SB Nation - Chris Richard

Thursday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:22:47 -0000

Jarrod Washburn: 2010 Brewer?

Some things to read while testing the healing powers of bacon.

Jon Heyman is the latest to bring up the possibility that Jarrod Washburn could become a 2010 Brewer (as noted in Rumorville). Al says "he's been solid for far too many seasons to pretend he's not a good pitcher." With that said, he's also 35 years old and coming off surgery.

I'm having a hard time getting off the fence on this possibility. Obviously, Washburn's age and injury status would create the possibility that signing him could turn into a major mistake. With that said, his ERA in Seattle was never over 4.69, and when you adjust that for the NL he could very well be expected to post something in the 4.20-4.40 range next season. Giving him anything more than a two year deal would be a mistake, but to me he's worth considering in the short term.

Meanwhile, Jorge Says No! is still listing the Brewers as one of six teams that could trade for Gary Matthews Jr., but only if the Angels eat most of his salary. Every GM starts the offseason looking for players who are cheap and good: Trading for GMJ with the intent of playing him in center field would mean sacrificing the "good" part to get the "cheap."

Here's an unsubstantiated possibility I'll throw out there: The Mets are reportedly looking for a right-handed platoon partner for Daniel Murphy at first base next season. At first glance, Casey McGehee would make sense, as his versatility would allow him to fill in at other positions when he's not starting at first. Just a thought.

And while I'm out here on the rampant speculation train, View From Bernie's Chalet has a look at one potential Opening Day lineup for the 2011 Brewers. He presents a pretty encouraging possibility: A productive Brewer lineup with all eight position players under 30.

Earlier this week, the Milwaukee chapter of the BBWAA announced their postseason awards, but it's possible they didn't tell the whole story. Miller Park Drunk has the full list of awards presented.

By the way, to answer MPD's question: No, the Milwaukee BBWAA chapter isn't just the three writers from the Journal Sentinel. Six ballots were cast when voting on the awards: One of them was likely AP reporter Colin Fly, and I'm pretty sure the Madison Capital-Times and Racine Journal-Times also have active BBWAA members.

In the minors:

Bernie's Crew has short videos of the deliveries of three of the Brewers' top pitching prospects: Cody Scarpetta, Jake Odorizzi and Wily Peralta, if you haven't seen them before.
Baseball Intellect, at least partially spurred by this Battlekow interview, discusses Evan Anundsen's drop in velocity and the possibility that his high pitch counts in high school are to blame.
Baseball America has a report card for the Brewers' 2009 Draft. It's behind their pay wall, but Rattler Radio has several of the salient points.

Around baseball:

Astros: Outrighted catcher Chris Coste to AAA. Coste will be a minor league free agent.
Braves: Are expected to sign Tim Hudson to a three year contract extension worth $27 million.
Dodgers: Manny Ramirez exercised his $20 million player option to remain with the team next season.
Rays: Outrighted first baseman Chris Richard to AAA, making him a minor league free agent.
Rockies: Reliever Joel Peralta rejected an outright assignment to the minor leagues and will become a free agent.

Yesterday, Roguejim noted MLB Trade Rumors' Bad Contract Swap Meet. That's a good idea, but this one would be better TV: Dave Cameron of FanGraphs proposes the Bad Contract White Elephant. Clearly it's intended to be tongue in cheek, but I'd watch it.

Earlier this week, BCB endorsed the Phillies in the World Series, and we're off to a pretty good start. It appears not everyone got the memo, though: Ryan Grant is rooting for the Yankees.

I don't buy a lot of baseball books, but I gladly shell out the money for John Sickels' Baseball Prospect Book every year. It's easily my top resource for scouting reports on over a thousand prospects and it's great to have on hand when attending spring training or minor league games. I've probably consulted it 30-40 times in my work here during the 2009 season. Sickels is currently accepting pre-orders for the 2010 book, which help pay for its publication. If you're a minor league buff or just want to be one step closer to knowing what you're talking about when discussing prospects, I'd highly recommend picking up a copy.

Speaking of the minors, the Reds' decision to move spring training from Sarasota to Goodyear, Arizona has sent a ripple into the minor leagues: The Reds, who also own their Florida State League affiliate in Sarasota, are selling it to the Pirates, who intend to move it to their spring training facility in Bradenton. So, in one year's time the city of Sarasota may lose both their spring training presence and their FSL team.

On this day in 2002, Ned Yost was hired to manage the Brewers, and Ken Macha was named manager of the A's. We'll have more on Brewer managers later today.

Happy birthday to Dana Eveland, who pitched in 36 games as a Brewer in 2005 and 2006 and turns 26, knuckleballer and 2007 Nashville Sound R.A. Dickey,, who turns 35, and Narciso Elvira, who appeared in four games for the 1990 Brewers and turns 42.

Oh, and if you're feeling nostalgic, this description of Gabe Kapler's play should bring back some memories.

Drink up.

September 9, 2009: A night of legends and heroes, as Jeter ties Gehrig in 4-2 comeback W

CrazyYankeeChick — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:33:45 -0000

More photos » by Bill Kostroun - AP

"O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning..." --Walt Whitman

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He did it. He tied one of the best ballplayers that ever lived. A legend, an idol, a hero. Derek Jeter is in lockstep with all of that, having broken out of the longest slump of the season (0-12) to knock in 3 hits tonight.

Those in attendance at Yankee Stadium got their money’s worth. Because even watching it on tv, I was admittedly blinking back tears. Very little else moves me quite like the feeling of pride in being a Yankee fan. The Tampa Bay dugout knew what they were in the presence of, as well as anyone. The 45,848 at the stadium standing and cheering...they all felt it, too. You could just tell by their reluctance to stop applauding.

It was humbling and inspiring and, if possible, made me that much more enraptured with this team. Every time they take the field, their fans are witnessing a genesis of heroes.

We talk about Mantle, Ruth, Dimaggio...but I've never seen them play. And I can only extrapolate from printed documentation the extent of their greatness. But now someday I'll be telling my kids about Derek Jeter. That thought is almost too big for me to wrap my head around. God, I love this team.

And so I'd be remiss in not reviewing the rest of the night...

It's official. The 8th inning is poison to the Rays.

It's also official that Joba Chamberlain is not someone I want holding the ball in any inning prior to the 6th or 7th. 3 IP, 3 hits, 3 Ks...2 runs. It's sad to think about how electric and UNHITTABLE this guy was 2 years ago. His ERA was anemic, his fastball blistering, his slider splintering. And now? Well, suffice to say I received the following text at 1:04 today: "Does it bother you at all knowing the yanks are gonna lose when joba starts now?" Later on, another text from the same guy: "They ruined this guy."

The Ray are playing like the Mets. It's pathetic, really. They have some of the best players in the AL, and they're fumbling around like someone shook them awake at 6am and said, "Hey! Yeah, wake up! It's time to play baseball." Everything's one step behind, out of focus, and stilted. Way to go, Baddon. What's with the sweater, by the way? We got it. You've checked out. Tomorrow he'll be ringing a bell and wearing his "Done with 09" sandwich-board.

Jason Bartlett homered for the second game in a row, and it's gotta be tough on him. Same goes for Carl Crawford, who scored the only other run of the game. And their entire pitching staff, actually (Nice game by rookie Jeff Niemann.) But none had a rougher night than Chris Richard, whose throwing error in the 8th allowed Alex Rodriguez to score, and whose ill-advised positioning at first allowed Jeter's record tying hit to whiz by him.

Back to Jeter. He laid down a bunt in the 1st (great move) to shake off the slump. Then a ground rule double for hit #2. And lo and behold, his record breaking shot was a "CLASSIC JETERIAN SHOT!" Suzyn Waldman may or may not have gone into cardiac arrest.

After his "CJS," his reactions were sublimely ideal, and indicative of the class he brings to the game. Regarding his 2 minute ovation: "I really didn't know what to do because we were losing at the time and I didn't want to disrespect Tampa," Jeter said. "I never dreamt about all of this." (Ok, I'm calling BS on the second part of his statement, but he gets a bit of latitude here.) I got a bit of a kick out of how awkward he looked during the ovation, trying to get all back into position as if the game was going to resume any second. Kind of like how you feel when everyone's singing Happy Birthday to you. What do you do? Sit there and try to look excited? It's a long freaking song, too.

Now's as good a time as any for me to learn how to spell Jonathan Albaladejo's name. My dad never learns the names of the guys his daughters bring home because he knows they're gone once Opening Day rolls around. I've applied the same logic to learning about our relievers. But he pitched 2 scoreless innings, and the guy is growing on me.

The rest of our relievers were just as brilliant, particularly Alfredo Aceves, who came in after Joba was either chased or strategically taken out, one can never tell with him, and proceeded to pitch 3 hitless innings. His pitches were dancing all over the plate, and in 3 innings, he demonstrated why both our pen and rotation has been as effective as it's been: Off. Speed. Pitches.

I can't say I'm thrilled about the Return to Micromanagement that Girardi seemed to be getting into last night. But tonight his pitching choices were justified and worked out perfectly. I may be done with questioning anything this guy does.

The 4-5-6 batters may have provided the numbers (ARod/Matsui/Swish were a combined 5-12), but all it took was one blast from #20 to set the Bronx into pandemondium. Christ, what a rocket, too. 1-1 on the day.

I'll wrap this up with some numbers:

#2 hits 3 to tie #4. On game 141.
#2 puts his 2,721st hit in the books almost exactly 72 years to the day since the Iron Horse set the record.
On 9-6-37, the record was set. On 9-09-09 it was tied.
9-9-9. Or 27, if you add 'em. (A backwards 72.)

And I don't think I have to remind any Yankee fans of the significance of that number.

Congratulations, Jeter. You bring new meaning to Waite Hoyt's famous words, "It's great to be young and a Yankee."

-CYC

Chris Richard

R.J. Anderson — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:10:36 -0000

Hours after CC Sabathia went all Shiva the Destroyer on Carlos Pena's season, 35-year-old Chris Richard took a walk. The free pass was his first in the major leagues since April 30^th, 2003. It's been a while, but Richard has been in the majors for extended periods of time before. In some ways, this lowers the "Aw" factor associated with players like Michel Hernandez and Winston Abreu, in others it ups it.

When Richard was demoted, he was a 29-year-old with 982 plate appearances in the majors and two seasons removed from playing in 136 games. In that season with Baltimore, he hit .265/.335/.435 That's not stellar, but it's not awful either (since 2005 Kevin Millar has hit .252/.347/.405 and still finds work based on clubhouse motivational skills...seriously).

He's not your typical organization soldier. In his first major league at-bat he popped a homer. Literally 12 days later he was dealt for Mike Timlin. In 2003 he was traded or Jack Cust. In 2005 he was in the Rangers minor league system, then the Pirates in 2006 and since 2007 the Rays. Not a bad list of accomplishments for a 19^th round pick out of Oklahoma State University.

His performance, well, does it even matter at this point? I'm certainly not going gaga over the idea of Richard starting for the Rays, but whatever. At least he's a nice story and supposedly a nice guy. He's one home run from career number 35 and 17 plate appearances from 1,000. Here's hoping he can achieve such in these next few weeks.

Carlos Pena Breaks Two Fingers; Done For 2009 Season

Tommy Rancel — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:03:25 -0000

More photos » by Nam Y. Huh - AP

Keep smiling Carlos Pena. We'll see you next year. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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Terrible news and I'm not talking about the current state of the Rays bullpen. After taking a CC Sabathia pitch off the left hand, first basemen Carlos Pena is done for the season. Los will miss the remaining 25 games after breaking the index and middle fingers on his left hand.

Pena spent most of the season battling an unlucky BABIP of .253 which sunk his batting average to .228. His power, however, never left as he belted 39 home runs and became the first Rays player to hit 30 home runs and 100 RBI in three straight seasons. A few weeks ago, interest started picking up in Pena's quest for a 40 home run/40 single season. Unfortunately, the injury has dashed any hopes of that, and Pena will finish with 41 singles and 39 home runs.

Pena had a down season defensively, and will finish just short of the 3 WAR threshold, something he had reached in each of his first two seasons with the club. There is a chance Pena could be dealt in the off-season, however, I doubt that happens. The Rays playoffs chances have all but faded, however, I bet Carlos Pena was the one player who was still keeping hope alive.

As R.J. said our :)% is down to 0 right now. Good luck to Chris Richard who is probably a nice guy, but is no Carlos Pena.

Great Trade Deadline Acquisitions

chuckb — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:23:06 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

Holliday may be #7 on this list now, but he's moving up pretty rapidly. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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Today’s thread is going to take us on a stroll down memory lane. We’re going to visit the ghosts of the Cards’ trade deadline acquisitions to discuss the top 10 trade deadline acquisitions of the last 25 years.

The primary stipulation is that the acquisition had to be geared toward helping the Cards make the playoffs or win the pennant. I’m therefore disqualifying the 1997 Mark McGwire acquisition since that team was going nowhere fast when McGwire was added. He played great for the Cards down the stretch but it didn’t really matter – for 1997 anyway. When McGwire was added on July 31, the team was 51-56, in 3rd place, 7.5 games behind. He was acquired for the purpose of trying to sign him to a long-term deal and not w/ an eye toward trying to make the playoffs in ’07. Obviously, the acquisition had to come from outside the organization, so I’m not counting promotions from the minors – though there were some notable promotions (1985 – Todd Worrell, for example). They also need to have been added during the season, as opposed to a trade or free agent signing prior to the season.

So, w/o further ado…I give you the top 10 Cardinal trade deadline acquisitions of the last 25 years:

10. Mike Timlin, 2000 – Timlin came over from the Orioles for Mark Nussbeck and Chris Richard. (BTW, the Cards made another trade that year w/ the Orioles for someone else on this list.) Timlin wasn’t great down the stretch, but he was OK. He pitched 29.2 innings w/ a 3.34 ERA for the Cards. His FIP was 4.48 and he was worth 0.6 WAR in 2000. His WPA was -0.34. He was awful against the Braves in the division series that year and just OK against the Mets in the NLCS.

9. Ron Belliard, 2006 – Belliard, like Timlin, was just OK for the Cards but we desperately needed a 2B in ’06. Acquired from Cleveland for Hector Luna, Belliard was .237/.295/.371 down the stretch and just .240/.283/.260 in the postseason. Like Timlin, he was worth 0.6 WAR w/ the Cards – mostly b/c of his defense. His UZR for the Cards was 6.7 over the last 2 months. He also made a spectacular play in game 1 against the Padres in the division series that helped the Cards hold on and helped propel the team to the NLCS.

8. Jeff Weaver, 2006 – Weaver was acquired from the Angels for Terry Evans. Make no mistake about it, Weaver stunk during the regular season. He was 5-4 w/ a 5.18 ERA and a 5.71 FIP. He was worth -1.3 RAR and -0.1 WAR. He was worse than replacement level but somehow he managed to convince La Russa to allow him to start some postseason games and he was terrific. In the postseason, he was 3-2 w/ a 2.43 ERA and a 4.19 FIP. His WPA in the postseason alone was 0.59. During the regular season his WPA was -0.49.

7. Matt Holliday, 2009 – Holliday’s been terrific in his 19 games as a Cardinal since being acquired from Oakland. He’s hitting .493/.523/.813. His wOBA is a ridiculous .536. His WPA is 1.93 and he’s been worth 14.4 RAR and 1.4 WAR just in his first 19 games. If we revisit this list at the end of the season, I see no reason why Holliday won’t be in the top 2-3.

6. Larry Walker, 2004 – Walker was acquired from the Rockies for Jason Burch, Chris Narveson and Luis Martinez. To tell the truth, I expected Walker to be higher on this list, and maybe he would have if he had been acquired before August 11 of that year. Walker batted .280/.393/.560 w/ a .411 wOBA down the stretch for the 105 win team. Like Holliday, he was worth 14.4 RAR and 1.4 WAR. He was .293/.379/.707 in the postseason w/ a .450 wOBA. It’s not his fault we didn’t win the World Series. It’s too bad that injuries rendered him less effective in 2005.

5. Cesar Cedeno, 1985 – Cedeno was acquired from the Reds for a minor leaguer named Mark Jackson. The outfielder was 34 at the time and primarily played 1B for the Cards the last month or so of the regular season following Jack Clark’s injury. Over the last 28 games, Cedeno hit .434/.463/.750 for the Cards. His WPA was 1.16 and he was worth 14 RAR and 1.5 WAR in less than a month. Cedeno wasn’t nearly as effective in the postseason, batting .148/.258/.222, mostly as a RF.

4. Chuck Finley, 2002 – It’s easy to forget how good Finley was for the Cards after being acquired from the Indians for Luis Garcia and Coco Crisp. He was 7-4 w/ a 3.80 ERA and a 3.17 FIP in 85 innings over the season’s last 2 months. His contribution was worth 18.7 RAR and 2 WAR. In the postseason, he was marvelous against the D-backs and not very good at all against the Giants.

3. Woody Williams, 2001 – Williams was acquired just a couple of days past the non-waiver trade deadline for one of my all-time favorite Cards – Ray Lankford. Neither had played particularly well for their respective teams but Woody was fantastic for the Cards over the season’s last couple of months. He was 7-1 w/ a 2.28 ERA and a 3.76 FIP. His contribution was worth 2.36 WPA and 2.1 WAR. Before being traded to the Cards, Woody was worth 0.4 WAR for the Padres. Unfortunately, the Cards only played 1 postseason series in 2001 but Woody was splendid in his start against the D-backs, beating Randy Johnson by throwing 7 innings of 4 hit and 1 run ball.

2. Will Clark, 2000 – The "other" acquisition from the Orioles in 2000, the Cards received Clark for minor league 3B Jose Leon. Clark stood in for an injured Mark McGwire and posted a .345/.426/.655 line down the stretch. He hit 12 homers in 51 games after hitting 9 in 79 for the Orioles that year and just 10 in 77 games in the previous season. His wOBA was .456 and he was provided a WPA of 2.44. He was worth 24 RAR and 2.3 WAR in less than 2 months w/ the birds on the bat. In the 2000 postseason, he was almost as good, posting slash lines of .345/.441/.621.

And the number 1 trade deadline acquisition by the Cardinals in the last 25 years is…

1. Scott Rolen, 2002 – and it’s not even close. Rolen was acquired from the Phillies for Placido Polanco, Bud Smith, and the aforementioned Mike Timlin. It had been a tough summer w/ the deaths of Jack Buck and Darryl Kile and Rolen struggled early on, w/ just 6 hits and 3 walks in his first 43 PAs as a Cardinal. After that he went all Will Clark on the rest of the NL as he ended up w/ a .278/.354/.561 line as a Cardinal in ’02. What set Rolen apart from Clark, Cedeno, and Walker, however was his defense. Not only was he worth 12 wRAA on offense, but in just over 2 months w/ the team his defense was worth 13.1 runs above average. All told, he finished 33.4 RAR and 3.3 WAR – a full win better than Clark. Only Edmonds, Pujols, Renteria, and Morris had more WAR than Rolen did as a Cardinal in 2002 and Rolen was only w/ the team for 2 months.

I had planned to do a list of the 5 best acquisitions but, as I was looking this stuff up, came across so many contributions that needed to be recognized. I was surprised by how good Finley was, for example. Like I said earlier, it won’t surprise me at all to see Holliday move up this list as this year finishes. He’s less than a win away from 2nd place on the list already. Hopefully, Lugo (.5 WAR) and DeRosa (.2 WAR) can surpass Timlin, Belliard, and Weaver as the Cards head toward their 2nd World Championship in the last 4 years.

The Old Folks Home: First Base This Decade

SC — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:33:39 -0000

First base often times is a place where you can "hide" a guy that can hit but doesn't have much athleticism. There are exceptions; Mark Teixeira and Albert Pujols are both outstanding first basemen in every way, as is Colorado's Todd Helton. There have been many athletic guys positioned at first for various reasons. Steve Garvey threw like my grandma, for instance.

This decade, the Orioles have had all sorts of problems. The losing started in 1998, but it has truly cemented itself in the 2000s. A couple losing years happen to any franchise, even the great ones. But the Orioles not only haven't had a winning season this decade, they haven't come close.

One of the issues has been first base. Traditionally you get a guy that can rake over there. The Orioles have instead chosen to fill the position with old fogies, has-beens and PR disasters.

Will Clark is one of my favorite players, but when the Orioles signed him after the 1998 season to replace Rafael Palmeiro, we didn't get the guy who'd been such a phenomenal and tremendously overlooked hitter. We got a broken down shell of the guy Will Clark used to be in San Francisco and Texas.

When healthy, "The Thrill" still hit -- he batted .303/.395./.482 in 1999 (294 plate appearances) and .301/.413/.473 in 2000 (310 plate appearances) before he got sent to St. Louis to fill in for the injured Mark McGwire. Clark destroyed NL pitching for the Cards and helped them get to the playoffs. He then retired gracefully.

Clark was entering his age 35 season when the Orioles signed him. He had been healthy in 1998, but prior to that the red flags were everywhere. We all knew he wasn't the guy he was in his early Giants days, but we didn't even get the guy that played in Texas:

Year	Team	Games Played	WARP3
1994	Texas	110	5.0
1995	Texas	123	3.8
1996	Texas	117	2.6
1997	Texas	110	3.3
1998	Texas	149	3.0
1999	Baltimore	77	2.1
2000	Baltimore	79	2.5

Note of course that 1994 (114 games) and 1995 (144 games) were strike-shortened seasons. He was healthy in those seasons, but since they were short 38 or 21 games, it is what it is. '94 particularly might have been a different story with the extra games.

When Clark got traded, the team handed over the first base job to Chris Richard, who did not come over from the Cardinals in the Clark trade, which netted us Jose Leon on July 31, 2000. Richard actually was acquired on July 29, 2000 with Mike Nussbeck in exchange for Mike Timlin. We really did all we could to help St. Louis out in 2000.

Richard had a power surge in his end-of-season audition, slugging .563 with 13 homers in 199 at-bats. He was the Opening Day DH in 2001 and struggled to stay in the lineup. A couple years later he had been traded to Colorado for Jack Cust, whose glove needs glue in it to be playable and never got a fair shake with the O's. Shortly after that he was out of the league.

Who was the Opening Day first baseman for the 2001 O's? David Segui, of course, the 34-year old ex-Oriole we signed to a four-year deal.

The Segui deal is one of the overlooked bonehead moves of the decade. After the Clark health fiasco and the Albert Belle mess, the Orioles picked up Segui for about $7 million per season. Segui had played in 140+ games exactly three times in 11 years, while bouncing through eight organizations (Orioles, Mets, Expos, Mariners, Blue Jays, Rangers and Indians).

Yeah, he could hit some. But he was also 34 years old with a spotty history.

To the shock of literally nobody, Segui played in 82, 26, 67 and 18 games in his second run in Charm City. He was paid $27,762,895 for this service.

With Segui a non-entity and Richard a bust, Jeff Conine was the regular first baseman from 2001-03. Conine was barely passable as an everyday first baseman, and that wasn't his fault. After all, that was supposed to be Mr. Reliable, David Segui. He was pretty good in 2001, banged up and not very effective in 2002, and traded in 2003.

In '02, Jay Gibbons got to play some first base, and he broke out with a 28-homer season. We might give Gibby some guff now, but he was a genuinely nice Rule 5 pickup by the Orioles. He did more than you can expect of any Rule 5 guy, really. Gibbons was bad in the outfield and actually worse at first base, so he never stuck. He was another guy who got hurt a lot, anyway.

In true Oriole fashion, the team refused to learn from the Clark and Segui mistakes and signed 39-year old Rafael Palmeiro to play first base in 2004, part of the influx of new offensive talent with Miguel Tejada and Javy Lopez. This was a crummy idea from day one that got worse as Palmeiro embarrassed himself, the organization, and baseball in general in 2005. Here's why it was a bad idea from day one, though. Let's say Palmeiro really broke out in 1991 as an offensive star:

Year	Team	OPS+	HR
1991	Texas	155	26
1992	Texas	123	22
1993	Texas	150	37
1994	Baltimore	136	23
1995	Baltimore	145	39
1996	Baltimore	132	39
1997	Baltimore	113	38
1998	Baltimore	144	43
1999	Texas	159	47
2000	Texas	137	39
2001	Texas	141	47
2002	Texas	146	43
2003	Texas	117	38

The Orioles made the mistake of assuming that the home run totals meant that Palmeiro wasn't declining as he sauntered merrily toward 40. They were very, very wrong, and his final two seasons in Baltimore hashed that out: 108 OPS+ both years, with home run totals of 23 and 18, and the 23 took a bit of a late-season surge. Let's not even really go into THE GIANT STEROIDS ISSUE.

When Palmeiro was quietly released and all but taken out back and shot as far as the Orioles are concerned, what did they do next?

Of course! They signed 34-year old Kevin Millar! Now I love Kevbo, I really do. I'll always remember him fondly because unlike the other old farts we're talking about here, he went out and played his best. He didn't get hurt, he didn't drag everyone's name through the mud. He just played. He was a leader on and off the field and I enjoyed him.

But calling him successful in Baltimore is a stretch. He OPS+'d 111, 106 and 87. That's not "happenin'" as a first baseman.

Now he's gone. He should be, and he is. They made the right call. And with no one in line -- not one single viable first base prospect in the system, after all these years -- the job goes to Aubrey Huff, who turned 32 in December.

The good news is that they didn't go out and sign Huff. They did that a couple years ago when it didn't make any sense. The fact that Huff had a remarkably good 2008 at the plate does not retroactively make his signing in the 2006-07 offseason a better one. It didn't make sense and was the product of a front office that didn't know what the hell they were doing and were making last gasp attempts at a "competitive" team by luring Huff and Jay Payton, who were both veterans on the decline.

Huff was great last year. He's unlikely to repeat. What's more bothersome is the fact that there STILL is not a viable first base prospect in the system. Brandon Snyder's glove is terrible and he's got a lot of hitting to do to make up ground. Billy Rowell was thought to likely be a first baseman and he's been brutal so far in the minors. Both have time. Both are young. I agree with that. And sure, maybe Nolan Reimold could play first base and that fixes everything, but he's been an outfielder his entire career and has had injury troubles of his own.

This is a position that has been neglected. Third base has the same problem, but thankfully Melvin Mora has been able to reliably man the hot corner for the last five years.

First base is the Oriole position of Steady Eddie, Boog and Gentleman Jim, the first big-time Oriole bopper. Between the reigns of Powell and Murray there was Lee May, who was sort of like if you took this decade of Oriole first baseman and boiled it down into one guy. But this has gone on a lot longer, and there ain't no Eddie Murray on his way here.

To be fair, the team did try their best to sign Mark Teixeira this offseason. And this whole first base black hole is one of the reasons that it did make sense. There is nobody that's going to be ready to take control of first base in the foreseeable future. Huff might be fine, but given his age, he's a stop-gap. What happens when his contract's up? Who then? Carlos Delgado?

It's an area that needs to be addressed in the coming drafts, or they might have to look around for a blocked first base guy in someone else's system. Clearly, free agency has not been kind to the Orioles as far as first basemen go.