With the offseason essentially over...

[blid]

Looks like I had given a C.

That seems generous now but Gonzalez didn't seem as bad at the time and the Millwood move was still nice.

[cindyluvsbrady]

...what grade would you give AM for what he has done this offseason?

What?

You are wrong....

The Os will win the 2010 WS:)

We can grade this man than!

[Sports Guy]

Well, I gave him a D...Seems to be right on.

[NewMarketSean]

I gave him a B.

I thought the Millwood trade, Tejada & Gonzalez signings were good, and the Atkins signing very iffy, but an OK risk.

Really though, if many of the players we expected to be good were good, we wouldn't be railing against AM's offseason.

[Ooooooohhhh!!!!]

I gave him a B.

I thought the Millwood trade, Tejada & Gonzalez signings were good, and the Atkins signing very iffy, but an OK risk.

Really though, if many of the players we expected to be good were good, we wouldn't be railing against AM's offseason.

The two biggest reasons we are so bad are injuries and disappointing performances by guys who were already here. Those aren't a direct reflection of the offseason.

Of course MacPhail did sign guys who are older and who have spotty medical records and we didn't have much of a backup plan.

[Frobby]

Well, I gave him a D...Seems to be right on.

Yes, you get license to criticize. However, one of the big reasons you gave him a D was for not trading Scott to give Pie more playing time. The events that have unfolded suggest we would be even worse off than we are now if Scott had been moved.

[mweb]

Yep, Frobby, a lot of hypocrisy as I've been saying for awhile. Even some of the people who gave him poor grades haven't turned out right due to the reasoning they had. Well other than the Atkins move of course.

[mweb]

Yes, you get license to criticize. However, one of the big reasons you gave him a D was for not trading Scott to give Pie more playing time. The events that have unfolded suggest we would be even worse off than we are now if Scott had been moved.

And he also wanted Harden over Millwood (as did I), wanted to deal Guthrie who has been a pleasant surprise, didn't like MGon due primarily to the pick aspect, not because he thought Capps was a better pitcher, wanted to trade a solid player for Hardy, and ripped on AM for not getting long-term solutions even though we don't know if any good ones were available at the right price. Plus, he thought the team would be solid.

I've done the same exercise with Trea. He would have dumped Pie for nothing last year, would have dumped Wigginton for nothing this year, would have traded a bunch for AGon, would have signed Figgins, and tried hard to sign Holliday and Lackey, yet with all that, the team still wouldn't be any good. Probably better depending on if he landed those free agents, but I'd hope so considering the payroll increase and loss in young talent.

I doubt there's one poster on this board who would have had an off-season which would have led to us being in a good situation right now. That's because of the young talent collectively struggling, injuries, and the fact that just about everyone had ideas that don't look so good right now.

[Frobby]

And he also wanted Harden over Millwood (as did I), wanted to deal Guthrie who has been a pleasant surprise, didn't like MGon due primarily to the pick aspect, not because he thought Capps was a better pitcher, wanted to trade a solid player for Hardy, and ripped on AM for not getting long-term solutions even though we don't know if any good ones were available at the right price. Plus, he thought the team would be solid.

I've done the same exercise with Trea. He would have dumped Pie for nothing last year, would have dumped Wigginton for nothing this year, would have traded a bunch for AGon, would have signed Figgins, and tried hard to sign Holliday and Lackey, yet with all that, the team still wouldn't be any good. Probably better depending on if he landed those free agents, but I'd hope so considering the payroll increase and loss in young talent.

I doubt there's one poster on this board who would have had an off-season which would have led to us being in a good situation right now. That's because of the young talent collectively struggling, injuries, and the fact that just about everyone had ideas that don't look so good right now.

We are all smarter in hindsight. The only thing I can say for sure is that the vast majority of posters thought the Atkins move was stupid -- as it has proved to be. But if we had Adam LaRoche instead, would the team be that much better?

[mweb]

We are all smarter in hindsight. The only thing I can say for sure is that the vast majority of posters thought the Atkins move was stupid -- as it has proved to be. But if we had Adam LaRoche instead, would the team be that much better?

We'd be up 2 in WAR.

[TGO]

Even Trea gave him a C.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I'm sensing a huge amount of hypocrisy in posters who are just lambasting Andy MacPhail for failing to address the team's problems in the offseason, and saying he is to blame for the events that got Trembley fired. Take a look at the results of this poll, taken a week before camp opened. The vast majority of posters gave MacPhail an above average grade. I haven't done a comparison, but it looks to me like many posters who are killing MacPhail now were perfectly fine with his offseason on the eve of spring training.

Heck, I was one of the harsher graders, and I gave MacPhail a C+. And that was due to the Atkins move.

I think 99% of the posters here (JTrea81 being an exception) felt that Markakis, Jones, Reimold, Pie, Scott was plenty good enough in the OF. In fact, a lot of posters were suggesting that we trade one away because of our surplus in that regard. It is not MacPhail's fault that Jones and Reimold have been far worse than anyone expected and Pie got hurt. Nor do I blame MacPhail for the fact that Wieters currently has a .652 OPS, or that Tejada has a .667 OPS.

On the pitching side, most people liked the Millwood trade and the Gonzalez acquisition, and felt we had very good depth in the bullpen. We didn't know Gonzo, Koji, JJ and Simon would all get hurt. Granted, there was injury risk, but we seemed to have plenty of depth and having FOUR bullpen guys fall prey to injuries certainly was unforseeable.

I will give one caveat here -- I've heard some speculation that we didn't do good medical due diligence on Gonzalez. Knowing Peter Angelos's typical paranoia on that topic, I find that speculation a bit hard to swallow. However, if that is true, then we'd all be justified in changing our offseason grades.

So, bottom line, if you are criticizing AM now for what he did this offseason, be prepared to explain the grade you gave him in February.

Sorry, FRobby, but I have to disagree with you here. Just because your average (to above-average) baseball fan felt that AM had a good offseason doesn't mean those same fans aren't entitled to criticize the maneuvers after the fact.

Shouldn't we expect more out of the people that are put in the position of power? You're an attorney. If you recommend to a client a certain strategy and they agree and then that strategy backfires, shouldn't the client be able to hold you accountable for the poor decision?

The bottom line is, just because posters felt AM had a good offseason doesn't mean that those same people are precluded from second-guessing the moves that were made.

For the record, I gave him a 'C' this offseason and felt (and still feel) that was a very fair grade.

[RShack]

Sorry, FRobby, but I have to disagree with you here. Just because your average (to above-average) baseball fan felt that AM had a good offseason doesn't mean those same fans aren't entitled to criticize the maneuvers after the fact.

Shouldn't we expect more out of the people that are put in the position of power? You're an attorney. If you recommend to a client a certain strategy and they agree and then that strategy backfires, shouldn't the client be able to hold you accountable for the poor decision?

The bottom line is, just because posters felt AM had a good offseason doesn't mean that those same people are precluded from second-guessing the moves that were made.

This makes no sense. In essence, you're saying that people are not even responsible for their own opinions. Nobody made anybody here agree to AM's decisions, it's not like we had to sign off on them (as would be the case in your lawyer/client example). All we had to do is say what our opinion was, while facing zero real consequences for that opinion. And now you're claiming we're not even responsible for our own opinions, which is downright silly.

For the record, I gave him a 'C' this offseason and felt (and still feel) that was a very fair grade.

Well, good for you (I'm serious, this is not a snark). This is one case where not practicing what you preached (above) is a good thing ;-)

In fact, the poll results were very positive, and as polls around here go, it was a large sample: over 300. It was a bell shaped curve skewed towards approval, with about a third (32.6%) giving a grade of B, about a third (31.6%) giving a grade higher than that (A+, A, or B+), and about a third (36.2%) distributed across the 6 lower grades (B-, C+, C, C-, D, and F). More than 93% gave a grade of C or higher, and almost two-thirds (64%) gave a grade of B or higher. Less than 3% gave a grade of D or F. One helluva lot of people have changed their tune and are now using hindsight to bash AM while conveniently disagreeing with their very own selves.

[Sports Guy]

Yes, you get license to criticize. However, one of the big reasons you gave him a D was for not trading Scott to give Pie more playing time. The events that have unfolded suggest we would be even worse off than we are now if Scott had been moved.

Well, you aren't saying what we got in return for Scott and really, who cares if we would have been worse off right now? We are already on a historically poor start.

[Sports Guy]

This makes no sense. In essence, you're saying that people are not even responsible for their own opinions. Nobody made anybody here agree to AM's decisions, it's not like we had to sign off on them (as would be the case in your lawyer/client example). All we had to do is say what our opinion was, while facing zero real consequences for that opinion. And now you're claiming we're not even responsible for our own opinions, which is downright silly.

This is wrong...You said yourself that you had to believe AM in thinking that he saw something in Atkins...Other fans may have believed that the supposed expert knew what he was doing and believed him and thus, gave him a higher grade because of that.

Many fans feel AM can do no wrong and just believe in him and what he thinks.

Well, after seeing this mess and seeing that he was wrong about some of the guys he acquired, maybe that is enough for people to change their minds now.