The Idea That the Orioles Are Contenders Is Laughable

[El Gordo]

This same SP was pretty good the second half of '16. Now they are hopelssly horrendous?

[Norfolk orioles]

3 hours ago, Tx Oriole said:

Now what good would that do? His contract is up next year. 

Prevent him from trying to make more panic moves because he wants to win now?

 

If Buck isn't in board he can go too.

 

Duquette is responsible for this catastrophe because he had zero backup plan to Tillman being hurt and Ubaldo being a projected starter.

This falls on Dan in my eyes, a historic collapse due to lack of viable depth and poor offseason signings (Davis and Trumbo???) with zero concern showed for the pitching situation.

 

We had a ton of money to spend and we spent it on a declining 1b who leads the league in strikeouts and another DH on a team full of them.

Maybe Angelos was behind Davis coming back but if Dan couldn't convince Peter it was a dumb signing then again, he's a poor leader who doesn't deserve his job.

[Norfolk orioles]

7 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

This same SP was pretty good the second half of '16. Now they are hopelssly horrendous?

1924.

[Norfolk orioles]

27 minutes ago, Natty said:

If we can't fix the horrendous pitching, we are done. 

So what you are saying is, we are done.

[Flash- bd]

The lack of any foresight whatsoever from Duquette is a bit frustrating. This last off-season we needed to make some more significant moves than the ones we did; I suggested trading Tillman and Britton to try and get some young SP in there. Not to toot my own horn but those are two moves that would look good about now...

 

Now we're in a situation where it's looking like only a full rebuild is an option. Much credit to Duquette and Buck for what they've done but it's about time to move to a different sort of decision making, one with a bit more long-term vision involved, instead of just trying to squeak by every season on a best-case scenario basis. It was only a matter of time before best-case scenarios started turning into moderate-case scenarios or worst-case scenarios, which is why I predicted us to finish .500 or below this season. 

 

Thankfully we have chips to sell in Machado, Schoop, Britton, and Jones...now's the time to do so. If things go right can we challenge for the wild card this season? Probably, but again, that's thinking in best-case scenario terms. It's time to stop delaying the inevitable, and rebuild while we still can get nice returns for our pieces. 

[Frobby]

Everyone wants to blame someone.    But what about the fact that it simply isn't that easy for a team to contend every single year?   I don't think Duquette has been either great or terrible.    He's been competent, but there are 29 other teams trying to win, too.    Meanwhile, we're one game under .500.     

[Ohfan67]

42 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Everyone wants to blame someone.    But what about the fact that it simply isn't that easy for a team to contend every single year?   I don't think Duquette has been either great or terrible.    He's been competent, but there are 29 other teams trying to win, too.    Meanwhile, we're one game under .500.     

I hear you. It's very easy to play the blame game, too easy. But I think folks are "extra" frustrated because the team/organization has been in "win now" mode and that supposed window starts to close after this season. This is a particularly bad season in terms of future likelihood to win to lay a dud. In my opinion, it makes this season hurt a lot more and makes it easier to be frustrated with DD (and for me even Buck a bit). 

[Tony-OH]

On 6/24/2017 at 9:26 AM, Jagwar said:

Dan has steered the ship for multiple postseason appearances. He has gotten results for this team.

Is DD responsible for Trumbo becoming a power hitter with no power? Or Manny going from an all star to a .700 OPS player? Or multiple starters regressing? Or Britton being on the DL for most of the season? With O'Day Hardy, Davis and Castillo spending significant time on the DL? 

I think people are looking for a scapegoat. No team in baseball could sustain success with the amount of things that have gone wrong for the Orioles this year. i'm not saying everything Duquette has done is great, but other than Ubaldo, he had reasonable hope that the other four SPs could pitch well enough. No one could have foresaw Gausman and Tillman imploding. Sure you could have said there were warning signs with Tillman's shoulder last year, but he did come back and pitch decently. No one could have seen him becoming the worse starting pitcher in baseball over one offseason.

Add in the bullpen injuries, Machado's struggles, Chris Davis injury, and Trumbo's lack of power, and this team is lucky to be close to .500.