General Feeling Leading up to Winter Meetings??

[mvethfencesback]

Maybe, but I don't know that Southern California is a fair comparison. It is a much more saturated media market.

If you look at the homepage of that site, you will see that you can read coverage for any team in MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL not just SoCal.

Don't dismiss before you look.

[Frobby]

He wants to win.

And so he will fire a GM who has won 92, 95 and 89 games? I'm sure of his good intentions, but throwing down an ultimatum like "win the division or else" sounds wrong to me. Let's say the Angels win 93 games and Oakland wins 95. You're going to fire the guy?

To me the Angels have done a good job of building a team that wins at the major league level and develops good prospects at the minor league level. I wouldn't be so anxious to change horses.

[Frobby]

If you look at the homepage of that site, you will see that you can read coverage for any team in MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL not just SoCal.

Don't dismiss before you look.

I did look. Maybe I am missing your point. If you are suggesting that I should read every local article on every team to judge whether most of them are more analytical than Baltimore's, I don't have the time. I'm just speculating that the Angels get more coverage than a lot of teams in smaller markets, not just Baltimore. And when there is more competition for readers, there will be better quality analysis as a general rule.

[mvethfencesback]

And so he will fire a GM who has won 92, 95 and 89 games? I'm sure of his good intentions, but throwing down an ultimatum like "win the division or else" sounds wrong to me. Let's say the Angels win 93 games and Oakland wins 95. You're going to fire the guy?

To me the Angels have done a good job of building a team that wins at the major league level and develops good prospects at the minor league level. I wouldn't be so anxious to change horses.

Moreno is tired of Stoneman not using the abundance of resources at hand to make improvements. The FO knew that they needed to improve offensively in winter of 05; Stoneman wouldn't pull the trigger.

Year after year Stoneman would not make late season moves to improve the team despite Moreno giving him Carte Blanche.

[mvethfencesback]

I did look. Maybe I am missing your point. If you are suggesting that I should read every local article on every team to judge whether most of them are more analytical than Baltimore's, I don't have the time. I'm just speculating that the Angels get more coverage than a lot of teams in smaller markets, not just Baltimore. And when there is more competition for readers, there will be better quality analysis as a general rule.

I'm just saying the evidence is there showing you that what you say is not true just because SoCal is a bigger media market than Balto. If you insist without looking at proof; so be it.

[FallingBeverage]

"We certainly like our rotation. And judging by our talks with a lot of other clubs, a lot of people value our rotation," Flanagan said. "If we strengthen the bullpen, we can keep the score down. This club, though we do want to add offense to it, scored the same amount of runs as the [World Series champion St. Louis] Cardinals."

http://http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061130&content_id=1748272&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal

I am not a fan of this type of thinking. I want a big bat in LF, I can't wait to see what we could get via trade during the Winter Meetings. Almost as fun as Christmas, just without the garunteed gift or two.

[Intrepid1]

They more or less have to be agressive. Relief pitchers don't put fans in the seats or sell season tickets.That being said I don't think they have the do-das to trade a "Big 3" pitcher to get the kind of stick in here to make a diffenence. Not that I'm not_ ok with that, I'm just not looking for a blockbuster type deal, but a "well it's better than last year" type situation.

In fact why trade any young pitching if you don't have to? It's too rare a commodity and can be used later if you wake up one day contending.

[mvethfencesback]

http://http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061130&content_id=1748272&vkey=news_bal&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal

I am not a fan of this type of thinking. I want a big bat in LF

Scary thinking, because it seems to me the Cards were a bit of a fluke and arguably one of the worst (i've always been a Cards fan after the O's, of course) WS winners in history.

[El Gordo]

And so he will fire a GM who has won 92, 95 and 89 games? I'm sure of his good intentions, but throwing down an ultimatum like "win the division or else" sounds wrong to me. Let's say the Angels win 93 games and Oakland wins 95. You're going to fire the guy?

To me the Angels have done a good job of building a team that wins at the major league level and develops good prospects at the minor league level. I wouldn't be so anxious to change horses.

I'd fire him just for signing Matthews for 5/50.

[El Gordo]

They more or less have to be agressive. Relief pitchers don't put fans in the seats or sell season tickets.That being said I don't think they have the do-das to trade a "Big 3" pitcher to get the kind of stick in here to make a diffenence. Not that I'm not_ ok with that, I'm just not looking for a blockbuster type deal, but a "well it's better than last year" type situation.

In fact why trade any young pitching if you don't have to? It's too rare a commodity and can be used later if you wake up one day contending.

Suppose they were to surprise people and sign say, Suppan or Padilla. Then turn around and trade Loewen and Penn and a prospect for Crawford. Loewen is great but, he's not likely to put up Suppan's or Padilla's numbers for a couple of years. Before Tejada's contract is up. Just being the Devil's advocate here.

[Sports Guy]

And so he will fire a GM who has won 92, 95 and 89 games? I'm sure of his good intentions, but throwing down an ultimatum like "win the division or else" sounds wrong to me. Let's say the Angels win 93 games and Oakland wins 95. You're going to fire the guy?

To me the Angels have done a good job of building a team that wins at the major league level and develops good prospects at the minor league level. I wouldn't be so anxious to change horses.

It is one thing if you don't win but to not win with a bunch of bullets in the chamber is short sighted IMO, especially if you have a loaded farm system.

[33rdst]

I don't feel quite so panicky this year. That'll change by Wednesday though.

[glenn__davis]

Count me in the apathetic crowd, I guess. Like others are saying, until I see a BOLD move, I'm not going to get too excited. Revamping the bullpen was certainly good -- I'd imagine it was also rather easy. And trading for Jones or Mench isn't going to convince me that the FO has turned any type of corner regarding creativity (which is the magic word of the day, I guess).

[weams]

My general feeling is closer to apathy than excitement. Maybe I've gotten to the point of being skeptical to protect myself from the disappointment. Not sure. But I"m not expecting anything earth shattering to happen. I like it this way. Either I'll be pleasantly surprised or I'll be amused by the reactions of the more optimistic. I predict a Gonzo signing or a Jones trade to fill LF. A Klesko signing for 1B seems about par for the course also.

See, I would be ok with that. Because we would then have all of our young starters.

[66-70-83-??]

See, I would be ok with that. Because we would then have all of our young starters.

Ugh! I wouldn't be happy at all with a Klesko signing. He missed all but one game or so last year. 2003 through 2005- his numbers were trending downward quickly. Plus he is like 36 yrs old.

I can appreciate the idea of keeping all of the young starters. But, we can also do better than Klesko.