Josh Hamilton sure would be a nice addition to the Baltimore Orioles lineup, but personally, I’d much rather see them add another starting pitcher. There’s an old cliche in baseball — you can never have enough pitching — and it couldn’t be more accurate.
Part of the Orioles success in 2012 not only had to do with their starters gelling at just the right time, but also the fact that they stayed healthy for most of the season. With the exception of Jason Hammel’s knee injury, O’s starters avoided any drastic DL stints and were instead shuffled around based on their success (or lack of success) at the big league level.
Out at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, O’s GM Dan Duquette said something that worries me just a tad. “We have more qualified major league pitchers than we have slots,” he told MASNSports.com’s Roch Kubatko. “We have a surplus as perceived by other teams.”
I can certainly understand that thought, but I don’t think there’s ever a surplus of pitching and believe the Orioles still have a number of questions in their rotation. Joe Saunders remains a free agent, Zach Britton’s health limited him in 2011, Miguel Gonzalez broke out at age 28, Chris Tillman put together his first solid couple months in the big leagues, Jake Arrieta was plagued by inconsistency and Brian Matusz was sent to work out of the bullpen.
That pretty much leaves Wei-Yin Chen. I’d like at least one more sure thing before the O’s move on to left field and first base. Even if it’s a guy like John Lannan or Jair Jurrjens.
