A month ago, we introduced to you all a new, fun twist on March Madness. In conjunction with my friend Danny at Orioles Uncensored, we created a tournament of 64 players from the Orioles dark years from 1998-2011. We seeded them 1-16 in four, manager-themed regions based on performance, popularity, longevity, etc.
Over the course of the tournament, we have totaled over 12,000 votes and narrowed the field week-by-week to bring us to this point. The championship matchup is all set and it certainly is a good one.
In a “Battle of the Bobbleheads,” two #1 seeds in Melvin Mora and Brian Roberts will face off as you, the fans, will vote for your favorite player from the O’s drought years.
Please share with friends, family, coworkers, whoever you would like. The more votes we get, the more exciting the matchup will be. Don’t forget to head over to O’s Uncensored and vote there, too.
Baltimore Drought Bracketology championship matchup:
Perlozzo region #1 seed Melvin Mora vs. Hargrove region #1 seed Brian Roberts
What a matchup this will be. Let’s compare Mora and B-Rob by the numbers. *All stats will be based on their time as Orioles and were taken from baseball-reference.com.*
Years spent in Baltimore…
Mora: 10
B-Rob: 13
AVG/OBP/SLG…
Mora: .280/.355/.438
B-Rob: .278/.349/.412
HR/RBI…
Mora: 158 HR, 662 RBI
B-Rob: 92 HR, 521 RBI
SB…
Mora: 82
B-Rob: 278
Total oWAR/dWAR…
Mora: 27.0 oWAR, 4.0 dWAR
B-Rob: 27.1 oWAR, 4.7 dWAR
Although they had different skill sets, both Mora and Roberts were key parts of the Orioles for many years and contributed in different ways. While Mora was a stronger hitter, Roberts was a scrappy speedster. Neither were superstars by any means but they put up consistently above average numbers across the board.
They each appeared in two All Star Games and shared the honor in 2005, when they joined B.J. Ryan and Miguel Tejada as the four Orioles representatives at the mid-summer classic. Tejada outshined everybody on his way to winning the All Star Game MVP Award.
Bottom line: Just about everybody loved Melvin Mora. Just about everybody loved Brian Roberts. Now, it’s time to decide who you loved more.
Vote now!
[cardoza_wp_poll id=”99″]
