So the O’s signed Ryan Flaherty to a one-yr $1.075M deal last week, avoiding arbitration. While it will be mentioned on the sports talk shows and delivered to viewers on TV, it will not contain the pomp and circumstance that greeted Max Scherzer’s $210M package from the Nats.
Of course it shouldn’t, but it will solicit some banter from O’s fans during happy hours leading up to Opening Day. We’ll say:
Flaherty’s a weak stick!
I don’t want him up in clutch situations!
He’s too slow!
He doesn’t have that good of a glove!
Etc, etc.
You’ll also hear:
He’s the epitome of a utility player!
He has some pop to go yard once in a while!
He has a decent arm!
Etc., etc.
Guess what kids? You can argue both sides, but the deciding factor should be that he’s only making $1.075M this year and there’s not many high end utility players out there making that little bit of dough. For most of us regular Joes, that’s a one and done payday, but to play in the bigs, it’s a snowflake in Boston this week.
Let’s turn the clock back a bit…Earl was smoking in the dugout, Boog shoved beer and hotdogs in him like he was Kobayashi, and Jim Palmer ate eight inches of pancakes on the days he took the hill.
Know where I’m headed?
Yup….Mark Belanger. Oriole royalty? You betcha. Hall of Famer….nope. Above average player? Overall yes, but not in every aspect.
The Blade had the glove, sometimes gold (eight of them to be exact), but he couldn’t bust open a piñata at his kid’s birthday party with a 40 oz Louisville Slugger even if he knew there was a carton of Camels in there.
Not dissin’ the O’s second-greatest shortstop, I’m just saying.
Belanger had 18 seasons under his 27” belt and only left the yard 20 times! Even Milt Pappas had 20 four baggers for god’s sake.
Flaherty has 23 in his first three full seasons, no, not earth shaking, but I’m trying to put things in perspective here. Mark’s lifetime batting average was .228 – Ryan’s is .221. Belanger’s glove did bring a lifetime fielding percentage of .977 with all but 28 games played at SS. I’ll take those numbers all day and twice on Sundays.
Flaherty’s first three years’ overall FP is .981 in six different positions! He has not caught, pitched or patrolled center, but he’s planted a flag everywhere else. As evidenced this past summer, we needed this type of versatility, from several players. Ryan’s sample period is just three years, while The Blade didn’t play over 40 games in a season until his sixth summer with the O’s. The game has changed, the need from players has changed, and utility players have become their own genre.
Chris Davis made over $10 mil last year and will make more this season. I’d be nervous cutting that check, but would be happy to slide 10% of that amount to Flaherty.
So let’s take Ryan Flaherty for what he is and what he’s worth, and the way I see it, the Orioles are doing exactly that. They get very useful player for a very reasonable salary.
Let’s all enjoy Ryan Flaherty, even if it is just once in a while.
submitted by Jeff Kief
