MLB.com article with Angelos quotes

[mweb]

Well, assuming Lee and Pena make it to FA, they will sort of qualify...Not big time FA in terms of huge contract but they should give "big time FA" production for a shorter time span..ie 2-3 years.

But generally I agree with you...People keep saying this but those saying it don't seem to be looking at what is available for next year and we don't know who will even make it to FA, as they could be locked up sooner...ala Johnson and Hernandez and soon Mauer.

Long-term free agents are another thing that's very overrated on here. A guy like Lee, Dunn, or Pena for 2-4 years would be great imo. If we can get a guy like AGon or Fielder for 6-8 years, ok, well that would be better in the short-term, probably not in the long-term. So either are good options and we can win with either.

Werth can also be a good option in the Holliday mold, just for less years and money.

BTW, there should be big free agent pitchers available next off-season. Now obviously that's not AM's style, but of course that didn't stop you and Trea and others from clamoring for Lackey. So if you could have clamored for him this off-season, I can clamor for Lee next year.

So yes, I often say we can wait until next year and beyond for bigger free agents, but unlike you say, I do look at whose available and who will likely extend. I just don't pin all my hopes to signing guys like Holliday as Trea does.

[Frobby]

Question:

If the O's do start winning/competing, do you see the fans coming back to CY like they did in the past?

To me it depends on what you mean by "like they did in the past." I have little doubt that if the Orioles contended for 2-3 years in a row, their attendance would go back over 3 million fans a year. I'm not sure it would get up to the 3.6 mm fan level like we did in 1996-98, because of the fact that the Nats took at least a few hundred thousand fans permanently out of our fan base.

[Shopay]

When he sells the team to an owner that realizes winning will create more profits than just having a perennial losing team with a low payroll.

Trea: No question that PA's meddling set this franchise back for years, but you should not automatically assume that the next owner is going to be any loser with the purse strings. Jerold Hoffberger says hello.

[olehippi]

I have heard some rumblings that MASN is more lucrative, right now, than the Orioles let on.

How true is that? I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true.

With media advertising revenues down across the board in 2009, including TV, I'm curious where you hear these "rumblings" of MASN being exceedingly lucrative, especially since MASN revenues were flat last year because of falling advertising income.

From the Baltimore Business Journal - Friday 10/30/09

John McGuinness: I think [the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network] could have grown 15 percent this year but we’re going to wind up flat. This region’s marketplace is probably down 15, 25 percent so we’ll take that all day long. But I think what it’s forced us to do and what the advertising community wants more of is the appetite for immediate measurables and fan engagement. For us to do that as a television outlet, we need to embrace new technology and really blow out what we do at Masnsports.com. We’ve had a lot of success there and have dabbled in the mobile marketing space, so that allows us to provide immediate results. We’ve always been able to measure our audience on television, but now it’s how do we touch the consumer who’s watching?

Here’s the link to full article:

http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2009/11/02/focus1.html

Also, here is an article with somewhat dated information about MASN income.

http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/2009/01/some-questions-for-baltimore-orioles.html

[ledzepp8]

Oh I get it...We can bring up that it was bad when he took over and use that as an excuse but when it got good quick, that was all PA? Ok, gotcha. Makes a lot of sense.

Who's using it as an excuse for anything? Shack was responding to the people who always try and claim that Angelos made the team bad. All he said was the team had been neglected and was bad for years before he took over. He wasn't making excuses for anything and even put blame on Angelos.

[tntoriole]

Do we get to bring St. Jerry Hoffberger into this discussion then? Hoffberger hired Hank Peters as GM in 1976 Under Hoffberger, from 1976-1979, out of 154 players selected, these are the four, count 'em, four players Peters drafted that reached the Orioles major league team: Cal Ripken, Allan Ramirez, Larry Sheets, Bob Melvin

Edward Bennett Williams compounded Hoffberger's mistake and kept Peters in place through 1987. Under Williams, from 1980-1987, Peters drafted 408 players and of that 15 reached the Orioles major league team: Ken Dixon, John Habyan, Ken Gerhart, Billy Ripken, Jim Traber, Jeff Tackett, Bob Milacki, Jeff Tackett, Jeff Ballard, Pete Stanicek, Pete Harnisch, Anthony Telford, Jack Voigt, Steve Finley, David Segui. Mussina was first drafted in 1987 but didn't sign and went to Stanford.

Agree...mistakes abound....but, still...Hoffberger's ownership- four World Series appearances, two World Series championships (and 1979 could as easily be counted in his category given that this was EBW's first year of ownership)...EBW- two World Series appearances, one Championship....Eli Jacobs- zip, Angelos- zip...

It is as valid as any other way of thinking about whether the team ownership provides functional or dysfunctional leadership.

[crowmst3k!]

I have heard some rumblings that MASN is more lucrative, right now, than the Orioles let on.

How true is that? I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true.

In some respects it is more than the Orioles let on, and that is due to the fact that MASN pays the Orioles 20 million for the rights to broadcast the games (MASN lists that as an expense on their P&L, despite the fact that both the Orioles and MASN share common ownership).

Aside from that, I wouldn't think they can do much else to hide the true profit. I mean, I'm sure they make up bogus expenses like every other business does to keep taxes low.

[Mad Mark]

When he sells the team to an owner that realizes winning will create more profits than just having a perennial losing team with a low payroll.

The owners of the Kansas City Royals say "hi"! Given the choice between sitting around not doing much and making $100MM for fielding a losing team or working your ass off and maybe making $115MM for fielding a winning team...which do you think your average septuagenarian billionaire is going to chose?

The absolute most hopeful thing I've ever heard about John Angelos is that he's kind of a slacker. The luckiest thing that could happen to the Orioles would be for JA (if he winds up owning the team) to become a "take the credit for somebody else's work" kind of guy who is smart enough to listen to Andy MacPhail when MacPhail tells him who his successor should be.

[joeyc]

Someone decipher this part for me:

What is PGA saying is the exception to the rule? The Rays? Maybe I'm reading this wrong but it appears he is saying that without spending a ton of money in the East, you can't consistently be competitive. At the same time, he is saying that we are not one of those teams that can spend a lot. So I guess we shouldn't expect to consistently be competitive?

Am I drawing the wrong conclusion here?

That's the way I see it. Not only that, I wonder if that was his way of saying that he won't be able to keep the young talent that we have pined our future hopes on.

I'm not sure he is going to be willing to pay Adam Jones, Matus, Tillman Berguson, Weiters, Reimhold, etc., the money that the Yankees and Redsox are going to be offering them.

If that is the case, I don't think I'll be able to continue to follow this mess, anymore.

[frankpembleton]

Believe me there are owners of teams that are a lot worse than the one we have.

Like who? I'd put Angelos' record of futility up against any current owner....

At least he has not moved the team to Indianapolis.

What a saint!

[Dipper9]

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck/2010/02/bisciotti_takes_a_swing_at_the.html

Looks like Bisciotti agrees with Angelos. Lets see if he gets bashed as well.

[TonySoprano]

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck/2010/02/bisciotti_takes_a_swing_at_the.html

Looks like Bisciotti agrees with Angelos. Lets see if he gets bashed as well.

Like Angelos, did Bisciotti also say, "now that we have an RSN and we can move forward with it…that is going get us on a more even plane with Boston and New York?"

When Angelos talks about ticket prices, as he did again in this article, he's telling the public you're getting the team you paid for, sorry, it's not going to be good enough most years.

[Guest rochester]

I have heard some rumblings that MASN is more lucrative, right now, than the Orioles let on.

How true is that? I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true.

so...where did you get this - the guy who had lunch with DT? Gotta love the rumor mill...