Qualifier: players will be classified under one position even if they played at more than one.

Gus Triandos:

Three-time All-Star catcher Gus Triandos played the prime of his career with the Baltimore Orioles from 1955 to 1962. Over his first seven years in Baltimore, Triandos posted a 111 OPS+ (league average is 100) and cracked 19 home runs per year including a 30-homer 1958 season. He gunned down 45 percent of base-stealers in his career and reached as high as 67 percent in 1957; while his passed ball rate was higher than average, it was largely attributable to catching knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm for five years.

Chris Hoiles:

Career Oriole Chris Hoiles was Baltimore’s catcher of the 1990s. Hoiles was a well above-average hitter at a defense-first position during an era of incredible offensive production. In eight seasons as the starter, he posted a .264 batting average, .369 on-base percentage and 121 OPS+. He notched three 20 home run years and reached base at a .370-plus clip five times. Hoiles contributed to the last two Orioles teams to reach the playoffs in 1996 and 1997.

Rick Dempsey:

1983 World Series MVP Rick Dempsey was the hero of the Orioles’ last championship winner. Dempsey was an outstanding defensive backstop who spent 24 years in the Major Leagues, half of which came with the Orioles. He was worth more than 20 wins above replacement level for the Orioles as he posted a .674 OPS while walking nearly as often as he struck out. In the 1983 World Series, Dempsey cracked five extra-base hits in five games to lead the Orioles to victory; he later won a second World Series title with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988.

Wally Schang:

Wally Schang was one of the top offensive catchers in baseball during the era when the Orioles franchise played as the St. Louis Browns. Though Schang didn’t join the Browns until his age 36 season in 1926, he proceeded to hit .294 with a .423 OBP and .862 OPS over four years with the team. He enjoyed his career year in his first season with the Browns, batting .330 with a .405 OBP and .516 slugging average. Schang maintained an above-average OPS+ in each of his four years with the Browns and did so 15 times in 19 total MLB seasons.

Hank Severeid:

Hank Severeid spent 11 years behind the plate for the St. Louis Browns from 1915 to 1925. Severeid was a late bloomer, but by the time he turned 30, he evolved into one of the best hitting catchers in the big leagues. From 1921 to 1925, he batted .320 with a .370 OBP while twice driving in 78 RBI. With one strikeout per 27.8 at-bats, he remains the second hardest player to punch out in Orioles’ history; he was also one of the first Orioles/Browns to reach the 1,000 hit mark. Defensively, Severeid threw out 655 would be base-stealers for a career 42 percent caught stealing rate.

Sources:

Baltimore Orioles Team History & Encyclopedia, Baseball-Reference.com

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Atlanta Braves top five catchers

Top five hitters in August 2011

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I will be the first to admit that some of my favorite sports journalists toil for the Baltimore Sun. There are gentlemen there that have written about the disaster that has been the Baltimore Orioles for the past 13 seasons and somehow made it palatable for their fans.

Humor has played a big role in keeping us coming back, but in the Oct. 27 edition, Dan Connolly wrote a piece that was downright scary.

He indicated that Baltimore was interviewing John Stockstill for the position of general manager. Let me say that if this guy somehow ends up being the new president of baseball operations for the O’s, the announced crowds at the stadium will be below 5,000 people during his tenure. The fact that this man is even being considered for the position says bad things about how involved Peter Angelos is in the process.

Angelos is known as a guy that likes old school people running his team, and Stockstill would meet that criteria. Just when this team needs an injection of new blood and a new philosophy, could they really turn back to a man who has done what many would deem damage to the franchise? Ah, I had high hopes coming into this process, as the men being interviewed were ones with good backgrounds in player development and international scouting. Now one really has to wonder.

To give you an idea why we don’t like this character, you need to examine his time with the club. He arrived in 2005 as the director of pro scouting and was also the head of the Orioles’ international efforts as well. He was switched to player development director five years later to work with the farm system, which he helped to stock with his “scouting” efforts. The Orioles’ farm system has been considered one of the worst in the league for years, and this man was one of the main guys in charge.

So I ask, what are the people in charge thinking? The old school way of thinking has not worked for some 13 years now. You can chart the progress of the man you’re interviewing and see that we have brought in one international prospect in four years and the minor league system has produced next to nothing. If it had not been for Andy McPhail’s trades in recent years, we would probably be fielding a minor league squad at the top level.

If this is more than just a courtesy flush to a guy that should be headed out of this organization, then there will be no hope for the Orioles. It had been rumored that Stockstill was going to be reassigned within the organization. We as fans saw that as a rightful demotion coming. With the current news, we can only hope that this is some horrible Halloween gag being played on the fans of the Orioles.

Though a Washington native, John Atchison grew up a fan of the Baltimore Orioles. Many think he should now become a Nationals fan, but he says the Black and Orange is where he will stay!

Dan Jennings is a popular guy. The Baltimore Orioles are looking for a new general manager and the word is that they wanted to speak with the Florida Marlins vice president of player personnel and assistant general manager about it, but the Fish have denied the request, MASN Sports reports.

The Baltimore Sun has it that if this is true, it is the fourth time that the Marlins have denied a team’s request to speak with Jennings about a job. After all, he’s only halfway through an eight-year deal.

The team interviewed its first candidate for the job Tuesday, 43-year-old Arizona Diamondbacks senior vice president of scouting and player development Jerry Dipoto, who spent eight years playing in the majors with the Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, and Colorado Rockies.

Toronto Blue Jays assistant general manager Tony LaCava will get his turn in the interview chair Wednesday, according to KJXT TV.

By SportsDirect