Oriole #945- Chris Dickerson

Well, the O's most recent roster move certainly took me by surprise. As I mentioned in my post from the other day, I had infielder Yamaico Navarro pegged as the next player to be called up to the O's to make his Baltimore debut. He had three things going for him as he was already on the 40 man roster, had been on the 25-man roster for a day between B-Rob's injury and Chris Tillman's activation from the DL, and was also the taxi squad player who traveled with the team to Boston on Sunday in case Nolan Reimold needed to be sent to the DL.

But then, almost literally, out of left field, the Orioles called up OF Chris Dickerson to take the roster spot of relief pitcher, Luis Ayala, who was traded to the Braves on Wednesday. It makes sense that the O's wanted to go back to a four man bench, but I still don't entirely understand adding another outfield-only player to essentially take the spot of 2B Brian Roberts. Before Dickerson was called up, the O's already had four outfielders on the roster (Jones, Markakis, Reimold, & McLouth), in addition to at least three other players who can play the outfield as needed (Davis, Flaherty, & Pearce). Don't get me wrong, I think that Dickerson pretty much immediately becomes at least the fourth best OF on the team; fielding wise, I'd say that he's in the ballpark of Jones, Markakis, & McLouth. And from what I understand, his speed is a commodity as well.

Chris made his Orioles debut in the 9th inning of Wednesday's game against the Red Sox, coming into the game as a pinch-runner for Nolan Reimold, who is typically quite fast himself, but was recently battling some hamstring issues. Dickerson ended up scoring a run on Manny Machado's decisive three run HR to give the Orioles the lead, and ultimately, the win.

Chris signed a few cards for me on my Spring Training trip, and this personalized old man card will immediately jump into my collection. I happened to be the only guy around when Chris was signing and he seemed like a nice guy. I attended a ST game the day before he signed for me and he had made a long run to catch a ball near the outfield wall. It looked like a nice play and I brought it up to him. He quickly responded with "Oh, you mean the one I lost for a minute?" I guess that maybe it was more of a lucky than a good catch, but it still looked like he made a nice play from the stands!

He made his first Orioles start Thursday night in right field, and I imagine that he will generally know become the 4th OF on the team, with Reimold shifting to the DH role. But who really knows? I was way off on my last attempt at predicting what this team will do. As long as they keep on winning!