The O's crash of 2018. Who's to blame?

[Natty]

Worst team in mlb. Less than .300 winning pct. Bad hitting, bad pitching, bad fielding. 

Who is to blame. Is it DD, Buck, Peter, Brady, our hitting and pitching coaches, or a combination of everyone? 

[1968_bills_fan]

Trying to throw in stopgaps in hopes of getting real lucky into the playoffs.  The owner set the strategy.    Buy low, sell high.  Look everywhere for good players.

[VaBird1]

The players have to shoulder some of the blame too. Many were inexplicably awful.

[Catch 8]

One of two things needed to happen in the off-season at LEAST two years ago--and more like three years ago:

1) Extend Manny Machado.

2) Blow the whole thing up.

Blame whomever decided not to choose/allow one of these paths.

[gmelson26]

15 minutes ago, Catch 8 said:

One of two things needed to happen in the off-season at LEAST two years ago--and more like three years ago:

1) Extend Manny Machado.

2) Blow the whole thing up.

Blame whomever decided not to choose/allow one of these paths.

Manny was never going to extend.  It takes two to tango.  MAYBE.. maybe after the first knee.

[Aglets]

Ownership has to bear the brunt of the responsibility.....they're (he) is the one who allowed all of this to happen.  I would argue he even exacerbated it by encouraging the Game of Thrones style dysfunction behind the scenes......marginalizing Duquette (not allowing him to leave which led to further power struggles) in favor of an ex-player who was a pretty good CF but his only other main qualification is being loyal to you..........meddling in what trade proposals do come across................REFUSING to participate in the international market for years when all the other teams are doing it................  is that list enough or do folks need more?

[DJHJR86]

Ownership.

Looks like Duquette was finally allowed to do his job.

[Grt 2BA FL Gator]

I gotta say a combination of DD and Peter, and not really sure how much Peter was really calling shots. It's sad to think 2014 was the peak because at the time things looked really nice. 

But looking back, I think player personnel decisions really sunk the ship. We let the team defense slip. We never replaced production from Markakis or Wieters. We traded away most of our pitching depth over time. We failed to try to extend young players at the right times or try trading one or two of them when it was clear they weren't going to extend. We signed Trumbo to try to make up for the miss on Cruz. Cruz was a bargain. Signed Davis, O'Day, Hardy.

How much of this was PA not allowing ML players to be traded to retool everything? We may never know, but we know he did some meddling. He did want to see a winner in his old age and rebuilds take a long time. He may have tied DD's hands and is known for doing it. 

 

 

[TonySoprano]

It was ownership's decision to try to prop open the window longer than it should've been, and opened the wallets to do so.  However, the reasons are numerous, and you can't point to just one.  With the exception of Manny, for most of the season, the rest of the line-up underachieved.
The bottom line now...

 

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Natty said:

Worst team in mlb. Less than .300 winning pct. Bad hitting, bad pitching, bad fielding. 

Who is to blame. Is it DD, Buck, Peter, Brady, our hitting and pitching coaches, or a combination of everyone? 

The latter, IMO.    Don’t forget the players.  In the end, the buck stops with an owner who set up a pretty dysfunctional decision making structure and set some parameters that were nonsensical  (re international players, for example).    But I don’t absolve anyone else on your list, or the players.

[wildbillhiccup]

1 hour ago, Natty said:

Worst team in mlb. Less than .300 winning pct. Bad hitting, bad pitching, bad fielding. 

Who is to blame. Is it DD, Buck, Peter, Brady, our hitting and pitching coaches, or a combination of everyone? 

When someone writes a tell all book, 20 years from now, my guess is that there will be more blood on Brady Anderson's hands then we ever imagined. I'm talking Season 1 of Dexter type blood. 

[21xxxv]

Buck and Dan have equal responsibility.... He, Buck went into this year allowing his Free Agent to be star player to dictate his hand. Moving Manny to SS, after he won the Platinum Glove at 3B was clearly the tail wagging the dog. You weaken two positions with a move that at best was a one year or four month move. Lunacy. That along with not moving Chris Davis into the 7th or 8th hole in the lineup was just crazy. Finally elevating Cisco was extremely premature. Dan signing Cobb late in March essentially rendered him useless for the first half of the year as he used April and May as his Spring training trying to round himself in shape. Despite the haul of suspects I mean prospects I would look hard at the player development or lack there of in this organization. The team, across the board hasn't shown any improvement with McDowell as Pitching Coach. It tailed off as soon as Wallace left. Team needs to identify a leadoff hitter and firm up the middle infield soon..

[atomic]

I think it is everyone's fault.  Bad ownership.  Bad GM.  Bad management decisions. Bad pitching and hitting coaches.  Players not playing to their potential.  You don't have the worst record in franchise history with just one area of incompetence. 

[Can_of_corn]

Lew Ford.

[Aristotelian]

Ownership, Davis, and ownership for signing Davis.