I've seen it mentioned at least twice elsewhere that the Baltimore Orioles might non-tender starter and constant "breakout" pick, Daniel Cabrera. Some might argue that Cabrera's potential is too delicious to lose, but at what point do you just write that off? Well, I think it's time to pull the plug.
For the duration of his career Cabrera has relied heavily on his fastball and slider. For whatever reason Cabrera has lost some velocity off of his fastball this season (down to 92.6 rather than 94) yet Cabrera's usage has not been derailed, in fact he's responded by throwing even more fastballs. Neither has helped Cabrera's control however since nearly 41% of his pitches were balls. To make matters worse Cabrera only invoked 5% of his strikes of the swinging variety. For a guy with supposedly amazing stuff that is beyond unacceptable. Cabrera's tRA increased for the third straight season up to 6.06 as did his FIP, up to 5.61.
Cabrera is 27 and statistically declining. The Orioles have done a nice rebuilding their farm system and funneling talent into the system. They can do themselves a favor by non-tendering Cabrera and letting another team wonder about his potential.
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