How much longer do we hang onto...

[SteveA]

No, because there is no reason to see it coming, just like there was no reason to see that Albert Belle was going to have a degenerative hip condition. I didn't like the Belle signing for other reasons, but the fact that he had a serious medical issue later was unforeseeable.

One of the problems with the Davis deal was that he was injured when we traded for him, and he didn't recover well from that injury. There's no issue like that with Tex.

It's been a while but I thought the only injury he had when we traded for him was a broken wrist from being hit by a pitch, and I thought all his injury problems with the Orioles were back/neck/shoulder related. I didn't think that wrist injury had any effect on him.

But I've found that details I seem to remember clearly from 15+ years ago often turn out to be wrong!

[Frobby]

It's been a while but I thought the only injury he had when we traded for him was a broken wrist from being hit by a pitch, and I thought all his injury problems with the Orioles were back/neck/shoulder related. I didn't think that wrist injury had any effect on him.

But I've found that details I seem to remember clearly from 15+ years ago often turn out to be wrong!

I thought it was a combination of the problem he originally had, and then some new problems that cropped up after he was traded. One thing I clearly recall is that while he was on a minor league rehab assigment he got into a bar fight and got his jaw broken. I think he had some complcations relating to that. I also think his back problems dated back to his Astro days, although they weren't the reason he had been out at the time he was traded.

[bigbird]

Do you mean from casual fans? Sure, they only respect wins. But other GMs, writers, and die hards who pay attention to things like international scouting and the minor leagues definitely respect the O's more today than they have in probably a decade. If nothing else, MacPhail has brought a sense of competence to the organization that has been sorely lacking. They're no longer thought of as a front office that's likely to have their next move laughed at.

Actually Duquette brought that to the Orioles during his tenure.

[Frobby]

Actually Duquette brought that to the Orioles during his tenure.

I know you like Duq, but honestly, he made some really bad moves. The Baez signing and the Payton signing were horribly overpriced, if you even buy into signing them at all. That's not hindsight, that was the overwhelming opinion on this board and elsewhere at the time. In fact, the concept of spending a lot of money on three relievers was very heavily criticized, by Theo Epstein among others. (In the interest of full disclosure, I personally wasn't a critic of that idea, I just thought we had overpaid badly for Baez.) All those moves have turned our very poorly, and had many critics at the time.

[Mackus]

Actually Duquette brought that to the Orioles during his tenure.

He certainly helped, but he didn't make as big of an impact as MacPhail has.

[hoosiers]

Actually Duquette brought that to the Orioles during his tenure.

Duquette may have restored some credibility with other teams and free agents reps during his time, but he also oversaw several absolutely horrible moves that really call this into question - like failing to protect Phelps on the 40 man. A second point would be the continued disrepair of the international scouting network in DD's years there.

MacPhail is not going to make these basic blocking and tackling errors that makes one wonder if the GM really understands what is going on. I have significantly more confidence that AM will provide the appropriate organizational base going forward than with DD/MF.