Things I believe the majority of our posters agree on...

[Moose Milligan]

58 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

Sorry, I just don't see any proof of this statement.  Just because Brady made positive comments about Wright at some point in the past doesn't mean that he "still exists on the club because he's one of Brady's favorites."  Unless Brady's title is something like Special Adviser to the Managing Partner, he should report to the GM/VP of Baseball Operations/Grand Poobah/Whatever the Boss is Called and that person should determine what Brady's responsibilities should be.

Careful, El Trea wrote this.  In fairness to the little McNugget, he's not letting his weirdness get in the way.  Mainly sticks to facts.

https://thebaltimorewire.com/2018/02/24/baltimore-orioles-front-office-anderson-duquette/

Quote

1. Mike Wright, SP/RP

Rosenthal stated the exits of both pitching coach Dave Wallace and bullpen coach Dom Chiti were in part due to Anderson’s interference – specifically around pitcher Mike Wright, who trained with Anderson in California.

He also said Anderson disagreed with Wallace and Chiti’s instruction to help Wright and wound up driving a wedge between the player and coaches as instead, he agreed with what Wright wanted to do.

 

Anderson was also emphatic to Rosenthal about Wright’s value to the club and how he felt about those changes Wallace and Chiti suggested:

“When you change movement patterns in an elite athlete – an elite athlete, not a 12- or 13-year-old . . . certainly Mike Wright is an elite athlete. Suggestions are good, but the athlete has to believe what he’s doing is right,” Anderson said.

Now I think most Baltimore Orioles fans would not say Wright is “elite” by any means as his career ERA in Baltimore is 5.86 but I also believe that since the Orioles are paying his salary, they can also tell him how to pitch, especially if it would make him more productive. It’s not they were talking about changing somebody like Mike Mussina, yet Anderson sided with Wright.

I know he’s out of options and the Orioles don’t have a lot of starting pitching depth, whether it’s good or bad. However, I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Orioles haven’t shifted Wright to a reliever role, where he’d likely excel having to focus on fewer pitches for a shorter period and have a chance to help the club in the bullpen.

Instead, they are going to look at him as a starting pitcher this spring once again after he’s proven he can’t do it at the major league level in three seasons.

Wright also worked out once again with Brady Anderson in California again this offseason and with the Vice President of Baseball Operations seemingly still in his corner, Wright’s relationship with Anderson will likely continue to pay dividends at the team’s expense.

https://www.camdenchat.com/2017/3/20/14983776/brady-anderson-orioles-front-office

 

Quote

Anderson, according to Showalter, “tries to save ‘em all,” meaning the near-lost-cause players. That does seem to jibe with Anderson being said to have worked with Reimold and Matusz in the offseason before 2012. Over the last couple of years, he has also tried to help Mike Wright. In Rosenthal’s analysis, these are the kinds of players who remind Brady of himself when he was at a low point early in his career.

Sources of conflict

Not everyone is happy with this arrangement. The recently-departed pitching and bullpen coach tandem of Dave Wallace and Dom Chiti seem to have butted heads with Anderson, with Chiti tersely acknowledging, “I’m not going to deny that Brady was part of why I left,” though he didn’t elaborate.

The peculiarity of Anderson directly reporting to Angelos - which even Anderson acknowledged is “an unusual case” - seems to have been part of the issue, with Wallace telling Rosenthal, “One of the problems is, when you have a role in an organization where you have total autonomy and really no accountability, that’s tough.”

Wallace also characterized Anderson as occasionally creating an “us vs. them” wedge between players and coaches. Anderson’s working with Wright appears to have been a particular source of contention with Wallace and Chiti.

 

 

 

[NCRaven]

Just pointing out that this interaction between Anderson, Wright and Wallace is two years old.  I don't think that they have much, if anything, to do with why Wright is on the roster today.  And, to differ with JTREA, any Major League Baseball Player is an elite athlete in the normal sense of the word.  Hell, A ball players are elite athletes.

Note:  I don't differ with you greatly and I'm not totally defending Anderson.  I just think he's become a bit of a punching bag for people that don't have a lot of insight into what really happens in the front office on a day to day basis.  That would be people like...oh...me!

Oh, another note.  Little McNugget!!  I'm still chuckling over that one.

[Moose Milligan]

6 hours ago, NCRaven said:

Just pointing out that this interaction between Anderson, Wright and Wallace is two years old.  I don't think that they have much, if anything, to do with why Wright is on the roster today.  And, to differ with JTREA, any Major League Baseball Player is an elite athlete in the normal sense of the word.  Hell, A ball players are elite athletes.

Note:  I don't differ with you greatly and I'm not totally defending Anderson.  I just think he's become a bit of a punching bag for people that don't have a lot of insight into what really happens in the front office on a day to day basis.  That would be people like...oh...me!

Oh, another note.  Little McNugget!!  I'm still chuckling over that one.

Understood.  You are right, it is 2 years old but Wright still sucks and doesn't deserve to be on an ML roster with two additional years of a 5+ ERA.   Wallace is gone, but Brady and Wright remain.  We can agree to disagree on Brady being a reason that Wright is still gracing us with his presence.  

Anderson does come across as a punching bag but I think it's because people struggle to understand the qualifications as to why he's where he is.  It doesn't appear to be the most traditional way of ascending to some quasi-GM role.  So I think a lot of posters here are kinda confused as to why he's there.   Starting off as some kind of a work-out/strength/conditioning guru and then all of a sudden he's got a plum position in making personnel decisions?   I know I am confused by it, I really don't know what makes him qualified to be where he is.   

If Brady was in charge of strength, conditioning and training programs, I get that, that makes sense.  But it's like if Ghandi all of a sudden became a big restaurant critic, there's not much of a background there to believe his writeup that the tacos down the street are the best you'll ever have.

Yeah, the Little McNugget.  El Trea was a weird one.

[weams]

On 9/27/2018 at 3:24 PM, NCRaven said:

I don't think that the GM needs autonomy, but he does need to know the specific limits of his authority and only ownership should be above him in authority.

...

I think we need new hitting and pitching coaches at the major league level.  I think that player development has seen improvement over the last several years and I like many of the coaches that are in our minor league system.  I think the same is true of our recent drafting.

Yes. I think this is closer to what we should believe. 

[weams]

15 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Careful, El Trea wrote this.  In fairness to the little McNugget, he's not letting his weirdness get in the way.  

 

 

I met Jonathan French.  

[Moose Milligan]

20 hours ago, jerios55 said:

You missed defense.

So did the Orioles.