Baltimore Orioles send their starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie to Colorado Rockies - MLB News
The Baltimore Orioles have traded their talented starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie to Colorado Rockies for pitchers Matt Lindstrom and Jason Hammel in order to improve their bullpen’s strength for next season.
Guthrie, who went at 4.33 ERA along with 9-17 win-loss, 130 strike-outs and 1.34 WHIP could not hold up his previous level of self-belief upon his team who late on Tuesday evening traded him to the Rockies for two potential pitchers.
Some say the Orioles did not make a good move sending their potential player to the Rockies even after seeing his last season’s performance. Orioles' manager Buck Showalter earlier stated in reply to those reporters who stated Guthrie’s trade can be a serious danger for the franchise.
He said, “Right now we have a lot of people who have the potential to pitch high in the rotation and they better take that potential and run with it."
Later, Dan Duquette, who is the Executive Vice-President of Baseball Operations for the Baltimore Orioles, said in the media, “With the need for consistent innings in the rotation, I thought it would be better to bring in a number of starting pitchers and then see who the strongest pitchers are and put them in the rotation and then some of the other pitchers would be available to help us in the bullpen, Another group of pitchers who we could send down on options and continue to develop them in Triple-A.”
Though, the Orioles are now expressing all kinds of logic to bring some new pitchers in the franchise, but some inside MLB sources are speculating in the media that the Orioles were looking for a potential replacement for Guthrie even at the end of 2011 season.
Two things were in the mind of the Orioles' management before they traded Guthrie. First they needed a potential backup for their other pitchers especially relievers and secondly they knew that in order to provide another contract to Guthrie, they have to spend some hefty money. While to escape from spending too much on Guthrie’s contract extension and providing a decent backup to their other relievers, the Orioles made this trade final with Rockies.
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