With the 2nd-half struggles of Markakis, I have to believe the discussion of the 2010 Most Valuable Oriole begins and ends with Luke Scott, and Jeremy Guthrie.
Scott entered action today with a .290 average, 26 homers, 63 rbi, and a .925 OPS. After posting an OPS under .700 in April, Scott has been above .900 in every successive month, including over 1.000 since the All-Star break.
After grabbing the win with 7 strong innings last night, Guthrie is 9-13, with a 3.89 era. He has pitched 183 innings, allowed 172 hits, 21 homers, 46 walks, with 99 k’s. He has held opposing hitters to a .247 batting average against, and an OPS against of .727. He has a Grounder to Fly-ball ratio of 0.75.
Since the All-Star break, Guthrie is 6-3 with a 2.51 era.
Interestingly, both Guthrie and Scott are Arbitration Eligible through the 2012 season, and Free Agents heading into 2013. Guthrie turned 31 in April, Scott turned 32 in June.
Neither player is overly expensive, and both figure to have several more productive Major League seasons. However, they are several years older than the rest (aside from Roberts) core of players that comprise this team. The same reasons they are attractive to the team (productive, somewhat cheap) are why they would be attractive to others. It will be interesting to see how much MacPhail and Showalter value these two in the off-season. Do the O’s attempt to move Guthrie and Scott with their value at a perceived ‘high’, or do the two players return for another season as part of the Orange & Black?
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Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.