Bigger problem: failure to develop our own players, or lack of aggressiveness in the FA market?

[Palmoripken]

This is easy. It's the lack of aggressiveness on the free agent market. Kidding obviously since the correct answer is player development. We've what developed two decent position players (Markakis and Roberts) since the last winning season. That's a terrible record and outside of Bedard our record with starters isn't much better. Tampa's been able to be competitive because they develop good starters. Look at that rotation. We need to develop a strong base of talent and it plain old sucks that their young pitchers turn out great and ours are still making humps.

[Palmoripken]

This is wrong...Its very important ot the Yankees...They have had a lot of home grown talent be big time contributors for them.

They have also used some of that talent to trade for established pieces.

This is the #1 thing for ALL TEAMS.

Cano, Gardner, Nova, and Hughes before he regressed last year are good examples of that. They got Montero in the wings too.

[VeveJones007]

Where does lack of aggressiveness in the International FA market fall?

Just throwing that chicken-and-egg argument out there.

[jjb]

Bigger problem: failure to develop talent, or poor drafting?

Are we not choosing the right players, or are we taking good potential and wasting it through poor instruction etc.?

[Frobby]

Bigger problem: failure to develop talent, or poor drafting?

Are we not choosing the right players, or are we taking good potential and wasting it through poor instruction etc.?

I was lumping those two together in my question. Your question is a good one, but I don't think anyone here really knows which is the bigger part of the problem between talent acquisition and talent development. We seem to have problems in both areas.

[Sports Guy]

I just can't believe Jtrea believes these are equal.

[JTrea81]

I actually think they are equal. The Orioles have talent, but they don't seem to know when to trade it and they make the assumption that the talent will succeed and are too dependent on it as part of their plan moving forward. The future of one or two draft picks should not decide the future of your organization, yet here we are already penciling in Machado and Bundy as crucial components to success. So what happens if they fail?

However, our system has produced some quality ML talent and that talent is in its prime now. So now is the time to make that investment. Unfortunately, the FA options aren't as attractive as previous ones, but the Orioles failed to realize this and failed to look ahead so by not being aggressive with the better talent when it was available, they are left with the less attractive options that they need to acquire to compete.

A team can always sign what it can't develop. Right now we can't seem to develop premium guys and we refuse to sign them. That makes things pretty equal to me.

[Sports Guy]

I actually think they are equal. The Orioles have talent, but they don't seem to know when to trade it and they make the assumption that the talent will succeed and are too dependent on it as part of their plan moving forward. The future of one or two draft picks should not decide the future of your organization, yet here we are already penciling in Machado and Bundy as crucial components to success. So what happens if they fail?

However, our system has produced some quality ML talent and that talent is in its prime now. So now is the time to make that investment. Unfortunately, the FA options aren't as attractive as previous ones, but the Orioles failed to realize this and failed to look ahead so by not being aggressive with the better talent when it was available, they are left with the less attractive options that they need to acquire to compete.

A team can always sign what it can't develop. Right now we can't seem to develop premium guys and we refuse to sign them. That makes things pretty equal to me.

No they can't...The fact that you believe that shows how little you know.

Even the Yankees, for all the money they spend, HAVE to develop players to win. Its an absolute must.

This post shows how little you understand how things work.

[JTrea81]

No they can't...The fact that you believe that shows how little you know.

Even the Yankees, for all the money they spend, HAVE to develop players to win. Its an absolute must.

This post shows how little you understand how things work.

We develop players. Haven't we had multiple guys in the BA Top 100? The problem IMO is those other teams know when to trade them for established talent and keep a select few.

We hang onto everybody and expect them all to produce.

Anybody remember Jason Donald, the heir to Jimmy Rollins? How's he working out for Cleveland? How about those other guys in that trade?

The Orioles could have had Adrian Gonzalez perhaps for Brian Matusz as the main centerpiece. Remember how "untouchable" he was?

This team falls in love with its draft picks too much and is way too dependent on them to produce for the Orioles.

It doesn't have to be that way. Free agency and trades of those players for established talent is another option.

[Sports Guy]

We develop players. Haven't we had multiple guys in the BA Top 100? The problem IMO is those other teams know when to trade them for established talent and keep a select few.

We hang onto everybody and expect them all to produce.

Anybody remember Jason Donald, the heir to Jimmy Rollins? How's he working out for Cleveland? How about those other guys in that trade?

YOu realize that you are shooting your argument in the foot, right?

What you just said is that you need to develop players so you can also trade them...which is another example of why that is more important than being aggressive in the FA market.

And you are wrong about how we develop players.

[NewMarketSean]

LOL. I was about to choose "both problems are about equal" since we are as terrible at spending money on FA's as we are at developing players. But developing players is our biggest problem, since we have seen teams can compete in this division with player development alone. (TB, TOR).

[TiredofLosing20]

YOu realize that you are shooting your argument in the foot, right?

What you just said is that you need to develop players so you can also trade them...which is another example of why that is more important than being aggressive in the FA market.

And you are wrong about how we develop players.

You are a smart guy. At some point doesn't your head hitting the wall over and over start to hurt?

[Frobby]

We develop players. Haven't we had multiple guys in the BA Top 100? The problem IMO is those other teams know when to trade them for established talent and keep a select few.

We hang onto everybody and expect them all to produce.

Anybody remember Jason Donald, the heir to Jimmy Rollins? How's he working out for Cleveland? How about those other guys in that trade?

The Orioles could have had Adrian Gonzalez perhaps for Brian Matusz as the main centerpiece. Remember how "untouchable" he was?

This team falls in love with its draft picks too much and is way too dependent on them to produce for the Orioles.

It is very easy to trade Jason Donald when you have Jimmy Rollins under contract for several years. It is not so easy when you have a gaping hole. And it's not like Donald was a super-prospect -- he was BA's no. 69 one year.

We don't have the depth to trade away top prospects very often.

[Pedro Cerrano]

This is the easiest poll in the world to vote in, IMO.

Without having the ability to develop our own players it doesn't matter if we also suck at being aggressive in the FA market.

The first one needs to be addressed before we should even concern ourselves with #2.

[JTrea81]

We don't have the depth to trade away top prospects very often.

And doesn't signing free agents also create depth?