Nine Innings is a series of questions with players & personnel from around Major League Baseball. In this edition, Shi Davidi talks to Orioles executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette.
Let’s make the regurgitation of what happened last winter between the Toronto Blue Jays and Dan Duquette quick.
The Blue Jays pursued him to become Paul Beeston’s successor as team president, negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles to let him out of his contract were cut off because of demands for gilt-edged prospect Jeff Hoffman as part of a ridiculously steep compensatory package, Beeston was re-signed to a one-year contract and Duquette, awkwardly, stayed put.
That’s all in the past now, and Duquette is locked on helping the Orioles defend their American League East title. He spoke to Nine Innings about how his team has looked so far, and where the organization is at.
1st inning – Two players pivotal in helping the Orioles win the AL East last year – Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz – left as free agents over the winter. How do you feel your team is handling their losses?
“It’s interesting because we just did a review of our first 30 games, and our offence is just about the same as last year, actually we’ve scored a few more runs this year. That’s primarily due to the emergence of Jimmy Paredes, and Adam Jones helped us get off to a good start, Machado’s back and he’s swinging the bat. I believe we have pretty good depth to our lineup.”
2nd inning – What do you feel is the biggest difference so far?
“The thing we haven’t done as well this year is our defence hasn’t been as tight, we usually convert all the routine plays into outs and make some really good plays because we have a couple of Gold Glovers. Buck (Showalter) stresses defence, but so far our defence hasn’t been as tight as it has been, and our starting pitching isn’t as good as it needs to be to compete at the highest level in the league. We know where we’re at, now we’ve just got to figure out how we’re going to try to get to where we want to go.”
3rd inning – Are the issues with your rotation now reminiscent of those at the beginning of last season?
“Our pitching last year really came together toward the end of May, and we were strong through the end of the season, and we have a lot of the same pitchers back. Ubaldo Jimenez is throwing the ball better than he did last year, (Wei-Yin) Chen is solid, (Miguel) Gonzalez has been solid, and we need to get Chris Tillman and Bud Norris (just placed on the DL) back to the level they’ve established for themselves in the league and then we’ll have our rotation down.”
4th inning – What beyond the obvious is allowing Jimenez to succeed this year compared to last year?
“He’s throwing strikes with all his pitches, he’s out there with a clear mind, he’s got a little cleaner delivery this year, been working with Ramon Martinez, which has been very helpful. He’s an established veteran pitcher, he’s had some really good years in Major League Baseball, last year wasn’t one of them, but he’s pitching really well.”
5th inning – You mentioned a cleaner delivery. When you look at him, you wonder how can a guy repeat that delivery given where his arm starts?
“Calvin McLish was a pitching coach with the Brewers, and he always used to tell me, ‘Danny, strikes are in your delivery.’ And I’d say, ‘Calvin, what do you mean by that?’ He goes, ‘Well, if you look at a guy’s delivery, it will tell you if he can throw strikes consistently.’ Right now, after his work with Ramon, Ubaldo has a nice repeatable delivery that’s working for him.”
6th inning – Like the other AL East teams, the Orioles have largely played within the division so far. Do you like that much inter-division play so early in the season or would you prefer to see it spread out more?
“We’ve been able to compete with all the teams in the division, we’ve had trouble with the Toronto club this year, we’re going to need to find a solution to that, but having all these games against the East, they identify who the better teams are, and they tell you pretty quickly what you need to do if you want to be one of those teams. The American League East is tough, it’s always tough, the teams are very competitive, the fans are very passionate, the ballparks are offensively-oriented, it’s cold in the spring, so it’s a good test. If you can compete in the East and win, you’ve done something, you’ve done a good job.”
7th inning – It’s funny, there’s one matchup within the division for every team that’s pretty lopsided. Does that alter the read on what the games mean?
“I think it’s more matchups in regards to a team’s strengths. To win the East, you have to beat the East, it’s pretty simple. It’s a tough division, (former Rays and current Dodgers exec) Andrew Friedman said it’s the toughest division in sports, so he left.”
8th inning – Let’s go bigger picture. You had some key free agents leave this past winter, but most of your core remained. You’ll have even more potential free agents this fall, including Matt Wieters and Chris Davis, and if last year you lost some limbs, this year could lose a torso. How does that impact your planning?
“We have more free agents this year, but we do have the stability up the middle with J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones, and we do have some starting pitchers that will be returning, but you’re right, we do have more free agents than we did in the past, it will be a challenge. We’ve been growing some players in the farm system, we’ll have a couple of them ready next year to help our club, but I wouldn’t look too far down the road.”
9th inning – Knowing you might need them next year, how does that affect the way you approach your prospects this season?
“The prospects will tell you when they’re ready for the big-leagues based on their skill development. We’re focused on having as good a team as we can have every year.”
