How do the Orioles become competitive again?

[jtschrei]

It's not that hard. There is a model right down in Tampa Bay.

Whatever the model is, at the core, ownership has to hire good baseball people, give them a budget, and get out of the way. 

Problem: the Angelos family has shown little ability to get out of the way in the past 20 years. I don't expect them to stop now. 

[Camden_yardbird]

Hard Work, Smart Decisions.

[wildbillhiccup]

20 minutes ago, jtschrei said:

It's not that hard. There is a model right down in Tampa Bay.

Whatever the model is, at the core, ownership has to hire good baseball people, give them a budget, and get out of the way. 

Problem: the Angelos family has shown little ability to get out of the way in the past 20 years. I don't expect them to stop now. 

Not only do they not get out of their way they insert land mines, like Brady Anderson, to trip them up. You're right though, it's a simple concept. Hire the right people and put your faith in them. I'd even argue that it should be an easier concept to put in place/execute for the Orioles since they have deeper pockets than a team like Tampa. 

[Ruzious]

It's starting to sink in that this isn't a 4 or 5 year project to become a playoff team; it's likely more like a 5 year project just to reach some sort of respectability.  And honestly, that's being optimistic - since we have no idea what the management will be like.  Even if you didn't like Duquette, he had a reasonable professional plan that made sense.  Now, we have nothing but questionmarks with nobody in charge.  And given how Duq's hands were tied when he was here and was then let go and taking a fall for the worst team in O's history, why would any good candidates with good plans come here?    

[Frobby]

20 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

Not only do they not get out of their way they insert land mines, like Brady Anderson, to trip them up. You're right though, it's a simple concept. Hire the right people and put your faith in them. I'd even argue that it should be an easier concept to put in place/execute for the Orioles since they have deeper pockets than a team like Tampa. 

I think you’ve been going a little heavy on the Brady-bashing the last couple of days.    Personally, I have no idea whether he has some useful front office skills or not.    All I know is, if he remains in the organization, that needs to be the choice of the team president/GM and his place in the chain of command needs to be crystal clear.   

[Emory Eagle]

How do the Orioles become competitive again? Well, barring a short-cut like a plague or world war that takes most existing MLB talent with it, the Os need a total reinvention of the franchise.

Whether it starts with a sale of the team, or with the hiring of a new GM, we need a complete re-boot.  The organization needs to (a) make long-term investments now in facilities, international scouting/market presence, analytics and front office staffing generally, (b) evaluate and reform organizational philosophy re: player development and ensure that there is some sort of unified program at all levels of Oriole baseball and (c) finally and perhaps most importantly, draft well, sign as much international talent as possible and scrounge out whatever value we can from non-FA sources like Rule 5 draft etc.

It's going to take a few years, but the blow-up of the team this off-season and the search for an outside GM signals that ownership is at least somewhat aware of the scale of the problems facing the franchise. 

[JR Oriole]

59 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

This is absolutely classic.....a perfect response to my post and sums it up flawlessly.

The icing on the cake is that it is Benintendi, yet another home grown Sox product who has delivered on the big stage and whose defense this month has been unbelievably deflating in a very Ron Swoboda like way.  Off the bat, I have no idea how that ball ended up in his glove as opposed to off the wall....it was crushed, but just like everything else this month, it was just going to work out for Boston no matter what.

[drjohnnyfeva]

2 hours ago, wildbillhiccup said:

In all honesty I have no idea how to respond to the question in the title of this thread. Short of completely cleaning house (I'm looking at you Brady) and bringing in a savvy baseball mind to run the show I see no hope for the future of this franchise under the current regime. We are at rock bottom and it's hard to see any sort of light at the end of the tunnel. 

If they continue to have miscues like missing out on international talent, one could argue that they have picked up shovels and begun to dig themselves deeper still.

[WarehouseChatter]

I dont buy the fact that we can’t be competitive. We said that throughout the 2000’s and look what happened.  It’s not about having the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division.  It simply comes down to leadership.  Leadership from ownership to the president to the GM to the manager and to the players.  Leadership must permeate this organization at the major league level, the minor league level and at the scouting level. If that happens, we will be competitive - period.

Getting there will be difficult. If it’s the Angelos family running the team, they must be transparent and earn back our trust.  If it’s a new owner, we will want to throw ourselves at their feet, but even a new owner may not have the right leadership mentality.  

If we want to see the Orioles become a regular contender, we need to give them time and patience.  Personally, my patience has worn thin, but I’m going to continue to hold out hope.

[wildbillhiccup]

33 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I think you’ve been going a little heavy on the Brady-bashing the last couple of days.    Personally, I have no idea whether he has some useful front office skills or not.    All I know is, if he remains in the organization, that needs to be the choice of the team president/GM and his place in the chain of command needs to be crystal clear.   

You're right. Guilty as charged, although in my defense he is a pretty easy target. That said I agree 100% with this statement. I'm just not sure you can successfully walk someone back from having what we suspect is full autonomy. 

[wildbillhiccup]

20 minutes ago, WarehouseChatter said:

I dont buy the fact that we can’t be competitive. We said that throughout the 2000’s and look what happened.  It’s not about having the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division.  It simply comes down to leadership.  Leadership from ownership to the president to the GM to the manager and to the players.  Leadership must permeate this organization at the major league level, the minor league level and at the scouting level. If that happens, we will be competitive - period.

Getting there will be difficult. If it’s the Angelos family running the team, they must be transparent and earn back our trust.  If it’s a new owner, we will want to throw ourselves at their feet, but even a new owner may not have the right leadership mentality.  

If we want to see the Orioles become a regular contender, we need to give them time and patience.  Personally, my patience has worn thin, but I’m going to continue to hold out hope.

I'd say leadership and execution. 

[Hallas]

 

56 minutes ago, WarehouseChatter said:

I dont buy the fact that we can’t be competitive. We said that throughout the 2000’s and look what happened.  It’s not about having the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division.  It simply comes down to leadership.  Leadership from ownership to the president to the GM to the manager and to the players.  Leadership must permeate this organization at the major league level, the minor league level and at the scouting level. If that happens, we will be competitive - period.

Getting there will be difficult. If it’s the Angelos family running the team, they must be transparent and earn back our trust.  If it’s a new owner, we will want to throw ourselves at their feet, but even a new owner may not have the right leadership mentality.  

If we want to see the Orioles become a regular contender, we need to give them time and patience.  Personally, my patience has worn thin, but I’m going to continue to hold out hope.

Generally agree with this.  However, I will say that the O's will always have limited windows, while the Red Sox and Yankees can pretty much stay competitive in perpetuum.  That's fine as long as we exploit our windows.

[JR Oriole]

37 minutes ago, Hallas said:

 

Generally agree with this.  However, I will say that the O's will always have limited windows, while the Red Sox and Yankees can pretty much stay competitive in perpetuum.  That's fine as long as we exploit our windows.

Very true.  And they can also afford to make mistakes and we can't.  Look at the 2012 Red Sox.  They were high priced and awful.  Then somehow they got rid of those huge contracts (I think they fleeced the Dodgers but I can't remember exactly), fired Valentine, and magically won the World Series one year later as if 2012 never happened.  

[foxfield]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

I think you’ve been going a little heavy on the Brady-bashing the last couple of days.    Personally, I have no idea whether he has some useful front office skills or not.    All I know is, if he remains in the organization, that needs to be the choice of the team president/GM and his place in the chain of command needs to be crystal clear.   

He is an easy target and is without question part of the problem as was Buck and DD.  He should be gone at the end of the month.  But the last sentence is true too.  I just don't know why any president/GM would decide to do that, unless of course Brady was in one of those positions.  

Which clearly is not what the O's have said they are doing.

I believe he is gone...as he should be.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, foxfield said:

He is an easy target and is without question part of the problem as was Buck and DD.  He should be gone at the end of the month.  But the last sentence is true too.  I just don't know why any president/GM would decide to do that, unless of course Brady was in one of those positions.  

Which clearly is not what the O's have said they are doing.

I believe he is gone...as he should be.

I think he stays.  The Brothers Angelos will want someone they can trust around.