Who is Ramon Ramirez?

Just before opening the mics for Episode 84 last night, I looked over our show notes and saw a name I didn’t recognize. So I asked “who is Ramon Ramirez?” Literally in the time it took me to put my kids to bed, I missed the roster move that brought Ramirez to Camden Yards.

Listening to Buck Showalter after the game, I didn’t feel so bad:

I don’t think I’d ever had a pitcher pitch for me that I had never met. Tonight was the first. I introduced myself to him after he came out of the game. He got here and landed about 7:20, was in the bullpen about 8:30. We had all these things going around. “The package has landed,” “the package has arrived.” “It’s in the bullpen now.”

That’s got to be a little awkward. But I wonder if this isn’t the first time Ramirez has had this experience. Ramirez is the definition of a journeyman, appearing for six major league clubs over the course of nine big league seasons. He’s thrown 432.2 IP (including last night’s scoreless 9th), and owns a 3.42 ERA.

I’d try to tell you something valuable about his season so far, but he logged only 12.1 IP in AAA this seas (only 8 of which came in a Tides uniform). He’s just… a guy, and stuff.

But it’s the “and stuff” that makes him a Dan Duquette Special. He’s a player the Orioles can squeeze some quality innings out of before they DFA him and send him to the next team on his journeyman itinerary. This is Duquette’s signature move. And it’s a good one. He finds diamonds in the rough and uses those fringe players until he can find others.

Of course, what I hope is happening is that Duquette is simply biding his time until he admits to himself that he has to bring up Gausman and send Gonzalez to the ‘pen. But that’s a separate rant. Instead, I’ll simply say: enjoy Ramon Ramirez while he is here. Hopefully he’ll provide the bullpen a much needed respite. If he’s good, he’ll stick around for a while. If not, he’ll be a vague memory and an anecdote on next year’s 2014 retrospective.