Why the Orioles Lose: Part XXV

I went to see the Orioles play the Athletics, a real last minute thing that wasn't my greatest idea ever. I had to drive through DC and the Beltway during a hot Thursday Rush Hour and it took me an angering amount of time to finally get to the Inner Harbor, and I did it to see Josh Bell's first game.

We can argue all day long in tighter and tighter circles over whether or not Bell deserved that promotion, what was best for his development, and what was best for the Orioles. I'm not interested in re-hashing that. Bell was struggling in his first year at AAA, he still can't hit left-handed pitching, but he had had a good month and the Orioles liked what they saw and figured "Why not? Let's roll the dice".

And I kind of like that attitude, even though I disagreed with the roster move. It was bold and interesting. It intrigued me enough to make that hellish drive in the Maryland heat. It showed some (foolhardy) initiative. It felt a lot like a man broken, finally standing up on his feet and saying "If I'm going down, I'm going down swinging*. I'm tired and hungry and angry". I can empathize with that feeling; I am an Oriole fan, after all.

But Josh Bell was awful in his five games with the Orioles. He had three singles in 15 PA, struck out 8 times, didn't walk, committed a throwing error, and he did it all strictly against right-handed pitching. The scouting report on Bell was that his left-handed swing was a thing of beauty and wonder, giving him power and bat speed and control. What we got was a 9 OPS+, a guy unable to get hardly any lift on the ball, and a guy who swung at over half the pitches he saw and made contact less than 60% of the time he swung. And he spent most of his time DHing or sitting on the bench.

So that experiment met basically each and every one of its doomsday projections. I still like the thinking behind it, for all its flaws. Do something bold with your life while you still can. Give this guy a try-out, see if you can't catch lightning in a bottle. Take a chance. But it didn't work out no matter how you skew the performance, and Bell was sent back down. In the end, that's baseball. No harm no foul, right?

Well, he's back. And what has he done to earn his way back to Baltimore in five days? Um, nothing. He hasn't played at all. He is back solely by the grace of being on the 40-man roster. I thought that in order to be "promoted", you had to do something - anything! - but hey, this is Birdland. Josh Bell didn't even need to put on a glove or pick up a bat to get promoted.

This is the Orioles' top hitting prospect, isn't it? This is the same guy who was the reason the Orioles traded George Sherrill, the guy who dominated AA pitching with a .892 OPS in 2009. The Orioles do think Josh Bell is a part of The Future, don't they?

I'm inclined to think not. Nolan Reimold, who was such an exciting player last year (and who it should be noted played much, much better in 2010 than Josh Bell), has had to earn his way back. The Orioles seem completely uninterested in having their potential starting left fielder/first baseman come back to sit on the bench and redefine futility at the major league plate. But Josh Bell?

And that is how quickly something bold and interesting turns into futile desperation, a maddening loop of pressing the same button over and over again for lack of enough insight to realize that that button doesn't help you win games.

*Oh, the irony!