the Orioles are in no position to poo-poo what Hernandez has done, especially when many fans saw the obvious and wanted him to be a reliever in the first place.

But, back to Reynolds. And it’s more than contact issues.

The only position he bats over .250 is when he bats seventh. Given his all-or-nothing results, batting him higher between reliable hitters instead of after them is more of a cause to kill a rally than to punctuate one. So when we casually say he has contact issues, let’s remember we are either talking about a potent #7 hitter or a rally killer destined to get more at bats.

Most players are better when they are ahead in the count. Reynolds takes it to a new extreme. He has a lifetime batting average of .321 when he’s ahead in the count, but a paltry .168 when he’s not. Not surprisingly, he fares none too well against good starters who know how to get ahead in the count and top relievers when getting a big out is imperative. No wonder his worst batting is in innings 1-3 and after the 7th.

The next set of stats show where Reynolds’ prowess is the most dubious. He is excused, even lauded, of his other foibles whether they are strikeouts, batting average or fielding percentages for his 151 home runs to date. Eighty of those HRs are with the bases empty. Another 51 HRs are with just one man aboard. Nearly 87% of his HRs are solo or one-run shots.

And that’s not all. The only game margin in which Reynolds bats over .240 is when his team is ahead or behind by more than four runs (.294).

It’s obvious the D-backs dumped Reynolds in light of his salary going from less than $1M per year to a guaranteed $13M over this year and next year if the buyout is exercised ($23.5M over three years if not). The Orioles can be mildly applauded for their willingness to spend money on a player best suited batting seventh, not to be counted upon in the clutch, and perhaps surrounded by a stud-infested line-up. But the contributions of Hernandez can’t be ignored given the lack of relievers plus the need for relievers given the make-up of the starting rotation.

At the moment, I cannot give this trade anything better than a C. By 2013, Hernandez is more likely to still be with the D-backs or a contributor via a trade than Reynolds doing the same for the Orioles under MacPhail. In other words, it is more likely the grade on this trade may go down than up – especially given the ineptness of the Warehouse in all other areas over the past four years.

These four trades keep MacPhail from getting a total F, but D-plus, D, or D-minus, should we really hang our hopes on this guy any longer? I can't, and I really tried.

What's going on Schmuck? You didn't like my post? Come on, let's put it back to the way it was, let the people post. I know it turns into a big hate fest, but you should print out all the comments and then mail them to Angelos everyday. Can we start a fund to turn the O's into a non-profit? I think we'd get a lot of donations.

You didn't even mention that he has turned out to be a very good 1st baseman. Thus leaving one less slot to fill in the winter hunt for players.

McPhail is deliberate (maybe even slow) in making deals, especially if compared to GMs like Alex Anthopoulis (excuse the spelling, if it's in error), but he's done reasonably well. You can't expect to get value for nothing, though deals for Jones, Scott and Hardy do seem to have tilted considerably in the Orioles' way. Reynolds was a good deal (imagine the year without him), even with the performance of Hernandez. The Uehara trade isn't looking too bad either. The decision I question is to leave Beato available in the Rule 5 draft. I'd like to know what he bought with the $50 thousand Beato netted the O's.

I agree Pete. Mark has been pretty good for us. However, I would add that there's probably only room for one Mark Reynolds in a competitve lineup. All those strike-outs will be real rally killers on a team that has a hard time advancing runners.

So if we're keeping Reynolds, which is fine, we should probably say good bye to Chris Davis.

Agreed. You didn't mention his serious defensive struggles, but he's even flashed some leather since moving to first. He's got the tools to be an outstanding corner infielder; he just seems to have a bit of ADD out there. So when are TheBoooogPows going to do a "Reynolds Rap?"

Reynold's would have 50 homers,if he was allowed to wear his hair longer!

The money spent in these trades is money that didn't go towards pitching. One can't just look at production of the new players, but the opportunity costs involved. And without solid pitching, nothing else matters. That's the short and sweet story for 14 years now. Relying almost exclusively on young pitchers (and no reliable closer) is a fool's game. The strategy is flawed, and one needs to understand that the tactics discussed in this article cannot be properly evaluated without considering the broader context.

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Pete's reply: In the first two trades, the Orioles saved money. In the Reynolds and Hardy deals, they picked up salaries, but not huge ones. If you're saying they should have spent more money on quality pitching, that's tough to argue with if there was quality pitching to buy. I'm sure they're glad they didn't spent $100 million on A.J. Burnett.

Yes, Pete, I'm saying that they should have spent money on pitching....over the last 14 years or more. Their philosophy, I guess, has been to buy bats and grow pitching. How has that worked out for us? Yes, Burnett would have been a disaster, but many preceded him over time. The Red Sox and Phillies finally figured it out.

McPhail's legacy??!!!! I almost fell over laughing. Debate??? Its a great legacy of four progeressively worse years, never winning more than 69 games. Zero international presence. Zero quality free agent signings. One excellent trade, two good-decent trades and a trade ESPN called somewhat one sided in the Diamondbacks favor. This team is filled with losers. The minors are filled with losers(check out our minor league records sometime), our front office is filled with losers. Its amazing that the media is so bought that they can not even call it like it is. In a real baseball town with real nuetral media 14 years of losing followed by a farm system in the last 25% of baseball, people would be screaming for heads to roll, rolling over for this team.

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Pete's reply: Check the definition of "legacy." Can be good or bad. I dispute the ESPN opinion of the Reynolds deal. I like David Hernandez and he's having a great year for a surprisingly good team, but I'll take a 35 homer guy for a setup reliever any day...strikeouts and all.

Reynolds' stock has clearly risen among the fans since he was getting hammered in this very forum in the early days of this season.

But folks still complaining about his baffling batting average are still forgetting one important factor - he has a great eye at the plate.

This measn that he amasses monstrous amounts of walks. He already has 61 walks this season after a whopping 85 last year. He has a fine .323 OBP which, added to his power stats, gives him an excellent .813. OPS.

Added to his terrific defense at first base that many posters have noticed, we clearly have ourselves a keeper.

This team has more problems than any eam since the 1914 Orioles traded (sold?) Babe Ruth to the Red Sox. But we no longer have a problem at first base, do we?

And that, with his usual poor grammar albeit brilliantly stated by that great philosopher, Forrest Gump, is "one less thing."

Walks? We're talking about walks? Reynolds is 12th in walks. His OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) should also be "whopping" with all of his HRs and walks. It's .809 -- good enough for 30th best. He's not even the best Oriole in this category.

And he's tied for 27th in RBIs. 27th! For someone who is 4th in HRs, 27th in RBIs stinks. Someone said 3-run homer conjuring up images and Earl Weaver. Ha!

He is barely better than Cesar Izturis with two runners on or with the vases loaded. I'm not kidding. Izturis has 183 RBIs in 499 such ABs whereas Reynolds has 187 in 441.

Fielding? His errors are down at 1B because he hasn't had to throw the ball all that much, but it is also down because he doesn't have much more range than a coke machine. Without Roberts playing 2B, most ground balls to the right side will be stopped by Markakis -- especially with a runner on first and Reynolds holding the runner and the second baseman du jour shading the middle.

The Ravens' mantra is right player, right price. The Orioles don't grasp that. If they tried to trade Reynolds to someone, they would have to swallow some of the money guaranteed. Of course Reynolds isn't alone in that category. The Oriole roster is loaded with guys who would still draw an Oriole check if they were traded elsewhere.

Reynolds isn't a bum. But he is far, far, far from being a cornerstone. He's a #7 hitter who is an average fielder that has some unusual offensive anomalies. He would be a bit player on a good team. On this team, he is easily confused with being good.