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The Buck Showalter Appreciation Thread

Moose Milligan

By Moose Milligan
in Orioles Talk

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Grt 2BA FL Gator All-Star

Grt 2BA FL Gator

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5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Lots of folks were happy with the idea of trying to keep the competitive window open.

I hope they enjoy the next few seasons.

I guess I wanted to extend the window as well. But even that could have been done differently to where the hole wouldn’t be so deep. We signed the wrong guys in almost every case post 2014. Didn’t try to extend any of the young guys early. And we didn’t really trade anyone until this season. Just really bad in all directions. There was no intelligent direction. 

And sadly it’s an age old story. Bad leadership at the top. 

I still think having so many key people’s contracts expire after this season was a huge fail and vacuum. 

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Grt 2BA FL Gator All-Star

Grt 2BA FL Gator

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Buck memes were my favorite during the 2012 run (see below). The hiring of MacPhail was the first domino. Then MacPhail getting us to a place where Buck could coach the young team up was huge. And Buck did an incredible job. Outperformed expectations year after year to lead the AL in wins. I wish it could have worked for him to stick around for a long time.

Aside from the Britton moment, I think his baseball managing was quite good and usually a huge positive. Unfortunately the lack of organizational leadership also allowed him to shape the team probably more than he should have been able to. But I think he can still manage and I'm bummed he couldn't get us and himself that elusive WS ring. 

 

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weams Hangout Grand Counsel

weams

Posted
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2 hours ago, Grt 2BA FL Gator said:

I guess I wanted to extend the window as well. But even that could have been done differently to where the hole wouldn’t be so deep. We signed the wrong guys in almost every case post 2014. Didn’t try to extend any of the young guys early. And we didn’t really trade anyone until this season. Just really bad in all directions. There was no intelligent direction. 

And sadly it’s an age old story. Bad leadership at the top. 

I still think having so many key people’s contracts expire after this season was a huge fail and vacuum. 

Don't you think it was a tremendous advantage to be able to start fresh?

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LA2 Hangout Grand Counsel

LA2

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3 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

One of the broadcasters noted that on the day that Buck was let go, Britton finally got in a wild card game.

That's a low blow....

BTW Britton pitched poorly, giving up the only Oakland runs (2-run homer by K. Davis).

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weams Hangout Grand Counsel

weams

Posted
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4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Lots of folks were happy with the idea of trying to keep the competitive window open.

I hope they enjoy the next few seasons.

I always enjoyed seeing the Orioles try to win more than they lost. I bet the results of trading  off during the "window"  would not have made things that different. I guess the Travis Snyder trade was really the mistake though. 

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WillyM Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

WillyM

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I also want to express my appreciation for Buck's work.  After the way he brought the team back into contention after all those years of sub-.500 records, he will never owe me a thing.

I will also admit to being perhaps the only person in the world who thought Buck was making absolutely the right decision by bringing in Ubaldo Jimenez to face the Blue Jays in the bottom of the 11th in the 2016 wild card game.

It has been almost universally forgotten that Ubaldo had pitched 6 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout ball against those very same Blue Jays five days earlier.

Maybe Buck could have brought Britton in instead of Jimenez.  Maybe Zach would have held the Jays scoreless in the 11th, and the 12th, and goodness knows however many more innings it might have taken before the Oriole offense would have scored another run.  Then again, maybe he would have gotten lit up real quickly and the Orioles would have lost the game anyway.

But I'm sure Buck knew that whatever move he made would be second-guessed if it didn't work out, just as John Gibbons knew it as he managed Toronto in that same game.  It goes with the territory of being a manager.

Of course, all the moves Gibbons made worked.  His Jays won that game.

And now he's an ex-manager, just like Buck is.

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VaBird1 Major Leaguer Rising Star

VaBird1

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6 hours ago, WillyM said:

I also want to express my appreciation for Buck's work.  After the way he brought the team back into contention after all those years of sub-.500 records, he will never owe me a thing.

I will also admit to being perhaps the only person in the world who thought Buck was making absolutely the right decision by bringing in Ubaldo Jimenez to face the Blue Jays in the bottom of the 11th in the 2016 wild card game.

It has been almost universally forgotten that Ubaldo had pitched 6 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout ball against those very same Blue Jays five days earlier.

Maybe Buck could have brought Britton in instead of Jimenez.  Maybe Zach would have held the Jays scoreless in the 11th, and the 12th, and goodness knows however many more innings it might have taken before the Oriole offense would have scored another run.  Then again, maybe he would have gotten lit up real quickly and the Orioles would have lost the game anyway.

But I'm sure Buck knew that whatever move he made would be second-guessed if it didn't work out, just as John Gibbons knew it as he managed Toronto in that same game.  It goes with the territory of being a manager.

Of course, all the moves Gibbons made worked.  His Jays won that game.

And now he's an ex-manager, just like Buck is.

It was the right move according to the numbers.  The first three batters had something like one hit collectively between them versus Jimenez.  

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