If you think this Organization Blows, is the laughing stock of MLB, then

[Fla_O'sfan]

I'm totally amazed that every time someone posts one of these articles, there is a quick rush on this website to "kill the messenger". Who cares if his grammar might not be of Pulitzer Prize material? This team is awful year after year after year and when ever the Orioles watch some other team sign a big name FA, we're told by many on here, "That's okay, the Orioles aren't close enough yet to spend money on a big FA". Hogwash! That's one of the ways you improve the team....by signing quality FA's.....something this club hasn't bothered to attempt in over a decade. Instead, we're told to have some patience and wait for all the young talent to get them to the verge of contention, and then the FO will go all-in on FA's. Even if by some miracle this team's draft picks were that good (and they aren't) , Angelos would NEVER sign off on any high priced FA's. And if that's the plan you have been banking on, you are living in fantasyland.

[Sports Guy]

No, he is the raining champion of worst owners in sports... but over the last 3 years... he has provided a payroll that should have had us much better then we were. You can blame that on AM, the players or both. But PA didn't create the 2010 monsoon of losing as well as the pitching collapse of 2011.

He has provided reasonable expenditures in the draft, always could be better, but hasn't been bad.

He move the ST location and invested heavily into the renovations of the facilities there

Apparently he is open to re-configuring the Scouting and development, was he not before? We don't know.

My point here is that he's an awful owner for sure, but I'm not sure he is mostly responsible for what has made this organization and team bad lately.

Well you can be not sure all you want...you are just wrong.

[Fan4Life]

Angelos would NEVER sign off on any high priced FA's. And if that's the plan you have been banking on' date=' you are living in fantasyland.[/quote']

Who was the last elite FA that signed a contract that most us thought the Orioles should have met or topped?

Pujols? - Heck no

Fielder - See Pujols and replace heck with HE**

Holiday - no

Werth - no

Tex? Ok.. maybe. Anyone else?

[hallmt18]

Who cares if his grammar might not be of Pulitzer Prize material?

The sentence that I quoted seems to be important to his premise, and the sentence itself is completely nonsensical. The readers are left to figure out what he is trying to say based on their own knowledge.

It's fine. This is a baseball discussion board, not a writing board. But that was not the most lucid argument that I have ever read.

[El Gordo]

Chen, Wada and Antonelli are lottery tickets, and keys to the season for the O's. If they perform as Duq is betting our pitching will be much better this season and we will have a top of the order bat we badly need. This would be an interesting article if the writer could of backed up his probably won'ts with specific why's.

[DrungoHazewood]

Its awful when you compare it to other teams.

Look at the guys we hope to build around...Nick, Jones, Wieters, BMat, Britton and Arrieta. With the exception of Wieters, none of those guys are likely to be elite guys.

Nick is a very good player who every contender would love to have. The starters could be 2/3 type guys...very valuable. Jones is a good player but has a lot of issues.

But you build teams around 5+ WAR guys...We don't have those players unless Wieters hits for a full season like he did in Aug and Sept last year.

You can not win without more elite talent. What the Orioles have are guys with good upside, borderline AS upside...What they don't have is elite talent.

Bundy, Machado and maybe Schoop potentially have that type of talent.

I don't know that the O's have had a serious talent deficit. Sure, they've had problems acquiring talent internationally. But they've had top 100 prospects. Probably near average in that regard. They've just been terrible at turning those prospects into impact major leaguers.

The hope is (and, yes, right now it's all hope) that the organizational and structural changes Duquette is making will have a positive effect on development. More of the O's coming high first rounders will become stars instead of flameouts or journeymen. Maybe with more of a support structure and better coaches and scouts Markakis and Jones would be closer to their ceilings. I mean, Adam Jones had a nearly 1.000 OPS in AAA at 21 but once he's an Oriole he's only made incremental progress and become a solid regular four years later. Maybe that didn't have to be the case.

Anyway, we'll see what happens in over the next few years. The only thing we have to cling to is that they've latched onto some new areas to acquire talent, and may have a better approach to getting the most out of it.

[TiredofLosing20]

The sentence that I quoted seems to be important to his premise, and the sentence itself is completely nonsensical. The readers are left to figure out what he is trying to say based on their own knowledge.

It's fine. This is a baseball discussion board, not a writing board. But that was not the most lucid argument that I have ever read.

I actually got it right away.. It wasn't overly clever but he tried.

I think the problem with these types of articles (and Keith Law) is that they are judged the future on the past. The O's haven't done anything right in the past 14 years so whatever they are doing now isn't right either. I think its understandable.

With all of that said, anyone who thinks we should have signed Fielder for that contract just doesn't get it.

[24fps]

Too many of you are focused on 2012. 2012 is important so that we can see who can be long term pieces here and who needs to be gone but in terms of it being a successful season(ie contending), its over.

This is exactly right IMO, and so far DD has given every indication that he has the energy and willingness to actually make some changes. If 2012 has to be sacrificed in order for him to have enough perspective to make the changes intelligently, I'm OK with that. 12 months from now, I think most people are going to be looking at the situation with a much more critical eye and I'm OK with that also, I'll be one of them. The days of 2-3 years to rebuild the Orioles are over thanks to farmer MacPhail.

Dan Soderberg's article is as lazy a piece of writing as I've seen since the Clinton administration. Clinton administration, get it? See that was the last time....oh, never mind, we all get it. At the core of his complaint is nothing more than a tantrum; one so stale that it's almost petrified. At one time or another, we've all thrown it ourselves after all. The conversation has moved on, get with the program Mr. Soderberg.

[TiredofLosing20]

There is upside to them.

But when the fate of your organization essentially rides on the shoulders of about 8 players(3 of which aren't close to helping the ML team), there is a lot of problems.

Too many of you are focused on 2012. 2012 is important so that we can see who can be long term pieces here and who needs to be gone but in terms of it being a successful season(ie contending), its over.

I totally agree with this... The only caveat is that we have been saying the bolded every year for a long time, its getting stale.

[olehippi]

Tell ya what, folks……you may not like the article because of the author’s writing style, including the sad-sack analysis, and the dreadful use of metaphoric prose, but the basic point of the article is crystal clear, and as Atomic stated, “is spot on.” The Orioles have done little to improve the team, and they are not aggressive is trying to change that situation. Ownership, and by default, front office leadership, is uninspired, and uses a false pretense - we ain’t got the money, honey - as the rationale for not signing dynamic, game-changing FA’s. The truly sad part is that too many fans, and many here on this board, have bought into it. Just look at how many posters have stated that the 9/214 deal Detroit….that’s frickin’ Detroit - gave Fielder was a mistake and they will, at some point, regret it. Yep, they might regret it 6-7 years from now.....after they’ve won the AL crown a few times, and maybe a World Series or two.

Me, I’m sick of it. The root cause of the Oriole's demise lays with team ownership. Orioles fans, and the City of Baltimore…deserve better than what is being offered up by Peter Angelos. In his nearly 20 years of ownership, he has morphed from heralded “franchise savior” to miserly “Uncle Scrooge.“ No matter the reason.....and it isn’t the lack of money......he should be ashamed of himself.

[ypabird]

Forgive Dan. He has been beaten down by years of following the O's and the Cubs. Sadly most fans have been driven away by this team, and all hope relies on these moves they are making helping out in 2 or 3 years from now, its just going to be too far in between for people to care.

I'm conflicted because I like what they have done with the youth signings, but there is no question I'd have some excitement about this season if they had spent 200+ million on FAs this offseason. Reading lower level box scores each day for the only hope has gotten incredibly old.

[ledzepp8]

We used to have to wait and see wit

h Angelos in regards to free agents. Will he or won't he open the check books for impact players? Now it's more like will he or will he not. Such a shame.

[Bradysburns]

That's the guy I imagine. I am constantly amazed at how few people get this. I guess they think that we should just dream up a credit default swap and peddle it to widows.

And the Orioles absoultely stink. But I have a glimmer of hope. And that hope would not have been enhance by Angelos gifting us with Prince Fielder.

The signing of one player at this point in our history would, to me, have been less meaningful that the restructuring of our front office, and the revamping of our scouting and player-development departments. Sometimes you gotta know when to take the big risks - timing is important. If you swing and miss on Fielder - and it's not like he's a player without some obvious risks - then you might put Peter and his wallet back in hiding forever. That's just one consideration.

[DrungoHazewood]

Yes, it isnt very insightful and he stated the obvious...but the obvious is depressing. The fact is, this team ISNT better than last year at least as it stands now.The Orioles HAVENT made a significant

free agent acquisition in years and this team is rightly considered to be the "laughing stock" of the A.L.

You can criticize the Fielder deal all you want. It IS too long with too much money tied up. But at least the Tigers try to upgrade. This was a team that had 43 wins in 2003, one of the historically

worst seasons in AL history..thyeve rebounded with shrewd deals, development, AND FA signings.The simplest fact is this. Teams win when they do all three things..draft well, develop well and

acquire quality players with money invested in all three. The Orioles have done none of these things and in THIS offseason they may have tried to change structurally but they didnt make any impact

signings. That means another lousy season(their 15th straight), and more alienation of whats left of their fan base. As an Oriole fan for 50 years I'm extremely dissapointed. Thats my opinion.

So what would you have done, Roy? Offer even more ridiculous contracts to lure free agents who don't want to play in Baltimore to Baltimore? It's one level of dumb to give Prince Fielder an over-the-top contract when you're on the verge of having an excellent team. It's another level of insanity to give him even more years/money to make a 70-win team a little better, while leaving almost nothing to fix the truckloads of other problems facing the organization.

As much as I hate a 15th straight losing season, I'd be even more bitter if they were trying to rebuild the franchise while being crippled with a series of ludicrous contracts that didn't even get them close to contention.

[atomic]

What has PA done lately to add to his resume of being the worst owner in sports? The only one I can think of is the La Carva situation. While that is certainly a fair entry to the resume, based on what DD has done thus far, it doesn't appear to have been insurmountable. So what else?

I think having every potential GM candidate in baseball turn you down because of your owner so you have to get a guy who runs a kids baseball camp who hasn't had a sniff of professional baseball in 10 years is a pretty impressive thing to add to his worst owner in baseball resume