Looking at the Big Picture

[weams]

Thanks. I loved re-reading this thread.

It's a great thread. Great I tell you.

[Bahama O's Fan]

This has been a crazy year - not just winning the division, but winning it by a very large margin with substantial contributions from players like Pearce and Britton.

Our FO should get due credit for winning this division, though the division has proven to be significantly weaker than expected (due to injuries of which the Os suffered a few) and our FO moves have been rather extreme in terms of success (Cruz, Pearce) and failure (2B, Ubaldo) and breakeven/positive (Norris) and lucky (Britton, Pearce, Joseph, Balfour). The cost of the major acquisitions (Ubaldo, Cruz, Miller and Norris) has been quite high (three top 60 draft picks, two possible BA top 100 prospects and Jake Arrieta - dealt for Feldman).

I spent a large portion of last offseason advocating dealing quality veterans mostly in an effort to re-load for 2015 and 2016, but this team (and/or the overall talent base overall) would have been significantly better if Hardy, Wieters and Davis had been dealt for appropriate prospects - as advocated - though I clearly did not realize that Joseph would be a capable everyday MLBer. Hardy's production would have been difficult to replace, but the overall impact of the "veteran 3" would not have been IMO. The Os could have landed several very important pieces which might have helped this season and provided for a brighter future. The Davis for Rendon sample trade from Stotle would have been unbelievably positive, but it was of course a hypothetical.

Credit is due to our FO for having more pitching depth than most teams (thought I would not have done what they did) and for putting a their best team on the field in case things played out our favor (both in terms of the quality of our team and the way the year developed in the AL East). Our GM not only found a very valuable piece in Pearce, but his machinations at the bottom of the roster and the bottom of the rotation eliminated all the WAR drag that hits almost all MLB teams. I am not sure if this is luck or if it is repeatable, but the impact has been profound.

Nice thread. Nice to review it. Nice to review it in the context of a team walking away with its division.

Or should it be the coaching should get the credit, as these guys are performing above expectations?

[hoosiers]

I did not mention the coaching specifically and that was an omission on my part. Thanks for pointing it out Bahama.

[Reboulet'sStache]

Just so we're all on the same page. You're position was to punt 2014 and reload for 2015-2016.

I wouldn't say that would be punting, unless you believe the Orioles COULDN'T replace the production of the guys he was advocating trading. And we don't know if that is true, because we don't know what the O's could/would have gotten for them.

[weams]

I wouldn't say that would be punting' date=' unless you believe the Orioles COULDN'T replace the production of the guys he was advocating trading. And we don't know if that is true, because we don't know what the O's could/would have gotten for them.[/quote']

Theoretically a bit of a downer thing to do to your 97 win team though. Right?

[Reboulet'sStache]

Theoretically a bit of a downer thing to do to your 97 win team though. Right?

I thought his post was in response to the post-2013 team?