Jump to content

Dan Duquette Q&A


kyleott

Recommended Posts

Tremendous post, TonyS! My main takeaways are that DD is very confident in what he's doing, is really high on Lough and Urrutia, and is confident he can make the other additions he needs before the offseason ends. I'm going to hold him to that promise.
My favorite stories were Boras-Wieters and Ferreira-Schott. Dan's opening presentation was 12 minutes, running down his list of the core of the team. He then took 6 questions from the crowd for about 20 minutes. Another person kind of followed up my question, and asked which was his higher priority, a starter or a DH? Dan said, "I would lean toward a starting pitcher." He mentioned Johnny Monell as a possible DH.

Finally, if Dan was baseball commissioner for a day, he joked about the $17M salary and what that translates to for one day's work. Then he would like to "see a system that more evenly distributes the players' salaries so that a disproportionate amount of players' salaries is not concentrated in just a few. I'd like to see that distributed more evenly throughout the labor force, I think that would give us a better product and I think that would be more accepted and understood by the fans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 99
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I also attended the luncheon with Dan Duquette. Jim Henneman spoke afterwards about the Hall of Fame vote. Tony did a nice job covering most of the comments today. I took almost three pages of notes and have a few things to add.

DD attended the gold glove dinner where Manny, JJ and AJ received their awards. Brooks Robinson presented Manny his award, Ozzie Smith presented JJ with his and Willie Mays presented AJ with his award. Great choices for the presenters.

DD has been here a little over two years and he mentioned how the team had improved in 2012 and 2013.

He mentioned he had talked to Scott Boras yesterday and Boras made the comment about Wieters leading in hard hit balls that were outs and DD asked him if he was going to tell this to an arbitrator? Laughs followed. I would bet they also discussed Chris Davis and Kendrys Morales all represented by Boras. Morales was mentioned and DD said the players Nelson Cruz and Morales want the qualifying offer amounts and the loss of the 1st round pick is a lot to give up. He didn't say he was not interested in Morales so I think that's still a possibility.

He mentioned two different times he wants to sign a starter and reliever and add a left handed hitting DH and expects to add them. Arroyo, Rodney and Morales are my predictions.

He mentioned how their farm system/player development has improved with Manny, Gausman, Bundy and Harvey good examples. He mentioned going to see Harvey pitch in N.C before the draft with Herm Starrette. He struck out 18 the night they saw him. DD said Starrette told him not to mess with him if they draft him. Don't change anything. I think Harvey's father, a former pitcher, has him on track already.

He was asked about 2B and only mentioned Flaherty and Schoop. No mention of Jemile Weeks. Later when asked the question about the Johnson trade to Oakland he mentioned Weeks and said they see him as a utility player because he can play 2B, SS and CF.

He was asked if the NL will ever adopt the DH rule like the American League and said no.

If Tony S mentioned any of these I apologize for repeating the same comments.

Very nice event at Padonia Ale House by Press Box and they offered a nice buffet lunch for $15. This was my first time attending one of these and I will return in the future. The next time I will ask a question. I had a very good question for DD but didn't ask it.

Jim Henneman spoke about Cal playing short hurting Alan Trammel's bid for the Hall. Said he didn't have a problem with the voting and felt bad Biggio missed by two votes. Doesn't see the guys linked to steroids getting in the Hall. Was asked about Mussina's low vote count 20% compared to Glavine who was elected and said their records were similar. Didn't know why the voting was so much less for MM.

Stan asked DD and Jim about Paul Blair and they both had very nice comments about him as did Stan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also attended the luncheon with Dan Duquette. Jim Henneman spoke afterwards about the Hall of Fame vote. Tony did a nice job covering most of the comments today. I took almost three pages of notes and have a few things to add.

DD attended the gold glove dinner where Manny, JJ and AJ received their awards. Brooks Robinson presented Manny his award, Ozzie Smith presented JJ with his and Willie Mays presented AJ with his award. Great choices for the presenters.

DD has been here a little over two years and he mentioned how the team had improved in 2012 and 2013.

He mentioned he had talked to Scott Boras yesterday and Boras made the comment about Wieters leading in hard hit balls that were outs and DD asked him if he was going to tell this to an arbitrator? Laughs followed. I would bet they also discussed Chris Davis and Kendrys Morales all represented by Boras. Morales was mentioned and DD said the players Nelson Cruz and Morales want the qualifying offer amounts and the loss of the 1st round pick is a lot to give up. He didn't say he was not interested in Morales so I think that's still a possibility.

He mentioned two different times he wants to sign a starter and reliever and add a left handed hitting DH and expects to add them. Arroyo, Rodney and Morales are my predictions.

He mentioned how their farm system/player development has improved with Manny, Gausman, Bundy and Harvey good examples. He mentioned going to see Harvey pitch in N.C before the draft with Herm Starrette. He struck out 18 the night they saw him. DD said Starrette told him not to mess with him if they draft him. Don't change anything. I think Harvey's father, a former pitcher, has him on track already.

He was asked about 2B and only mentioned Flaherty and Schoop. No mention of Jemile Weeks. Later when asked the question about the Johnson trade to Oakland he mentioned Weeks and said they see him as a utility player because he can play 2B, SS and CF.

He was asked if the NL will ever adopt the DH rule like the American League and said no.

If Tony S mentioned any of these I apologize for repeating the same comments.

Very nice event at Padonia Ale House by Press Box and they offered a nice buffet lunch for $15. This was my first time attending one of these and I will return in the future. The next time I will ask a question. I had a very good question for DD but didn't ask it.

Jim Henneman spoke about Cal playing short hurting Alan Trammel's bid for the Hall. Said he didn't have a problem with the voting and felt bad Biggio missed by two votes. Doesn't see the guys linked to steroids getting in the Hall. Was asked about Mussina's low vote count 20% compared to Glavine who was elected and said their records were similar. Didn't know why the voting was so much less for MM.

Stan asked DD and Jim about Paul Blair and they both had very nice comments about him as did Stan.

Thanks for the additional info. Sound like it was a nice event.

What do you think it would cost he O's to sign Arroyo, Rodney and Morales? Sounds north of 30M/yr. Its hard to see the O's doing that IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the additional info. Sound like it was a nice event.

What do you think it would cost he O's to sign Arroyo, Rodney and Morales? Sounds north of 30M/yr. Its hard to see the O's doing that IMO.

Arroyo and Rodney would suit me just fine. Can't see those two for less than 15 per, regardless of years. Probably more like 20. That doesn't leave many marbles. His comments about Cruz and Morales seem to rule that out to me. Tony mentioned that Dan said about a trade. That seems much more likely to me. Maybe someone we've talked about but we all know Dan, probably someone completely out of left field

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Incidentally, I haven't been able to edit my own posts the last week or so. What gives?

You switched from registered poster, to limited posting member at 500 posts. Glad you are still here. If you want to try the PLUS, just give me a pm and I will walk you through it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also attended the luncheon with Dan Duquette. Jim Henneman spoke afterwards about the Hall of Fame vote. Tony did a nice job covering most of the comments today. I took almost three pages of notes and have a few things to add.

DD attended the gold glove dinner where Manny, JJ and AJ received their awards. Brooks Robinson presented Manny his award, Ozzie Smith presented JJ with his and Willie Mays presented AJ with his award. Great choices for the presenters.

DD has been here a little over two years and he mentioned how the team had improved in 2012 and 2013.

He mentioned he had talked to Scott Boras yesterday and Boras made the comment about Wieters leading in hard hit balls that were outs and DD asked him if he was going to tell this to an arbitrator? Laughs followed. I would bet they also discussed Chris Davis and Kendrys Morales all represented by Boras. Morales was mentioned and DD said the players Nelson Cruz and Morales want the qualifying offer amounts and the loss of the 1st round pick is a lot to give up. He didn't say he was not interested in Morales so I think that's still a possibility.

He mentioned two different times he wants to sign a starter and reliever and add a left handed hitting DH and expects to add them. Arroyo, Rodney and Morales are my predictions.

He mentioned how their farm system/player development has improved with Manny, Gausman, Bundy and Harvey good examples. He mentioned going to see Harvey pitch in N.C before the draft with Herm Starrette. He struck out 18 the night they saw him. DD said Starrette told him not to mess with him if they draft him. Don't change anything. I think Harvey's father, a former pitcher, has him on track already.

He was asked about 2B and only mentioned Flaherty and Schoop. No mention of Jemile Weeks. Later when asked the question about the Johnson trade to Oakland he mentioned Weeks and said they see him as a utility player because he can play 2B, SS and CF.

He was asked if the NL will ever adopt the DH rule like the American League and said no.

If Tony S mentioned any of these I apologize for repeating the same comments.

Very nice event at Padonia Ale House by Press Box and they offered a nice buffet lunch for $15. This was my first time attending one of these and I will return in the future. The next time I will ask a question. I had a very good question for DD but didn't ask it.

Jim Henneman spoke about Cal playing short hurting Alan Trammel's bid for the Hall. Said he didn't have a problem with the voting and felt bad Biggio missed by two votes. Doesn't see the guys linked to steroids getting in the Hall. Was asked about Mussina's low vote count 20% compared to Glavine who was elected and said their records were similar. Didn't know why the voting was so much less for MM.

Stan asked DD and Jim about Paul Blair and they both had very nice comments about him as did Stan.

Some repetition but that's cool, glad you went and commented. He mentioned he was honored that Brooks gave Manny the award and how Willie Mays talked on and on. Correct me on this, I think Dan quoted Don Buford who said there were two centerfielders in the league, Paul Blair and .....Paul Blair ;)

As to the DH Dan mentioned how he doubts we'll ever see the DH in the N.L. Several N.L. owners may not want to pay a hitter to sit on the bench and how the traditionalists may like the variety between the leagues.

I remember the Harvey comment, Herm told him, "Dan, he could have pitched for any team in the big leagues tonight. Dan, don't let anyone do too much with that boy, just let him pitch. "

There was a lot of murmuring and laughs after the first question about if there were frustrations with ownership. I'm shaking my head laughing and thinking no way he goes there in his answer, but talk about your "hanging sliders." I kind of laughed when the one man petitioned hard for Morales, and how we have to win now, and Dan's first comment was "umm, O.K." Then Dan went on to lay out the case that was on mlbtraderumors.

I had a few more questions as well, but went with one that I thought would let us know his thought process about priorities. No mention of A.J. Burnett. I would like to know how he defines "contention." Is it a winning record? Or does it mean having a real shot at the World Series? Simply being in the playoff chase most of the year? My sense is it is the last one.

Dan said he was hopeful about adding two pitchers and a DH. Hopeful. The tone was guarded, I guess in case it doesn't happen. It certainly wasn't a confident guarantee that I would hold him to keep. Talking about Gausman or McFarland as 5th starter, Hunter or O'Day as closer, and Monell as DH tells me he is prepared to roll with what he has in case he can't do more.

I have an mp4 of Dan's entire remarks but at 16MB it's too big to e-mail (sorry, Weams, I tried, buddy).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some repetition but that's cool, glad you went and commented. He mentioned he was honored that Brooks gave Manny the award and how Willie Mays talked on and on.

As to the DH Dan mentioned how he doubts we'll ever see DH in the N.L. Several N.L. owners may not want to pay a hitter to sit on the bench and how the traditionalists may like the variety between the leagues.

I remember the Harvey comment, "Don't let anyone do too much with Hunter Harvey, just let him pitch. He can pitch for any team in the majors."

I had a few more questions as well, but went with one that I thought would let us know his thought process. No mention of A.J. Burnett.

Dan said he was hopeful about adding two pitchers and a DH. Hopeful. The tone was guarded, I guess in case it doesn't happen. It certainly wasn't a confident guarantee that I would hold him to keep. Talking about Gausman or McFarland as 5th starter, Hunter or O'Day as closer, and Monell as DH tells me he is prepared to roll with what he has in case he can't do more.

I have an mp4 of Dan's entire remarks but at 16MB it's too big to e-mail (sorry, Weams, I tried, buddy).

Email it to Dropbox! You know my yahoo account! Or better yet put it on soundcloud and I'll tweet the link here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You switched from registered poster, to limited posting member at 500 posts. Glad you are still here. If you want to try the PLUS, just give me a pm and I will walk you through it.

Yeah - c'mon Nuggets, get your act in gear bro! weams - TCB, 24/7! :clap3:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The improved write-up is even better. Thanks Tony!

I like DD so much better than Andy McPhail because he seems so much more accessible and because of his commitment to Latin America (aka Fred Ferreira). I think we are in good hands long-term.

For next season, the payroll is what the payroll is? meaning, I'm not telling you all what it is, but we ain't stretching it. I hope there is still room for Burnett and bullpen arm. If we get Burnett, I will be very, very happy.

I think we all know what we are going to get from the core this year, assuming they stay healthy. The questions surround the starting pitching and Lough, Urrutia, Flaherty, Schoop. What are those guys going to give us? That will be the difference between getting a wild card or being below .500.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a few more questions as well, but went with one that I thought would let us know his thought process about priorities. No mention of A.J. Burnett. I would like to know how he defines "contention." Is it a winning record? Or does it mean having a real shot at the World Series? Simply being in the playoff chase most of the year? My sense is it is the last one.

Seems to me our goal is pretty simple: to be better than last year, when we were good but not good enough. And I don't see that we are there right now, though suprises do happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some repetition but that's cool, glad you went and commented. He mentioned he was honored that Brooks gave Manny the award and how Willie Mays talked on and on. Correct me on this, I think Dan quoted Don Buford who said there were two centerfielders in the league, Paul Blair and .....Paul Blair ;)

As to the DH Dan mentioned how he doubts we'll ever see the DH in the N.L. Several N.L. owners may not want to pay a hitter to sit on the bench and how the traditionalists may like the variety between the leagues.

I remember the Harvey comment, "Don't let anyone do too much with Hunter Harvey, just let him pitch. He can pitch for any team in the majors."

There was a lot of murmuring and laughs after the first question about if there were frustrations with ownership. I'm shaking my head laughing and thinking no way he goes there in his answer, but talk about your "hanging sliders." I kind of laughed when the one man petitioned hard for Morales, and how we have to win now, and Dan's first comment was "umm, O.K." Then Dan went on to lay out the case that was on mlbtraderumors.

I had a few more questions as well, but went with one that I thought would let us know his thought process about priorities. No mention of A.J. Burnett. I would like to know how he defines "contention." Is it a winning record? Or does it mean having a real shot at the World Series? Simply being in the playoff chase most of the year? My sense is it is the last one.

Dan said he was hopeful about adding two pitchers and a DH. Hopeful. The tone was guarded, I guess in case it doesn't happen. It certainly wasn't a confident guarantee that I would hold him to keep. Talking about Gausman or McFarland as 5th starter, Hunter or O'Day as closer, and Monell as DH tells me he is prepared to roll with what he has in case he can't do more.

I have an mp4 of Dan's entire remarks but at 16MB it's too big to e-mail (sorry, Weams, I tried, buddy).

Thanks Tony and section 18! I agree with Tony here in that Dan's (and Buck's) mantra has been to develop prospects and that we are still evolving. They were both surprised (IMHO) that we did so well in 2012 (with a lot of luck assisting us along the way). Now we must keep up the momentum until Harvey, Bundy, Schoop, Gaus and Wright blossom before our eyes.

(sic) B E L E I V E!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




  • Posts

    • Yeah the amenities are pretty outdated at the yard and they seem to do nothing year over year to improve them. The touchscreens have been banged on to death to the point they barely function, so you can't accurately fill out your order at the kiosks, and they don't have a way for the people behind the counter to ring you up at many of the food places. The sound is low to non-existent in certain sections of the club level, like around 218. Seems like there should be speakers that reach there but they might have been damaged by rain, etc. and they are too lazy to fix them. If you go to a game that's even slightly busy, you will wait forever to get into the bathroom, and the sink will be an absolute mess with no soap or paper towels. It's even worse on the club level where they have one sink that's right by the door. Nearby businesses don't care, either. The Hilton parking garage reeks of decay, pot and human waste. They don't turn on the air circulation fans, even if cars are waiting for an hour and a half to exit from P3, filling up the air with carbon monoxide. They only let you enter the stadium with one 20 oz bottle of water. It's so expensive to buy a drink or water in the stadium, but with all the salty food, 20 oz of water isn't enough, especially on a hot day. Vegetarian food options are poor to none, other than things like chips, fries, hot pretzels and the occasional pizza. Vida Taco is better, but at an inconvenient location for many seats. The doors on the club level are not accessible. They're anti-accessible. Big, heavy doors you have to go through to get to/from the escalators, and big, heavy doors to get to your seats, none of them automatic (or even with the option to be automatic with a button press). Makes it hard to carry food out to your seats even if not handicapped. The furniture in the lounges on the club level seem designed to allow as few people as possible to sit down. Not great when we have so many rain delays during the season. Should put more, smaller chairs in and allow more of the club level ticket holders to have a seat while waiting for thunderstorms to pass. They keep a lot of the entrance/exit gates closed except for playoff/sellout games, which means people have to slowly "mooooo" all the way down Eutaw St to get to parking. They are too cheap to staff all the gates, so they make people exit by the warehouse, even though it would be a lot more convenient for many fans to open all the gates. Taking Light Rail would be super convenient, except that if there's at least 20k fans in attendance, it's common to have to wait 90-120 minutes to be able to board a non-full train heading toward Glen Burnie. A few trains might come by, but they are already full, or fill up fast when folks walk up to the Convention Center stop to pre-empt the folks trying to board at Camden Station. None of the garages in the area are set up to require pre-payment on entry (reservation, or give them your card / digital payment at the entrance till). If they were, emptying out the garage would be very quick, as they wouldn't need to ticket anyone on the way out: if you can't get in without paying, you can always just leave without having to stop and scan your phone or put a ticket in the machine. They shut down the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Station in 2015 because the Maryland Stadium Authority was too greedy. That place was a fun distraction if you were in the area when a game wasn't about to start, like if you show up super early on Opening Day or a playoff day. Superbook's restaurant on Eutaw is a huge downgrade from Dempsey's in terms of menu and service quality. Dempsey's used to be well-staffed, you could reserve a table online, and they had all kinds of great selection for every diet. Superbook seems like just another bar serving the same swill that the rest of the park serves, with extremely minimal and low-quality food. For that matter, most of the food at the stadium is very low quality these days. A lot of things we used to love are made to a lower standard now if they are served at all. These are gripes about the stadium and the area that haven't changed my entire adult life. Going to an O's game requires one to tolerate many small inconveniences and several major inconveniences, any number of which could easily be fixed by the relevant authorities if they gave a damn about the people who pay to come see the team play. You would think a mid-market team would be able to afford to invest in the fan experience. You would think the city and partnering organizations like garages, the Stadium Authority and MTA would at least try to do their part to make the experience enjoyable and free of kinks. You would think they would put some thought into handling the "growing pains" of the fanbase due to recent renewed interest after the dark years. Instead, all we get is the same indifference and the same annoyances year in and year out. The whole area is overdue for a revamp. Not sure if $600 mil will get it done, but at least it's a start. Hopefully they can start to patch up some of the many holes in the fan experience. If you're not going to invest in Burnes, at least make it so paying customers have an easier, more enjoyable time getting to/from the stadium and having some food while we're there.
    • Elias has only been in rebuild mode with the O's so there's not much to speculate on there.  Houston, where he spent his formative years, doesn't seem to like to be on the hook for more than a couple of big long-term contracts at any given time.  I can see that as being Elias' choice as well, albeit with a lower overall cost - Houston runs a big payroll.  But it's all guesswork.  I really don't know. If Elias takes the 2025 payroll to $150 million it will creep up to $200 million or so by 2028 just from keeping the core together.  That's where I start to wonder about sustainability due to market size, economic forces, etc., etc., etc... If it were up to me, I would add a couple of free agents this offseason even if the contracts were longer than ideal and be conservative about extensions elsewhere until the prospects establish themselves a little better.  I think there's a competitive opportunity that the team is already into that's worth exploiting. I think ownership is very happy to have Elias on board and they're not inclined to force him to do anything.  I also think Rubenstein's demonstrated business prowess is great enough to assume that he has had plenty enough time to come to a mutual understanding with Elias as to goals.
    • We need a RH O’hearn…in addition to Westburg. At least 3 batters that will push up the pitch count and cause damage in the top 5 of the lineup.
    • Boy,  that Jackson Merrill is a good young player that is playing his best ball down the season stretch and in the playoffs.   He's only 21.  I guess some young guys are able to play up to the pressure.   Who could have guessed that?
    • I’m aware.   You are arguing something im Not.
    • What agreement? The agreement you are talking about happened as a result of the move.  The MASN agreement would not have existed if Angelos had gone to court to block the move.
    • I’m saying the Os had an agreement with MLB and that should have held up.  Been pretty clear about that. 
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...