Per the Sun: "Orioles most inactive team..."

[theobird]

Excellent post!! And that is it in a nutshell. If it is budget constraints, then trade some high priced talent for more young, cost controlled players. Don't just sit on your hands.

[Ommaculate]

Excellent post!! And that is it in a nutshell. If it is budget constraints, then trade some high priced talent for more young, cost controlled players. Don't just sit on your hands.

That will be a one way ticket back to consecutive losing seasons. How many fans could take another losing run like that?

[theobird]

That will be a one way ticket back to consecutive losing seasons. How many fans could take another losing run like that?

The one way ticket back to sustained losing is the do nothing tact that we took last year, and appear to be on this year as well. We lost 8 wins last year, we will likely lose another 8 this year. That will put as back well under .500 and the race is on.

[FlipTheBird]

If you buy pants at the gap do you have a right to tell the owner the gap how to spend his earnings? The next time you get a happy meal at McDonalds, let the manager know that since you are a customer, you think he should paint the bathroom. It is the same thing.

Actually, no, it isn't at all.

I get the general point you're trying to make that Angelos is free to run his franchise as he sees fit, which is fair, much as fans may hate it.

Your analogy, though, is just way off base. The on-field product of the Orioles isn't the equivalent of McDonald's bathrooms - it's the equivalent of the Happy Meal itself.

If I buy a double cheeseburger, I can most certainly tell the manager "Hey man, I'm not happy with this burger at all. It tastes horrible and I'm pretty sure that's one of your employees' toenails right there." He doesn't have to do anything about it, but I absolutely have the right to be disappointed in the product/services provided. It's fair for me to have, at the very least, expected some amount of acceptable goods/services.

[atomic]

Some people, most who I now have on ignore, wouldn't be happy unless Choo and Garza and a closer were signed. Even if that happened, they'd still find something to complain about. Some were hoping for one big move or 2 or 3 mid level moves. So far, one small move for Ryan Webb. I'm even skeptical about Balfour but signing him would create a pretty deep bullpen. So far, all of the talk looks like the other spots are low budget answers. LF is either getting lighting in a bottle with Peguero, hoping for a full recovery from Reimold, or having Steve Pearce out there. The 5th spot in the rotation looks to be between Matusz and McFarland and maybe Gausman. If anyone is signed, it looks to be a low budget guy like Maholm or Capuano. The LH DH? One can only guess that it will be someone like Wilson Betemit. Not Wilson Betemit but someone like him, cheap. When Dan Duquette talks about adding a DH or a starting pitcher, the bells go off, and people assume some high profile player. It seems as though there is a disconnect there because when DD talks about a LF, HE IS talking about someone like Peguero. I'm not expecting much on the LH DH spot. It will probably be someone who is a AAAA type of player. It is what it is. I'm not going to cry about it. There's plenty already on this site to cover everyone.

At this point, I'll be interested to see how things shake out in ST in LF and for the 5th spot in the rotation. Now, the first group will accuse me of being happy with the way things are. Maybe even blame me as part of the problem. I'm just glad I got the ignore feature working.

If we signed either Choo or Garza I would be happy, much less both:) I think there is still more time left before the season begins and then I realize we have already done more this offseason that last year.

[Ommaculate]

The one way ticket back to sustained losing is the do nothing tact that we took last year, and appear to be on this year as well. We lost 8 wins last year, we will likely lose another 8 this year. That will put as back well under .500 and the race is on.

What is Buck saying about this? He must be fuming. I am predicting disgruntled Buck this year, starts resenting the Owner, and bye bye Buck.

[centralpaosfan]

Have fans ever worn paper bags over their heads to the opening day game?

[CA-ORIOLE]

On this, we just don't agree. We're standing pat. We'll probably end up around .500. And he's flirting with signing N. Cruz and losing our first round pick? That is the worst thing to do if we're in this rut. I agree with you and wish he were given the payroll to improve the team in '14 but that doesn't seem to be the case. But if that is the situation, he can't just sit on his hands. He has to make us better off for '15, '16 and beyond. If this is his situation, he should have aggressively tried to trade Hardy and probably MW.

As is, why will next offseason be different. MW, CD etc will get more expensive. We'll choose between extending an aging Hardy who will soon decline or let him walk. We can't go down this path and accept mediocrity.

You have no idea that he's flirting with signing Nelson Cruz. Most of those reports were by people outside the organization and disputed by Roch and Britt. Hardy and MW have very little value and just create more holes. If you wanna say bust it up and deal off Davis and some others and accept a few more years of losing. ...then awesome, but don't pretend there are easy solutions that DD is just missing that will fix our situation for now and the future.

[Ommaculate]

Rick Dempsey may finally get his chance when Buck quits next year.

[TouchemAll]

Have fans ever worn paper bags over their heads to the opening day game?

Saints game

[scOtt]

No way I can rest this all on PA. I am sure the budget DD is working with is not conducive to an AL East Championship. That being said, its Duquette's job to improve the club. Under Duquette's reign of terror, we are worse then last year and we were worse last year, than in 2012. All of this with the same owner.

So.....Yes I blame Duquette. It is quite obvious to me that he has no creativity when it comes to trading and with PA not giving him the budget to acquire a few free agents, its just a bad match.

Tell me you have confidence in Duquette to improve this club?

Wow!

[OFFNY]

Yes. I think that we have.

When I first became an Oriole fan in the early 70's (October of 1971), the Orioles having a winning season from 1971 through about 1984 was almost as sure the sun rising in the east, and setting in the west. I remember when we went 88-74 and came in 2nd place in 1976, and that was considered a "bad" season.

Now, we are only 2 years removed from 14 consecutive seasons between 1998-2011. So yes, our expectations have indeed sunk from what they have previously been historically.

Those were the days my friend we hoped they'd never end!!

Cynthia Lennon's version:

O

[video=youtube;poFxI8VJ8LA]http://www.youtube.com

[notyourbuddy]

- MacPhail called up a 21yr old Chris Tillman and a 22yr old Brian Matusz (even when the team wasn't in contention).

What makes you think he wouldn't have called up Manny Machado (in the midst of a playoff run)?

- Is Duquette's 5$M signing of Chen/Wada all that different than MacPhail's 5$M signing of Uehera (and his pursuit of Kawakami) to improve the rotation in the Winter of '08?

[WORST OWNER]

Yes, they're squabbling over a 3rd year cause even when you're rich $9 million means a lot. If our budget goes to $100 mil (which is not an unreasonable sum) it's 9% of our total spending which is significant enough to get right. If we sign him for the 3rd year and he stinks are you going to say it was worth waiting the 24 hours or whatever it ends up being? It's a negotiation. We don't get extra points for signing the guy on December 12 instead of a day or two later.

I'm pretty critical of DD on a lot of things but the frequent posts along the lines of "just do something" are silly.

Is that 9 million over a one or three year period?

[Austin]

- MacPhail called up a 21yr old Chris Tillman and a 22yr old Brian Matusz (even when the team wasn't in contention).

What makes you think he wouldn't have called up Manny Machado (in the midst of a playoff run)?

IMO it's easier to call up a prospect when you aren't in contention than to hand over the reigns at 3B to an unproven rookie in the middle of a playoff run. I don't believe MacPhail would have done the same thing.