Maese on the O's Rep

[SevisonJN]

The problem for you is he is not saying what you want him to say. He is not here to make you or anybody else feel better about the Orioles. He is here to make the team better. That is exactly what he is doing.

AM hasn't made the Orioles better as of yet. We have made one trade and haven't signed any free agents. We can disagree on the importance of AM making the fans or media happy, but it is results I am concerned with. ST is a few days away and we still need a CF, SS, 1B, and Cl. This whole ordeal isn't about AM, it's about a controlling PA. Can anyone tell me how keeping possible trades secret helps the team? We know the M's and Orioles are talking, we know talks have progressed, and we probably know most of the players in the deal. What are we trying to keep secret? The Orioles have done a very good job of alienating their fan base. Oh by the way, how hard is it to stick Baltimore on the away Jersey? Why have we been paying so much to see a poor product? The problem with our organization has little to do with AM and his baseball ideology, it has everything to do with PA. We went from bieng a model franchise to a joke in 15 years. People lump us in with the Pirates and Royals.

[El Gordo]

AM hasn't made the Orioles better as of yet. We have made one trade and haven't signed any free agents. We can disagree on the importance of AM making the fans or media happy, but it is results I am concerned with. ST is a few days away and we still need a CF, SS, 1B, and Cl. This whole ordeal isn't about AM, it's about a controlling PA. Can anyone tell me how keeping possible trades secret helps the team? We know the M's and Orioles are talking, we know talks have progressed, and we probably know most of the players in the deal. What are we trying to keep secret? The Orioles have done a very good job of alienating their fan base. Oh by the way, how hard is it to stick Baltimore on the away Jersey? Why have we been paying so much to see a poor product? The problem with our organization has little to do with AM and his baseball ideology, it has everything to do with PA. We went from bieng a model franchise to a joke in 15 years. People lump us in with the Pirates and Royals.

Wow, I am overwhelmed with such an original thought.

[Miller192]

I ain't reading all these posts but it's a well written solid article. As much as I don't like Maese, I like this latest piece of work. Good job sir!

[RShack]

... it has everything to do with PA. We went from bieng a model franchise to a joke in 15 years...

Wow, I am overwhelmed with such an original thought.

Well, in fairness, he did say it's been only 15 years since the Orioles were a model franchise. I think that's a very original thought. I never had that thought. Not even once.

[ledzepp8]

"I cannot comment on negotiations with other teams"

That tells me something is going on, validating what we know. Denying anything is going on just makes you look stupid.

Since when is it his job to keep you abreast of everything that he is doing? The end result is all you're really privy to. Basically all we've had the past week or so is fans, people in the media *****ing because they don't know exactly what is going on in these negotiations and they're resorting to making things up.

[BaltimoreTerp]

You know, in all honesty, why should we give two *Maese columns* about public perception?

I'm not a fan of the Orioles because it is COOL. In fact, when the Orioles are good again, I plan on ridiculing those who will be. And if anyone decided to make fun of me for being an Orioles fan based on what a local and national media structure based on farting with the wind and writing the easy story over the good one says, I would make a note to consider them slightly less worthy of my respect then a guy from Fairfax County wearing a green Red Sox hat.

I will never be embarrassed to be an Orioles fan, because the day I ever get to that point is the day I'm not a fan anymore.

All that matters is making the right moves. Not how long it takes. Not coming out and responding to a bunch of dorks on a message board (and I'm absolutely including myself in that). Making sure everything is correct, and accurate, and not going to blow up in our face.

Here is a hypothetical situation. Let's say that Jones didn't say anything last weekend. Everything else about the deal is the same, but we only end up with conjecture as to why he left winter ball, and maybe a few insider posts. THe deal is announced on Monday.

Two weeks later, it comes out that the deal was done the previous Sunday, but various issues kept it from being completed until late in the week and they waited until Monday for the announcement.

Is that even a story? Are people coming onto the boards and whining about the "same old Orioles" and how Angelos is meddling again and how "MacFail" isn't in charge? Are alleged professional journalists writing columns about how it hurts our perception among the general baseball fans?

Or, is it buried in Zrebiec's spring training notebook story for that day, the thread on it dies after eight posts, and everyone focuses on how Adam Jones is looking down in Fort Lauderdale?

Think about it.

[El Gordo]

You know, in all honesty, why should we give two *Maese columns* about public perception?

I'm not a fan of the Orioles because it is COOL. In fact, when the Orioles are good again, I plan on ridiculing those who will be. And if anyone decided to make fun of me for being an Orioles fan based on what a local and national media structure based on farting with the wind and writing the easy story over the good one says, I would make a note to consider them slightly less worthy of my respect then a guy from Fairfax County wearing a green Red Sox hat.

I will never be embarrassed to be an Orioles fan, because the day I ever get to that point is the day I'm not a fan anymore.

All that matters is making the right moves. Not how long it takes. Not coming out and responding to a bunch of dorks on a message board (and I'm absolutely including myself in that). Making sure everything is correct, and accurate, and not going to blow up in our face.

Here is a hypothetical situation. Let's say that Jones didn't say anything last weekend. Everything else about the deal is the same, but we only end up with conjecture as to why he left winter ball, and maybe a few insider posts. THe deal is announced on Monday.

Two weeks later, it comes out that the deal was done the previous Sunday, but various issues kept it from being completed until late in the week and they waited until Monday for the announcement.

Is that even a story? Are people coming onto the boards and whining about the "same old Orioles" and how Angelos is meddling again and how "MacFail" isn't in charge? Are alleged professional journalists writing columns about how it hurts our perception among the general baseball fans?

Or, is it buried in Zrebiec's spring training notebook story for that day, the thread on it dies after eight posts, and everyone focuses on how Adam Jones is looking down in Fort Lauderdale?

Think about it.

There's the hard part.:002_sbiggrin:

[ledzepp8]

Exactly, and the way MacPhail has handled the media throughout this trade saga hasn't helped things...

This is how a FO should negotiate. Here's how the Red Sox handled the A-Rod talks:

That's all you have to do - no comment. Denying positive things that the fanbase perceives as true, just makes things worse.

I really don't understand the difference between "No comment" and "There's no deal, we are continuing talks with a number of teams". Both responses give you no information and only lead to speculation.

[RShack]

I really don't understand the difference between "No comment" and "There's no deal, we are continuing talks with a number of teams". Both responses give you no information and only lead to speculation.

Actually, it's only "no comment" that provides no information.

"There's no deal, we are continuing talks with a number of teams" does provide information.

Everybody decides for themselves whether they think he's telling the truth or not.

I think he's a smoothy, but I have no reason to think he's a liar.

[ledzepp8]

Actually, it's only "no comment" that provides no information.

"There's no deal, we are continuing talks with a number of teams" does provide information.

Everybody decides for themselves whether they think he's telling the truth or not.

I think he's a smoothy, but I have no reason to think he's a liar.

Touche;) . But you know what I mean, they're both pretty ambiguous and left up to interpretation as to whether or not he's telling the truth.

[Sports Guy]

Was Maese reading what I said yesterday?

I agree with him 100%.

Whether perception is reality or not, the perception of this organization is still awful and this debacle, whether it is our fault, the Mariners fault or the fault of both, it still makes the Orioles look bad because that is the only way the Orioles have looked recently.

[Fairfax Bird]

Exactly. The difference is only in his mind. As a matter of fact, the second statement gives the information that needs to be conveyed. The first gives nothing. For Trea to act like "no comment" is better than what was said is just hard to even fathom.

Trea and the others can point to NO credible evidence that the Orioles did something wrong here. Their upset because this hasn't happened on their timetable, but they have nothing substantive at all to show why there was a delay. And I stand by my statement that those of us who buy into this type of tripe w/o any evidence to back it up (and, IMO, credible evidence that disputes their theories from Belkast and BEJ6789) should be completely embarrassed.

If evidence comes out that the Orioles botched this, I will be upset and I'll express my opinion. In the meantime, I'm going to refrain from drawing conclusions until I actually feel like I have something substantive to add. Of course, unlike Maese, I'm not more concerned with being popular via pandering than with actually standing for something, leading, earning my pay, etc....

EDIT: I didn't mean to mimic Shack, but I typed this prior to reading on. I need to stop that.

You always say it better than me, but we are Orioles apologists.

[Hank Scorpio]

Was Maese reading what I said yesterday?

I agree with him 100%.

Whether perception is reality or not, the perception of this organization is still awful and this debacle, whether it is our fault, the Mariners fault or the fault of both, it still makes the Orioles look bad because that is the only way the Orioles have looked recently.

...and I'll say it again.

We've had this perception for how long now? And we're in the middle of pulling off one of the biggest trades in team history? We have already traded our best player this offseason and MacPhail obviously knows that the team as currently constructed needs to be "blown up" (translate that however you wish.)

So here we are, living up to our old reputation by getting bodyslammed by the media and frustrating message boards.

So what? When the deal is done all of this is white noise. Andy MacPhail signed on to be the President of Baseball Operations. Joe Jordan agreed to be our scouting director. Matt Wieters signed with us. We've traded Tejada and got a pretty solid return considering we weren't eating any money. We're about to trade Bedard and *possibly* Roberts as well. We appear to be righting the ship for the future.

Can we find something else to b*tch about???!?!

[Fairfax Bird]

[quote=Hank Scorpio;1196576 We appear to be righting the ship for the future.

Can we find something else to b*tch about???!?!

Yes, but we missed the January 31st deadline to get anything done. No more moves are allowed between now and when pitchers and catchers report.

I perceive that this entire thing has been annoying, but ultimately if things break the way we expect that most fans will be happy and the Orioles will be looked upon as having done well to remake the team.

[Hank Scorpio]

This is just a non story to me at this point.

NOW, if Seattle pulls out of the deal because we're dragging our feet or did something wrong.... that's a different story.