No excuses now

[ChrisP]

I think there is an unwritten agreement with MacPhail that Manny will be roaming LF or DH for the Birds next season!

Woo-hoo!!! Great scoop Dipper!

[DrungoHazewood]

Are you insinuating that the Orioles can field a World Series team with a scrub at first base? I hope not, because it implies you think this team has several other pieces in place for a playoff run.

I know why you brought up those examples, but the bottom line is that this team sorely needs a cleanup hitter, short term and long term. A power hitter. Positional talent.

Smoak fits that need, and could be an impact player within three years. At some point, the Orioles need to address their needs first. What makes this even more frustrating is that I believe Smoak was the best overall talent available on the board. So not only do the Orioles pass on a glaring need, they pass on premium talent. The whole "pitching and defense philosophy" is making me sick, because you can't win with a pitiful offense. Billy Beane manages to finish first in a weak division every year with that philosophy (w/ high OBP obviously), but can't make it to the World Series because his offenses aren't powerful/good enough. The Orioles are, by contrast, in the toughest division year in and year out. Without a genius GM, and in the toughest division, what makes them think they have any chance whatsoever to utilize the pitching and defense model successfully?

The Orioles will never have a prayer until they put together a team that can rake. We had great teams in 96 in 97 because we had good pitching AND a BIG TIME offense. To win in the East, you need power pitching and power hitting.

This draft pick is infuriating. We could have Prince Fielder mashing for us now if we hadn't adopted this obsession with pitching. Instead, we have Adam Loewen and his arm problems. Pitchers are too much of an injury risk to continue drafting like this. Don't get me wrong, creating a surplus of pitching talent is fine. But not to this extent.

Planning on pursuing Tex is a joke, especially to the point of drafting inferior players and failing to address needs for a fraction of the price. The Yankees and Red Sox are going to throw astronomical sums of money at the kid. Free agents spurn the Orioles every single year because we have had incompetent baseball people making stupid decisions running the franchise. AM seems to want to get right in line and join the parade of futility.

My main point was that linking future success to signing one of Smoak or Tex is incorrect. There are lots of places to find a first baseman, and some teams succeed without much of one.

[Miller192]

As far as Tex.....I can see the O's getting into a bidding war with say the Yankees or Boston....New York paying a ridiculous amount for him......hearing words out of the warehouse like "shocked"...."inflated market".....the O's actually doing the smart thing and not beating an absurd Yankee offer.....and we'll still be stuck without the power hitting 1B than we want and need.

I would've liked to (hopefully) avoid that yesterday by getting a guy like Smoak.

[nadecir]

Whoa Nelly! Let's not get carried away. First, PITCHING wins pennants. Yes, we need offense, but pitching is what wins. Ask Earl Weaver and Bobby Cox if you need further proof. Second, the Rays are not "so much better" than us. In fact, they have finished behind us every year! EVERY year! They currently have a better record than us, but that means nothing. That's a two month run. Let's see what happens by September. And truth be told, the Rays have had a #1 or at least VERY high draft pick every single year, and yet STILL have never finished out of the AL East basement. So yes, their future looks bright, but lets not jump the shark and say they are so much better than us before they prove anything.

As for Big Tex, by Christmas, he will either be the biggest Star in Baltimore since Cal, selling TONS of "Baltimore" on the front, Teixeira on the back away Orioles jerseys, OR, he will be the most hated man in town since Glenn Davis! There is no in between. There is no grey. Its black or white on this issue. December 25th, 2008...best Christmas ever, or the signs of a bad 2008 draft. Which will it be?

Why would Teixeira be a hated man in Baltimore for turning down the Orioles this offseason? If he chooses not to sign with a team in the bottom half of the standings for possibly less money would that make him a bad guy? If he has the choice to sign with the Mets, Yankees, or Red Sox for more money it certainly would be his right to do so. It is called "free agency" and Teixeira owes the Orioles absolutely nothing. He can sign where ever he wants.

[mikezpen]

I think a lot of people are desperately grasping at straws this morning-really. Certainly the Orioles wouldn’t draft such a pathetic collection of reaches and projects unless Texiera is in the bag! Right? Well, wrong. He’ll go where the money is and where he has a chance to win. Angelos will never part with the ridiculous amount of money it will apparently take to sign this guy (and for once, I don’t blame him), and this team isn’t remotely within sight of being a contender. I think they drafted the way they did yesterday because they apparently are going back to “tools” guys again.

[Tx Oriole]

Trea, i just have to disagree with you. Paying that kind of money for Tex would still leave you with a need at SS and 3rd. Why not try for a player that may not be a good as Tex but almost for 1st and then go after a SS and a

3rd baseman? Roberts may not resign either so you will need a 2nd baseman too.

[JTrea81]

Trea, i just have to disagree with you. Paying that kind of money for Tex would still leave you with a need at SS and 3rd. Why not try for a player that may not be a good as Tex but almost for 1st and then go after a SS and a

3rd baseman? Roberts may not resign either so you will need a 2nd baseman too.

I say again, If we didn't want Tex why did we pass on Smoak? We didn't have to trade anybody to get him nor would he have cost a ton in his signing bonus. Smoak has been compared to Adrian Gonzalez and Tex himself. What do we have to trade that could net us that kind of player?

LJ Hoes might be the guy they think can replace Roberts as they drafted him as a 2B man.

The Orioles have already comitted to Tex, it's quite obvious. Whether they get him now is up to Teixeira and him alone...

[DrungoHazewood]

I say again, If we didn't want Tex why did we pass on Smoak?

They thought Matusz was a better player, and don't believe that drafting to need is a legitimate thing to do.

Jordan's job is to identify and draft the best players with the most future value. It's MacPhail's job to turn the organization's talent into a functioning, contending major league team.

[IamtheSkip]

For the most part, I agree with JTrea.

The Orioles need more positional talent. While Matusz is a very good pitcher and could do many a great thing, it doesn't make sense for the O's to pass on a hitter at No. 4.

Even if it wasn't Smoak (who I wasn't head over heels for, like some folks), you could have easily grabbed Posey there. Yeah, he's a catcher. But the odds of he and Wieters both one day being starting catchers, considering their batting prowess, are astronomical. At least one will end up being a 1B/DH type.

If the Orioles aren't gearing up to either get proactive and cut trades, or spend a bunch of cash, then this draft has no real explanation. You can't start rebuilding without laying a foundation, and the O's don't have one on the positional side. Hell, they don't even have the materials to lay one.

[JTrea81]

You can't start rebuilding without laying a foundation, and the O's don't have one on the positional side. Hell, they don't even have the materials to lay one.

QFT. MacPhail has nothing really to work with as far as trade chips. Our younger pitching isn't established and all we have are overpaid mediocre veterans. Roberts, Sherrill and Cabrera are probably our most attractive trade chips. The shine is off Roberts somewhat. DCab is starting to get hit so that leaves Sherrill. Considering Bedard, Haren and Santana only netted three blue chip position prospects between them (one for each), I doubt we'll get get much more than one for Sherrill. And BB has said they won't trade Sherrill or DCab anyway, so that leaves the dreck.

The draft and international signings is our best hope of getting positional talent, and we did nothing for international signings and we also passed on the best positional talent in the draft.

So how are we supposed to acquire good positional talent again? Apparently free agency...

[PoorMike]

QFT. MacPhail has nothing really to work with as far as trade chips. Our younger pitching isn't established and all we have are overpaid mediocre veterans. Roberts, Sherrill and Cabrera are probably our most attractive trade chips. The shine is off Roberts somewhat. DCab is starting to get hit so that leaves Sherrill. Considering Bedard, Haren and Santana only netted three blue chip position prospects between them (one for each), I doubt we'll get get much more than one for Sherrill. And BB has said they won't trade Sherrill or DCab anyway, so that leaves the dreck.

The draft and international signings is our best hope of getting positional talent, and we did nothing for international signings and we also passed on the best positional talent in the draft.

So how are we supposed to acquire good positional talent again? Apparently free agency...

Let's see where we are in 45 days. BRob is hitting better right now than he has all year.

[Frobby]

QFT. MacPhail has nothing really to work with as far as trade chips. Our younger pitching isn't established and all we have are overpaid mediocre veterans. Roberts, Sherrill and Cabrera are probably our most attractive trade chips. The shine is off Roberts somewhat. DCab is starting to get hit so that leaves Sherrill. Considering Bedard, Haren and Santana only netted three blue chip position prospects between them (one for each), I doubt we'll get get much more than one for Sherrill. And BB has said they won't trade Sherrill or DCab anyway, so that leaves the dreck.

Why is the shine off BRob? His OPS+ was 112 last year, it's 114 now. He's essentially the same player. (By the way, he's hitting the heck out of the ball the last few days.)

DCab had one bad day and now he's "starting to get hit?" If he has two more bad outings in a row, I'll worry. He's valuable right now.

Sherrill's valuable, though not so valuable that he brings more than one really good prospect.

Guthrie's an asset. Many of our pitching prospects or younger pitchers are assets. Of course you aren't going to get three blue chip propsects for them, but if all you are looking to do is trade a very good young pitcher/pitiching prospect for one very good young shortstop/prospect, that should be doable.

We have plenty of tradeable assets.

[DrungoHazewood]

QFT. MacPhail has nothing really to work with as far as trade chips. Our younger pitching isn't established...

Young pitching doesn't have to be established to be tradeable. The O's have a million young pitchers. In today's market anyone with talent and six years under team control has massive value.

I know this is a painfully bad example, but today you could probably trade a young Schilling for Glenn Davis straight up. No Finley and Harnisch to sweeten the pot. Give a guy like Chorey Spoone 50 innings in the majors like Joba and you just might be able to trade him for a star-level first baseman.

[PoorMike]

Young pitching doesn't have to be established to be tradeable. The O's have a million young pitchers. In today's market anyone with talent and six years under team control has massive value.

I know this is a painfully bad example, but today you could probably trade a young Schilling for Glenn Davis straight up. No Finley and Harnisch to sweeten the pot. Give a guy like Chorey Spoone 50 innings in the majors like Joba and you just might be able to trade him for a star-level first baseman.

Jimmy Haynes for Geronimo!

[Dipper9]

Why would Teixeira be a hated man in Baltimore for turning down the Orioles this offseason? If he chooses not to sign with a team in the bottom half of the standings for possibly less money would that make him a bad guy? If he has the choice to sign with the Mets, Yankees, or Red Sox for more money it certainly would be his right to do so. It is called "free agency" and Teixeira owes the Orioles absolutely nothing. He can sign where ever he wants.

Of course he owes the Orioles nothing. He doesn't "owe" anybody a damn thing. But he WILL be hated by the fans of Baltimore if he doesn't sign here. if you don't believe me, you haven't been paying attention for the past 3-4 years! Fans think he is some kind of savior of this franchise. If he goes elsewhere, he'll be hated. Don't believe me, call Mussina and ask him how the fans of Baltimore have treated him for going elsewhere!