With the offseason essentially over...

[foxfield]

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.

I look at the moves differently. I think AM targeted people to fill short term roles. With the exception of Gonzales. I think he took Atkins because he could play 1st or 3rd. I think the moves were more about not hurting development of the core than anything else. The moves have not been terrible outside of Atkins...chalk one up for the board as most seemed to be against him. Injuries have caused more of this damage.

The Orioles were an average team if everything went well this year. There was little if any margin for error. But I don't know if changing minds is really needed...well except for those that think Weiters is God and AM is perfect.

Here is where we are...we have made many strides in getting talent. We need to do a good job in evaluating and developing that talent and we need to trade pieces of that talent to acquire more. Well that and we need to do well with next years top 5 pick..

[Frobby]

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.

The fact that we are off to such a poor start is irrelevant. You didn't foresee that, and neither did I or pretty much anyone else. But your position was we needed to make room for Pie, and my position was that we'd find adequate room for Pie, that these things have a way of working out, and that having some depth was a good thing. I think events have favored my position on this issue. And when Pie comes back, I'll bet he will get plenty of playing time.

[Sports Guy]

The fact that we are off to such a poor start is irrelevant. You didn't foresee that, and neither did I or pretty much anyone else. But your position was we needed to make room for Pie, and my position was that we'd find adequate room for Pie, that these things have a way of working out, and that having some depth was a good thing. I think events have favored my position on this issue. And when Pie comes back, I'll bet he will get plenty of playing time.

Well, I agreed that if injury existed, that he would have gotten time.

If Reimold was hitting and perfectly healthy, he wouldn't have gotten enough time IMO.

[Miller192]

He got a C+ from me.

I really liked the Tejada signing and thought he would be a perfect fit in a young lineup.

I liked getting Millwood for Chris Ray and some coin.

While there were things that I liked, I don't think a rebuilding team can afford C+ offseasons. He didn't do enough, period.

That being said, I don't know what another big piece would really accomplish THIS year. We've set ourselves back and put his plan into question with the performance of the core.

[mweb]

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.

I have no problem with people critizing AM for the off-season, however they shouldn't act like they knew it was a bad off-season all along, knew the team was going to suck all along, and had some great plan of their own when at the very least, one of those things is not true.

[RShack]

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.

Nope, I said I was *hoping* that he saw something real in Atkins that others did not, but it's not like I was counting on it. The reason I said "hope" is because that was all there was, there was no other way to say it made sense. Had he gotten a 1B guy for whom the rationale was more substantive than "hope", I would have given him a higher grade. Had I known then how Atkins has turned out, I would have given him a lower grade, but that's a hindsight thing. Apart from that, I thought the other decisions he made were fine, and I think this year is mainly caused by the bizarre number of significant players who have been MIA... with downstream impacts on guys who are not MIA...

[El Gordo]

In hindsight we would have been much better off had we gone after Glaus. But who could predict Gonzo's injury. I am surprised AM took such a gamble on Atkins. I thought he had more reason to go with him than he apparently did. I think he had more faith in Jones, Reimold, and Wieters, Than it turns out he should have, but who didn't?

[Sports Guy]

In hindsight we would have been much better off had we gone after Glaus. But who could predict Gonzo's injury. I am surprised AM took such a gamble on Atkins. I thought he had more reason to go with him than he apparently did. I think he had more faith in Jones, Reimold, and Wieters, Than it turns out he should have, but who didn't?

Anyone who looked at his prior history?

And yes Rshack, we all know that you don't want to hold anyone accountable and the only games that mattered were when we went 10-10. We get it.