O'S may return to the GG defense of the 70's

[DrungoHazewood]

I think the defense improved the last two months of last year as well as the pitching. They were trying to impress Buck. Then the O's put Reynolds at 3B and Scott in LF this year which showed a different focus.

So you're saying that the Orioles don't really try most of the time. They just have it on cruise control, giving minimal effort, not really caring about winning or losing or their next contract. But when Buck came in they flipped a switch and suddenly they were a .600 team. It's not about talent, it's finding someone who can motivate. The only difference between a 60-win team and a 90-win team is finding someone who can light a fire under their butts.

Even if I'm exaggerating your position a bit, I couldn't disagree more.

[DrungoHazewood]

If the players were trying to impress Buck, and thats why we were so good last year under his tenure, than I am more disappointed in the team than ever. That means they have the ability to go out and compete everyday and willingly chose not to.

The implication is that the Orioles are a team that just doesn't care. At all. In fact, wildcard is saying that the Orioles, as a team, believe winning just isn't worth the effort.

[SammyBirdland]

If the players were trying to impress Buck, and thats why we were so good last year under his tenure, than I am more disappointed in the team than ever. That means they have the ability to go out and compete everyday and willingly chose not to.

It might be easier than we think to just come to work and exist when you're on a bad baseball team and 30 games out of first place. The prospect of getting to the playoffs has to be a huge motivation factor that helps players on good teams stay focused and keep the intensity level up. An analogy that comes to mind is commissioned salespeople vs. non-commissioned. Non-commissioned salespeople are just fine, make their quotas, etc. But commissioned salespeople have more skin in the game and can be absolutely ravenous about getting that next sale. It's the difference between "I'll be with you in a minute after I'm done on the phone with my girlfriend" and meeting the customer at the door. The employer can get an Orioles-type return from their sales staff, or they can provide the motivation to get a Yankees-type return from their staff.

Buck showed up late last season and gave the guys a reason to get the intensity level up, providing the sort of motivation that's normally gone after the first quarter of the season.

[MikeAD]

It might be easier than you think to just come to work and exist when you're on a bad baseball team and 30 games out of first place. The prospect of getting to the playoffs has to be a huge motivation factor that helps players on good teams stay focused and keep the intensity level up. An analogy that comes to mind is commissioned salespeople vs. non-commissioned. Non-commissioned salespeople are just fine, make their quotas, etc. But commissioned salespeople have more skin in the game and can be absolutely ravenous about getting that next sale. It's the difference between "I'll be with you in a minute after I'm done on the phone with my girlfriend" and meeting the customer at the door. The employer can get an Orioles-type return from their sales staff, or they can provide the motivation to get a Yankees-type return from their staff.

Buck showed up late last season and gave the guys a reason to get the intensity level up, providing the sort of motivation that's normally gone after the first quarter of the season.

Well I do believe that the team doesn't really care for the most part. But I am pointing out the obvious counter to a statement like "they wanted to impress Buck." The other side of that coin is that other than that time period they don't give a rat's behind, which is something I don't think WC would endorse.

[DrungoHazewood]

It might be easier than we think to just come to work and exist when you're on a bad baseball team and 30 games out of first place. The prospect of getting to the playoffs has to be a huge motivation factor that helps players on good teams stay focused and keep the intensity level up. An analogy that comes to mind is commissioned salespeople vs. non-commissioned. Non-commissioned salespeople are just fine, make their quotas, etc. But commissioned salespeople have more skin in the game and can be absolutely ravenous about getting that next sale. It's the difference between "I'll be with you in a minute after I'm done on the phone with my girlfriend" and meeting the customer at the door. The employer can get an Orioles-type return from their sales staff, or they can provide the motivation to get a Yankees-type return from their staff.

Buck showed up late last season and gave the guys a reason to get the intensity level up, providing the sort of motivation that's normally gone after the first quarter of the season.

I'm not sure you can compare salespeople to major league baseball players. MLB players are a kind of unique group, already downselected through about 15 highly competitive steps from little league to Legion ball to high school to travel teams to college to five or six rungs of the minors. They're the most motivated, talented, hard working 0.001% of the baseball playing population. Even with someone of Adam Jones' talent, if he just put it on cruise control he'd have not made it out of AA.

This is why I've always been highly skeptical of the concept of clutch hitting. They can't dial it up to 10 in clutch situations because they've long since pegged the dial at 10 just to get to the majors.

I will continue to believe that the vast majority of major leaguers are giving what they think is their best effort the vast majority of the time, until someone proves otherwise to me.

[Frobby]

It is my observation that pitching and defense have a somewhat symbiotic relationship. Fielders are more alert when the pitchers are working quickly and throwing strikes. Pitchers work faster and throw more strikes when they have confidence that their fielders will make plays. I do think the fielding was a little better while Buck was here last year compared to the previous 4 months, for two reasons: (1) better pitching led to more alert defense, and (2) BRob was back at 2B. I still say 90% of the reason the Orioles had such a good record under Buck last year was because of the pitching.