Anyone have a link to MacPhail's Q&A from today?

[hoosiers]

Wrong..In 2010, the Rangers went to the playoffs with a payroll of 65M..Why did that happen? Because they had a very good young nucleus full of cheap talent. They didn't have that when AROD was there and they were poor at picking the right pitching for their park. They now have a lot of young talent and a lot of power arms, which is why they advanced to the WS. Had they had a better plan with AROD on the team, they could have won.

You want to deal in reality or hypothetical? You don't think they had a plan when ARod signed? You don't think they were aware what they had in the farm system when he signed?

ARod signed before the 2001 season. Attendance the prior year was 2.6M. It increased to 2.8M in 2001 and declined to 2.4M and 2.1M the next two years.

The team AVERAGED 18 games below .500 and finished fourth all three years ARod was there despite ARod averaging 8 WAR! In some of these years, management wasted huge $ on JuanGone and ChanHo and Carl Everett and Rusty Greer, but in others received tremendous WAR production from IRod, Raffy, Kenny Rogers and even strong contributions from Ismael Valdez and John Thompson, plus positive WAR from Cordero.

At the press conference in the espn article when ARod signed- "We know over the long haul we are going to have to add some quality pitching," Texas general manager Doug Melvin said.

He wasn't kidding. In 2001, only Rogers had an ERA+ over 95 among starters. In 2002, SP had ERA+ over 75.

This is not a team that was going to compete in the short term when ARod signed. It did win 89 games for third in the AL West in 2004 immediately after with Mark Texeira and several others, led by Buck Showalter and a better pitching staff.

18 games below .500 and the conclusion is management should have made better decisions? They were probably two all star players and two other quality contributors from competing. That's a mammoth gap to bridge. They were far from competing. Now, why don't you go back to what AM said and tell us again where he was wrong?

[ChaosLex]

More copouts and poor comparisons from MacPhail.

We aren't investing in scouting and that's how Tampa did it.

It's easy to point a finger at Tampa and say that's the way it should be done. It's another thing to actually do it like they did which we aren't.

And Teixeria as a "perfect storm?"

Teixeira was a epic failure and is the summation of the ineptitude of this franchise to land or recruit premium talent.

You had a player that grew up in Maryland as an Orioles fan, that wanted to be a Yankee when he had his choice of teams, and the Orioles offer him less than any other offer and don't even try to compete with the other teams vying for his services because he won't take a hometown discount. MacPhail is so afraid of crippling the payroll that he doesn't even attempt to make an honest effort to land a player that the franchise desperately needed and was a perfect fit.

And if you want to look at a mid market team who has a high payroll - just look at the Phillies, who have been able to ramp their payroll up in the $140 million range because they've had that success in the playoffs.

The Orioles could get there, but they've got to win first. To say that can't be sustained is wrong. Win and you will have enough revenue.

The excuses for MASN are a joke as well. MASN can be as big as Peter Angelos wants it to be. Baltimore-Washington is one of the biggest television markets in the country. Last time I checked NESN doesn't exactly only show Red Sox games.

I really do hope MacPhail is gone at the end of this season. It's obvious that he's not willing to actually do what it will take to sustain a competitive team in the AL East because what he will have to do goes against his personal beliefs on how a team should operate financially.

It's obvious he's more concerned about the business aspect of the Orioles than actually doing what it will take to win in this division.

I'm ready for him to become Commissioner so he can stop holding this team back.

So AM goes out and does nearly everything you want in FA, and this is how you repay him?

LOL. You're certifiable, bud.

[centralpaosfan]

Why would the O's spend 10/300 MM on Prince Albert when they can get Prince Fielder for 7/140? :laughlol:

Something tells me Pujols wouldn't want this for a nickname. :scratchchinhmm:

[Fan4Life]

While I agree with much of this post, especially regarding the draft and pursuing international talent, I think MacPhail's approach, aside from scouting, etc., is being underrated. Why should we qualify his acquisitions with "well, they were good moves, but he bought low." Why shouldn't he be buying low on players like Reynolds/Lee/Pie? Teams like the Red Sox can afford to buy a top tier player after he's had a career season (Crawford) and just hope he can maintain that production.

I think the reason we qualify the AM acquisitions is because we haven't seen any ability by AM to acquire talent that wasn't discounted. Suppose we win 85 games this season and we feel we're just a Prince Fielder (type) away from competing. Most of us here would have little faith that AM would be able to bring in such a player to get us to the next level.

I commend him for what he accomplished. But I am concerned of what he might have been able to accomplish if Reynolds/Lee/Hardy were coming off of injury free seasons with numbers above their career average. I suspect none of them would be on this team right now.

[Sports Guy]

Peter Angelos is willing to spend - in free agency.

MacPhail doesn't want to spend in free agency because it could cripple the payroll.

You've got to spend where you can spend. If Angelos doesn't want to spend in scouting and development, than MacPhail needs to take advantage of his willingness to spend in FA.

Unfortunately MacPhail doesn't believe in the proper investment in scouting either because he believes the fewer the opinions, the better. He didn't want a lot of people surrounding him in Chicago either. So he's not going to tell Angelos to make a significant investment there anyway.

We need a GM that wants to spend in scouting and development and to supplement with difference making players through free agency and can convince Angelos that should be the way to go.

How much? We all know how he felt about the Oswalt deal.

How much money will he spend? Will he give out 100+ million dollar deals?

What proof of those things do you have?

And will he spend in the areas that the Orioles need him to spend it the most..amateur talent, domestic and international?

[Sports Guy]

You want to deal in reality or hypothetical? You don't think they had a plan when ARod signed? You don't think they were aware what they had in the farm system when he signed?

ARod signed before the 2001 season. Attendance the prior year was 2.6M. It increased to 2.8M in 2001 and declined to 2.4M and 2.1M the next two years.

The team AVERAGED 18 games below .500 and finished fourth all three years ARod was there despite ARod averaging 8 WAR! In some of these years, management wasted huge $ on JuanGone and ChanHo and Carl Everett and Rusty Greer, but in others received tremendous WAR production from IRod, Raffy, Kenny Rogers and even strong contributions from Ismael Valdez and John Thompson, plus positive WAR from Cordero.

At the press conference in the espn article when ARod signed- "We know over the long haul we are going to have to add some quality pitching," Texas general manager Doug Melvin said.

He wasn't kidding. In 2001, only Rogers had an ERA+ over 95 among starters. In 2002, SP had ERA+ over 75.

This is not a team that was going to compete in the short term when ARod signed. It did win 89 games for third in the AL West in 2004 immediately after with Mark Texeira and several others, led by Buck Showalter and a better pitching staff.

18 games below .500 and the conclusion is management should have made better decisions? They were probably two all star players and two other quality contributors from competing. That's a mammoth gap to bridge. They were far from competing. Now, why don't you go back to what AM said and tell us again where he was wrong?

Umm, all you did here was prove to me that they did a poor job putting a team around AROD...Thank you for proving my point.

AM was dead wrong. The Rangers didn't do the proper things to build around AROD.

[Sports Guy]

I think TEX was determined to stay under $100m, so ARod effectively limited the rest of the team to $75m or something, so in a way it did hurt them, but overall it was their own fault for giving that big of a deal and setting a limit on payroll. If you are going to shell out a contract like that you have to be willing to pay every year.

And they went to the WS with a 65M dollar payroll THIS YEAR...for the whole team.

I hate that comment about "we spent so and so on bonuses". I've heard it 4 or 5 times now this offseason, and now it's starting to get under my skin.

A) Their is a big difference between spending $8m on the right picks and spending $8m on the wrong picks. You could look to 2009 and say they spent a lot of money in the wrong ways, of course hindsight is 20/20 but other teams spent the same amount at the time and did much better.

B) If we aren't going to acquire talent other ways, then we need to be spending way more than other teams in the draft, not just keeping up with them. Especially when you give yourself a higher margin of error by spending more. There's no rule against it, exploit it. I look at all these int'l signings right now for 60k, and 300k and say, 1/4 of these guys are going to be top 50 prospects in 3 years, and we aren't even trying. I mean come on, Vlad's nephew signed with SEA today for less than 100k I think, even if you aren't that high on him, he projects ok for what amounts to a 13th round pick or so, and you just signed his Uncle, get the PR machine rolling if nothing else

.

Agreed...This is where AM is so hypocritical. On one hand, he cries about the economic structure of the game and how we can't compete in FA. He talks about how we need to develop players and build through the farm system, yet he turns right around and does a poor job signing Int'l talent and doesn't spend enough in the draft.

So, if you aren't going to pay for FAs and you aren't going to spend enough on amateur talent, exactly how are you planning on acquiring the big time, long term talent needed to compete in this division?

[ShaneDawg85]

More copouts and poor comparisons from MacPhail.

We aren't investing in scouting and that's how Tampa did it.

It's easy to point a finger at Tampa and say that's the way it should be done. It's another thing to actually do it like they did which we aren't.

And Teixeria as a "perfect storm?"

Teixeira was a epic failure and is the summation of the ineptitude of this franchise to land or recruit premium talent.

You had a player that grew up in Maryland as an Orioles fan, that wanted to be a Yankee when he had his choice of teams, and the Orioles offer him less than any other offer and don't even try to compete with the other teams vying for his services because he won't take a hometown discount. MacPhail is so afraid of crippling the payroll that he doesn't even attempt to make an honest effort to land a player that the franchise desperately needed and was a perfect fit.

And if you want to look at a mid market team who has a high payroll - just look at the Phillies, who have been able to ramp their payroll up in the $140 million range because they've had that success in the playoffs.

The Orioles could get there, but they've got to win first. To say that can't be sustained is wrong. Win and you will have enough revenue.

The excuses for MASN are a joke as well. MASN can be as big as Peter Angelos wants it to be. Baltimore-Washington is one of the biggest television markets in the country. Last time I checked NESN doesn't exactly only show Red Sox games.

I really hope Peter Angelos sells the team as soon as possible. It's obvious that he's not willing to actually do what it will take to sustain a competitive team in the AL East because there is no way in hades that it will ever happen.

It's obvious he's more concerned about the business aspect of the Orioles than actually doing what it will take to win in this division.

I'm ready for him to go because there really cannot be someone out there that could do a worse job than he has as owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

Fixed that for you.

[JTrea81]

How much? We all know how he felt about the Oswalt deal.

How much money will he spend? Will he give out 100+ million dollar deals?

What proof of those things do you have?

And will he spend in the areas that the Orioles need him to spend it the most..amateur talent, domestic and international?

Duquette said that Angelos was ready to give Carlos Lee $100+ million.

He is willing to spend.

MacPhail is the one telling him not to IMO. And because he trusts MacPhail, and mainly because MacPhail is making him lots of money, he goes along with what Andy wants to do.

Also look at the Vlad situation. Angelos aggressively encouraged AM to spend beyond the budget to sign Vlad. I can bet MacPhail wanted no part of Vlad at $8 million let alone even $5 million.

As for your second part - no he probably isn't. That's why I said, you can't rule out the one area where PGA is willing to spend if he's not willing to spend anywhere else.

[waroriole]

Also look at the Vlad situation. Angelos aggressively encouraged AM to spend beyond the budget to sign Vlad. I can bet MacPhail wanted no part of Vlad at $8 million let alone even $5 million.

As for your second part - no he probably isn't. That's why I said, you can't rule out the one area where PGA is willing to spend if he's not willing to spend anywhere else.

Just because it makes sense in your warped anti-AM mind doesn't mean it's a fact.

[ShaneDawg85]

Duquette said that Angelos was ready to give Carlos Lee $100+ million.

He is willing to spend.

MacPhail is the one telling him not to IMO. And because he trusts MacPhail, and mainly because MacPhail is making him lots of money, he goes along with what Andy wants to do.

Also look at the Vlad situation. Angelos aggressively encouraged AM to spend beyond the budget to sign Vlad. I can bet MacPhail wanted no part of Vlad at $8 million let alone even $5 million.

As for your second part - no he probably isn't. That's why I said, you can't rule out the one area where PGA is willing to spend if he's not willing to spend anywhere else.

Jim Duquette says a lot of things. Most of which are revisionist in nature, too late to be relevant, and do nothing to change the fact that he is a poor GM, everywhere he has been, and fully representative of why he is currently unemployed and working radio.

[Sports Guy]

Duquette said that Angelos was ready to give Carlos Lee $100+ million.He is willing to spend.

MacPhail is the one telling him not to IMO. And because he trusts MacPhail, and mainly because MacPhail is making him lots of money, he goes along with what Andy wants to do.

Also look at the Vlad situation. Angelos aggressively encouraged AM to spend beyond the budget to sign Vlad. I can bet MacPhail wanted no part of Vlad at $8 million let alone even $5 million.

As for your second part - no he probably isn't. That's why I said, you can't rule out the one area where PGA is willing to spend if he's not willing to spend anywhere else.

And he was willing to give 144M to Tex.

What other examples do you have?

We know how he feels about paying pitchers(see Oswalt).

So, what proof do you have that PA is willing to take the payroll to that 100-120 million range?

[TiredofLosing20]

Duquette said that Angelos was ready to give Carlos Lee $100+ million.

And this is exactly why we do not want Angelos making baseball type decisions.

[TonySoprano]

You had a player that grew up in Maryland as a Don Mattingly fan, that wanted to be a Yankee when he had his choice of teams, and the Orioles offer him less than any other offer and don't even try to compete with the other teams vying for his services because he won't take a hometown discount.

fixed that for you

I guess the Orange October brand kool-aid wore off quickly because you're back on the same soap box.

[allstar1579]

And they went to the WS with a 65M dollar payroll THIS YEAR...for the whole team.

.

Agreed...This is where AM is so hypocritical. On one hand, he cries about the economic structure of the game and how we can't compete in FA. He talks about how we need to develop players and build through the farm system, yet he turns right around and does a poor job signing Int'l talent and doesn't spend enough in the draft.

So, if you aren't going to pay for FAs and you aren't going to spend enough on amateur talent, exactly how are you planning on acquiring the big time, long term talent needed to compete in this division?

Yeah, they were just poorly set up in that initial run, this year they were coming off being one of the top 5 systems in baseball for a couple years, so it all comes back to drafting and scouting.