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O’s Bring Nolan Reimold Back on Minor League Deal

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A little surprised probably best describes my thoughts when I heard the Orioles were bringing back Nolan Reimold. The question is which Nolan Reimold is Baltimore bringing back?

If you haunt Baseball-Reference like I do, you know they have some interesting comparisons that they do. If you check out Reimold’s page you’ll see a short list of players of similar ages. Two guys on that short list show us who the Orioles thought Reimold was going to be…and the guy he turned out to be.

High Hopes

I have no illusions that Nolan is no longer the hot prospect that nearly hit .400 at AAA. If he was he’d line-up with one of the guys I referenced earlier…Jeromy Burnitz. Burnitz hit 351 homers in his big league career and hit 30+ dingers six times with a lifetime batting average of .253. The early bets on Reimold would have included more of a 20-25 homer a year guy with a chance to hit for a much better average than Burnitz. We got a flash of that in 2009 when he hit 15 homers and batted .279 in 358 AB’s.

The Other Guy

The Orioles didn’t get a Burnitz; they got more of an Edsel. The guy was “in the shop” more often than not and never had a chance of living up to the potential. That brings us to the other guy on the list, ironically a former Oriole. It’s none other than Chris Richard. The kid certainly looked like a ballplayer and I had forgotten how decent he was in 2001. The O’s gave him 483 AB’s and he returned the favor with a .265, 15 HR, 61 RBI effort that also included 11 stolen bases. He never hit better than .232 again and never sniffed higher than 155 at bats in any of the three major league seasons that followed. Sound familiar? With nearly identical career numbers to the guy the O’s just brought back, it should.

Baltimore Bound?

“5th Outfielder” is never something you want beneath your name on a business card, but that’s what will be awaiting Reimold when he gets to Sarasota (unless it says “6th Outfielder”). Making the big league club out of Spring Training would need the kind of craziness that led to Justin Forsett ending this past season as starting RB for the Ravens.

Anything’s possible, but hopefully Nolan likes Norfolk.

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