Andy MacPhail - Disappointing GM

[SilentJames]

That's fine...I am all for him taking advantage of a situation where a team is trying to dump a player that will soon be too expensive for them...You know, like Rios..Oh wait, he passed on that.

Well, maybe Hardy?

Who out there fits that description? Pittsburgh has traded everyone...Oakland is basically all young and cheap...Florida has Hanley and that's about it.

So, what teams out there could the Orioles take advantage of in that way and then, on top of that, what players from those teams?

The only real opportunity AM has had to flex financial muscle in the FA market has been Tex. And that has been argued to death.

I brought up the payroll increase during his tenure to refute Trea's claim that the "coffers were closed" under AM in Chicago.

I would look at Detroit in the coming years. I think some of their players are going to get very expensive and they are running deficit of over 25 million a year, largest in the MLB. Combine that with dwindling season ticket sales and ad revenue due to Detroit's economic collapse (Ownership is losing an additional 2+ million because they are giving the big three car companies free signage over the ivy in center field).

The Tigers are saddled with huge contracts on more than a couple complete busts.

I would look at them in the next year or so.

[Sports Guy]

Since you are a major Pie supporter, would you have been fine with releasing Pie to claim Rios?

No(because there would be no need to release Felix) but since I don't feel Pie will ever be given a real chance here, I would have claimed Rios, put him in LF and DH'ed Reimold.

[Sports Guy]

]The only real opportunity AM has had to flex financial muscle in the FA market has been Tex. And that has been argued to death.[/b]

I brought up the payroll increase during his tenure to refute Trea's claim that the "coffers were closed" under AM in Chicago.

I would look at Detroit in the coming years. I think some of their players are going to get very expensive and they are running deficit of over 25 million a year' date=' largest in the MLB. Combine that with dwindling season ticket sales and ad revenue due to Detroit's economic collapse (Ownership is losing an additional 2+ million because they are giving the big three car companies free signage over the ivy in center field).

The Tigers are saddled with huge contracts on more than a couple complete busts.

I would look at them in the next year or so.[/quote']

Wrong..There have been players he could have dealt for that had larger contracts.

[Crazysilver03]

No(because there would be no need to release Felix) but since I don't feel Pie will ever be given a real chance here, I would have claimed Rios, put him in LF and DH'ed Reimold.

That is all fine, but who would you have booted from the roster?

Pie likely would have been the casualty to have Rios.

[Fan4Life]

Houston has Berkman... 06-10:$14.5M annually, 11:$15M club option ($2M buyout).

[tywright]

But all of these teams made moves recently because they're unexpectedly competing. And with Detroit, part of the problem they needed a bat is because of injuries (Guillen) and poor performance (Ordonez).

San Francisco has always been looking for a big bat. They just have been reluctant to pay for it. There has been the Lincecum/Rios and Cain/Fielder rumors way before this season. I'm not saying Huff could have gotten us Cain...I'm saying that they could have acquired Huff without giving up their 2 best pitchers and would have only had to give up 2-3 prospects. Fortunately for them they didn't go for that.

AM just didn't pursue trading Huff because we needed his 2008 bat in the 2009 lineup. Now if there was a miracle and we signed Tex, then Huff would have been dealt.

[tom smith]

Cause everyone has inside connections. Brother's, friend's cousin's daughter in law filled up gas for Teixeira's dad's cousin's son.

And most of what they had to say was wrong if I remember right. But i'm getting old so i could be wrong.

[Sports Guy]

That is all fine, but who would you have booted from the roster?

Well Huff was dealt...For all we know, that could have been accelerated...Or maybe DFA Mora.

Go with 11 pitchers for the time being.

There were easily ways to do it.

[Sports Guy]

San Francisco has always been looking for a big bat. They just have been reluctant to pay for it. There has been the Lincecum/Rios and Cain/Fielder rumors way before this season. I'm not saying Huff could have gotten us Cain...I'm saying that they could have acquired Huff without giving up their 2 best pitchers and would have only had to give up 2-3 prospects. Fortunately for them they didn't go for that.

AM just didn't pursue trading Huff because we needed his 2008 bat in the 2009 lineup. Now if there was a miracle and we signed Tex, then Huff would have been dealt.

I agree with this and if he was called about Huff, I am sure he overrated his value to the team.

[TGO]

He didn't really trade a lot of good young talent for them though.

And that's fine but that wasn't what I meant...I just meant the idea of trading some of our top young talent and obtaining an upper echelon player.

He traded the former #23 prospect in the game for Lee. Just because Choi didn't work out doesn't mean he wasn't good talent. And I don't see how you can hold it against him that he only had to trade Bobby "no, not the cartoon character" Hill for Ramirez because the Pirates were idiotic.

Actually I think it's more impressive that he traded for two guys who were undervalued at the time of the trades for different reasons and they got better in Chicago.

[Crazysilver03]

Well Huff was dealt...For all we know, that could have been accelerated...Or maybe DFA Mora.

Go with 11 pitchers for the time being.

There were easily ways to do it.

You still arent addressing the question of how you would manage to have Jones, Markakis, Rios, Scott, Pie, and Reimold all on the same team for 5 positions.

Rios would have been an unnecessary addition to the team and would turn into more of an albatross then a help.

[Sports Guy]

He traded the former #23 prospect in the game for Lee. Just because Choi didn't work out doesn't mean he wasn't good talent. And I don't see how you can hold it against him that he only had to trade Bobby "no, not the cartoon character" Hill for Ramirez because the Pirates were idiotic.

Actually I think it's more impressive that he traded for two guys who were undervalued at the time of the trades for different reasons and they got better in Chicago.

Yes, he was able to do a good job taking advantage of a situation where the teams had money issues and needed to move players that had questions over their heads.

I am fine with that and hope he can do it for us.

[SilentJames]

Wrong..There have been players he could have dealt for that had larger contracts.

Okay fine, I wasn't talking trades just straight FA.

But what do you say about Detroit. I could see them going into a major firesale in the next couple of years.

[Fan4Life]

How bad would the Phillies have to be next season, if at all, to considering parting with Howard? He's in for $19M next year and $20M in 2011. Don't know what their payroll situation looks like but this is a serious increase over his $10M this season.

[Sports Guy]

You still arent addressing the question of how you would manage to have Jones, Markakis, Rios, Scott, Pie, and Reimold all on the same team for 5 positions.

LOL...That's only because you aren't reading. Reimold to DH, Rios to LF and Pie to LF...If you want to know Scott, then you put him at first...If you DFA Mora, Huff goes to third while you wait to trade him.