vs. RAYS, 7/24

[Uli2001]

Well, there was a shallow bath of us who pointed out at the time that letting Nick, Nelson and Andrew go without really making any effort to replace them was akin to ripping the heart out of this team and replacing it with a sump pump. That it's been proven true doesn't make me any happier with the (predictable) result...

Letting Miller go was probably the right decision, since he wanted to go to the Yankees anyway and would want a premium to sign in Baltimore. And relievers are not a reliable quantity. But letting Cruz and Markakis go, to be replaced by dumpster hunting, was appalling. Who cares what they would be producing in their fourth year. You play to win now, and the Orioles had everything going for them to go back to the playoffs and try to get over the hump. Now they are back to square one.