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

[amateurfan]

The current MLB team is not that good, and so I don't think there's any answer other than no. I do not think that AM has done a bad job, though. At the present time, the Orioles are not closing any talent gap. They have better minor league talent, potential MLB talent, but there isn't any gap closing on the big club at the moment. For this season and last, I think the only thing that has happened is that the Orioles have put a cheaper, losing product on the field. I don't think there's any way around that. Until the pitchers come up and become good, until Wieters starts hitting, Snyder becomes above average in the ML, then it's a really easy answer: No, the team is not closing the gap. Furthermore, the quality of play on the field doesn't convey that they are closing the gap (and I'm not interested in blame).

Likewise, though, AM has increased the organization's ability to close that gap. I think this offseason is the big test. Up until now, there have been few FAs to pursue while the Orioles continue to pay weighty contracts. That was acceptable up until this coming offseason. There are not enough high end position prospects or rookies in the organization to generate the offense necessary to compete with the rest of the East from this point on. AM will have to sign some FAs or trade some of the pitchers for position prospects. If AM does little this offseason other than sign Wigginton-type players, then a poll on AM's performance might be more appropriate.

[bluedog]

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

Oh yes, lets definitely acquire all the young castoffs from other teams who are obviously going to end up being elite level players! Good strategy!

That's just silly talk. Picking up a young player who another team has given up on that then turns into a perennial all-star is not only freakishly rare, its exceptionally difficult to do. Every professional scout in MLB is constantly scouring other teams rosters and upper farm systems looking for these guys.

And what about Luke Scott? George Sherrill? Jeremy Guthrie? All are players we got from other teams who undervalued them - Scott was a part time player, Sherrill a loogy and Guthrie a waiver wire acquisition - and all three have turned into full time starters and potential All-Stars (Guts had all star worth seasons in 2007 & 2008, Sherrill this year and the first half of 2008 and Scott the first half of this year). Does any of that count?

And since when is trading your two best players for 10 guys, none of whom is a sure thing, blind conservatism?

AM could acquire Albert Pujols for a PTBNL and you'd find some reason to complain about it...

[Mad Mark]

I didn't answer the poll, because the poll really asks three different questions that have three different answers.

1) Are the Orioles closing the revenue gap between themselves and the Yankee$ and Red $ox? Absolutely not. Nor can they, until MLB fixes its ridiculous methods of distributing local revenues.

2) Are the Orioles closing the front office talent gap between themselves and the Yankee$ and Red $ox? I'd take AM over Ca$hman any day of the week. Epstein is a harder case...would he be as "good" as he is in Bo$ton, if he was here?

3) Are the Orioles closing the on-field talent gap between themselves and the Yankee$ and Red $ox? Here, my answer would be yes, but slowly.

[bluedog]

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

They will spend money when the right players are available and the timing is right. I have no doubt the O's will be huge players in free agency in 2010 and 2011, no doubt at all.

[tennOsfan]

I have to assume that anyone who voted "No" didn't read the entire sentence.

Surely with the young prospects we have, we have done something to close the gap. The Bedard trade alone will close the gap quite a bit.

We have a ways to go, but to deny that AM has done some good things is to be completely oblivious to reality.

[mikezpen]

They're doing enough this year by polishing up and bringing in talent from the farm system.But soon, they have to spend big money for a couple guys to put them over the top.Then we'll see how serious Angelos is about putting a really good team together.

I won't believe anything till I see free agents signing on the dotted line.

[zff4]

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.

I certainly don't want to take a page out of the OldFan book and say "end of story". Every good post on this board is related to the question, "Are we getting better?"

But it's laughable that so many act as though significant improvement (and by that I mean contending for the wild card at a minimum) is an easy process or that there's a quick fix.

What makes it so devilishly difficult is that improvement is a moving target with a bar that gets higher in proportion to how the other AL East teams improve. With a finite pool of talent, and for us, a smaller cash budget, we are continually going to get the short end if we depend on the FA market.

If our money situation remains the same, we're forced to improve incrementally through development, trades and the draft. And Andy has indeed improved our farm talent and made some great trades.

But I'm not convinced that the increments at which we've improved are going to translate into a wildcard contention unless we make some very bold expensive moves, and soon. Signing Weiters, and re-signing Nick and B-Rob made sense at reasonable costs but were not bold moves.

The Bedard trade was pretty bold however, I'll give him that.

[Ven6]

I voted no. But with an asterisk.

This isn't the time for standing gap closing. This is the time to stock pile young talent and develop.

Then, this offseason and next, we spend. I am confident AM will get what he needs on the market.

That's when the gap will noticeably close.

Both are critical steps. Just one is more immediately noticeable.

[sector7g]

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

After a decade of making the same mistakes over and over again are we STILL being so limited in our foresight?

Has our organization improved relative to the Sox and MFY in the last 2 years? Undoubtably the answer is yes.

[zff4]

Has our organization improved relative to the Sox and MFY in the last 2 years? Undoubtably the answer is yes.

How are we doing in the standings relative to those teams? You're in one column or the other in baseball and undoubtably we're in the cellar.

[sector7g]

How are we doing in the standings relative to those teams? You're in one column or the other in baseball and undoubtably we're in the cellar.

You've basically made the same post twice, there isn't anything else I can say to this.

[JTrea81]

I have to assume that anyone who voted "No" didn't read the entire sentence.

Surely with the young prospects we have, we have done something to close the gap. The Bedard trade alone will close the gap quite a bit.

We have a ways to go, but to deny that AM has done some good things is to be completely oblivious to reality.

I assume anybody who read the sentence and voted "Yes" doesn't realize the powerhouse Boston has become and just how far away we are from having our organization be close to theirs...

[zff4]

I assume anybody who read the sentence and voted "Yes" doesn't realize the powerhouse Boston has become and just how far away we are from having our organization be close to theirs...

I do think Epstein is one of the smartest GMs in baseball. Cash has got the most money, so it's tough to judge his acumen because he has such latitude to spend unwisely.

When the Nats came along, I was really hoping Epstein would be lured away to DC. It would be fascinating to see Theo start from scratch with a much more limited budget.

[8istheman]

I voted no for the following reasons.

1. not until tier 1 FA want to come to Balmer

2. not until the farm system has players to not only fill but excell

3. not until we have a different 3rd base coach

4. not until the young pitchers (they look great) excell in the majors

5. not until we have at least a .500 season

6. not until we are above .500

Have said that, the following IMO are the positives.

Young pitching instead of washed out vets.

Scouting has improved.

Farm teams are going in the right direction.

Coaching on the farm is better.

Defense as a whole is better this year on the parent club.

Go O's.

[Mizerooskie]

How are we doing in the standings relative to those teams? You're in one column or the other in baseball and undoubtably we're in the cellar.

It's a rebuild. The standings are absolutely, 100% meaningless.

One has to do no more than to look down the road at a couple of Washington franchises.

The Redskins have signed overpriced, veteran talent, in an attempt to move up the standings, and it's been an abject failure.

The Capitals committed to the rebuild, and collected all of the young talent that they could. They didn't care about the standings for several seasons. Look where they are now.