Andy's Mistakes

[Anonymous]

There haven’t been many, IMO. But starting this past offseason in particular, I believe there have been a few. These are moves that I recall disliking when he pulled the trigger, not those that simply haven’t worked out as hoped-for or as expected. Here are the ones that stand out for me. All of these transactions wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere.

- Not getting enough net dollars recovered in the Ramon trade.

- Not getting even a single dollar recovered in the Freel discard.

- Signing Wigginton to a $6 mil deal rather than going with Salazar.

- Although I’m completely ecstatic that we finally signed Nick to a long-term deal and one which I believe was a pretty fair value for both parties, I still believe we could and should have signed him a year earlier, when it probably would have been much cheaper to do so (as Nick would have had one extra year at risk).

[jjdman]

There haven’t been many, IMO. But starting this past offseason in particular, I believe there have been a few. These are moves that I recall disliking when he pulled the trigger, not those that simply haven’t worked out as hoped-for or as expected. Here are the ones that stand out for me. All of these transactions wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere.

- Not getting enough net dollars recovered in the Ramon trade.

- Not getting even a single dollar recovered in the Freel discard (losing dollars, in fact, when one factors in Gathright’s 800K contract).

- Signing Wigginton to a $6 mil deal rather than going with Salazar.

- Although I’m completely ecstatic that we finally signed Nick to a long-term deal and one which I believe was a pretty fair value for both parties, I still believe we could and should have signed him a year earlier, when it probably would have been much cheaper to do so (as Nick would have had one extra year at risk).

We're not paying Gathright's 800K and what he got for Ramon was awesome IMO

[Anonymous]

We're not paying Gathright's 800K and what he got for Ramon was awesome IMO

My bad on Gathright. Fixed that.

Whether or not our return on the Ramon trade was awesome depends for me on whether Turner is a legit candidate for SS of the future, or perhaps even future utility guy (which in my view requires him to have SS skills first and foremost). Although he's played a few games at SS both in Spring training and at Norfolk, he's been planted mostly at 2B -- and it's not exactly like there's a hot prospect blocking him (apologies to Carlos Rojas). So he's a 24 YO 2B who's never exceeded an 800 OPS above low A ball and therefore, in my view, does not project to play anything more than a cup of coffee role for us in the future. Waring is a 23 YO with a modest 800 OPS (modest for a 3B) in A ball. That does not project to a big league future. So in this case, we got two very marginal prospects plus Freel, which IMO wasn't worth whatever dollars we might have been able to recover had we focused on that as the primary goal.

[BaltimoreFan]

Not trading Sherrill.

[wildcard]

There haven’t been many, IMO. But starting this past offseason in particular, I believe there have been a few. These are moves that I recall disliking when he pulled the trigger, not those that simply haven’t worked out as hoped-for or as expected. Here are the ones that stand out for me. All of these transactions wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere.

- Not getting enough net dollars recovered in the Ramon trade.

- Not getting even a single dollar recovered in the Freel discard.

- Signing Wigginton to a $6 mil deal rather than going with Salazar.

- Although I’m completely ecstatic that we finally signed Nick to a long-term deal and one which I believe was a pretty fair value for both parties, I still believe we could and should have signed him a year earlier, when it probably would have been much cheaper to do so (as Nick would have had one extra year at risk).

Are you watching what Waring is doing at Frederick?

I don't believe that Andy made a mistake with Ramon. Trembley did not want Ramon's attitude or defense on this team, so he had to go. He was overpaid. There was a very limited market for him. Freel could have been useful if the O's had not traded for Andino and signed Wiggy. But those were opportunities that developed.

I like that fact that MacPhail did not hold on to Freel just because of money when Freel not longer had a place on the team. Before it is all over Waring, Turner and Gathright may be useful.

With what is happening on this team right now with Hill, Reimold, Arrieta, Tillman, Uehara, and others, trying to find fault with MacPhail is like spitting into the wind. This thing looks like it may be coming together earlier then we thought.

[Satyr3206]

There haven’t been many, IMO. But starting this past offseason in particular, I believe there have been a few. These are moves that I recall disliking when he pulled the trigger, not those that simply haven’t worked out as hoped-for or as expected. Here are the ones that stand out for me. All of these transactions wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere.

- Not getting enough net dollars recovered in the Ramon trade.

- Not getting even a single dollar recovered in the Freel discard.

- Signing Wigginton to a $6 mil deal rather than going with Salazar.

- Although I’m completely ecstatic that we finally signed Nick to a long-term deal and one which I believe was a pretty fair value for both parties, I still believe we could and should have signed him a year earlier, when it probably would have been much cheaper to do so (as Nick would have had one extra year at risk).

I don't think any of these points are major. In fact, getting ANYTHING for Hernandez or Freel was amazing to me. Wiggington has a ML track record where Salazar doesn't, and the Markakis issue was dealt with in a relatively timely manner. Based on MacPhail's body of work, these are very small issues.

[Slappy]

There haven’t been many, IMO. But starting this past offseason in particular, I believe there have been a few. These are moves that I recall disliking when he pulled the trigger, not those that simply haven’t worked out as hoped-for or as expected. Here are the ones that stand out for me. All of these transactions wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere.

- Not getting enough net dollars recovered in the Ramon trade.

- Not getting even a single dollar recovered in the Freel discard.

- Signing Wigginton to a $6 mil deal rather than going with Salazar.

- Although I’m completely ecstatic that we finally signed Nick to a long-term deal and one which I believe was a pretty fair value for both parties, I still believe we could and should have signed him a year earlier, when it probably would have been much cheaper to do so (as Nick would have had one extra year at risk).

The first two are nits, both players had no future with the club and/or wanted out, and of course all GMs know this so they are not going to give us anything of value. Ramon's contract was asinine and he was blocking Wieters. Freel was a whiny little boy and was blocking Montanez and/or Reimold. Those were both necessary moves.

The Wigginton deal might go down as a poor one. He's been pretty bad so far, and Salazar is the same kind of versatile player in the field. Agree here.

The last one I disagree. There's a complaint about net dollars in the first two but you'd be willing to drop several extra million dollars on Kakes in 2008 when he's still being paid league minimum? GMs have to take advantage of the rules, I mean he could have blown out a shoulder or something and you'd have to eat the contract.

[Crazysilver03]

There haven’t been many, IMO. But starting this past offseason in particular, I believe there have been a few. These are moves that I recall disliking when he pulled the trigger, not those that simply haven’t worked out as hoped-for or as expected. Here are the ones that stand out for me. All of these transactions wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere.

- Not getting enough net dollars recovered in the Ramon trade.

- Not getting even a single dollar recovered in the Freel discard.

- Signing Wigginton to a $6 mil deal rather than going with Salazar.

- Although I’m completely ecstatic that we finally signed Nick to a long-term deal and one which I believe was a pretty fair value for both parties, I still believe we could and should have signed him a year earlier, when it probably would have been much cheaper to do so (as Nick would have had one extra year at risk).

I don't agree with any of these as problems.

Just to add on regarding the Hernandez trade, it was reported that the Reds were the only ones with serious interest but they didnt have the ability to add payroll. We were able to add Turner and Waring and save $2M. That is a pretty good deal in regards.

And to expand, we saved somewhere between $500K and $1M on Freel when we traded him, so you can tie that back into recouping money from Ramon.

[Slappy]

And to expand, we saved somewhere between $500K and $1M on Freel when we traded him, so you can tie that back into recouping money from Ramon.

How so? I thought it was a cash neutral deal where we paid Freel and the Cubs paid Gathright?

[Crazysilver03]

How so? I thought it was a cash neutral deal where we paid Freel and the Cubs paid Gathright?

That is what I thought as well, but according to the original Sun article:

To finalize the deal, the Orioles will pay the Cubs approximately $2.6 million in cash. Freel is due to make $4 million this season, while Gathright is owed $800,000.

The Orioles send $2.6M for Freel + pay Gathright's $800K = $3.4M. So they save about $.6M in the deal.

[wildcard]

I don't agree with any of these as problems.

Just to add on regarding the Hernandez trade, it was reported that the Reds were the only ones with serious interest but they didnt have the ability to add payroll. We were able to add Turner and Waring and save $2M. That is a pretty good deal in regards.

And to expand, we saved somewhere between $500K and $1M on Freel when we traded him, so you can tie that back into recouping money from Ramon.

We agree that the move was not a mistake, but I thought the trade of Freel to the Cubs was revenue neutral? Can you explain how the O's saved the $500k to $1M?

[Crazysilver03]

That is what I thought as well, but according to the original Sun article:

The Orioles send $2.6M for Freel + pay Gathright's $800K = $3.4M. So they save about $.6M in the deal.

We agree that the move was not a mistake, but I thought the trade of Freel to the Cubs was revenue neutral? Can you explain how the O's saved the $500k to $1M?

I guess the deal might be revenue neutral if the $.6M is how much Freel got paid for the month of April.

[hoosiers]

It's not "revenue" nuetral unless JGaith becomes a box office phenomenon or we lose tons of fans with Freel gone. The deal was set up to be cash nuetral, but free up a spot on the 25 man for the Os.

I agree with the general theme of the thread. AM has made few mistakes of any importance, IMO, which is a huge improvement over our most recent GMs. Of course, a GM makes deals when he believes the benefits outweight the downside, but I think AM requires a larger margin here than most - which limits regrets/mistakes. Going forward, as AM concentrates less on gathering talent with upside and more on building a winner, I will be interested to see the type of deals put together as there will need to be more risk involved and we will need to give up prospects.

[baltimoriole]

Wigginton looks terrible. He's not much of a defender and I wouldn't be surprised if his pitches per at bat is less than one.(sarcasm) To be honest I'd rather have Freel than Wiggington. At least Freel has speed and takes BB's. They are both probably comperable defenders.

[RShack]

Well, except for Wiggy, none of those have anything to do with baseball.

They're all about how you think you're a better horse-trader about dollars than AM is. Maybe you are, but I figure you're probably not. No reason to think you are. As for Wiggy, the time to evaluate him is when we get to the end of the season, not after 6 weeks of him being tight as a drum and swinging at the the first or second pitch he sees. I agree that he's been painful to watch at the plate. But either he had a brain transplant over the winter, or else he'll get back to being his normal self pretty soon.

So, bottom line, the only real items you are labeling as mistakes have to do with dollars, and we really have zero idea what the alternatives might have been. Also, in the insane world of baseball dollars, it's not that much anyhow. So, given all that, I don't see how you can conclude they were mistakes. If you wanna call it nit-picking then I need a magnifying glass to even see the nits.

However, it is an interesting idea to track AM's successes and mistakes. Probably also need a third column for "too soon to call".