New names on O's GM wishlist include Billy Eppler, David Forst, Thad Levine, etc.

[allstar1579]

That's too awesome to even put into words.

Baird traded Mark Ellis and Johnny Damon for Angel Berroa, AJ Hinch, and Roberto Hernandez.

He traded Carlos Beltran for Mark Teahen and John Buck.

He traded Jermaine Dye for Neifi Perez.

That a great record, trading four all stars, two of whom are at least borderline HOFers, for a handful of league average seasons and the vortex of suck that was Neifi Perez.

His Royals teams lost at least 97 games in five of six years he was with the team (not counting his first half-season in 2000).

Do you think when he's hired we can get Buck to groom Buddy Bell to be his eventual successor?

I was just thinking wasn't Baird the reason for KC being a black hole for so long? That's the opposite kind of guy we should be going after.

[eb45]

The worst part is that while Ellis was just a 23 year old 2B with good numbers in Hi-A, Damon was coming off arguably the best season of his career, Beltran was a bona fide superstar, and Dye had made the All-Star team and won a Gold Glove the previous season. It wasn't like he traded them not knowing what they'd become.

And for them, he got two guys who held the title of "worst player in baseball" while with the Royals, an awful backup catcher, a mediocre reliever, and a couple guys who were about the very definition of below average.

[Hank Scorpio]

I would be all for David Forst. Nice interview here:

http://www.athleticsnation.com/2010/3/24/1387244/baseball-prospectus-interviews

The problem with Forst is, you know, he's intelligent.

[Dipper9]

How about we just let the season start and tell fans that on any given night they can be selected as the GM for an evening. Angelos would have control over the GM and the GM would never be able to develop relationship quickly enough to actually complete a deal if one was identified. Angelos would need to sleep on it and by the time he made a decision a new GM would be in place so the issue would be moot.

Hey, it works for Monday Night Raw!

[Going Underground]

Twins deny O's permission to interview Radcliff.

Man, you'd think some team would feel bad for us.

I think Oppenheimer and Radcliff were the O's top choices. Oppenheimer might still interview this weekend. The O's want to get this done by the end of next week. They might hire someone who has been out of the game for awhile. This might be all they get.

[DrungoHazewood]

I was just thinking wasn't Baird the reason for KC being a black hole for so long? That's the opposite kind of guy we should be going after.

The Royals sucked long before Baird, and have ever since. But it would be like hiring Jim Beattie to run your team. You got a lot of 'splainin' to do to absolve him of his many failures.

I'd rather have someone you don't have to make (many, many) excuses for. But the O's probably can't attract that level of talent.

[ChaosLex]

I think Oppenheimer and Radcliff were the O's top choices. Oppenheimer might still interview this weekend. The O's want to get this done by the end of next week. They might hire someone who has been out of the game for awhile. This might be all they get.

1. Make Buck the GM, hire Tom Kelly as Manager.

2. ????

3. Profit!

[Going Underground]

My sourse is telling me Angelos believes in the Mayan calendar and some prophets or profits. The world will end in 2012. Why do the O's have to scout and rebuild if we have one more year. Lacava did not take the job because he was only offered one year. Why should we think further when the world is ending.

[MikeAD]

Isn't it a bit awkward to be reaching out to/potentially negotiating with members of other teams' front offices? I mean other teams are already starting with the FA market, signings, cuts, and trades. If you are a top level, especially an assistant GM, you will be doing most of that work.

In addition I will still be flat out flabbergasted if they have a GM in place Monday.

[allstar1579]

The Royals sucked long before Baird, and have ever since. But it would be like hiring Jim Beattie to run your team. You got a lot of 'splainin' to do to absolve him of his many failures.

I'd rather have someone you don't have to make (many, many) excuses for. But the O's probably can't attract that level of talent.

Yeah I feel like the only talent they can get like that would be young un-proven talent, but apparently even they are too smart to take this gig. It's funny how many instances you have out there of guys doing bad jobs, when someone else gets hired that does specifically different things, and then they magically get better, fast. KC going from Baird to Moore, BOS going from Duquette to Theo, TOR going from Riccardi to AA, TEX going from Hart to Daniels.

[Brando]

That's too awesome to even put into words.

Baird traded Mark Ellis and Johnny Damon for Angel Berroa, AJ Hinch, and Roberto Hernandez.

He traded Carlos Beltran for Mark Teahen and John Buck.

He traded Jermaine Dye for Neifi Perez.

That a great record, trading four all stars, two of whom are at least borderline HOFers, for a handful of league average seasons and the vortex of suck that was Neifi Perez.

His Royals teams lost at least 97 games in five of six years he was with the team (not counting his first half-season in 2000).

Do you think when he's hired we can get Buck to groom Buddy Bell to be his eventual successor?

He also drafted Zach Grienke, Billy Butler, and Alex Gordon. He had no money to extend the players he traded and everyone knew it, so he had no leverage when trading.

And then it got just dreadful. Allard Baird remains a good friend, and I have tremendous respect for his knowledge about baseball, his sense of the game and he is one of the best people I know. But he was in this terrible spot ? he was given little money, little support, there was way too much ownership meddling ? and looking back it is clear to me that he did not really know what to do to get out of it. Once things go THAT BAD, every move seems to go sour. If you had to put a book title on the Royals decade, it might be: ?Desperation Makes Things Worse.?

Joe Posnanski

[mcgraw238]

My sourse is telling me Angelos believes in the Mayan calendar and some prophets or profits. The world will end in 2012. Why do the O's have to scout and rebuild if we have one more year. Lacava did not take the job because he was only offered one year. Why should we think further when the world is ending.

Please tell me this part is part of your joke? No way they offered Pres. BB OPs/GM a 1 year deal.

[allstar1579]

He also drafted Zach Grienke, Billy Butler, and Alex Gordon. He had no money to extend the players he traded and everyone knew it, so he had no leverage when trading.

Joe Posnanski

Excuses, but the facts speak louder as Moore came in and was able to do everything Baird couldn't. Moore has drafted better, he's developed better, and he's not made the boneheaded moves Baird did. I refuse to believe ownership was meddling that much and magically stopped with the next guy, it just doesn't happen as you see here in Baltimore, in WAS with Snyder, and in OAK with (RIP) Al Davis.

[Going Underground]

Please tell me this part is part of your joke? No way they offered Pres. BB OPs/GM a 1 year deal.

Joking. Need to use smiley faces. I think the O's want to again have a Tuesday presser. We shall see since it went so well this week.

[TGO]

What's Roland Hemond doing now? May as well give him a call. Heck, let's go see if Frank Cashen wants to come out of retirement at age 89, or Hank Peters (87).