Nick Cafardo: Dan Duquette Is 'One Of The Best GMs In The Game'

[SpeaktoDamien]

Draft picks are precious, but nothing more than lottery tickets. With the return DD has had off Rule 5 picks and Asian imports, not too concerned with missing a few picks.

Yes, a few mediocre signings. Ubaldo essentially earned his contract last season, and Gallardo's book is not written. Compare that to the last 25 largest free agent signings. Most are DISASTERS. He hasn't signed a crippling deal, and has competed every year. For those around from 1999 to 2012, I'd think you would have a bit more perspective.

MacPhail never would have had this success. He never thought outside the box, never embraced roster management the right way, never focused on undervalued skills while punting on overvalued skills. The goal of the GM is to put together a winning team without mortgaging the future. A+

[ChuckS]

The twelve most valuable Orioles to me are Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Jonathan Schoop, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, Brad Brach, and Zach Britton.

Duquette added/acquired exactly four of those guys. I think he has done a pretty good job at filling out the roster, but he wasn't the one who assembled the bulk of the talent on this team and the SP acquisitions/trades/development (or lack of) have been a disaster under him. We have been winning because of the solid core and that is not there because of Duquette.

I think he is a pretty good GM considering previous budget constraints, but far from the best in the game.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

Duquette has been a master at finding nuggets like Trumbo, Gonzalez, McClouth and others who've been major contributors for peanuts.

The downside is his free agent pitching acquisitions and trading away pitching prospects for mediocre talent. I agree that there are budget constraints limiting what Duquette can do with the pitching. I want to see Duquette use some of his creativity and not sign high priced players that cost draft picks and fail to deliver. I place the most blame on player development for the failures in developing starting pitchers.

[survivedc]

The twelve most valuable Orioles to me are Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Jonathan Schoop, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, Brad Brach, and Zach Britton.

Duquette added/acquired exactly four of those guys. I think he has done a pretty good job at filling out the roster, but he wasn't the one who assembled the bulk of the talent on this team and the SP acquisitions/development (or lack of) have been a disaster under him. We have been winning because of the solid core and that is not there because of Duquette.

I think he is a pretty good GM considering previous budget constraints, but far from the best in the game.

True the vast majority of the core was not brought in my DD but we succeeded in 2014 with a lot of help from Cruz, MGon and Chen, brought in by DD and this year with Trumbo and a strong bullpen lead by DoD and Brach (among others) with help at times from Rickard and Kim. We might have been a decent team in '14 and this year, but not playoff caliber either of those years without Duquettes acquisitions.

No doubt, questionable choices have plagued him along the way, but the idea that we would be just fine simply because of our core is ludicrous.

[JayThomas]

Must spread rep Gordo, but that is a fantastic response.

[SpeaktoDamien]

The twelve most valuable Orioles to me are Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Jonathan Schoop, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, Brad Brach, and Zach Britton.

Duquette added/acquired exactly four of those guys. I think he has done a pretty good job at filling out the roster, but he wasn't the one who assembled the bulk of the talent on this team and the SP acquisitions/trades/development (or lack of) have been a disaster under him. We have been winning because of the solid core and that is not there because of Duquette.

I think he is a pretty good GM considering previous budget constraints, but far from the best in the game.

silly analysis. first, he has kept, not traded or resigned the "core". second, and much more importantly, Duquette's genius is filling out the REST of the roster. He finds players for cheap who can do one or two things well, and Buck puts them in a position to succeed. You simply cannot argue with the results.

[LookitsPuck]

The twelve most valuable Orioles to me are Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Jonathan Schoop, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, Brad Brach, and Zach Britton.

Duquette added/acquired exactly four of those guys. I think he has done a pretty good job at filling out the roster, but he wasn't the one who assembled the bulk of the talent on this team and the SP acquisitions/trades/development (or lack of) have been a disaster under him. We have been winning because of the solid core and that is not there because of Duquette.

I think he is a pretty good GM considering previous budget constraints, but far from the best in the game.

Davis, Jones, Hardy, Tillman, O'Day acquired via trades/waiver claims by MacPhail

Machado (2010), Wieters (2007), Schoop (2008), Britton (2006) were all draft picks by MacPhail or Flanagan.

Trumbo, Brach are Duquette pickups and Gausman was a Duquette draft pick.

Did you mean 3 instead of 4?

[survivedc]

Davis, Jones, Hardy, Tillman, O'Day acquired via trades/waiver claims by MacPhail

Machado (2010), Wieters (2007), Schoop (2008), Britton (2006) were all draft picks by MacPhail or Flanagan.

Trumbo, Brach are Duquette pickups and Gausman was a Duquette draft pick.

Did you mean 3 instead of 4?

Macphail's contract expired at the end of the '11 season and DoD was picked up November 2nd. My understanding is Mac had no place in the org at that point. DD was announced on November 6th. I think Oday should be credited to showalter.

Either way, you're right it should probably only be 3

[ChuckS]

Davis, Jones, Hardy, Tillman, O'Day acquired via trades/waiver claims by MacPhail

Machado (2010), Wieters (2007), Schoop (2008), Britton (2006) were all draft picks by MacPhail or Flanagan.

Trumbo, Brach are Duquette pickups and Gausman was a Duquette draft pick.

Did you mean 3 instead of 4?

I was mistaken on O'Day. Thought we got him in 2012. More to my point.

[survivedc]

I was mistaken on O'Day. Thought we got him in 2012. More to my point.

But DD is responsible for his current tenure on the team. In addition to wieters and davis, fwiw

[El Gordo]

Davis, Jones, Hardy, Tillman, O'Day acquired via trades/waiver claims by MacPhail

Machado (2010), Wieters (2007), Schoop (2008), Britton (2006) were all draft picks by MacPhail or Flanagan.

Trumbo, Brach are Duquette pickups and Gausman was a Duquette draft pick.

Did you mean 3 instead of 4?

Right I forgot for a second with the O's continued phony success, thanks for reminding me yet again. The Orioles suck and Dan's to blame rinse and repeat.

[ChuckS]

But DD is responsible for his current tenure on the team. In addition to wieters and davis, fwiw

The QO to Wieters was a formality that I think almost any GM would have done. The resigning of Hardy has not worked out great so far. The Davis and O'Day contracts are TBD.

I'm not going to give him credit for resigning guys that were already here. He has traded away more talent than he has acquired. He's done pretty good in free agency overall all things considered, especially with position players. Struck gold with Cruz and Trumbo.

[foxfield]

The twelve most valuable Orioles to me are Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Jonathan Schoop, Mark Trumbo, Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Darren O'Day, Brad Brach, and Zach Britton.

Duquette added/acquired exactly four of those guys. I think he has done a pretty good job at filling out the roster, but he wasn't the one who assembled the bulk of the talent on this team and the SP acquisitions/trades/development (or lack of) have been a disaster under him. We have been winning because of the solid core and that is not there because of Duquette.

I think he is a pretty good GM considering previous budget constraints, but far from the best in the game.

This is false.

Yes false.

Honestly, its also fairly unintelligent.

The Orioles 40 Man Roster and everyone in the minors below belong to DD. You say he only acquired 4 of the top 12. But you forget this, every day, every single day. He wakes up with a chance to move people. Not some of them...all of them. When the day closes and those 12 guys above are still here. It's because he chose to keep them here. That makes them his.

Could have traded/moved any or all of them like the items above you claim are a disaster.

I apologize to you ChuckS, because I am responding to 100 posts like yours, but its yours quoted above.

I thought a lot of AM as a GM when he was here. And lets be honest. AM did'nt have lots of friends here. But he did take steps to correct the image of the Oriole franchise, which had literally become the joke of MLB. But the fact is this:

Since the day DD was hired, there is not a team in ALL of baseball that has won more games.

Should he be sainted? No of course not. He makes mistakes.

Should he be criticized? Why shouldn't he be?

Is he destroying the organization? Is there room for an assessment of DD which requires the word disaster?

The answer my friend is no.

You are perfectly fine to judge all of the decisions he has made that you don't like. But you are not free to discard the ones that don't suit your narrative. And when you wake up in the morning and count the blessings of your 12 favorite Orioles, think of DD, because every single one of them are his.

[survivedc]

The QO to Wieters was a formality that I think almost any GM would have done. The resigning of Hardy has not worked out great so far. The Davis and O'Day contracts are TBD.

I'm not going to give him credit for resigning guys that were already here. He has traded away more talent then he has acquired. He's done pretty good in free agency overall all things considered, especially with position players. Struck gold with Cruz and Trumbo.

Wut. You just called hardy Davis and Oday 3 of our most valuable players then when it stops fitting your agenda they don't count? You can't have it both ways. Are they valuable or not? If not, and let's take wieters out too, then it's 3 of 8 "core players" DD brought in and again that's not counting the successes of MGon Chen and Cruz, all of whom were very much core in 14

[El Gordo]

Someone should make a sticky list of all of Dan's successes and failures so we would actually have something to refer to.