Scanning the Orioles roster is like picking up a really old issue of Baseball America and flipping to the Cubs section. You may remember such names as Lou Montanez, Corey Patterson, Will Ohman, Jake Fox, and the not-so-long-ago likes of Felix Pie.
How did all this happen? Sure, the Orioles suck and they’ll take anyone’s refuse if its cheap and there’s any prayer players might produce, but let’s take a look at each player, how they got to Baltimore, and how they’re doing on the “the AAAA All-Star squad.”
Lou Montanez: The Cubs first-round pick was supposed to be an A-Rod type player. Drafted out of high school, I remember him hitting BP at Wrigley Field the day he signed. He spent four years in A ball with the Cubs before everyone realized this guy was more of a fourth outfielder than an all-star shortstop. So he was moved to the outfield and was eventually allowed to leave as a minor league free agent. The Orioles signed him and forgot about him until 2008, when as a 26-year old in double-A (that’s 8 years after getting drafted!) he had a breakout season, hitting .335 with 26 HRs, and 97 RBIs.
That earned him a callup to the bigs where he showed decent power. He was hurt for most of 2009 but was still in the major leagues leading up to 2010. He’s been hurt again this season, prompting Montanez to call this season the worst of his career. If he can’t play like A-Rod, maybe we can at least come up with a cool name like L-Mo or something.
Corey Patterson: I love rooting for Corey Patterson. He was an integral part of my becoming a huge fan of the minor leagues and of the Cubs in general. He was supposed to be our Albert Pujols, our Carlos Beltran (in the KC days), our answer to the prayers of a position player that could hit, hit for power, run, play defense, and throw guys out. Corey was the five-tool player of our dreams.
We all know it didn’t work out in Chicago, which is why the Cubs traded him to Baltimore in 2006. He had two pretty good seasons there, hitting pretty well with some homers and tons of stolen bases. The next year (2008) the Reds signed him and he was terrible, hitting .205 with 10 HRs and 14 steals.
This began the spiraling of Patterson’s career. He’d be signed and released by two different teams (Milwaukee and Washington) in 2009, and when 2010 got underway he had no job. Nobody wanted the once-famous Corey Patterson. Which, honestly, kind of broke my heart. Here was a guy with so much talent and promise and unfulfilled expectations and he didn’t even have a job.
Eventually, Patterson got a job in the minors with Baltimore and they eventually called him up when Nolan Reimold was struggling. And Patterson has been producing ever since: he’s hitting .277, 5 HRs, and 17 steals. And he’s been making amazing defensive catches the whole time. His production made him the O’s leadoff hitter…until someone else came along…
Felix Pie: Felix Pie was traded to the O’s for two pitchers (one of whom is with Seattle now) once upon a time, and after being on the DL for most of the year is finally back on the team. And that leaves Baltimore with quite the dilemma: play the young prospect Pie or play the veteran who has revived his career and been clutch for them so far this year.
Corey Patterson had to deal with this very question in Chicago when Pie was making his way through the system and he’s dealing with it again. He used to start every game and now Pie is eating into some of his starts. If I were in Baltimore, I’d obviously want to see Pie play as much as possible, but I’m such a CPat fan that it pains me to think of him rotting on the bench again (or worse).
Pie is still just 25 and still hasn’t gotten a chance to play a full season, but you can bet Baltimore will give him a shot and maybe ship Patterson off to a contender who needs defense, the occasional homerun, and some speed off the bench.
I’ll take a look at Jake Fox and Will Ohman in a future post.
The Stretch 