Interesting Article: It's Okay To Be Critical

[Frobby]

And if it can't be proven, then it's fair to question, no? You do realize that I never even took a firm position on anything in this thread, don't you? Simply asking these questions, however, has stirred up a wealth of almost purely emotional responses. You'd think I set fire to a church, when really all I did was light a cigarette next door.

Sure it is fair to question.

[SteveO]

Buck has his faults...all managers do.

I can think of a handful of managers at most I would rather have.

I see no signs that the team is in anyway tuning him out.

Frankly the results of this team so far this year considering some of the injuries and slow starts are better than I thought they might be.

[Diehard_O's_Fan]

Buck is the best Oriole manager since Earl Weaver period. The only way you can criticize Buck is if you weren't around when the Orioles stunk up the league for 14

years. Buck Showalter will lead the Orioles to a world series and I believe the Orioles

will win at least one championship before he retires. I hope Buck is the Orioles

manager until he is ready for a nursing home.

[DrungoHazewood]

And I really can't argue with anything else you said. This season's final results are going to be pretty important when it comes to appraising Buck's future value to the team, IMO.

I think the season's final results have almost nothing to do with Buck's future value to the team, barring a total collapse, or a totally unforeseen clubhouse revolt. Whether they end up 78-84 or 90-72 the process was the same, and process is much more important than a single season's worth of results influenced by many factors outside of the manager.

[DrungoHazewood]

And if it can't be proven, then it's fair to question, no? You do realize that I never even took a firm position on anything in this thread, don't you? Simply asking these questions, however, has stirred up a wealth of almost purely emotional responses. You'd think I set fire to a church, when really all I did was light a cigarette next door.

Not a big fan of people smoking.

And to carry the analogy waaaayy too far, smoking is often just a way of poking a stick at authority in an illogical and self-destructive way.

[weams]

... illogical and self-destructive way.

[El Gordo]

Buck is avery good manager. He does effectively what all managers try to do. He gets his teams to play fundamentally sound team baseball within the limits of their ability. It's not Buck's fault he has a lot of SP who's command issues keep them from going deep into games, and it's not his fault he has a bunch of aggressive hackers who have difficulty with situational hitting. He makes the most of what he's got just like Earl did, and his players respect him and like playing for him. What else could you want. A GM and owner to give him better players to work with maybe?

[wildcard]

Buck is avery good manager. He does effectively what all managers try to do. He gets his teams to play fundamentally sound team baseball within the limits of their ability. It's not Buck's fault he has a lot of SP who's command issues keep them from going deep into games, and it's not his fault he has a bunch of aggressive hackers who have difficulty with situational hitting. He makes the most of what he's got just like Earl did, and his players respect him and like playing for him. What else could you want. A GM and owner to give him better players to work with maybe?

I agree with most of this.

But Buck did pick Presley whose philosophy is to be aggressive. That has encouraged many of the hitters to follow that philosophy for better or worse.

[Tony-OH]

What has Buck built? The O's got off to a hot start with him in 2010, going 34-23 after he took over. The O's followed that up in 2011 by going 69-93. Then they reversed that record in 2012, going 93-69 after DD picked up Chen, MGon, and Hammel (and after Tillman finally began to "realize his potential" by posting a 9-3 mark with a 2.93 ERA over the last couple of months of the season). Despite getting a combined 65 starts from Tommy Hunter, Arrieta, Matusz, and Britton with an ERA over 5.00, the O's made the playoffs thanks to a historic run of good fortune in 1-run and extra inning games...one that ended against the Yankees in the postseason. When that luck...didn't continue in 2013, the O's found themselves back in Earth's orbit, finishing 85-77 and missing the playoffs. Right now, the O's are 20-22, and fangraphs has them projected to go 58-62 the rest of the way, finishing 80-82 overall.

I'm not saying I agree with the last calculation, necessarily, as I doubt that first place in the AL East will wind up being a tie between the Red Sox and Blue Jays at 84-78 apiece. But what has Buck built? What has he done that we can articulate and defend with statistics? Are the Orioles evolving and becoming better under his leadership, or are they regressing?

The major part you are missing here is that Buck has changed the culture throughout the organization. It's easy to see why Buck is so good at building teams/organizations up from nothing into contenders when you just see how he brings everything together. The way he runs spring training to the day to day operation is just first class, and that rubs off on everyone.

What has Buck built? He's built an organization that was the laughing stock of baseball and helped make it one that is on the rise inside and out. Duquette shares in this endeavor as well of course, but Buck is a huge part of the Orioles being an organization players want to be part of.

Now saying that, Buck does make some questionable lineup and bullpen management decisions and his loyalty to particular players have cost the orioles ball games at times. It's a valid question to ask whether Buck can manage a team over the hump until he does so, but it should be under no question what Buck has built.

[El Gordo]

I agree with most of this.

But Buck did pick Presley whose philosophy is to be aggressive. That has encouraged many of the hitters to follow that philosophy for better or worse.

I don't buy the aggressive hitting cliche. Presley is wise enough to maximize the strength of the hitters he has to work with. He doesn't buy into the fools' errand of trying to make them into something they aren't. If he had patient hitters I am sure he would take advantage of their patience. He doesn't have them.

[SteveO]

The major part you are missing here is that Buck has changed the culture throughout the organization. It's easy to see why Buck is so good at building teams/organizations up from nothing into contenders when you just see how he brings everything together. The way he runs spring training to the day to day operation is just first class, and that rubs off on everyone.

What has Buck built? He's built an organization that was the laughing stock of baseball and helped make it one that is on the rise inside and out. Duquette shares in this endeavor as well of course, but Buck is a huge part of the Orioles being an organization players want to be part of.

Now saying that, Buck does make some questionable lineup and bullpen management decisions and his loyalty to particular players have cost the orioles ball games at times. It's a valid question to ask whether Buck can manage a team over the hump until he does so, but it should be under no question what Buck has built.

Well said.

When I look at this team/organization and compare it to what it was prior to his arrival ....it should be obvious to all its greatly improved.

I am quite happy with Buck as our manager for the next few years while the system/organization continues to fine tune its scouting/development and begins to hopefully reap some its benefits.

There is nothing wrong with criticism about how certain situations are handled. Long as the context of his performance as a whole is (excellent IMO) acknowledged its only fair to point out some of questions we have about how he does certain things.

Personally I am very thankful we have Buck and DD ...I will take the issues we complain about now vrs the ones we did for 10+ yrs before they arrived anyday

[24fps]

If he stretched any further looking for a blog post, he would snap like an old rubber band.

I'm glad to hear it's OK to be critical. Mr. Miller, your blog would be taken more seriously if you learned the difference between rains, reigns and reins.

[Guest rochester]

I've said before and will again, I wouldn't want any other manager with the exception of Joe Maddon.

This. At least IMO.

[weams]

If he stretched any further looking for a blog post, he would snap like an old rubber band.

I'm glad to hear it's OK to be critical. Mr. Miller, your blog would be taken more seriously if you learned the difference between rains, reigns and reins.

As I said. A very, very, poor article. A legitimate topic. As Drungo said. This is just poking a stick.

[foxfield]

Well, it is true that some things cannot be proven. But the Orioles just plain rolled over for teams before Buck got here. Hell even the fans left town for Yankee or Redsox games. Buck came in and almost immediately started poking at the Yankees and the Redsox. You might say it's the players. I say it started with comments like this:

“I’d like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll,” Showalter said. “You got Carl Crawford because you paid more than anyone else, and that’s what makes you smarter? That’s why I like whipping their butt.”

Managers are NOT responsible for who is in the dugout. They are accountable to what they do with em. Buck has done a lot, and while he gets plenty of criticism here. Orange, you are getting blow back because you seem to be saying he has built nothing. So, let me ask you a question. What part of Oriole baseball is worse today than the day Buck arrived? And if you have something, I'd like to know if you think that falls under his job?