Sports Illustrated: Orioles Plan Flawed

[waroriole]

Oh I have no doubt he's trying to sacrifice the Orioles to prove a point...

I know people have said it is a conspiracy theory but I thnk he's really doing this intentionally to the Orioles to try to show how out of whack the financial system is.

The problem is, all the other teams in the AL East aren't crying about the system. They are trying to work within it to win, doing what they can and using their resources effectively. The Orioles are not.

Well at least now I know not to give you any credibility when discussing this issue. I'm going to put on my tin foil hat so you can't read my mind.

[SilentJames]

In terms of the executive's interview with SI, I think he was commenting on the plan as being flawed because of the Orioles' lack of success so far this year.

Whereas your quote from Angelos is from February.

Only Trea can cite things from the past.

[hoosiers]

The Plan is only flawed if one believes the Os could have competed this year. AM's moves have all signaled this would be another development year.

The biggest issue to me is this team has the starting pitching to be well above .500, IMO, and there should have been better investments particularly at 1B.

[Runs2the1Show]

The Plan is only flawed if one believes the Os could have competed this year. AM's moves have all signaled this would be another development year.

The biggest issue to me is this team has the starting pitching to be well above .500, IMO, and there should have been better investments particularly at 1B.

These are my feelings exactly. Nice job.

[JTrea81]

Getting back to my "history is repeating itself" comment.

From Stark this past week:

Orioles: A "sleeping giant," one baseball man said. They have dollars. Their park is built for offense. Their system has almost no position players coming

And look at this from the AP in 2006 when MacPhail resigned:

But poor play was also a part of his tenure and MacPhail acknowledged that while the Cubs had done a good job of developing pitchers, they hadn't done so with position players.

The Orioles have to fix this. They either have to spend $ or trade pitching for hitters to fill these holes. Pitching has been focused on way too much, just like it was in Chicago.

[El Gordo]

And it was/is perfectly reasonable to expect those things...I did too...We all did...And I think it will still come to fruition.

But that doesn't change the idea that he has done a pretty bad job of augmenting that core.

So are you saying AM should have signed Holliday, Bay, Figgins, Lackey etc. or traded for AGonz? As far as I can tell the only other option that was reasonable, was La Roche. And who knows what he would have demanded to sign with us. Trading for AGonz without a gaurantee of an extension makes no sense to me. Millwood looks a lot better than Vasquez at this point and I have no problems with Miggi. Gonzalez seems to be a mistake, but who knew? It wasn't his ability people had questions about, it was the price in trems of draft picks. Some, I recall were suggesting we stay in house with JJ, Mickolio, Koji etc. That sure would have worked great.

[JTrea81]

The Plan is only flawed if one believes the Os could have competed this year. AM's moves have all signaled this would be another development year.

The biggest issue to me is this team has the starting pitching to be well above .500, IMO, and there should have been better investments particularly at 1B.

The problem is he said that we were basically done with rebuilding and it was more about wins and losses.

But I agree his moves didn't show that.

And for that he needs to be taken to task. This is his mess and after this offseason you could see this coming (or at least I and a few others could) from miles away. The offense was not augmented nearly enough to back up his previous statement.

And if attendance doesn't pick up and PGA and his investor group starts losing money, my guess is that he won't be so "delighted" with Andy's results...

[Sports Guy]

So are you saying AM should have signed Holliday, Bay, Figgins, Lackey etc. or traded for AGonz? As far as I can tell the only other option that was reasonable, was La Roche. And who knows what he would have demanded to sign with us. Trading for AGonz without a gaurantee of an extension makes no sense to me. Millwood looks a lot better than Vasquez at this point and I have no problems with Miggi. Gonzalez seems to be a mistake, but who knew? It wasn't his ability people had questions about, it was the price in trems of draft picks. Some, I recall were suggesting we stay in house with JJ, Mickolio, Koji etc. That sure would have worked great.

Not at all but I do think they should have gone after Lackey...they just wouldn't have landed him.

[glorydays]

Kind of a weak argument IMO. You say Miggi has worked out and Atkins defense is certainly not the reason the O's are where they are.

The problems are the 1) offense - And half the player2 have not performed up to their projections. And 2) the bullpen. MacPhail has to take some blame for signing Gonzo but Johnson is underperforming. The back end of the pen's failure has thrown most the rest of the pen into crisis mode.

I'm not talking about results... I'm talking about taking chances, especially when you place a certain value on an aspect of the game and the chances you take (in this circumstance - adding two players and switching them to positions they have little to no experience at) potentially diminish the possibilities that the area you value will succeed (being strong defensively).

[glorydays]

Oh I have no doubt he's trying to sacrifice the Orioles to prove a point...

I know people have said it is a conspiracy theory but I thnk he's really doing this intentionally to the Orioles to try to show how out of whack the financial system is.

The problem is, all the other teams in the AL East aren't crying about the system. They are trying to work within it to win, doing what they can and using their resources effectively. The Orioles are not. They keep whining about the Yankees and Red Sox instead of actually trying to catch them.

Please clarify... he = AM or PA

[SilentJames]

Not at all but I do think they should have gone after Lackey...they just wouldn't have landed him.

Then why bother?

[SilentJames]

The problem is he said that we were basically done with rebuilding and it was more about wins and losses.

But I agree his moves didn't show that.

And for that he needs to be taken to task. This is his mess and after this offseason you could see this coming (or at least I and a few others could) from miles away. The offense was not augmented nearly enough to back up his previous statement.

And if attendance doesn't pick up and PGA and his investor group starts losing money, my guess is that he won't be so "delighted" with Andy's results...

Just because this year was more about wins and losses does not mean we are DONE with rebuilding.

I swear, just when I think it can't get any worse, it does.

[JTrea81]

Please clarify... he = AM or PA

That would be Peter Angelos, which is why he brought in MacPhail due to his small market mentality...

MacPhail knows no other way to build a team and can't adapt to the AL East and how teams are built to win here.

He keeps throwing the Tampa example out there, but we aren't doing what Tampa did. Not even close...

[SilentJames]

That would be Peter Angelos, which is why he brought in MacPhail due to his small market mentality...

MacPhail knows no other way to build a team and can't adapt to the AL East and how teams are built to win here.

He keeps throwing the Tampa example out there, but we aren't doing what Tampa did. Not even close...

And what giant FA contracts did Tampa go and get?

[Great 2BA FL Gator]

Just because this year was more about wins and losses does not mean we are DONE with rebuilding.

I swear, just when I think it can't get any worse, it does.

Exactly. I believe AM has said we have moved into phase II of the rebuild and it is more about wins and losses now than it was last year. Does not mean the rebuild is over by any means.