The Blame Game

[Aristotelian]

This exactly. I said it loud and clear before the season started, we actually did less than nothing to improve on our playoff team. This is the result that anyone sane could have predicted. And the really sad part is, that after all of those losing seasons where everyone said we were not close enough to competing to make it worthwhile to go spend any money........We are close enough now! And we still didn't do anything. If we don't do anything to seriously improve the roster this offseason, we will be further down the standings because our competition will not stand pat.

You can't just say "improve the club". You have to name players and propose contracts. Do you think Josh Hamilton would have put us over the top? Looking back at the list of guys, there are only 1 or 2 that you could say would have made a difference, and none who would have been worth the money. Greinke would have been great, but there is just no way the O's could afford to beat LA's 6 yrs. at $146 million. Nobody else on the market would have given us the coveted "TOR" SP.

Bourn would have been nice, but we already have a CF and I would not want to go to 5 yrs for a veteran OF whose major offensive asset is SBs, and McLouth was almost as good for much cheaper. Maybe Swisher, but are you really going to go to 5 yrs for RH DH?

Looking back, there are very few players I can say would have made a difference for us, and some could very well have hurt us.

[atomic]

You can't just say "improve the club". You have to name players and propose contracts. Do you think Josh Hamilton would have put us over the top? Looking back at the list of guys, there are only 1 or 2 that you could say would have made a difference, and none who would have been worth the money. Greinke would have been great, but there is just no way the O's could afford to beat LA's 6 yrs. at $146 million. Nobody else on the market would have given us the coveted "TOR" SP.

Bourn would have been nice, but we already have a CF and I would not want to go to 5 yrs for a veteran OF whose major offensive asset is SBs, and McLouth was almost as good for much cheaper. Maybe Swisher, but are you really going to go to 5 yrs for RH DH?

Looking back, there are very few players I can say would have made a difference for us, and some could very well have hurt us.

We could have signed Edwin Jackson at 4 years and 52 million or Ryan Dempster at 2 years and 26 milliion. I guess most of the free agent deals don't work out.

[Going Underground]

I choose nothing. We were very unlucky this year. We played what, 45-46 1 run games. If we had been luckier we could have won the East.

The same could be said in reverse from last year. They were the luckiest team ever based on extra innings and 1 run games.

[mark_beckens]

We could have signed Edwin Jackson at 4 years and 52 million or Ryan Dempster at 2 years and 26 milliion. I guess most of the free agent deals don't work out.

We could have signed Feldman for 1 and 6.

[mark_beckens]

The same could be said in reverse from last year. They were the luckiest team ever based on extra innings and 1 run games.

If we play .500 this year we have 88 wins right now. If we play .500 last year we would have finished with 83. If we had duplicated last years success we would have 98 wins right now.

[calmunderfire]

A game in April and May is worth as many wins as a game in September. Recently we've seen the starting pitching get it's act together relatively speaking. It's been Ok.

Early in the year the rotation was in shambles. We missed the playoffs due to this. Tillman was the only effective starter, Chen was out. Garcia, Hammel, Gausman, etc. were disasters that prevented us from capitalizing on such a strong offensive start to the season.

I would say in a close decision over Jim Johnson the starters are to blame.

[Billy Button]

for the reason we didn't make the playoffs, who would it be? Several candidates but I pick Markakis.

[vab]

Team game - no "one" gets the blame. They can all take their share of it, some more than others but everybody gets some.

[pell021]

Jim Johnson

[atomic]

Brian Roberts:D

[Billy Button]

Team game - no "one" gets the blame. They can all take their share of it, some more than others but everybody gets some.

That's not the question. Yeah, team game, got it.

[sjoslyn]

9 blown saves and the ineffectiveness of the bullpen. Perhaps wrong matchups can be blamed but I believe our downfall this year can be solely pinpointed to pitching. Starters didn't go deep enough which is reminiscent of the futile years.

The offense was marginally better this year; 717 RS in 2013 compared to 712 in 2012 and .258 vs. .247 BA.

[mark_beckens]

for the reason we didn't make the playoffs, who would it be? Several candidates but I pick Markakis.

If you wanna blame one person. Pick a sport that only has one person to blame. Golf, tennis, wrestling or Nascar to name a few.

[OFFNY]

.

I wouldn't.

We win as a team, and we lose as a team.

One week ago, we were 81-70 with a very real shot at getting one of the 2 wildcard spots.

Now, we're 81-76, and have been mathematically eliminated.

We could have done better in these last 6 games, and we could have done better in those first 151 games, and we did neither.

There is plenty of blame to go around for each and every missed opportunity that we have had this season.

[El Gordo]

for the reason we didn't make the playoffs, who would it be? Several candidates but I pick Markakis.

If I had to blame one person it would be the fan who thinks any one player has that kind of impact. It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the game works.