SI.com: O's had one of the worst offseasons of any team

[zff4]

Wasn't Heyman the same guy that insisted multiple times that the O's were "in" on ManRam this offseason?

Heyman, also known as "Boras dot com", is somewhat of a media sock puppet for everyone's favorite agent. When there's an unsigned Boras client out there, you can be sure Heyman is mouthing whatever inane dreck Boras is feeding him. I've long ago given up on that guy and I wouldn't let anything he wrote get under our skin.

Lederer make the case rather succintly here: Heyman is a tool for the Scott Boras Corporation. Boras knows how to game the system to get the best deals for his clients and will gladly use Heyman as long as the latter plays along or until the market realizes what is going on. As it stands now, it's almost as if Heyman, who is no stranger to the Boras suites during the winter meetings, is on the SBC payroll.

[byrdz]

Heyman, also known as "Boras dot com", is somewhat of a media sock puppet for everyone's favorite agent. When there's an unsigned Boras client out there, you can be sure Heyman is mouthing whatever inane dreck Boras is feeding him. I've long ago given up on that guy and I wouldn't let anything he wrote get under our skin.

Lederer make the case rather succintly here: Heyman is a tool for the Scott Boras Corporation. Boras knows how to game the system to get the best deals for his clients and will gladly use Heyman as long as the latter plays along or until the market realizes what is going on. As it stands now, it's almost as if Heyman, who is no stranger to the Boras suites during the winter meetings, is on the SBC payroll.

Interesting, this kind of goes hand and hand with his valuation of big spenders. Spending big is good for a team, no matter who that player happens to be. How could it not be? If he is indeed in cahoots with Boras he must never say otherwise or he could take a hit in his own pockets in the form of not getting the "big breaks".

.

[Jdan14]

His grades from last year. Money.

That just goes to show how little his rankings mean. Or how unpredictable the game of baseball is but saying Andrew Jones is an upgrade and that the Erik Bedard trade was good for SEA are just dumb statements, even before seeing how they turned out. I bet he still thinks SEA won in that trade.

[jdouble777]

He could very well be right or he could be wrong. AM brought in potential this offseason....gotta see how it plays out.

I think this is pretty non-debatable. We went from Rocky Cherry and Tike Redmen to Rich Hill and Felix Pie + Ty Wigginton and Ryan Freel. Chris Ray is back along with Baez bringing back the depth in the bullpen that was pretty solid without them last year. Uehara should count for something, I mean something, seriously, no, nothing, I will agree to disagree. I'm so happy with McPhail I just cannot possibly express it in words. I've, along with many many of us, suffered through a decade of going through the same motions and really providing no reason to frankly, give a damn. Right now I, for the first time in roughly ten years, give a damn. Add what the Yankees along with Tex did this offseason I'm ten times more pumped to believe, get out there, and play some hardball. This has been the conclusion of a project that has spanned two years and sure probably won't look all the great in the AL East but this team has got some serious talent, along with smiles and professionalism.

[incubus]

He admits that the Rockies had a negative offseason by losing Holliday, then puts numerous teams under them. Does he even read what he writes?

D-bag.

[CrimsonTribe]

His grades from last year. Money.

Dagger!!!!!!

[33rdst]

While I am happy with the offseason, the only "wins" that matter, and the only "objective measure" that counts, are the actual wins on the field. If the year ends and the O's are close to a .500 team, the proof will be in the pudding. But if we're wallowing close to the 70-win mark, objectively Heyman will have been proved correct - and least so far as 2009 is concerned.

I would expect a response like this from a casual fan. I'm very surprised to read a post such as this from someone as astute as you. Wouldn't you agree that it is conceivable that the Orioles could see a significant increase in Runs Scored and a significant delcine in Runs Allowed and still have a losing record in the east. With regard to the Orioles, Heymond is a casual fan. Success for the Orioles for him would have been signing the likes of Garland and Griffey. The Orioles have improved in every aspect of the team this winter Heymond is obviously oblivious to this.

[Objectivity]

I almost put this in the post, but you can't bring in the "what if these DON'T work" unless you use it as a reason for every other team.

You know, "What if Sabathia and Burnett get hurt?" "What if Ibanez starts to decline significantly at age 36/37?" and so on.

There's a bit of a difference. With the players you mentioned there is a track record. Anyone can get hurt; you don't have to project Sabathia and Burnett if they're healthy.

With the players we have, all we have is projection. Pie could be the next perennial All Star. Or, he could have already plateaued and been the best he will ever be.

In making an objective evaluation of a team's talent, those whose performance has already been proven should always rank higher than a performance that is nothing more than an expectation or an estimate.

[millartime15]

I find it funny how you all continue to hammer on these guys every offseason when they come out with lists like this and every year, they end up being right.

You all need to grow some thicker skin and pay attention to what has actually happened.

What Heyman said isn't actually false EXCEPT he should have acknowledged a few things:

1) We acquired a couple of low risk/high reward targets that could really pay long term dividends.

2) The Orioles have placed an emphasis on defense and feel that it is undervalued.

Those 2 things should have been mentioned.

This is funny.

The article was grading each teams off-season, not where he think each team will finish.

You cant seriously say that 24 other teams had a better winter than the Orioles.

The Diamondbacks at 5? All they did was sign Jon Garland. LOL

The Giants at 7? Ha, nothing like spending the money on Edgar Renteria and Randy Johnson.

The White Sox did absolutely nothing and they are ranked tenth (Lots of Winter Activity Huh?)

OMG the Reds signed Willy Taveras, they must be up there! Cant forget Ramon Hernandez!

Why are the Pirates ahead of us? All they did was sign Nate McClouth. Markakis>McClouth

The Jays! Welcome Kevin Millar!!!!

This has to be the funniest article ever written.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Oh absolutely you can say that if you are talking about performance.

I don't see how you can say that an injury though is reasoning for lowering a team's grade.

Let's just say that Hill pitches himself out of the rotation by July and Pie is looking more like Patterson offensively. Would you say at that point that our preseason grade here should've been much higher?

Again, I'm not going to fault AM for making these moves because it was worth the risk.

There's a bit of a difference. With the players you mentioned there is a track record. Anyone can get hurt; you don't have to project Sabathia and Burnett if they're healthy.

With the players we have, all we have is projection. Pie could be the next perennial All Star. Or, he could have already plateaued and been the best he will ever be.

In making an objective evaluation of a team's talent, those whose performance has already been proven should always rank higher than a performance that is nothing more than an expectation or an estimate.

My point is, you have to judge the moves made on more then just how "big" they are (as he is doing) or their eventual outcome.

We made moves that we needed to make for a team in our position, just like the Yankees did and the Phillies did. If we are going to base how those moves look NOW solely on how they look in eight months, then we absolutely have to take into account the injury likelihood of the Yankees' pitchers or the age of Ibanez, because how they work out will have a major effect on how their teams will perform.

[wildcard]

Heyman's yardstick for the offseason is much different from MacPhail's.

Heyman is looking at how the offseason activity or non activity will effect 2009.

MacPhail is looking at how the O's season activity affects 2011-2012.

By Heyman rules the O's ended the season in last and are projecteed to finish last again. That is not improvement. Uehara may help at starter and Izturis is good field/no bat SS. They locked up Nick. Past that the other moves are nothing. Utility players and backup catchers don't count to the national media and the addition of Hill, Pie, Hendickson are questionable if they help in 2009.

We on the OH see improvment because we are using MacPhail's long term standards. Few else will.

[adamwolff11]

His grades from last year. Money.

Hilarious.

[wieters=nucleus]

Our offseason should easily be in the top 15. Just because we didn't turn into a contender doesn't mean we didn't make quality moves.

I havent read the article but off the top of my head I would say the following teas have had a better offseason. Braves,Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Mets, Nats, indians, angels, oakland, cubs, giants, dodgers, phillies, d backs, maybe even the mariners royals and marlins.

So yea. He is pretty close to correct

[cm31]

Yeah, well...he didn't. And that points to a lack of bothering to do any sort of journalistic legwork. It's a sloppy article.

Although it is a sloppy article and I disagree that the Orioles were 25th worst....I don't think O's fans should be very happy with this offseason. Yes, AM added some low risk/high reward guys....but we missed out on:

1) Signing Tex

2) Making our Pitching Staff singnificantly better

3) Figuring out a way to connect with the community and getting more O's fans in the seats!

To me, #2 was the most important and besides the 34 yr old Japanese guy, we did not address this issue.

[byrdz]

I havent read the article but off the top of my head I would say the following teas have had a better offseason. Braves,Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Mets, Nats, indians, angels, oakland, cubs, giants, dodgers, phillies, d backs, maybe even the mariners royals and marlins.

So yea. He is pretty close to correct

Well now that you've reinforced what he's written with a similarly meager set of analysis, I guess it must be true.