Lousiville Daily Star
March 5, 2006
Editorial: Has Orcin Lost It?
Written by Staff Editor Adeline More
The news from our beloved Colonels today is full of chaos normally not seen at the start of the season. The word is that general manager Otto Orcin has fired long-time scout Fernando Candelaria in favor of former Indianapolis Indians scout Jorge Enriquez. Insiders report that the move was very sudden - so sudden, in fact, that the ink was drying on both Candelaria's pink slip and Enriquez's employment contract at the same time. Even more perplexing is that the organization gave no reason publicly for this sudden and sweeping change with Spring Training close at hand. It's enough to make one wonder if Orcin has actually lost it or if there is a method to his madness.
Back up to the end of last season. The Colonels lost the CBA World Series 4-2 to Atlanta. At the end of it all, Otto Orcin had the opportunity to lock up Brian Wilson, the workhorse of the rotation, to a deal. Wilson was 14-12, with a 3.77 ERA, but these numbers were quite misleading. Wilson had the second-highest number of quality starts on the team, second-highest number of complete games, the highest number of strikeouts, and the second-best WHIP in the Louisville rotation.
If Wilson's name sounds familiar, it is. Wilson won the 2005 Outstanding Pitcher award in the Federal League with a 21-4 with a 2.64 ERA the season before. He'd been signed before the start of the 2004 season to a meager $3.5 million for two years. Yes, only $3.5 million. It had to be one of the most underrated moves, yet it produced outstanding results for the Colonels. In his two seasons, Wilson was 26-16 with an ERA around 3.00. You'd think, given all of this, that Orcin would have moved to lock up Wilson for a few more years. Even with declining numbers, Wilson had proven he could still produce and every indication was that he wanted to stay in Louisville.
Yet Orcin, according to unnamed team sources, would not entertain offers made by Wilson's agent to remain in Louisville. He refused to consider offers that placed Wilson's value more in line with other players of his caliber. Despite the luxury of an increased budget that would have surely permitted Orcin to retain Wilson and help the club's rotation, the Louisville GM offered Wilson arbitration then let him sign in the off-season with division rival Chicago instead at a contract that is valued at $17.7 million per year. Consider, for a moment, that Figueroa went for $17.6 million per year, Dan Todd signed with Cincinnati for $17.8 million, and, by far the biggest of the signings, Roberto Campos went to Baltimore for almost $20 million a year. Surely the Colonels could have provided a reasonable contract with Wilson and kept him aboard to mentor a young rotation.
Then there was the debacle with the arbitration of Mariano Gonzalez. The team offered Gonzalez a low-ball offer of $2.8 million. Most analysts predicted that it would take at least $3.5 million to get a ruling in the team's favor. The Colonels paid the price, sadly, when the arbitrator awarded Gonazlez $4.1 million - $1.3 million more than the team's offer and $600k more than the analyst predictions.
Trading away promising pitcher Pedro Castro in return for 19-year old center fielder Rafael Valdez only exacerbates things further. Before requiring season-ending surgery, Castro had emerged as a quality arm in the rotation. At 22 he could be assured many years of high potential. What did this gain Louisville? Valdez is several years away from being able to play in the majors. Castro would have been a great arm to have pitching every fifth day. A rotation of Westaway, Luna, Alexander, Castro and Hernandez would have been potentially the strongest in the CBA.
All of these strange moves can only make us wonder when the last time was that Mr. Orcin took an actual vacation away from Louisville. Clearly the stress and pressure are getting to him and he could use some rest and relaxation.
(I found the whole situation too good to pass up writing a fictitious article on the matter. It's not hard to misconstrue some other events to build things up to the "more than a coincidence" level.
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