Eaton and Atkins

[Mackus]

To criticize McPhail for signing the Adam Eatons and Garrett Atkins' of the world is abit absurb IMO. It's not like we paid either of them much money, and there were not high expectations.

Eaton I agree.

$4.5M for Atkins is pretty significant money. We could have just gone with Luke Scott who we already had, or even Hughes or Aubrey who are probably better than Atkins, and then used that extra money to sign other guys, international FAs, or to have to spend in this year's draft.

If you are expecting a guy to be a pretty bad player, you can't give him a $4.5M deal. That's what MacPhail did with Atkins, he had little hope that Atkins would be a solid producer, but panicked in his need for corner infielders for the year and gave out a bad contract to a bad player in the hopes that he'd have a miraculous bounce back to how good he was 3 years ago.

[byrdz]

Here is how a Chicago website viewed Andy's tenure in Chicago:

Being a huge baseball geek since 1979, I was aware of the Twins' two World Series titles and was immediately suspicious of them. I may have been one of the few who, when Andy MacPhail was hired by the Cubs in 1994, was unimpressed with him. History would prove me right - MacPhail did nothing in his twelve seasons to make me think my instincts were wrong.

He is a fraud. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. And it is just our dumb luck as Cub fans that we had to suffer through twelve years of this fraudulent management.

As for MacPhail's Reign of Terror in Chicago, well shoot. Where do you start? He burned through three general managers, one of whom was himself, who signed a thirty-one year old Todd Hundley to a four-year deal. His teams compiled a woeful 916-1011 record. MacPhail's teams finished above .500 only five times in his twelve seasons, which is also the same number of seasons in which his teams lost at least 94 games. In those twelve seasons, the Cubs failed to develope a legitmate, blue-chip offensive starter. They've wasted #1 picks on such forgettable names as Todd Noel, Ben Christansen, Luis Montanez, Bobbie Brownlie and Ryan Harvey. Most of these players are out of baseball, and some are still flailing away in obscurity, apparently no closer to real major league sucess than they were when they were drafted by Andy MacPhail's "braintrust".

When they have drafted well (usually because their own godawful seasons landed them a Top-5 pick), they haven't had any organizational skill at bringing players along. Mark Prior was gift-wrapped and, on Andy MacPhail's watch, was used, abused and put away wet by Dusty Baker and Larry Rothschild. Nobody in the organization took a proactive approach to refining Kerry Wood's delivery until it was far, far too late. They drafted Corey Patterson, rushed him to the bigs, then sent him out of town for a case of Rawlings after they successfully jerked him around. One of the few bona fide big-leaugers that the MacPhail regime did draft --Jon Garland -- was allowed to be dealt by a panic-stricken Ed Lynch -- MacPhail's right-hand man -- for a middle reliever who was out of baseball by the time Garland had arrived in the bigs.

The plan, as it appears to have been during the MacFailed Era, was that there was no plan.

..and how are they feeling about their new direction?

[Going Underground]

..and how are they feeling about their new direction?

I agree they still don't draft well and had some really bad signings. Hopefully we get out of the rut before the Cubbies,

[NewMarketSean]

Pat Burrell.....nuff said. Every GM makes mistakes.

Uhh, Burrell had a .875 OPS before he signed with the Rays.

That is nothing like Atkins. We all knew Atkins would suck, Burrell sucking is actually a big surprise.

[glorydays]

Completely different signings.

We stuck with Eaton too long for sure, but he was brought in to try and buy us 5-8 starts and hopefully put up something in the 5.00-6.00 ERA range during that time. There really weren't many other options you could go with that you'd be that much more confident in, as there aren't many guys who you can sign for the league minimum and expect to get anything substantial out of. You can make a case for going with some random replacement type player, but I don't think the odds of that type of guy being halfway decent were any better than the odds of Eaton being halfway decent (which he wasn't).

Sticking with him for 8 starts rather than 4-5 was the bigger mistake than bringing him in at all.

Atkins, on the other hand, started as a poor move at best and overpaid, changed to a no-doubt about it bad move risk-wise once we signed Tejada and confirmed Atkins would be our 1B, and his start to the season has done nothing to give us any newfound hope of him bouncing back to a respectable level.

I think the Atkins signing will go down as easily MacPhail's worst move. There aren't even really any reasonable arguments to be made in favor of the move at the time. If you're gonna take such a big gamble on a guy with so little upside even if it pays off, you can't pay $4.5M to do it.

Atkins was a clear mistake by MacPhail both at the time of the signing and in present perspective, and in all likelihood will continue to look as terrible until we cut bait, which I'm 99% sure will be far later in the year than all of us would prefer to see.

While I agree that the Atkins signing made little to no sense... the guy who I really wanted to sign - Nick Johnson - isn't exactly setting the world on fire with a .641 OPS. I haven't looked up how the other potential FA 1B are performing this year... but that should also be a part of this discussion.

[Sports Guy]

While I agree that the Atkins signing made little to no sense... the guy who I really wanted to sign - Nick Johnson - isn't exactly setting the world on fire with a .641 OPS. I haven't looked up how the other potential FA 1B are performing this year... but that should also be a part of this discussion.

So what? Nick Johnson is a risky signing because of his health...but not because of his production.

He will produce..He will have a high OBP...he will be patient.

That is what you sign him for.

Now, you take the risk of him not being healthy but he should produce if he is healthy.

Atkins, if healthy, isn't likely to produce all that much...He may even give negative value. That was pretty easy to figure out BEFORE you signed him.

Guys like Burrell, who were very good before Tampa signed him, turn out bad as well...But that's not neccassarily the fault of Tampa.

[Going Underground]

Laroche is batting ,281 with 2 HR's and 10 RBI's. He also has 11 walks and a ..397 OBP.

[Mackus]

While I agree that the Atkins signing made little to no sense... the guy who I really wanted to sign - Nick Johnson - isn't exactly setting the world on fire with a .641 OPS. I haven't looked up how the other potential FA 1B are performing this year... but that should also be a part of this discussion.

But there is a difference between a guy not playing well now and a guy not being likely to play well all year.

I am already very confident that Atkins will be a terrible offensive option for the duration of the season. He certainly may surprise me and many others and have some solid months or even a solid year, but I think the odds of that are very slim. Far slimmer than the odds of any of the other guys we could have signed and even slimmer than the odds of several internal candidates we already had.

[AgentOrange]

Uhh, Burrell had a .875 OPS before he signed with the Rays.

That is nothing like Atkins. We all knew Atkins would suck, Burrell sucking is actually a big surprise.

In a whiffle ball ballpark.

[NewMarketSean]

I can't wait until he sees he is wrong. And then we will see what nonsense gets spouted next.

Where the hell did this come from? Do you have a problem with me or something? I dont think what I am saying is crazy.

And I just posted something that proved YOU wrong. Pat Burrell was putting up consistent numbers for years before he signed with TB. It is a shock that he sucked that bad last year.

But Atkins started to decline in 2006, and hit rock bottom last year. And now he lost his job to Rhyne Hughes.

Let's see what nonsense you post in response to that.

Yeah...great response.

[Mike B]

Would Friedman make these kinds of signings? Bill Smith? Billy Beane?

These were moves that were destined to fail. I don't see other GM's of teams similar to the Orioles in payroll/market size, etc... making these kind of no-reward signings.

MAybe you should do some research on the gentleman above No doubt they are good GM's but Friedman signed Pat Burrell, in a very similar move to Atkins As for Billy Beane, he traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin for a bucket of balls, named patterson, Murton Gallagher and a mid range prospect named Josh Donaldson Want a wasted FA signing how about Frank Thomas in 2008. Every GM makes mistakes.

[JTrea81]

I feel like he is saying that we didn't expect much from either player. Just to hold place for our prospects that were coming up to replace them.

And if they can't come up to replace them, then we'll have wasted a year on stopgaps.

This is the problem with MacPhail, he keeps trying to sign mediocre players hoping they'll overachieve to buy time for unproven internal options to take over.

The more stopgaps he signs, the further he pushes away the chance of the Orioles competing. Because those internal options are going to go through a curve as well like we are seeing with Wieters and Reimold even if they do make it to the majors.

We need established players that will make a difference, not stopgaps that we hope will overachieve and make a difference.

We shouldn't have to wait for the minor leaguers to come up in order to compete. The core to do that is already on the ML roster.

[NewMarketSean]

MAybe you should do some research on the gentleman above No doubt they are good GM's but Friedman signed Pat Burrell, in a very similar move to Atkins As for Billy Beane, he traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin for a bucket of balls, named patterson, Murton Gallagher and a mid range prospect named Josh Donaldson Want a wasted FA signing how about Frank Thomas in 2008. Every GM makes mistakes.

I just dont see how people can continue to say this with a straight face.

Check Burrell's stats during his last 4 years in Philly and and Atkins' last 4 years in Colorado. BIG difference.

[glorydays]

So what? Nick Johnson is a risky signing because of his health...but not because of his production.

He will produce..He will have a high OBP...he will be patient.

That is what you sign him for.

Now, you take the risk of him not being healthy but he should produce if he is healthy.

Atkins, if healthy, isn't likely to produce all that much...He may even give negative value. That was pretty easy to figure out BEFORE you signed him.

Guys like Burrell, who were very good before Tampa signed him, turn out bad as well...But that's not neccassarily the fault of Tampa.

Fine... but you are also dismissing the fact that there was a day when Atkins was considered good and the next year he wasn't. Nick Johnson or any other player could (emphasize could but not likely) end up in a career downfall like Atkins did.

Again, not disagreeing with you, but now willing to totally dismiss it like you appear to have.

[AgentOrange]

Where the hell did this come from? Do you have a problem with me or something? I dont think what I am saying is crazy.

And I just posted something that proved YOU wrong. Pat Burrell was putting up consistent numbers for years before he signed with TB. It is a shock that he sucked that bad last year.

But Atkins started to decline in 2006, and hit rock bottom last year. And now he lost his job to Rhyne Hughes.

Let's see what nonsense you post in response to that.

I already responded. I get tired of the crying all the damn time. Atkins was a bad signing. At 1 year 4.5 million. It won't set the franchise back at all. He was brought in as a project and a one year deal to hold the place for Synder, which falls right into his plan of rebuilding. Eaton was signed for the same purpose.

It was obvious as to why these guys were signed in the first place. And then we hear all this crying and complaining about place holders on this team not performing at all. His performance this year isn't surpising anyone.

If Burrell isn't good enough for you, what about Sheets? What about Chavez?

Good ideas gone wrong again?