Schmuck calls out the Orioles!

[Tony-OH]

Finally, someone in the mainstream media has called out the Orioles, specifically the ownership over how the Orioles are not spending the money they have on players. I know many of you have wondered if anyone would do this, well, Schmuck stepped up and finally asked the questions in print. I applaud him, but the next step is asking these questions directly to Angelos. But then again, Angelos only comes out of hiding when his team makes the playoffs (His entourage-filled visit to the clubhouse after the Orioles won a game in the playoffs in 2012 is still fresh in my mind. During that occasion, half the players didn't knew who he was and had to feign interest after Angelos' cohorts would prebrief the players to stand by their lockers. Meanwhile, half the local media acted like he was rockstar as they lined up to shake his hand. I just walked a bit to the side and watched it all go down.) Among the highlights of the article:

"..but the noise coming out of the Warehouse about "allocating resources" has the hollow ring of small-market philosophy that doesn't jibe with all those glowing reports of increased attendance and television ratings."

"The Orioles could make that case when the fans stopped coming and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network was still in its initial growth phase, but local and national revenues have - by all accounts - ticked up considerably over the past couple of years. So why have the Orioles spent the last month stocking the 40-man roster with everybody else's second-tier minor league players?"

"It's always difficult to figure out just what's going on inside the Orioles front office. The team's business divisions seemed to be humming along nicely when the club fired executive vice president of business operations Doug Duennes without explanation in late July. That led to predictable speculation about increased ownership participation in the day-to-day operation of the franchise, something that ? based on past history ? would not figure to evoke confidence from the fan base."

"The Orioles will say that they are a middle-market team that has to succeed on a middle-market budget, which would be hard to dispute if they did not receive such a large portion of the MASN revenues and if other teams in similar economic territory - the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers - weren't willing to spend much more freely to be World Series contenders.

The Cardinals, who play in a market very similar to Baltimore, spent $25 million more on players last year than the Orioles. The Tigers have spent about $100 million more than the Orioles over the past two seasons."

"The Orioles do face some daunting contract situations over the next few years, so they need to recognize that their window for maximizing the performance of the top players on their roster may already be starting to close.

Maybe that's why they traded Jim Johnson for a song and some payroll flexibility. Maybe we'll find out next week that this was all part of a master plan to bolster the rotation or get Wieters locked up for the long-term.

Or maybe it's the same old song and dance from a franchise that has seen the mountaintop and just doesn't have the will to climb the last few feet."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-schmuck-orioles-column-1204-20131203,0,6268315.column#ixzz2mWABQFkO

[Dipper9]

Its great that Schmuck did this, but nothing will come of it.

[isestrex]

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h367/isestrex/Gifs/georgeclap.gif" border="0" alt=" photo georgeclap.gif"/></a>

Its great that Schmuck did this, but nothing will come of it.

Except maybe his locker room privs mysteriously revoked...

[weams]

Yeah. Nothing to argue with here.

[Guest]

http://www.wbal.com/article/104235/50/orioles-roundtable-with-brett-hollander-peter-schmuck-and-ed-encina

Peter last night on WBAL he he went off.

[Going Underground]

I still think this is also important.

It's always difficult to figure out just what's going on inside the Orioles front office. The team's business divisions seemed to be humming along nicely when the club fired executive vice president of business operations Doug Duennes without explanation in late July. That led to predictable speculation about increased ownership participation in the day-to-day operation of the franchise, something that ? based on past history ? would not figure to evoke confidence from the fan base.

The Sun only has two sports columnists and one strictly does football. The Washington Post has at least 8.

[paulcoates]

Profit > Winning

[ChaosLex]

Watch Schmuck get his press credentials revoked. Haha.

[Ripken]

Sounds like most of the posters around here. No, I don't have access to the 'books' but it sure seems like a $125M payroll should be easily doable. That's, what, $45M under the current payroll. Add Garza, Choo, and two bullpen arms. That would be a damn good team. When Nick goes, extend Davis and Tillman and go from there...

[Capn Vivi]

Unless this team "allocates" some resources to players that can help this team win, it certainly looks like making money is more important to this franchise than winning.

[Tx Oriole]

Can't argue. Actions speak louder than words. I like Duquette, I hope I don't have to change that opinion.

I don't blame DD. I put the blame on the owner.

[Tx Oriole]

Can't argue. Actions speak louder than words. I like Duquette, I hope I don't have to change that opinion.

I don't blame DD. I put the blame on the owner.

[ShaneDawg85]

Can't argue. Actions speak louder than words. I like Duquette, I hope I don't have to change that opinion.

Even if he makes moves I don't like, I don't know that I can really fault Duquette or dislike him. He's having to make moves with the limitations put on him, and you know where those limitations are coming from. I don't doubt he genuinely wanted to trade Jim Johnson. Duquette's no dummy, he understands baseball and how the system works and can see when something just doesn't make sense. But if those savings don't go towards something the fans can see and understand, you'll know why.

[bt12483]

Sounds like most of the posters around here. No, I don't have access to the 'books' but it sure seems like a $125M payroll should be easily doable. That's, what, $45M under the current payroll. Add Garza, Choo, and two bullpen arms. That would be a damn good team. When Nick goes, extend Davis and Tillman and go from there...

It's really that simple. I'd be perfectly satisfied with adding Choo and Garza and going to battle in 2014.

There is no valid reason we can't afford to add them.

[Capn Vivi]

Even if he makes moves I don't like, I don't know that I can really fault Duquette or dislike him. He's having to make moves with the limitations put on him, and you know where those limitations are coming from. I don't doubt he genuinely wanted to trade Jim Johnson. Duquette's no dummy, he understands baseball and how the system works and can see when something just doesn't make sense. But if those savings don't go towards something the fans can see and understand, you'll know why.

I don't think I could ever outright dislike Duquette just because of what he's done so far for the player development system (or so they say). He seems to understand the limitations put on him by ownership, so he's rebuilding this franchise's infrastructure.

It remains to be seen whether or not it's just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, however.