O's have exceeded 2011 budget

[ShaneDawg85]

Before making a comment either way I'd like to know what the actual budget is, or a close estimate.

[Bradysburns]

This means we HAVE TO BE CLOSE TO BEING A WINNING TEAM!!!! The only way to win is to spend gobs of money!!!!!

Ah, the old straw-man argument of "spend like idiots or we can't win"...

[Hank Scorpio]

Waiting for the "if this is true, we are truly doomed" post...

[TrappedinWV]

If this is true, we are truly doomed.

[Bradysburns]

Especially when we were willing to go to $40 million+ for VMart, Dunn, etc.

I guess AM thinks we forgot about that.

Exactly. I dunno. I don't want to get too bent out of shape before getting more details, if there are any. But it's just irritating that right when you think we could start making a little push toward at least "not sucking"... you get this little pin moved a little closer to the balloon.

[DrungoHazewood]

If we got him at a bargain rate, you'd have to think Vlad would sell at least a few tickets. Thus maybe he'd be a wash.

Maybe. But I have a strong feeling that Vlad's impact on attendance would be very far down in the noise. If the O's win 85 games and attendance goes up half a million you might have a case, even if it's impossible to pin any of it on Vlad.

My opinion here is that almost no individual is going to drive ticket sales by a measurable amount apart from his impact on meaningful wins.

[LookinUp]

Does this mean we get to draft a roommate for Matt Hobgood in June?

[TakebackOPACY]

Kind of kills the off-season for me. The Orioles don't look like they want to spend like a competitor. What happens if they need to add salary to compete mid year?

If this is really true than Luke Scott should be traded for a pitcher. The Orioles have plenty of SG options, and they really need another pitcher.

Shooting guard??

[wildcard]

Before making a comment either way I'd like to know what the actual budget is, or a close estimate.

Has to be somewhere between 78-80M.

[osgolfer]

Shooting guard??

Stop gap I believe.

[srock]

Meh.

$75-80 million seems like a very reasonable budget for the 2011 Orioles.

So long as the budget is flexible should certian situations present themselves

[J.D.]

No big deal. Budgets have some inherent flexibility in them. As long as I don't hear "our budget prevented us from signing/drafting X that would have helped our team" then I honestly couldn't care less about this.

[DrungoHazewood]

So long as the budget is flexible should certian situations present themselves

You would hope that some kind of situation that would push the O's towards serious contention would lead to more money being pried loose. They're not that far from the win range where 5 wins might bust loose $10s of millions in playoff revenues.

[crissfan172]

Does this mean we get to draft a roommate for Matt Hobgood in June?

I'm pretty sure the money they have allotted for the team and draft are separate.

[crissfan172]

Normally this wouldn't bug me because you don't want to spend too much money that it prevents you from spending in the future. However, I don't see how signing Vlad to a one-year contract would hamstring us, so I don't understand the comment at all.