This is A Mess (Mega RANT Thread)

[mdbdotcom]

At the end of the day I started this thread. I admitted at time it was a lot of hindsight 20/20 vision. I never questioned DD's loyalty or effort. I didn't think KC had a good offseason but a lot of those moves worked. Was mess to strong a word? Mayer so. We have big holes in the OF and still do with a suspect minor league system. None of his moves kill us longterm but at the end of the day they haven't worked.

The day hasn't ended yet.

[eddie83]

I've made comets that his WAR is likely inflated. Short term defensive metrics are very unstable and his numbers are way above his norm. That said, I don't think Snider is a poor defender at all.

I wasn't trying to pick a fight with you or anyone for that matter. I just think a guy that plays everyday and gets on base consistently, doesn't get platooned and plays a solid RF is more valuable than Snider, who even if he is a better defender only plays in the field half as much. I think a guy getting on base every game in front of the order on this team gives us something we lack. Markakis isn't a great player but his skills would help our team.

[eddie83]

I will say that Markakis is the type of player that the "eye test" tends to overrate.

And that is fine. He doesn't have great range, isn't fast and lacks power.

[MemorialStadKid]

The big difference between you and me is you feel Duquette deliberately mailed it in after failing to land the Toronto job. That's how I read "Oh snap! I can't go to Toronto and I let a couple of the best players on the Orioles walk! I know, I'll just grab some AAAA talent and hope I get lucky!" That also goes beyond being distracted. Is that correct?

Much of that was anger-fueled hyperbole. I admit that.

However, when you examine the results, it appears as if he was throwing stuff at the wall while simultaneously hoping that the return of Machado and Wieters and having Davis bounce back would make a difference.

It did not.

That's not a plan, that's a hope, a desire. It's a massive question mark, a question mark too large to pin the hopes of a season upon.

And that's what he did.

MSK

[weams]

Much of that was anger-fueled hyperbole. I admit that.

MSK

You should have left it at this. Try it sometime.

[eddie83]

The day hasn't ended yet.

I really wish I had worded the tittle differently. I didn't mean to imply the organization or this team is a mess just that the corner OF spots are and that it wasn't a good offseason.

[notyourbuddy]

nor do I think he would have been a season-changing difference this year. Ask Seattle.

So any player stuck on a crappy team is automatically disqualified from being considered a difference maker? Dude is batting .310/.378/.553 in a pitcher's ballpark.

Put him on a team that is closer to contention (like the Os) where other hitters can actually get on base in front of and behind him and he becomes a difference maker. We saw it last year.

[TonySoprano]

Much of that was anger-fueled hyperbole. I admit that.

However, when you examine the results, it appears as if he was throwing stuff at the wall while simultaneously hoping that the return of Machado and Wieters and having Davis bounce back would make a difference.

It did not.

That's not a plan, that's a hope, a desire. It's a massive question mark, a question mark too large to pin the hopes of a season upon.

And that's what he did.

MSK

My opinion is that Dan's offseason was little different than the prior two in terms of talent. If the market hadn't completely crashed on Cruz, Dan wouldn't have gotten him. That goes to budget restrictions. After 2014, Dan had to hand out a lot of money to keep what he had, and I believe giving four year deals to Markakis and Cruz wouldn't have made sense. Tell me you really wish we still had Markakis this year. BTW, Dan did get a huge bounceback from Machado (career season) and this Davis is better than last year's model (only 1 way to go there and it was up), so that part of the plan that you criticize, actually worked.

I do appreciate your admission about the anger.

[weams]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"When you're doing something important, so you're going to be critiqued and thank goodness people care."</p>— BuckShowalterQuotes (@QuotesBuck) <a href="

">July 26, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[CA-ORIOLE]

I wasn't trying to pick a fight with you or anyone for that matter. I just think a guy that plays everyday and gets on base consistently, doesn't get platooned and plays a solid RF is more valuable than Snider, who even if he is a better defender only plays in the field half as much. I think a guy getting on base every game in front of the order on this team gives us something we lack. Markakis isn't a great player but his skills would help our team.

I didn't take it as a fight. I responded to your question. I debate statistics pretty hot and heavily sometimes with people well versed in statistics. There's certainly reason to question the accuracy of defensive metrics, certainly in small sample sizes. That said I generally look at each specific case and don't categorically dismiss or mitigate stats with generaluzatiins as some on here are doing. Yeah Snider was brought in to be a platoon player with the thought he was at a good developmental stage. We know the risk and the costs between Snider and Markakis.

[weams]

I didn't take as I fight. I responded to your question. I debate statistics pretty hot and heavily sometimes with people well versed in statistics. There's certainly reason to question the accuracy of defensive metrics, certainly in small sample sizes. That said I generally look at each specific case and don't categorically dismiss or mitigate stats with generalizations as some on here are doing. Yeah Snider was brought in to be a platoon player with the thought he was at a good developmental stage. We know the risk and the costs between Snider and Markakis.

I can confirm that this is true.

[Il BuonO]

Much of that was anger-fueled hyperbole. I admit that.

However, when you examine the results, it appears as if he was throwing stuff at the wall while simultaneously hoping that the return of Machado and Wieters and having Davis bounce back would make a difference.

It did not.

That's not a plan, that's a hope, a desire. It's a massive question mark, a question mark too large to pin the hopes of a season upon.

And that's what he did.

MSK

The Red Sox pinned their hopes on quite a few moves. Ramirez, Sandoval, Masterson, Miley. How'd that work out? Padres too. Shields, Upton, Kemp. Big players in the off season. I think the Red Sox were predicted to win the east.

[Barnaby Graves]

The Red Sox pinned their hopes on quite a few moves. Ramirez, Sandoval, Masterson, Miley. How'd that work out? Padres too. Shields, Upton, Kemp. Big players in the off season. I think the Red Sox were predicted to win the east.

Yep. Red Sox got to look forward to 4 more guaranteed years of Sandoval, who currently has a solidly negative WAR just this year.

[weams]

Much of that was anger-fueled hyperbole. I admit that.

That's not a plan, that's a hope, a desire. It's a massive question mark, a question mark too large to pin the hopes of a season upon.

MSK

Guessing how players will play is always a plan. It's what we do. It's what GMs all do. It sure is not about what we pay them though. I showed you. Paredes is as good as Hanley.

[eddie83]

I didn't take it as a fight. I responded to your question. I debate statistics pretty hot and heavily sometimes with people well versed in statistics. There's certainly reason to question the accuracy of defensive metrics, certainly in small sample sizes. That said I generally look at each specific case and don't categorically dismiss or mitigate stats with generaluzatiins as some on here are doing. Yeah Snider was brought in to be a platoon player with the thought he was at a good developmental stage. We know the risk and the costs between Snider and Markakis.

Markakis of course signed a 4 year deal and Snider is making peanuts. I admit I get frustrated at times. I understand what the Orioles were thinking. I look at the start of the year and we had a defender in Lough, Young who is best served as a DH vs lefties, Pearce who prior to last season best attribute on offense was that he hit lefties well, DeAza who is best vs RHP and Snider who had yet to prove himself as anything more than a 350 at bat a year player. At the end of the day it was a mistake to think that it all would work out.

I just can't grasp how a player who plays roughly half as many innings in the field and gets about 55-60% of the at bats can be close to as valuable of a player? If he is clubbing the ball with a 950 OPS or something that is one thing. If his defense is so great then why isn't he playing more as well? Right now Paredes is best served as a DH vs RHP, today even if Matt would have played 1B that still means a lefty had to play the field and today it was Lough. Markakis is in there every game, he isn't get benched for Lough. In the AL you only have a 4 man bench. So with a back up catcher and utility IF the most platoons a team can have is 2 unless you use the backup IF and catcher in platoons. This team would benefit from an everyday player who gets on base and someone that doesn't make you carry another player. I don't know how to value that in numbers,? but I think it matters.