Bricks from the Warehouse

It's 1/3 of the way through the season, so we think it's reasonable to look at what we have seen so far from this team, while recognizing that it's still early enough for players to turn around their seasons (or to get even worse). We tried to judge players based on their overall seasons, rather than based on expectations for the player. A bad player who does slightly less badly than predicted doesn't get credit from us for exceeding projections. Keep in mind that this is all in fun; there's no grand system behind our grades.

• Brady Anderson: F. He's been awful. There's no possible dispute about this. He's got a .303 OBP at leadoff. He's got a .283 SLG. IIRC, he's signed for another year, too. We wonder how much longer the team can go on without inventing an injury for him or something.
  
  
• Mike Bordick: D. He's been really bad at the plate, and hasn't been particularly steady with the glove, either, but he's a shortstop, and if we gave him an "F", we'd have to give Brady a "Z." So we'll call it a "D."
  
  
• Jeff Conine: A. We're not exactly talking about an MVP contender, but he leads the Orioles in just about everything, and has played pretty well.
  
  
• Delino DeShields: F. He plays LF like a second baseman, from what we've seen, and he hits like a second baseman. A bad one. If he were playing second, we would probably give him a D-.
  
  
• Brook Fordyce: F. Hovering around Mendoza, hitting worse than Brady is. It's hard to find anything positive to say about him. He never killed anybody, as far as we know.
  
  
• Jay Gibbons: I (for incomplete). We may be showing our bias here; he could get a bad grade, but we're being generous because he's a young player. He hasn't played a lot, and hasn't played regularly, and hasn't played well when he has played.
  
  
• Jerry Hairston: D+ On any other team, we would have called it a D-. .309 OBPs don't deserve much praise.
  
  
• Mike Kinkade: C-. He deserves to play 3B over Ripken; he deserves to play C over Lunar or Fordyce. But he hasn't exactly been good this year, though he hasn't gotten much of an opportunity, either. Do the Orioles have any coherent idea why they even traded for him? His role on the roster is rather unclear to us.
  
  
• Fernando Lunar: I. Only 24 ABs; no point in assessing him. Can't hit, and fortunately isn't being given an opportunity to prove it. (Or unfortunately, since the sooner the team realizes it, the sooner they can move on.)
  
  
• Melvin Mora: C-. We blame management here; he's hitting about what you should expect him to hit. Management apparently didn't realize that this wasn't good enough to play OF. On a better team we would give him a lower grade, but it seems niggardly to penalize him for his lack of hitting (.727 OPS) when it's one of the better OPS on the team.
  
  
• Greg Myers: A. While the whole idea of DHing him is loony, and we expect him to drop way off as the season continues, and he has very limited playing time, he has made the most of it. Given the performances of Lunar and Fordyce, he's really getting screwed. Why the Orioles won't release him, we're not sure. Is Thrift hoarding him so that he can be traded at the deadline for a AA reliever with a bad shoulder?
  
  
• Chris Richard: B+. His OBP is higher than we projected it would be (.352), but his SLG is lower (.444) so overall it balances out. We've only seem him in center a few times, and weren't impressed. If he can really play the position, then he's an okay player; his offense isn't enough to justify a 1B/COF slot.
  
  
• Cal Ripken Jr.: F. Only because there's no grade lower than that. There are dinosaur skeletons with more range than he has, and he's no longer sure-handed, either. His bat is putrid -- a .238 (!) OBP -- and he has also hit into a team-leading 7 DPs. He's just embarrassing himself at this point. And every time he has hits in 2 consecutive games, he has the chutzpah to talk about coming back next year.
  
  
• David Segui: B. His .400 OBP is nice; his .396 SLG is not. First basemen in the 1990s who are on pace to hit 6 HRs (and 47 RBI, for those of you who care about that sort of thing) in a season are not exactly what most teams are looking for. And he's signed for $21M more over the next three years? To be fair, he missed some time with injuries. On the other hand, that an old guy gets hurt is hardly shocking, and hardly something to be happy about.

A pitching report card will follow tomorrow. As always, all comments -- positive and negative -- are welcome, so feel free to email us your opinion.