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Ten Biggest Personnel Mistakes of the MacPhail Era

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Anonymous Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

Anonymous

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Completely subjective, but here's mine:

1. It would have been considerably cheaper in dollars, and only minimally higher in risk, had we extended Nick a year earlier. But it's great to see that we finally got 'er done.

Impact: Low (except to 12 months of my mental health)

2. The contingency plan for LH at SS was obviously a bit lacking (although it did turn out somewhat amusing).

Impact: Low

3. Last year's mid-season recalls, about one week apart, of Liz and subsequently Burres wound up burning Burres's final option (which would not have been the case had they been recalled in the opposite order -- and the imminent Liz recall was not exactly unexpected at the time Burres was brought back up). In the larger scheme of things, one can say that Burres has so little value that it just doesn't matter. But that doesn't quite excuse what clearly was some sloppy maneuvering over a guy whom the organization obviously values at least to SOME degree (obviously, more than they value Salazar).

Impact: Microscopic

4-10. Zippo. Nada. That's all I got! Everything else that I would have liked to see (e.g., acquiring a great young SS prospect or trading away some bad contracts last year) fall into the category of things that can only be speculated about in terms of what was available to Andy -- and therefore can't be subjected to criticism.

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bej6789 Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

bej6789

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1. It would have been considerably cheaper in dollars, and only minimally higher in risk, had we extended Nick a year earlier. But it's great to see that we finally got 'er done.

Impact: Low (except to 12 months of my mental health)

LOL... I love the last part.

In all seriousness though, call it Orange goggles or whatever you like -- but I think Markakis getting more dollars is going to help this team more than we know. 66 million to a 25 year old player isn't chump change. Maybe we could've gotten him for less, but who cares? You don't every single player in the Orioles organization didn't take note of this signing? It says if you are a contributor to this ballclub, we're not going to mess around. The Orioles just resigned a player who wasn't going to be a free agent for another 3 seasons. Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Felix Pie (lol *fingers crossed*)... take note.

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Mike B Veteran All-Star

Mike B

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He did not sign Carlos Pena.

Result-We still don't have a firstbaseman.

Impact-We still would have been last and Snyder is coming along nicely.

Carlos Pena signed with Tampa prior to the 2007 season. AM came to the Orioles in June 2007.

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Anonymous Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

Anonymous

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1. It would have been considerably cheaper in dollars, and only minimally higher in risk, had we extended Nick a year earlier. But it's great to see that we finally got 'er done.

Impact: Low (except to 12 months of my mental health)

LOL... I love the last part.

In all seriousness though, call it Orange goggles or whatever you like -- but I think Markakis getting more dollars is going to help this team more than we know. 66 million to a 25 year old player isn't chump change. Maybe we could've gotten him for less, but who cares? You don't every single player in the Orioles organization didn't take note of this signing? It says if you are a contributor to this ballclub, we're not going to mess around. The Orioles just resigned a player who wasn't going to be a free agent for another 3 seasons. Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, Felix Pie (lol *fingers crossed*)... take note.

The reason it would have been cheaper to extend him a year earlier (i.e., Nick would have voluntarily agreed to lower aggregate dollars) is because the incremental risk to the player of having to wait 4 years rather than 3 for the big payday is fairly consequential. So the club would have benefited with the smaller outlay of dollars; and the player would have benefited by paring down the risk. It would still have been a very fair deal for both parties (in fact, a BETTER deal for both parties). The reason it's not a zero-sum game is because of the asymmetric risk -- the player has only one asset in his personnel portfolio (himself), whereas the club has a more diversified portfolio to pool these kinds of risks. So it's reasonable for you to raise the concern that we wouldn't want to low-ball Nick. But that's not the way it would have gone down.
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GnatsFan Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

GnatsFan

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1. Not changing the locks on the warehouse, thus allowing Flanny to re-enter the building.

Impact: Unknown, but allowing a saboteur to roam the premises is never good.

2. Not getting the B'Rob situation taken care of last off season (either trade or extension)

Impact: Pending, but potentially high.

3. Trading Bradford and not getting any PTBNL.

Impact: Minimal. Slight demoralization and confusion of fan base. Makes us look cheap via salary dump to fan base.

4. DFA'ing Salazar when no other viable 1B/DH bench right-handed hitter types on the horizon.

Impact: Low.

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Ven6 Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

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What a genius thread. Openly call McPhail out on his mistakes, and by doing so, reveal what an amazing job he has done and is doing. Love it.

So, I'd criticize bringing Trax back a second time. Impact: negligible. Not like he pitched any different than the rest of the bums we rotated through.

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Anonymous Major Leaguer Cup of Coffee

Anonymous

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What a genius thread. Openly call McPhail out on his mistakes, and by doing so, reveal what an amazing job he has done and is doing. Love it.

So, I'd criticize bringing Trax back a second time. Impact: negligible. Not like he pitched any different than the rest of the bums we rotated through.

I agree with the bolded part. (Of course, I'm not about to disagree with the first part either. :))

We were also molasses slow in releasing Trax once it became obvious that he had nothing left in the tank.

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