Brittany Ghiroli on frustration in O's locker room

[Orioles1954]

Yet another thread gets brought back to Cruz. Three words. 35 years old.

Four words. The Window is Closing.

[Sanfran327]

It's random speculation from a beat reporter. It's not a great look into anything.

They weren't wrong on anything yet, unless the departed players signed 1 year deals.

It's certainly not random. She's around that team 24/7 for 7-8 months a year. She knows a lot more than any of us about the inner workings of this team. I'm not going to say her word is gospel, but I think it's a bit more than speculation.

To brush it off is pretty arrogant, IMO.

[Frobby]

Losing breeds frustration. For example, I'm much more frustrated with my fellow posters on this board than I normally am when the O's are winning.

[DrinkinWithFermi]

Oh man, I usually don't gorge on popcorn this early in the day but this thread seems likely to be worth making an exception. Fire up that microwave, baby!

And BTW, even if Cruz is worth every penny of his current deal, letting him walk and taking the pick was still the correct decision; you don't gamble $50+ million on a 35 year old outlier with a PED track record and an extensive injury history if you're a mid-market team. Period. You just can't do that.

Moving on...

[srock]

I love how noboby prints articles like this when a team is holding a playoff spot.

Losing is frustrating. Losing a buddy in free agency (so said buddy can make a somewhat greater fortune then was offered) is not so frustrating.

I for one have accepted the lost year that is 2015 and look forward to a new plan for 2016.

[srock]

Losing breeds frustration. For example, I'm much more frustrated with my fellow posters on this board than I normally am when the O's are winning.

:rofl:

[webbrick2010]

So tired of hearing about Cruz & Markakis

Do either of them pitch?

Our starting pitching is horrible

and how is their magic working for their new teams

Seattle is 61-71

Atlanta is 54-77

they have been a big waste of money, and they are not worth the contracts they signed

[MagicBird]

So tired of hearing about Cruz & Markakis

Do either of them pitch?

Our starting pitching is horrible

and how is their magic working for their new teams

Seattle is 61-71

Atlanta is 54-77

they have been a big waste of money, and they are not worth the contracts they signed

You dont think Cruz's 39 HR's, 82 RBI's and .314 BA, with a .980 OPS wouldnt have helped this team? Hard to see that as a real waste of money.

Even Nick, its hard to see him not being better than what we threw out there all year. Maybe not worth the $$$.

Sure the contracts were a lot of money. But its hard to sit here and say Cruz would have been a waste of money.

[Babypowder]

It's certainly not random. She's around that team 24/7 for 7-8 months a year. She knows a lot more than any of us about the inner workings of this team. I'm not going to say her word is gospel, but I think it's a bit more than speculation.

To brush it off is pretty arrogant, IMO.

Then bring some quotes or actual evidence, without that it's just meaningless speculation.

[mdbdotcom]

"Who's going to pitch?" - Melvin Mora

[Sanfran327]

Then bring some quotes or actual evidence, without that it's just meaningless speculation.

Did you read the article? I don't need to quote it. The OP linked to it. The whole thing is relevant.

Again, I think her role with the team is substantial enough to make it more than speculative. But I guess we just have different opinions.

And just to be clear, I'm not saying that this is any "evidence" that we should have matched Seattle and Atlanta's offers to retain Cruz and Markakis. Just that you can't build a team in a vacuum and expect it to perform based on data. I remember watching the joy on Cruz's face all year last year. Behavior like that is infectious, and now it's gone. Is that the main difference to the meltdown we're witnessing? Of course not. But I don't think you can ignore it. Others do.

[Babypowder]

Did you read the article? I don't need to quote it. The OP linked to it. The whole thing is relevant.

Again, I think her role with the team is substantial enough to make it more than speculative. But I guess we just have different opinions.

And just to be clear, I'm not saying that this is any "evidence" that we should have matched Seattle and Atlanta's offers to retain Cruz and Markakis. Just that you can't build a team in a vacuum and expect it to perform based on data. I remember watching the joy on Cruz's face all year last year. Behavior like that is infectious, and now it's gone. Is that the main difference to the meltdown we're witnessing? Of course not. But I don't think you can ignore it. Others do.

Yes, I read it. I meant Britt needs to bring some quotes or evidence. She provided none.

[Camden_yardbird]

"frustration" isn't an excuse to play poorly, though. These guys are professional athletes. Barring injury, what's stopping our 21-35 year old professional athletes from playing as well and being as successful as the best teams in baseball? Are they not training enough, or not in the right way? Poor scouting and advice from the coaches and back office? Lack of effort? Whatever it is, I'd be astonished if it had anything to do with the O's letting some free agents walk.

And if they're annoyed about it but it didn't impact their play, I honestly don't care. I'm not especially interested in the team's emotional state of mind as long as it doesn't affect them on the field.

Doesn't matter if you are a professional athlete or an office proffessional, if you place of business let's go of, or fails to retain, individuals who are making significant contributions to the work you do then it's not only going to affect morale but it will also affect your ability to put out a similar work product to the one that was being produced with this individual's contributions.

Are there other factors? For sure. But you can't expect no change in individual performance.

[webbrick2010]

You dont think Cruz's 39 HR's, 82 RBI's and .314 BA, with a .980 OPS wouldnt have helped this team? Hard to see that as a real waste of money.

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=3907425

Even Nick, its hard to see him not being better than what we threw out there all year. Maybe not worth the $$$.

Sure the contracts were a lot of money. But its hard to sit here and say Cruz would have been a waste of money.

I meant it was a waste of money by their new teams, and it shows that you can still suck with a Nelson Cruz in your line up

maybe they would have made some difference to the O's but with our starting pitching we still would have missed the playoffs.

We are not close, we are about to finish last in the AL East

[TonySoprano]

THis can't be...losing Cruz was no big deal and those who think so are just complainers:)

As for Kakes, I LOVED kakes but there is no way he is worth that kind of money.

Cruz was not the be all and end all of the team's offense. A few people choose to oversimplify what is going on and make it the singular reason for 2015.