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Where is the missing money $$$$$


Redskins Rick

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You know you could be reading a thread from 2007 or from 2014, and the apologists still spout the same nonsense to defend one of the greediest, worst owners in all of professional sports.

Go look at the archives, same old same old. Every. Single. Year.

Name an owner that is not interested in profits on his multi hundred million dollar investments. They don't go through this for a .08 ROI. and escalated team value is only bankable when you say uncle. The inheritance taxes take back a good bit of that for your heirs.

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Spoken like a business man. If I have a store in a building that I own and due to increasing real estate prices, is increasing in value......how does that help me make my store more profitable?

Well, unless your business involves taxpayers paying for the place in which you transact business (which adds millions to your investment value), and antitrust exemptions for your entire business that enables you to engage in monopolistic business practices and then to use that monopoly to ratchet up guarantees of the value of said business if and when you ever sold it and, in addition, to set up separate revenue streams from another franchise as well as your own...does your business have those kind of public guarantees and subsidies? This is a swell thing, capitalism (as long as you can get the fans and taxpayers to be the suckers.)

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So skip the top free agents, and go after the mid tier calls, not troll for castoffs, not when this team had a good core six and was on the fringes of making the playoffs.

Webb and Lough, I get, good pickups, but the rest.

I tend to agree - get some solid guys to fill the holes. The thing is, we heard for years: We should only get an elite free agent when we're ready to make a run for the playoffs/pennant. Well, we actually DID make a run for the playoffs... and into the playoffs. And what happened? More excuses, more rationalization, more shuffling of deck chairs.

It looks to me like the Orioles really have accepted their new lot in life as a smallish-market team. They'll even resign themselves to losing their own homegrown players, purely for financial reasons. Just like the Rays, except we don't produce nearly as many good players. Not an encouraging combination.

I simply don't believe we have the raw talent in our rotation to compete for the division this year. That's to say nothing of our holes at DH, 2B and left field (Lough could be okay but he's not exactly proven).

I really hope DD pulls one out of the hat, because this window is closing.

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Or it could be the same Whiney complaining posters that think the only way to win is by throwing gobs of money at players. I repeat for the 100th time. 5 of the 10 teams that were in the playoffs last year, had payrolls that were lower then the Orioles. There is more then one way to skin a cat. 100 Million is plenty of money. Just spend wisely.

And how many of those heartwarming teams wound up actually playing for pennants? How many of the final four teams had payrolls under $100 million? You seem to be an expert, so I'm just curious.

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Well, unless your business involves taxpayers paying for the place in which you transact business (which adds millions to your investment value), and antitrust exemptions for your entire business that enables you to engage in monopolistic business practices and then to use that monopoly to ratchet up guarantees of the value of said business if and when you ever sold it and, in addition, to set up separate revenue streams from another franchise as well as your own...does your business have those kind of public guarantees and subsidies? This is a swell thing, capitalism (as long as you can get the fans and taxpayers to be the suckers.)

It's a beautiful country isn't it?

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I tend to agree - get some solid guys to fill the holes. The thing is, we heard for years: We should only get an elite free agent when we're ready to make a run for the playoffs/pennant. Well, we actually DID make a run for the playoffs... and into the playoffs. And what happened? More excuses, more rationalization, more shuffling of deck chairs.

It looks to me like the Orioles really have accepted their new lot in life as a smallish-market team. They'll even resign themselves to losing their own homegrown players, purely for financial reasons. Just like the Rays, except we don't produce nearly as many good players. Not an encouraging combination.

I simply don't believe we have the raw talent in our rotation to compete for the division this year. That's to say nothing of our holes at DH, 2B and left field (Lough could be okay but he's not exactly proven).

I really hope DD pulls one out of the hat, because this window is closing.

Which of this rear's FA's would you classify as solid guys who fill a hole?
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Based on what some scouts have told me, the window is opening on our starting pitching and the only thing that we might lose before two years is a catcher.

Were those Orioles scouts? Because most of the things I've reade from experts seem to feel the Orioles are due for a sharp decline and a rough stretch. Within the next 3 years they are looking at no answers in LF, RF, C,3B/SS (Depending on where Manny ends up), DH, possibly 1B, and probably a declining Jones. If Tillman continues to be a 15+ game winner, he will command 12-15m a year for 4-6 years. And we know the Orioles will never give that to a SP. Bundy and Gausman aren't sure things. And they are no replacements in the minors to fill all of the possible holes mentioned. Just not sure I see a large window of opportunity to win. I think the Orioles wasted and totally blew a chance that might not come again anytime soon. JMO.

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