SEASON SUMMARY

Melvin Mora's wife gave birth to quintuplets this past season, as everyone knows, so let's try to give him a little bit of a break.  But not too much of a break.<g>

Mora spent much of his time with the Orioles at the end of the 2000 season proving that he wasn't an everyday shortstop, so the Orioles decided early on that he would spend the bulk of his time in the outfield (center, specifically), where he's much more adept, though the Orioles' increasingly desperate situation at shortstop meant that he ultimately appeared in 44 games there.

When a player reaches the age of 30 and has two full years of major league experience under his belt, you can be certain that he's not all that high on anyone's depth chart, and that description certainly applies to Mora.

After a sluggish start with the bat in 2001, Mora began to heat up in May and by late June, when he peaked, he was putting up offensive numbers that surpassed 2000's adequate performance.  And then he began to tail off.  Maybe it was the impending birth, maybe it was something else, who knows, but Mora's bat slowly disappeared through July and August and he ended up with a year that simply won't cut it for a starting major leaguer--particularly a starting major league outfielder.  His offensive winning percentage--.459--was actually pretty decent by Orioles standards, but compared to major league center fielders as a whole (minimum 450 plate appearances), Mora ranked just 15th of 22 qualifiers.  That's not horrible, but it's certainly not something to hang a star on.  

Like many of the 2001 Orioles, Mora doesn't do anything especially well at the plate.  He's not awful at anything either, but there's no real "plus asset" one can point to.  He doesn't have a lot of pop, he doesn't draw a ton of walks, he doesn't hit for a phenomenal average.  He also has a reputation for kind of zoning out here and there and making bonehead baserunning decisions.

The Orioles seem to have come to the conclusion that Mora is really a utility man--the kind of player who can fill in at five or six positions when needed and perhaps start a couple of games a week, but is more valuable off the bench than in an every day role.  Perhaps one of the reasons that Mora wore down in the season's second half last year is that he was wearing down himself.  The Orioles seem determined not to have him in a starting role in 2002.

TO CONTRIBUTE SIGNIFICANTLY NEXT YEAR, HE MUST:

1) accept a return to his role as a kind of super-sub

2) at least pick the batting average up; the 2001 power and walk numbers are probably indicative of his skills, but he's hit for a better average in the past than was the case in 2001 and he needs to do it again

NOTES