TT: Is this really the worst season of your fandom?

[FlipTheBird]

Not even remotely close. It's not a good year, by any means, but it's barely a blip on the radar in terms of "bad" years during the length of my fandom.

I was born in the mid-80s, so I'll consider 1992 or so to be when I was old enough to really "feel" the ebbs and flows of a season. Just in that rather short window (in comparison to some of the folks here), I could easily name 10-12 worse seasons.

Two of the worst were the 1998 implosion and the 2005 tease/meltdown/epic disaster.

[FlipTheBird]

On 9/20/2017 at 9:34 AM, Frobby said:

It's not just Buck.   The Baltimore media isn't really interested in asking tough questions to anyone associated with the Orioles, and that predates Buck by a long time. It's understandable with Roch and the other MASN guys, but kind of inexcusable for the Sun reporters IMO.    The only time we get any reporting on the inner workings of the front office is when it comes from a national writer like Ken Rosenthal, who then gets accused of having an anti-Orioles agenda whenever he reports something negative.   

That's just life for any local sportswriters anymore, though. In any city. You pick at the wrong scab too much and the team just cuts off access. And then you're just cooked. It's awful, but it's how it is.

The O's can refuse to talk to Ken Rosenthal and he'd still do just fine. Wouldn't be the same for the local guys.

[Otter]

1 hour ago, Tony-OH said:

It does and it's the reason why the Orioles can't repeat the failures of the past to properly rebuild. McPhail started this organization on the right path with his Bedard and Tejada trades. Duquette or whoever is GM will need to do the same this offseason. The big difference is McPhail didn't have the albatross contracts like Davis and even Trumbo to some extent.

Machado must be resigned to a 10-year contract or traded this offseason. If the offers aren't good enough then you hold on to him and hope someone gets desperate around the All-star break, but I have to imagine a Machado rental won't bring the type of return this organization needs.

Absolutely agree, but I don't see the current Angelos/Duquette/Showalter regime doing this.  If anything, Duquette is predictable.  He will approach the offseason as if we are playoff contenders and will try to cobble together some patchwork pitching acquisitions to augment the current "staff."  He will acquire several Rule V picks, make some minor trades, trade some international bonus slots (if we have any left), and then wait until February and see which veteran free agents are available and desperate and sign them.  He will be shocked at the prices of free agent pitching, and decide to re-sign Tillman and pick up Miley's option.  He will not trade Manny or Britton or any other veteran.  We will not trade top prospects for an impact veteran player, and we will not trade a veteran for top prospects.  We will not extend Manny or Schoop, but he may offer Jones a contract extension.  We will not go all in for a World Series run, and we will not commit to a rebuild.  The current regime will try to squeeze one more .500 season out of this group; 2019 and beyond be damned.  

[NashLumber]

14 minutes ago, Otter said:

Absolutely agree, but I don't see the current Angelos/Duquette/Showalter regime doing this.  If anything, Duquette is predictable.  He will approach the offseason as if we are playoff contenders and will try to cobble together some patchwork pitching acquisitions to augment the current "staff."  He will acquire several Rule V picks, make some minor trades, trade some international bonus slots (if we have any left), and then wait until February and see which veteran free agents are available and desperate and sign them.  He will be shocked at the prices of free agent pitching, and decide to re-sign Tillman and pick up Miley's option.  He will not trade Manny or Britton or any other veteran.  We will not trade top prospects for an impact veteran player, and we will not trade a veteran for top prospects.  We will not extend Manny or Schoop, but he may offer Jones a contract extension.  We will not go all in for a World Series run, and we will not commit to a rebuild.  The current regime will try to squeeze one more .500 season out of this group; 2019 and beyond be damned.  

Spot on. This exactly how it will play out, I expect. 

[Gman!!]

Right.. you hit it on the head. This org content with mediocrity. .500 or slightly less is ok with them. Enough excitement & hope to put butts in the seats with a inkling of a chance for a one & done playoff spot. That's what's been happing the last 30+ yrs so why expect more? 

[TouchemAll]

Over all not really, but watching this team pitch this year might make my 1 or 2 worst ever list...

[Slappy]

Definitely a frustrating year, especially because I genuinely expected to compete for the division.  Just nobody outside of Bundy and second-half Gausman were even passable in the rotation.  

But I wouldn't say it was the worst.  It was maybe the 4th or 5th most frustrating since I started following the team in 1983.  

#5) 1991.  After the Glenn Davis trade and Ben McDonald coming up I thought we were primed for an exciting year, but the rotation crapped the bed and we didn't even win 70 games.

#4) 2017.  Essentially the same team from the 89-win 2016 team, but the rotation just fell off of a cliff.

#3) 1998.  That team should have been good enough to compete for the division and I kept expecting a big run but it never happened.  Doubly frustrating because of the Davey Johnson situation before the season.

#2) 2010.  With all our young guys coming up, I thought we were going to take the next big step, but we started 2-16 and ruined the entire summer.  Of course it ended better with Buck getting hired and finishing with a good 2 month stretch.

#1) 2005.  Season started so good, so much excitement, then everything that could go wrong and more did after the AS break.

 

 

[flyhighbirds]

I'm kind of disappointed that more posters in here aren't upset about what is going on in this organization.    They need to

rebuild and there doesn't seem to be any interest or urgency to do that from our front office.    Player after player has lost value over the last year or so because we didn't trade them.      This is a train wreck waiting to happen.    And I don't put all the blame

here on Angelos. It seems to make a lot of people feel better to blame Angelos and ignore the problem.     I have a feeling the other two guys are the ones that are dragging their feet.    

 

 

[flyhighbirds]

Sorry about the sentence spacing in my post.   Didn't look like that when I sent it.

[hoosiers]

Not a frustrating year for me because I was not really invested into the team.  I stopped posting here for a while and missed that, but it wasn't the end of the world.  I never believed in the team construct or this GM making the best moves for the overall organization.

I am in disbelief that some fans were so invested into this team as potential winners.  Our SP is absolutely dreadful and is nowhere near the appropriate level to build a competitive team.  DD's Midas Touch in his first year - promoting Manny as a 3B, signing McClouth, signing MiGon and Chen - has been replaced with something nearly the opposite as he deals away two MLB 10 games winners in 2017 alone - one of whom the organization identified as a Triple-A bullpen arm - not to mention Zach Davies success.

As NYY and Boston field very talented and very cheap teams.  It would seem that this is the time in the cycle to re-treat - deal Britton, Manny and Schoop (and whoever else not named Bundy, Mancini or Gausman can yield a top 10 prospect) and field young, mediocre teams.

If Britton, Manny and Schoop can be dealt for three to five young, 2 WAR producers, then I believe our 2020 team built around those guys plus Gausman, Bundy, Harvey, Mancini, Beckham, Cisco, Mountcastle, Hays, Mullins, Stewart (with guys like 2017 first round pick Hall looming on the horizon) would form a cheap and formidable core necessary to compete in a legitimate manner. 

It all starts with a proper competitive assessment of our team relative to the rest of the AL and the stones to deal Britton, Manny, Schoop, Brach and others.  It can be further augmented by a GM who can convince the owner that, because of the lower payroll, the funds are there to spend $5+M annually internationally.

[Can_of_corn]

Just want to chime in with a not even close.

They started strong, stayed around for a while.

Heck this isn't even the worst year under Buck in my book.

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Just want to chime in with a not even close.

They started strong, stayed around for a while.

Heck this isn't even the worst year under Buck in my book.

2011 was pretty disappointing, rescued somewhat by the enjoyment of ruining Boston's season.    But considering how we'd finished under Buck in 2010, I'd hoped for more.    The regression of the young starting pitchers under Connor and Adair was particularly disappointing.   

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

2011 was pretty disappointing, rescued somewhat by the enjoyment of ruining Boston's season.    But considering how we'd finished under Buck in 2010, I'd hoped for more.    The regression of the young starting pitchers under Connor and Adair was particularly disappointing.   

Yep out of the race in April.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yep out of the race in April.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but their last day at .500 was May 1, and they were under .500 for most of April.     

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I don't know if I'd go that far, but their last day at .500 was May 1, and they were under .500 for most of April.     

Felt like it.

I admit I didn't go back and look, I just remembered that they didn't come out of the gate very well that year..