This is A Mess (Mega RANT Thread)

[MemorialStadKid]

Seriously?

You think Norris and Davis are the voices of reason for this team? SMH

No, but when you hear Orioles fans call in from everywhere, you get VERY FEW who try to use saber to justify the lack of movements or VERY FEW who defend DD blindly no matter what the evidence shows.

That's what I'm saying.

MSK

[Herman]

Seriously?

You think Norris and Davis are the voices of reason for this team? SMH

At least they have something to contribute other than hiding behind "they've had the best record in MLB for the past 3 seasons." This team had serious issues going into the season and when anyone pointed them out apologists like you took offense lol.

[Redskins Rick]

No, but when you hear Orioles fans call in from everywhere, you get VERY FEW who try to use saber to justify the lack of movements or VERY FEW who defend DD blindly no matter what the evidence shows.

That's what I'm saying.

MSK

We must be listening to two different stations then, they dont get the brightest callers on the air.

I don't think anybody is blindly defending DD.

But, we appreciate what he has done, in the time here.

Give the man some friggin credit for building on what Andy started.

Remember 14 years of crap?

Come on now.

[Aristotelian]

Disagree with everything that I have said and am about to say all you want, but a lot of my concerns in the beginning of the season have proven to be correct and the team is 2 games under .500 for a reason...

You were right about how the season played out. Can't argue with you there. That does not mean your way would have worked better. Miller has not cost us a single game as the bullpen has been dominant at the back end without him. Cruz certainly would have given us a boost, but Paredes has filled some of that void. Let's say Cruz is good for a couple wins. We are 5 games out instead of 7 games out. But now we have $25M more tied up in Cruz and Miller the next four years. That is a lot to go with AJ, Ubaldo, JJ, and Britton. Want to extend Manny? Sorry, that money is tied up. What about bringing in Upton or Heyward? No can do. By my count we have about $60M in contracts next year. We could potentially bring in guys worth $50-$60M this offseason. That is a huge opportunity for DD or his successor.

DD positioned us to compete. If we were in it, we could have made a big "all in" move for Price or Upton. It didn't work out that way, but now we are positioned to retool and contend again. It sucks that it's not happening for us during this window, but I am very grateful that DD did not burden us with a bunch of bad contracts. You can at least admit he has done that much.

[MemorialStadKid]

We must be listening to two different stations then, they dont get the brightest callers on the air.

I don't think anybody is blindly defending DD.

But, we appreciate what he has done, in the time here.

Give the man some friggin credit for building on what Andy started.

Remember 14 years of crap?

Come on now.

I DO REMEMBER, AND I DON'T WANT THE ORIOLES TO RETURN TO THAT LOSING PERIOD.

When we saw Markakis, Cruz and Miller go, I was okay with it at first because I assumed that DD would make some wonderful moves to replace the missing talent, but then he did NOTHING. And sure enough, those of us who realized he did nothing commented about it and were crucified during the opening months of this season.

All we were saying was that DD didn't do enough to improve the team because he was distracted by Toronto and then had to scramble at the last minute to improve a team when there were NO MORE IMPACT PLAYERS left on the marketplace.

Hence we get AAAA retreads and a bunch of empty hopes that we would somehow get a group of guys to play over their heads again.

Now we're in a real mess.

MSK

[DrungoHazewood]

No, but when you hear Orioles fans call in from everywhere, you get VERY FEW who try to use saber to justify the lack of movements or VERY FEW who defend DD blindly no matter what the evidence shows.

That's what I'm saying.

MSK

Getting your Orioles and baseball knowledge from sports talk radio is like learning about literature by having someone yell random passages from Cliffs Notes at you.

[DrungoHazewood]

By my count we have about $60M in contracts next year. We could potentially bring in guys worth $50-$60M this offseason. That is a huge opportunity for DD or his successor.

You can book mark this: I can't imagine a situation where it would be justifiable for the Orioles to go into 2016 with a significantly smaller payroll than they have today. They have $60M on the books now, if they don't bump that up to at least back near $100M they'll have some serious 'splainin' to do.

[Aristotelian]

Now we're in a real mess.

MSK

No, a real mess is when you have a bunch of albatross contracts in non-productive veteran players. A real mess is trading away Curt Schilling and Steven Finley. Going into the season with Jeremy Guthrie or Sidney Ponson as your best pitcher.

We have literally no bad contracts. We have a pathway to contend again as soon as next year. One bad year. Not a real mess.

[DrungoHazewood]

No, a real mess is when you have a bunch of albatross contracts in non-productive veteran players. A real mess is trading away Curt Schilling and Steven Finley. Going into the season with Jeremy Guthrie or Sidney Ponson as your best pitcher.

We have literally no bad contracts. We have a pathway to contend again as soon as next year. One bad year. Not a real mess.

I see $50M or $60M in payroll space as an opportunity. Others see it as a chance to go all Marlins on the team and descend back into the abyss. I guess we'll see in about six or eight months.

[Austin]

No matter how coherent and common sense your POV is, if it doesn't align with the "FO is perfect" dogma then you're going to get hit with a ton of snark and nasty attitudes.

Good God, man, get a new schtick. The FO gets plenty of criticism on here, take a look in almost every single thread. Maybe if you're getting hit with snark, it has something to do with your style?

Thank god 105.7 exists because if this was my sole source of Orioles fandom contact, I'd be terrified.

LOL

[Moose Milligan]

I DO REMEMBER, AND I DON'T WANT THE ORIOLES TO RETURN TO THAT LOSING PERIOD.

When we saw Markakis, Cruz and Miller go, I was okay with it at first because I assumed that DD would make some wonderful moves to replace the missing talent, but then he did NOTHING. And sure enough, those of us who realized he did nothing commented about it and were crucified during the opening months of this season.

All we were saying was that DD didn't do enough to improve the team because he was distracted by Toronto and then had to scramble at the last minute to improve a team when there were NO MORE IMPACT PLAYERS left on the marketplace.

Hence we get AAAA retreads and a bunch of empty hopes that we would somehow get a group of guys to play over their heads again.

Now we're in a real mess.

MSK

I dunno man, this team was going to have to be blown up at some point, especially with the farm system the way it is. As pointed out earlier, this had to have been the last year of the team as we know it because we're going to lose these guys to free agency.

I don't want this team to return to 14 years of crap, no one here does. No one's saying we will, either. I don't think we'll be a winner next year but I don't think we'll lose 14 straight seasons in a row, either.

If you can properly articulate what DD should have done this past offseason to keep this team winning NOT JUST THIS YEAR but setting us up for the next additional 3-5 years, I'd love to hear it.

I'm a big fan of DD, he (thanks in part to MacPhail, too) rescued this team from the doldrums and made this team fun again. Even if he doesn't end his term here on a good note, he'll be remembered fondly by a lot of people.

[scOtt]

I dunno man, this team was going to have to be blown up at some point, especially with the farm system the way it is. As pointed out earlier, this had to have been the last year of the team as we know it because we're going to lose these guys to free agency.

I don't want this team to return to 14 years of crap, no one here does. No one's saying we will, either. I don't think we'll be a winner next year but I don't think we'll lose 14 straight seasons in a row, either.

If you can properly articulate what DD should have done this past offseason to keep this team winning NOT JUST THIS YEAR but setting us up for the next additional 3-5 years, I'd love to hear it.

I'm a big fan of DD, he (thanks in part to MacPhail, too) rescued this team from the doldrums and made this team fun again. Even if he doesn't end his term here on a good note, he'll be remembered fondly by a lot of people.

Yes, some are saying that. :rolleyestf:

[DrungoHazewood]

Yes, some are saying that. :rolleyestf:

Yep, just today I've read a few posts about the Orioles being at the beginning of a 5-10 year losing streak.

[weams]

All snark aside, if the Os miss the playoffs then I think DD definitely deserves criticism for not successfully upgrading the team. A lot of his moves have not panned out. Doesn't mean he deserves to be fired, but the results are the results.

I pretty much agree with this.

[DrungoHazewood]

I pretty much agree with this.

It's his responsibility, sure. That's the job. Everyone understands that people will criticize results even if the underlying plan was solid. GMs often get fired for all kinds of stuff only vaguely in their control. Much easier to fire a manager or a GM than all the players who didn't do their jobs, or got hurt, or didn't develop.