Why are the Orioles "at least two years from contending?" Yes, there are lots of holes to fill (3B, SP, SP, SP, SP), but the club is much closer than many believe. Solid development performances from the young pitching this year means that 2010 could easily be when the window opens.

In all your research and evaluation, what is your opinion of why the O's have seemingly tried to sweep Riemold under the rug?

You say he is old now, but 3 years ago he was 22 and I know I had heard he has talent then, and it was the same story - "The O's are 'waiting' on this guy to prove something"

So here we are, 3 years later, he has excelled at all his stops.

He provides something the Orioles undoubtedly and admittedly lack - Right Handed Power.

Out of Left Field.

He was the best hitter on our team in spring training this year, and yet he does not ever get a mention from O's brass at all.

If I was Riemold, I would be furious at this point.

This blog entry is the same story continued. What gives with this team?

Riemold Deserved the shot and slack Pie is getting, but this window is closing.

Brandon Snyder has 25 homer potential at Bowie.

You contradict in saying than Montanez winning the triple crown didn't mean anything in AA for a 26 year old, Then saying Riemold hitting 25 HR''s in the same AA ballpark at 24 meant a lot.

Montanez could easily still be a solid contributor for 8 to 10 years in the majors.

Let's get our story straight if you're going to be a journalist.

Obviously Andy Macphail is not sold on Reimold, and would rather give Felix Pie every opportunity to succeed at the major league level, due his athletic ability and potential. That being said, potential is only that for so long until it is recognized one way or another. I am surprised that Pie has not tried to bunt his way on. He is pressing now and it will probably only get worse.

I understand why Macphail wants to give Pie a chance, however unless he quickly develops plate discipline and starts making more contact the pitchers are going to continue to let him get himself out. My opinion is that Pie will be gone from the roster by the All Star break and Reimold will be on it.

I think Pie needs to wink wink pull a hamstring. Go in the 15 day DL with extended rehab get get some confidence. Bring up Reimold and let him platoon with Montanez. Who ever hits worst goes back in 15 days.

Some interesting points here, but allow me to retort:

1) The Orioles young pitching would have to develop incredibly quickly for them to contend before 2011. Odds are that it won't.

2) To be fair to the Orioles, Reimold was OK but not outstanding at Single-A Frederick in 2006. He was hurt for much of 2007. It's hard to advance a guy under those circumstances. Reimold seems to understand that any anger over his situation would be unproductive. If he performs, he'll get a chance.

3) If you believe Snyder will hit 25 homers in the big leagues, you're almost alone. It's great to see him turning his career around, but almost all scouts agree that power is his chief limitation as a first-base prospect.

4) It's not a contradiction to say Double-A performance at age 24 is different than Double-A performance at age 26. Two years is a long time in a baseball player's developmental arc. Also, from a scout's perspective, Reimold is thought to have more power than Montanez. But don't take any of this as a slam against Lou. The dude can hit.

5) MacPhail and Dave Trembley were very impressed with Reimold this spring. Past regimes might have been more skeptical, but if he continues to crush Triple-A pitching, he will get his chance.

Nice to have some options in the minors for a change but given the glunt in the OF, even if Pie does not make it, has anyone in the O's FO discussed moving Montanez or Reimold to 1B to fill a hole that exits? Snyder apparently can play thrid, which would then fill all of the postions for a few years, assuming all do pan out. Otherwise someone becomes trade bait and/or they'll need to sign a free agent to fill a hole.

The thing everyone seems to forget about Nolan is, last year was the first year he stayed healthy. Everyone knows of his potential but he just had never really played a full season. It's not that they aren't sold on him I don't think, they just want to see durability in successive seasons.

Stick with the plan... I'd rather have someone from our system come into a platoon situation than bringing people in from outside organizations. Try not to get caught up in the fallacy of a star at every position... give me a guy who can hit .275 - 18 - 70 and play good defense at positions not already occupied by your stars (LF, CF, 1B, 2B) and you have more than enough talent to compete. This is a much better LF situation than last year and if you think the O's need 3 years, then 3 months of Pie on display is not too much to ask.

I like Reimold a lot, but ideally Pie will be our LF for years to come - he's considerably better defensively. I'd like to see Reimold get a shot at 1B.

And I'm going to be very angry if Pie is ditched before giving him about 300 plate appearances to prove himself. His talent is just too great to give up on. The Cubs could afford to do so because they're a contender. We can't afford to throw away talent like that.

"Given his unexceptional power and plate discipline, Montanez is unlikely to be an above-average left fielder during that stretch."

Is this your opinion? Why don't you look at the facts. Montanez hit more home runs at Bowie than Reimold last year 27-25. And he played about 20 less games cuz of his big league call up at the end of the year, where he hit 3 more homers in limited action. Also, I don't think you can hit .330 at any minor league level or again .295 in the bigs last year without regular at bats, if you don't have plate discipline.
I understand the purpose of this article is to make a case for Reimold and I support both him and Montanez getting their shot with the team, but to dismiss Montanez unaccurately like that is bad journalism. There are no facts to support your conclusion. In fact all the numbers point to the opposite. Montanez was the #3 overall pick in the draft at age 18. Sure he took a long time to mature, but he appears to be reaching his potential right now.
I agree with your assesment of Pie and appreciate that you point out how his supporters seem to forget that he already has about 300 major league at bats in which he's done pretty much the same as we're seeing now. In my opinion we should dump Pie and Freel and give both those spots to Montanez and Reimold.

I agree that the pitching would have to develop quickly, but I disagree that this is highly unlikely (at least in terms of the relative liklinees of any pitching developing). Bergesen is here, and Hernandez probably isn't far behind. Matusz is probably on the Wieters timeline, but he was regarded last summer as someone who should reach the big leagues quickly (as in potentially in 2009). Tillman is in AAA, and while he still has a ways to go, he's not exactly far off. Arrieta is off to a solid start in Bowie, and so is Brandon Erbe. Other than Matusz, all of these guys have had success in full season leagues, and all have reached the upper levels of the system. Is 2010 a dream? Sure. But is it unrealistic to expect that next year's rotation will be filled with four of those guys listed above? Definitely not. And when that's the case, the window for contention is open.

Expecting Pie to develop into a legitimate every-day outfielder in the major leagues during the 2009 season is unreasonable. However, some improvement would be encouraging, even just a little improvement. I ask rhetorically, how much has Pie improved in his ability to play at the major league level since he got 177 at bats with the Cubs in 2007?

@ stewart jones
177 at-bats is nothing (barely two months). Take a look at the first 450 plate appearances in Brian Boberts career.

Similarly, Adam Jones (at an admittedly younger age), fared very poorly in his first 350 Major League plate appearances (through May of last year). He looks like an entirely different player in April 2009 than he did in April 2008.

My personal "theory," and I believe there is data to back this up, but I don't have it at my fingertips, is that it takes 600 plate appearances for many hitters to feel comfortable and begin to achieve in the Majors.

First,

I concur, 2011 should be the mark for us all to look forward to! While our offense is good (in fact we scored more runs last year than 2 playoff teams) and with Jones maturation and Wieters soon on deck, a far better Offense. The defense should be better with Isturis and eventually Wieters, I'm not at all sold on Pie offensively or Defensively, but as you say he should get 250 ABs! Montanez is a stop gap, not a speed or power guy but a nice steady bat that has improved greatly on defense and will admirably fill in if/when the Pie experiment fails.

Nolan Riemhold is the odd man out, due to options and the organization wanting him to get ABs everyday, but they is ok and in the event that Luke Scott gets hurt or they decide to waive Pie his chance to be our everyday LF is only a matter of time!

For those who want to rush things, STOP IT! The only failure so far was the Warehouse not acquiring a couple .500 winning percentage starting pitchers such as Mike Hampton at the $1 - $1.5M per year range. I'm hoping Hill comes back in 39 days and is productive and Patton has another couple of strong outings and they bring him up to complement: Guthrie, Koji, Bergesen, Hill and then we will have a respectable rotation until the baby birds arrive! Patience is a virtue, but the warehouse can't be cheap and throw away 2009-2010, there are no guarentees that 2011 will be what we hope as our history with starting pitching isn't exactly too good! Also we have Huff and Mora to replace after this year and Isturis can't be a long term solution! So yes many holes but a bright future If the Warehouse decides to spend a little money!

give me a break, Reimold is 25 and Montonaz is 27. you act like they are 10-15 years apart. jeez. Montonaz is ready now, play the better player and cut your losses with Pie.

i think you're wrong about montanez, reimold and pie. i can see montanez and reimold both playing for the o's and pie being dropped from the team. if reimold continues to hit at norfolk he'll be on the orioles by july1

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Brian Roberts 25 when he made the ballclub as the regular 2nd baseman? By your standards, he was ancient. He barely made the club over Jerry Hairston, Jr. but blossomed into an all-star. The fixation on age when all of these guys are quite young is odd.

You guys are underrating the importance of age. Brian Roberts debuted at 23, established himself as a regular at 25 and became a star at 27. That's pretty normal. It's far less normal for a good major league starter not to establish himself by age 27. Your average player is already losing value by age 30. Are there exceptions? Of course. My colleague, Dan Connolly, said he could see Montanez following a similar track to Raul Ibanez. But make no mistake, that's an unusual track.

Granted Pie is terrible, but he is another plug in a hole until the team feels Reimold is ready and I agree with the no rush tactics.

McPhail has spent sometime with the Cubs prospects more than we have and he saw something with Pie that we do not. He also figures to see if Pie would develop under different coaches.

It's the same with Rich Hill.

If he was producing, there would have been no problem.

the problem with Pie is that he looks totally lost out there. even when adam jones was struggling last year, you could see that the guy had a sweet swing and was a great outfielder. even when markakis was scuffling in his rookie year you saw his power arm in right field and his stroke at the plate. Pie looks TERRIBLE at the plate. It is very hard to envision him looking a whole lot better. Thank G-d we didn't trade B. Rob for him 2 years ago. Everyone would be out of their minds at this point. I'd give the guy until the allstar break. by then he will have had close to 400 or so major league at bats. if he shows no real progress, its time to let Montanez play. And at the same time it is time to decide if Reimold has any future as a 1st baseman. If he does, let him play there this year and replace Huff next year. If not then he and Montanez can fight it out at the end of the season to be our starting left fielder.

A no-hit, slick fielder has to make a HELL of a lot MORE defensive plays than a good-hitting, average fielding alternative, in order to compensate for the disparity in accumulated bases. Their good- hitting, average fileding bretheren are piling up extra bases with more hits, walks, and accumulated bases every game. It's much more of a factor for SS and 2B who are usually only saving singles or the ocasional double play with a miracle catch. Slick -fielding outfielders admittedly could be saving doubles, triples or a home run every once in a while over their competition, BUT it's not like the average major league level player fielder isn't going to make most plays.

Leeson is - stop wasting at-bats on outfielders with no power or OBP (Pie), and get the good-hitting average glove guy out there. It will be a net gain in runs scored over runs given up, which means more wins. I can't for the life of me understand how baseball people can't figure this out.

The other thing is holding your closer-ace for the ninth inning with no one on and possibly the low end of the batting order coming up, when you let a scrub middle reliever pitch the sixth inning with men on base and the 3,4, and 5 hitters coming up - who promptly scored and took away the lead the team built up. The closer should have been brought in in the sixth to end that threat and preserve the game, and leave the average mop up reliever gets through the ninth with no one on and maybe no one batting - with the multi-run lead in tact. Again, I can't understand how baseball people can't figure that out.

Get rid of Pie and let real baseball players play in left field, It is as simple as that! This guy cannot hit and he is a terrible defensive player!

No rush to bring in another left fielder.Let Pie play this year.He has talent that two organizations see.Let him get a relaxed feel for his job. Let him feel it's his to loose and let him gain confidense. If it works.......a plus.If not, create a platoon with the other two.

Childs,

I don't know why you want to dismiss Montanez's achievements. True, he was old for Double-A when he won the Triple Crown, but he proved his offensive prowess is for real when he hit nearly .300 for the Orioles later in the season.

Yes, he made his major league debut at 26, older than many, but with the distinction that he hit from day one, whereas typically a player fresh from the minors doesn't hit and bounces back and forth from the farm team to the parent club a few years before they're ready.

You admit that Lou can outhit Pie, but belittle your faint praise by adding "probably...for now" and perhaps only because Montanez "already in his prime." If you were at all fair to Lou you would concede that he's definitely a better hitter based on what we've seen from the two in very limited major league at bats. I say that despite the limited ABs not only because of the results (Montanez--.281 in 121 ABs; Pie--.212 in 297 ABs, but because of how each has looked: Lou--confident, with an idea of what he's doing at the plate; Felix--for the most part lost, chasing bad pitches.

If Pie can figure it out with the help of Terry Crowley, more power to him, but his playing time should be cut back until he does, because with the O's sorry pitching they need all the runs they can get and Lou provides them with a better chance. Who knows, though, maybe with Montanez now on the team, Felix will feel the pressure and start producing...or not.

Whatever the case, Montanez deserves his chance to show whether he's a bona fide major league hitter before you ever mention Nolan Reimold. The job should be Lou's precisely because he is in his prime. For all we know he's a late bloomer like Melvin Mora. All I'm saying, Childs, is give the guy a chance to prove himself before you write him off. If you were in his shoes wouldn't you want people to let you show what you can do before giving up on you? (I know I would.)