Orioles: Most inept organization in all of profesional sports?

[foxfield]

I do not post many threads and after this I may not post any more.

I am a life long fan.  I bleed orange and black like so many others here.  I think DD gets more grief than deserved here, but there is something that hit me yesterday amid everyone's frustration.  We don't have a plan.  In all of the years of following the O's.  From the years where they were one of the best run franchises in all of sports, to the dark days where many considered the O's to be a laughingstock.  I have been there and I have supported and I have hung on for the ride.  But where we are right now simply does not make any sense to me and I don't understand why it is not a bigger deal here or in the national media.  There is no plan.  Unless the plan is for the world as we know it to end somewhere between now and the end of the 2018 season.  I want to be fair.  The Orioles have been subjected to some seriously bad, maybe historically bad luck.

The Orioles should have traded Manny or Britton earlier.  Sure, today that is obvious and many here advocated the same long ago.  But the O's have been in the thick of it for all of DD's tenure and I don't really care if you think he inherited every bit of the success or literally manufactured every bit of it from a piece of wheat.  They have been in it.  Trading pieces, even this past year at the break was a risk and as late as the first week in September the O's were only a couple games out of the playoffs.  Sure, if only they/we knew the bottom would fall out.  Again, I don't care to really pick apart the seasons of not really adding pitching when the "window" was open or ripping the manager for not using the games best reliever in the heat of the moment.  My question or observation is simply this.  At the end of 2017 the Orioles finished last and there simply is no plan for what to do after that...and to be fair, the lack of a plan would have been the same if we had taken the Yankees spot and come within one game of going to the World Series.

There may be no other organization in sports as bereft of a plan as the current Orioles are.  I posted in the "What was communicated?" thread some observations that I repeat here:

There were two ways to go after the ‘17 season. Rebuild totally (possibly partially) or go all in for pitching. Both directions had risk but potential rewards. Even Roch posted an article saying the same.  There have been people here on both sides making their cases.  No mater which side people were on,  every person seems to understand that doing neither, staying in the middle, would be a disaster. 

I don't care where we place the blame.  Really.  You want to blame DD?  Fine. Buck?  Be my guest. Team leader AJ? Sure have at it.  No organization in Sports has no plan.  Some have bad plans. Some have good plans but poorly implement them. But responsibility for any organization falls first and foremost at the top.  With Ownership.  The Orioles in 2017 had one of the highest payrolls in baseball.  Not top 5 to be fair, but the idea that the owner is cheap doesn't hold water.  The Orioles spend money.  But why?  When?  The fragmented structure of decision making is unquestionably one of the weakest in professional sports.  Only the Orioles could go into an off season with the following set of facts:

1) GM on final year of contract

2) Manager on final year. 

3) Best player on final year. 

4) Best reliever on final year.

5) Team leader on final year.

6) Not willing to sign free agents.

7) Not willing to trade.

8) Three openings in rotation.

Needing three starting pitchers, who would sign with the Orioles knowing the above?  No one who wants anything more than a chance to reestablish themselves after a year.  Who would want to join an organization where virtually EVERY important person is in the last year of his deal.  Manny is clearly leaving when he can.  That may not really be the fault of the organization as he may not want to be here.  Britton literally said that his injury is not how he wanted to end his career here.  But look around...WHY would anyone but us fans be here beyond 2018?  

The ONLY plan that I can take out of the above is that the owner believes that the MASN legal situation resolves itself and the team is sold to someone else during next year.  I wouldn't consider it a good plan, but absent all available evidence, it would at least be a plan.  But walking into this off season with the above 8 facts is not a plan.  Sign your GM or fire him.   Let him extend or replace the manager.  Let whoever is in charge manage the roster to bring the best results to the BALTIMORE ORIOLES.   I hate what the Marlins are doing, but at least it is a plan.

[theobird]

4 minutes ago, foxfield said:

I do not post many threads and after this I may not post any more.

I am a life long fan.  I bleed orange and black like so many others here.  I think DD gets more grief than deserved here, but there is something that hit me yesterday amid everyone's frustration.  We don't have a plan.  In all of the years of following the O's.  From the years where they were one of the best run franchises in all of sports, to the dark days where many considered the O's to be a laughingstock.  I have been there and I have supported and I have hung on for the ride.  But where we are right now simply does not make any sense to me and I don't understand why it is not a bigger deal here or in the national media.  There is no plan.  Unless the plan is for the world as we know it to end somewhere between now and the end of the 2018 season.  I want to be fair.  The Orioles have been subjected to some seriously bad, maybe historically bad luck.

Should have traded Manny or Britton earlier.  Sure, today that is obvious and many here advocated the same long ago.  But the O's have been in the thick of it for all of DD's tenure and I don't really care if you think he inherited every bit of the success or literally manufactured every bit of it from a piece of wheat.  They have been in it.  Trading pieces, even this past year at the break was a risk and as late as the first week in September the O's were only a couple games out of the playoffs.  Sure, if only they/we knew the bottom would fall out.  Again, I don't care to really pick apart the seasons of not really adding pitching when the "window" was open or ripping the manager for not using the games best reliever in the heat of the moment.  My question or observation is simply this.  At the end of 2017 the Orioles finished last and there simply is no plan for what to do after that...and to be fair, they lack of a plan would have been the same if we had taken the Yankees spot and come within one game of going to the World Series.

There may be no other organization in sports as bereft of a plan as the current Orioles are.  I posted in the "What was communicated?" thread some observations that I repeat here:

There were two ways to go after the ‘17 season. Rebuild totally (possibly partially) or go all in for pitching. Both directions had risk but potential rewards. Even Roch posted an article saying the same.  There have been people here on both sides making their cases.  No mater which side people were on,  every person seems to understand that doing neither, staying in the middle, would be a disaster. 

I don't care where we place the blame.  Really.  You want to blame DD?  Fine. Buck?  Be my guest. Team leader AJ? Sure have at it.  No organization in Sports has no plan.  Some have bad plans. Some have good plans but poorly implement them. But responsibility for any organization falls first and foremost at the top.  With Ownership.  The Orioles in 2017 had one of the highest payrolls in baseball.  Not top 5 to be fair, but the idea that the owner is cheap doesn't hold water.  The Orioles spend money.  But why?  When?  The fragmented structure of decision making is unquestionably one of the weakest in professional sports.  Only the Orioles could go into an off season with the following set of facts:

1) GM on final year of contract

2) Manager on final year. 

3) Best player on final year. 

4) Best reliever on final year.

5) Team leader on final year.

6) Not willing to sign free agents.

7) Not willing to trade.

8) Three openings in rotation.

Needing three starting pitchers, who would sign with the Orioles knowing the above?  No one who wants anything more than a chance to reestablish themselves after a year.  Who would want to join an organization where virtually EVERY important person is in the last year of his deal.  Manny is clearly leaving when he can.  That may not really be the fault of the organization as he may not want to be here.  Britton literally said that his injury is not how he wanted to end his career here.  But look around...WHY would anyone but us fans be here beyond 2018?  

The ONLY plan that I can take out of the above is that the owner believes that the MASN legal situation resolves itself and the team is sold to someone else during next year.  I wouldn't consider it a good plan, but absent all available evidence, it would at least be a plan.  But walking into this off season with the above 8 facts is not a plan.  Sign your GM or fire him.   Let him extend or replace the manager.  Let whoever is in charge manage the roster to bring the best results to the BALTIMORE ORIOLES.   I hate what the Marlins are doing, but at least it is a plan.

Outstanding post, and spot on. That is what really eats at me, it is just obvious that the team is wandering around in the dark with no apparent plan. It is disgusting, to say the least.

[Tx Oriole]

58 minutes ago, theobird said:

Outstanding post, and spot on. That is what really eats at me, it is just obvious that the team is wandering around in the dark with no apparent plan. It is disgusting, to say the least.

Yes it is. It's very frustrating. 

[foxfield]

So why are we distracting ourselves with lets sign Moustakas.  Or let's sign _____________?

 

We are not gonna get guys for more than 1 year.  That's not DD's fault.  That's not PA being unwilling to spend money.  Why won't it happen????  Who is gonna commit to more than a year if no one is here?  

You know the old saying:  Last one out turn off the lights...

[Il BuonO]

A couple others....

1a) A meddlesome owner

1b) No serious plan for acquiring top international players 

[Nite]

The no plan idea popped into my head the other day. You hit the nail on the head with everything I was thinking. They are showing they have realized they got themselves in a pickle and are absolutely lost as to what to do next.

I think the lack of plan is because there was a plan and it was eliminated once ownership found out it involved signing $20mil pitchers. So plan B is now being thrown it there as a partial rebuild or reload. Again ownership doesn't want to punt 2018. So the lack of plan is because both original plans were vetoed.

[gtman55]

I don't know 100% what goes on behind the scenes with the Orioles organization but I haven't understood the end result for years. For example, why spend 160 million on Chris Davis when you just signed Trumbo? Why not take the money and sign two good pitchers instead? Why not trade Machado and Britton for a king's ransom last year, not this year?  Why do we give away our international slots? Why do we think a team with big power hitters but no speed and no situational hitting and no starting pitching is the answer?

This team has me befuddled, and honestly, most baseball people outside of Baltimore don't think the plan makes sense either.

[weams]

I can tell you what our plan is not. Not to spend another 40 million dollars this off-season. 

[wildcard]

3 minutes ago, weams said:

I can tell you what our plan is not. Not to spend another 40 million dollars this off-season. 

Yes, you can tell me but without some evidence it doesn't mean much.  Its a hunch.

[MikeAD]

We don't have a plan.  We go into the 2018 season with the 2017 minus Castro, Hardy, Jimenez and maybe Tillman.  So we are worse.   Closer is down.  And our star player is going to be in a mess of a contract year.  Disaster.  

[wildcard]

3 minutes ago, MikeAD said:

We don't have a plan.  We go into the 2018 season with the 2017 minus Castro, Hardy, Jimenez and maybe Tillman.  So we are worse.   Closer is down.  And our star player is going to be in a mess of a contract year.  Disaster.  

Castro is still with the O's.  Its mid December.   There is time yet this off season to improve the team..   Manny has a lot of ncentive to have a big year this year.   300 million reasons.

[MikeAD]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

Castro is still with the O's.  Its mid December.   There is time yet this off season to improve the team..   Manny has a lot of ncentive to have a big year this year.   300 million reasons.

I meant Wellington Castillo.  Whoops.  

[Il BuonO]

2 hours ago, gtman55 said:

I don't know 100% what goes on behind the scenes with the Orioles organization but I haven't understood the end result for years. For example, why spend 160 million on Chris Davis when you just signed Trumbo? Why not take the money and sign two good pitchers instead? Why not trade Machado and Britton for a king's ransom last year, not this year?  Why do we give away our international slots? Why do we think a team with big power hitters but no speed and no situational hitting and no starting pitching is the answer?

This team has me befuddled, and honestly, most baseball people outside of Baltimore don't think the plan makes sense either.

Trumbo was a fall back option in case they didn’t sign Davis.

Remember all the teams bidding for Davis? That’s what eventually drove the price up so high. Oh, wait....

[El Gordo]

Well if they want to compete but wont spend on FA SP, then they are crazy. 

[flyhighbirds]

Why doesn't the gm deserve blame when the team has no plan?    Isn't he the one that is supposed to come up with the plan.   He was open and honest about his intent to want to go to Toronto.         So if you take him at his word, he wants to contend right now even though we all know they aren't a contender.    Yet he has no plan.     He deserves plenty of blame because he doesn't seem to be able to make the logical conclusion that most of us have made.   The team needs to rebuild.