McPhail: "I told Peter you had to pair your payroll down"

[CharmCityCrab]

"I told Peter [Angelos] you had to pair your payroll down,"

- Andy McPhail, http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/2011/02/macphail_on_ripken_internation.html

That is the exact opposite of what a GM should be telling Peter Angelos.

[MurphDogg]

Pare, not pair... Come on KVV...

[SilentJames]

You might want to quote the other half of that quote:

No, I went the other way. I told Peter [Angelos] you had to pair your payroll down, and you had to start investing in your farm system, because you're never going to go toe-to-toe with the Yankees and Red Sox because MASN isn't NESN and it isn't YES

See this makes AM correct.

[El Gordo]

Some of our major resident baseball wizards have been suggesting that we decrease our spending on the ML roster by increasing it's youth, and spend more on scouting and player development. Do you disagree with this point of view?

[DrungoHazewood]

"I told Peter [Angelos] you had to pair your payroll down,"

- Andy McPhail, http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/2011/02/macphail_on_ripken_internation.html

That is the exact opposite of what a GM should be telling Peter Angelos.

Seriously? Did you only post that part of the quote to intentionally mislead?

Now, we can argue whether or not MacPhail has followed through on what he says here, but the following bit is exactly what he should be saying:

On whether promises were made three years ago by ownership that some of the money generated by the creation of MASN would go toward increasing payroll, so that the Orioles could compete with the Yankees and Red Sox:

No, I went the other way. I told Peter [Angelos] you had to pair your payroll down, and you had to start investing in your farm system, because you're never going to go toe-to-toe with the Yankees and Red Sox because MASN isn't NESN and it isn't YES. And right now we actually do spend MASN money on our payroll. Now even more so. I think if you're going to be objective, for better or worse, when I came here there was a shift in the mentality. We're going to be a scouting and development oriented organization. We're going to throw our money where I think we are on an even field with our opponents. We're not going to chase every free agent, and get our payroll up in the neighborhood of $140 million because this franchise can't sustain that. ... So if you don't like the direction the team took it's on me. It's more management than it is ownership.

The O's absolutely can't compete in the AL East without building up the scouting and development side of things, and if there's a fix budget they absolutely should be diverting more to development than payroll. Especially when MacPhail took over.

[CharmCityCrab]

Some of our major resident baseball wizards have been suggesting that we decrease our spending on the ML roster by increasing it's youth, and spend more on scouting and player development. Do you disagree with this point of view?

What are the relative costs of a bare bones scouting and play development budget versus an exceptional one? My gut feeling, based on no facts in particular, is that you might be talking a 5-10 million differential, but if anyone has actual facts, please share. Anyhow, if my guess is accurate, or it's less than that, it would seem to me that we should be able to have a good scouting and development system without having a low payroll. One would like to think it isn't "either/or", but that "both/and" would be realistic. I don't know with certainty that it is, but I'd like to think so.

One thing that would help would be if the Orioles opened their financial records. If they're losing money each year or something, folks like me might be more understanding of our low payrolls (Typically low, anyhow, this year's payroll is looking a little better). We suspect that Angelos is generating a profit from all this, but if he can prove he isn't, it would probably help his reputation a lot. The fact that he doesn't open the books is suspicious, though.

[LA2]

"I told Peter [Angelos] you had to pair your payroll down,"

- Andy McPhail, http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/2011/02/macphail_on_ripken_internation.html

That is the exact opposite of what a GM should be telling Peter Angelos.

Wow, your credibility rating just went way down in my eyes.

[TonySoprano]

Spend more on development and yet.......????

We're still not head over heels in international scouting. We get criticized occasionally for not spending enough there. But you've got to understand, in the Dominican Republic, the whole game has changed.

[CharmCityCrab]

Seriously? Did you only post that part of the quote to intentionally mislead?

I don't see what's misleading about it. He said he told Angelos we had to cut the payroll, and that's what I quoted. He also explained his thinking, and I provided the link where people could see him explain and expand on the quote. I don't think in and of itself the quote was misleading, though -- it's not like I quoted him saying he told Angelos to cut payroll and he really told him to raise payroll.

[JTrea81]

The problem is that MacPhail hasn't been investing in the farm system and that this was not a new idea of his.

Joe Jordan had already drafted Wieters and Arrieta before MacPhail arrived. And the Orioles had already committed to going overslot in the draft.

MacPhail acts like he took all the money that was going to the payroll and put it to scouting and development, yet there is no evidence this is true.

We did not spend $20-30 million extra in scouting and development each season from 2008-2010.

Our draft budget has been pretty close to the same over those years.

So where did that money go?

[WannabeGM]

"I told Peter [Angelos] you had to pair your payroll down,"

- Andy McPhail, http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/2011/02/macphail_on_ripken_internation.html

That is the exact opposite of what a GM should be telling Peter Angelos.

I'm sorry dude, but you are crazy. Sure I think Angelos has plenty of money, but there is no point in going out and spending $21 million for 3 years of a broken down David Seguie (sp?). That kind of move was a waste that previous leadership made to moderatly peak the interest of fans. If they had sunk even half of that money into overslot draft picks or dominican signings we would have been in better shape. Even if none of them panned out we still would have had $10 million in the bank for a time when we had a real shot to improve.

When Andy got here the team was in shambles, and now look where we are. (As i say that i realize we have made no improvement in our record, but this team is exciting.) Think back to the days when Syd Thrift was our drunken Captain at the helm.

[DrungoHazewood]

I don't see what's misleading about it. He said he told Angelos we had to cut the payroll, and that's what I quoted. He also explained his thinking, and I provided the link where people could see him explain and expand on the quote. I don't think in and of itself the quote was misleading, though -- it's not like I quoted him saying he told Angelos to cut payroll and he really told him to raise payroll.

MacPhail said that Angelos needed to cut payroll in order to beef up scouting and development. Your quote omitted the "to beef up scouting and development" part, which was really the point of the whole thing. I assumed that since you quoted the part that, out of context, could be inflammatory while omitting the rest you were trying to make a point.

[WannabeGM]

The problem is that MacPhail hasn't been investing in the farm system and that this was not a new idea of his.

Joe Jordan had already drafted Wieters and Arrieta before MacPhail arrived. And the Orioles had already committed to going overslot in the draft.

MacPhail acts like he took all the money that was going to the payroll and put it to scouting and development, yet there is no evidence this is true.

We did not spend $20-30 million extra in scouting and development each season from 2008-2010.

Our draft budget has been pretty close to the same over those years.

So where did that money go?

In the bank waiting for the right deals. At least its not in the pocket of a bust free agent who we had to settle for.

[pollaxt]

After this, then how can he still explain Hobgood?

[Arthur_Bryant]

I don't see what's misleading about it. He said he told Angelos we had to cut the payroll, and that's what I quoted. He also explained his thinking, and I provided the link where people could see him explain and expand on the quote. I don't think in and of itself the quote was misleading, though -- it's not like I quoted him saying he told Angelos to cut payroll and he really told him to raise payroll.

Quote #1: "I told him to jump off the Empire State Building."

Quote #2: "I told him to jump off the Empire State Building, but be sure to open the parachute right away."

You really do not see how leaving off the second phrase changes the sense of things?

You lose much credibility when you resort to that tactic, and you lose all the rest when you disingenuously claim not to see how you did anything wrong.