Is the front office doing enough to close the gap on NY and Boston?

[Great 2BA FL Gator]

I'm just amazed that this line keeps being repeated when the man has never done this in his history of overseeing baseball operations for any club. It was the biggest knock on him when he was with the Cubs.

Why do people think he's going to change now?

You know it's funny, I was going to ask his trade/signings history with other teams. It says he was only GM of the cubs for two years. Was he running the show when he was President/CEO? Was he in control when the Cubs got Derrek Lee? That was a good trade for them..

[Arthur_Bryant]

No! We need more overpriced, aging, mediocre signings!

I long for the days when the Orioles would throw $50-$60 million away on well-known players like Kris Benson and Jay Gibbons and Russ Ortiz and Jay Payton and Jeff Conine, instead of fooling around with young unproven nobodies. Those guys were really expensive, so you know they must be good!

[SammyBirdland]

If it's true that "pitching wins championships", then I think The Cavalry is closing the gap.

[MemorialStadKid]

No! We need more overpriced, aging, mediocre signings!

I long for the days when the Orioles would throw $50-$60 million away on well-known players like Kris Benson and Jay Gibbons and Russ Ortiz and Jay Payton and Jeff Conine, instead of fooling around with young unproven nobodies. Those guys were really expensive, so you know they must be good!

Someone said this? Show me where anyone in this thread suggested this?

MSK

[SilentJames]

Someone said this? Show me where anyone in this thread suggested this?

MSK

The whining about spending is proof enough. Some of the people complaining about that wanted us to throw money at guys like Jon Garland and Randy Wolf.

Here is the fact of the matter. If there is top-flight expensive talent on the market and it fills a NYC need, they will get it. They can outspend anyone, it really does not matter to them.

Get ready, Halladay will be a Yankee in two years. The Yankees have no farm system, that is the only way they CAN acquire talent. We can not go toe-to-toe with them, few teams can. We need to do things a different way. We need to grow our own and then keep them here.

That is what will separate us from Tampa and Oakland, we have the resources that we have no trouble signing our young stars.

[Fairfax Bird]

This thread is a joke. Everyone knows that AM is the new Syd Thrift. He is old and doesn't have it anymore ... BRING BACK DUQUETTE ... BRING BACK DUQUETTE ... that way we know when we are about to sign aging relievers to expensive contracts.

[mcgraw238]

Someone said this? Show me where anyone in this thread suggested this?

MSK

Do you not recall AM getting blasted during the offseason for not pursuing Ben Sheets?

[Fairfax Bird]

Do you not recall AM getting blasted during the offseason for not pursuing Ben Sheets?

You have to remember that Ben Sheets is probably the best pitcher in the league this year. Look at all of those Ks.

[sector7g]

Is our front office making enough moves, acquiring front line talent, to close the 20+ games we seem to be behind NY and Boston each year. Take into consideration their improvements, talent additions also.

If you can't see that our organization has improved immeasurably over the past two years then quite frankly, I don't know what anyone can say to you.

We've sat through years of terrible, abject performances in almost every aspect of the organization. Boston and the MFY aren't going to be getting weaker anytime soon, we have to get up to meet them at their level. AM doesn't have a magic wand or an unlimited amout of cash, so it's a hard slog starting from the bottom up to get this place running well.

When AM took over I couldn't have hoped he'd have improved our stock as much as this in such a short space of time. He's turning around the mistakes of the past administrations and he's doing it quickly. The last guys running this joint were so bad that we are STILL paying millions for their mistakes (Walker, Baez, Gibbons etc). We were genuinely a laughing stock for the rest of the league, A LAUGHING STOCK. The last I checked AM hasn't saddled us with any medicore players on long term contracts, he hasn't given up draft picks for middling relievers and he's made one outstanding and one very good trade. He's put us in a position where we can afford to spend money in the future and can afford to lock up our homegrown talent because he's not taking the easy option of signing ageing, average players to long, expensive contracts that might have had us competing for 4th place for the next few years.

Apparently you've learned nothing during the past 11 years of losing.

[foxfield]

I did not respond. I think there are other alternative answers that better fit. Are we making progress? Based on what? Standings in the AL East? No. Overall talent? Yes. Catching the MFY and Socks? Well that is debateable. The difference between us and them is quite large. Signing Tex, or some other big name would not really change that.

The reason is that we are not that good yet. Nor are we close enough to be trading pieces away that will "put us over the top". But we have made progress and it is getting to a critical time when we can actually talk in terms of we should do this or do that.

One of the things that is so difficult for fans, knowledgeable or not, is that we think in terms of what we would like to do and have little insight to what can be done. For example, what if Tex had signed with us? Many think we simply were not willing to pay what he wanted. That may or may not be true, but I have not seen any statements from him saying "if only Baltimore had gone 30 Million higer.

And we have paid some big bucks into our farm system and that seems to be paying dividends. Our talent pool is deeper and is no longer one of the worst in baseball. It will not be easy to climb the hill from one of the worst teams and one of the worst systems in one of the best divisions, but we are making progress. There is much more to do.

Until we have pitching that can win give us a chance to win everyday, (and we hope it is close, but we do not know) there is no one in our system that should be untouchable. (Apology to Cindyluvsbrady) That does not mean we should dump anyone. But we need more talent, lots more.

So again, in answer to the question, is the front office doing enough to close the gap on NY, BOS, TAMPA, Toronto. Yes, but there is much more to do and none of those teams are going to stay in a vacuum.

Sorry for the long post.

[Moose Milligan]

And TOOK A CHANCE on a guy named David Ortiz. I posted in another thread that we rarely get a guy on a lark who turns into an elite level player. We either take really DUMB chances (Baez, Eaton, etc.) or none at all. That's my #1 issue with this organization. Blind conservatism in the world of risk takers.

MSK

Ortiz wasn't much of a risk. At all.

[mikezpen]

I was reading about what you and others were saying in the Chris's thread.

I think we are closing the gap, but that gap is still very wide. I think we have the pitching prospects, but I agree that we still need to add 2 or 3 very good offensive players to this team to compete in this division.

agree with this-They may be able to develop one of these themselves.

But they are also going to have to spend money and land some people.

[zff4]

If you can't see that our organization has improved immeasurably over the past two years then quite frankly, I don't know what anyone can say to you.

We using eyeballs for our criteria, or AL East standings? Just asking...

[JTrea81]

If only AM could be as forward thinking as you JTrea. For instance, he could have signed Jamie (21 homers in 99 IP with a 6 ERA) Moyer for multiple years like you advocated. Think how smart he'd look if he did that.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=1799

He could have signed Jason Botts when Texas released him as you insisted he should have. I'd post his stats in the majors/minors this year, but he hasn't been anywhere near MLB or MiLB since he was cut. He did manage to put up a 750 OPS in Japan as a weak defender at a corner position in 2008.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/Jason-Botts.shtml

He could have traded Roberts for that list of rejects from the Cubs. I think you were particularly high on Ronny Cedeno as our "SS of the future". He of the 499 OPS this season. You also thought Eric Patterson could "basically replace Roberts". He has 8 whole at bats in the majors as a 26 year old this year before Oakland sent him down. Of course, he is playing OK in that great hitter predictor of leagues, the PCL, again this year.

You were apoplectic that AM wasn't interested in Ben Sheets. Same with Pedro Martinez.

You also criticized the fact that we let Daniel Cabrera go.

I could go on for a very long time, but I think we all get the point. You criticizing AM for his capability as a maker of rosters is pretty high on the unintentional comedy scale.

I'll give you Botts and Moyer, though we have no idea how either would have faired on the Orioles. Botts was worth a flier and I still think that. You do remember Randy Wolf who is doing pretty good in LA right? Why not mention him as I wanted both Wolf and Moyer.

As for those others, you'll have to show me because I think you are getting me and SG mixed up. I praised MacPhail for dumping DCab. And once I found out about Sheets' injury I backed off him. And I wasn't a huge proponent of Pedro either.

[foxfield]

We using eyeballs for our criteria, or AL East standings? Just asking...

Your arguement answers itself, if we are to use the AL East standings, then there is no improvement. Of course, if that is the sole criteria you chose, then the standings speak for themselves and therefore there would be no room for discussion.

We are the sum of 11 seasons of losing. But cheer up, the AL East is not set to expand, so by the standings criteria, we have no where to go but up.