MacPhail puts hitters on notice

[Sports Guy]

I think everyone was much happier on Sunday. Hopefully,we leave NY and start playing a little better baseball. We got Cleveland and KC and Texas soon and that should give us an idea about the team.,

Really be nice to win 2 or 3 of the next 5 games(including today).

[NewMarketSean]

I like the strategy of making it known you're not happy, but who is MacPhail going to replace people with? Corey Patterson and Joey Gathright? Those players have zero upside.

Might as well just run these guys out there and let them get their AB's.

Now, if Reimold is hurt, that is another thing.

[Hank Scorpio]

He's taking responsibility while MacPhail is trying to blame others...

Shack nailed it right to your forehead earlier in this thread.

You call for accountability and then when you see a little, because of the source, you jump up and down pointing.

[JTrea81]

Because its idiotic to think that Jones and Reimold are struggling because they "aren't supported".

They seemed to do just fine last year without support.

The players playing poorly isn't MacPhail or Trembley's fault. Its the player's fault.

The only bad thing on this roster than MacPhail is responsible for, IMO, is Atkins. Everything else he did was pretty solid. It was never going to make us a contender this year, but we should have been able to be a pretty decent offensive club to go with our solid pitching. Unfortunately two key guys got hurt and three other key guys are completely crapping the bed at the plate. If Roberts, Pie, Reimold, Scott, and Jones were healthy and/or producing at even a bit below expected, we'd be hitting just fine.

Reimold went for offseason surgery and is a streaky hitter, Pie was inconsistent and had some injury issues, Jones hadn't done anything since May. Scott is extremely streaky. Roberts' injury was known before ST and yet MacPhail only acquired Lugo to replace him.

There was no pro-activity here, no fallback to these guys not producing. MacPhail just assumed there would be no issues despite all the evidence to the contrary. There was no way with all the question marks surrounding this offense going into 2010, if the Orioles wanted to win games, that MacPhail should have done as little to improve the offense as he did.

He did little to make sure he could back up his words. This is all on him.

[Going Underground]

Really be nice to win 2 or 3 of the next 5 games(including today).

We can only hope.:laughlol:We usually hit Pavano. Twins pitching is not Yanks pitching. One guy scares me.

[waroriole]

Shack nailed it right to your forehead earlier in this thread.

You call for accountability and then when you see a little, because of the source, you jump up and down pointing.

He's a troll. It's like clockwork, AM makes a statement and Trea criticizes it before even reading it.

[JTrea81]

Shack nailed it right to your forehead earlier in this thread.

You call for accountability and then when you see a little, because of the source, you jump up and down pointing.

He needs to point the finger at himself. The players are performing poorly, this is true, but he can't absolve himself.

[Crazysilver03]

Position players that have options

Scott

Montanez

Jones

Reimold

Hughes

Position players that do not have options and can refuse to go to Norfolk

Lugo

Atkins

Izturis

Tatum (don't know if he has ever been outrighted)

This message to the players may make guys that are playing hurt decide to make their injuries known. Did this have anything to do with Jones not playing today?

I would not discount MacPhail going outside the organization to get players.

Tatum has an option left.

[Moose Milligan]

Great comments by MacPhail.

[Going Underground]

Shack nailed it right to your forehead earlier in this thread.

You call for accountability and then when you see a little, because of the source, you jump up and down pointing.

Theo Epstein called out his team as well. A couple of GM's have this year,

[Goop]

Good for AM, I'm glad to see him say this. Now will he actually do it is one thing, and who do you bring up is another.

[NewMarketSean]

Well, this is what happens when you don't buy any bats, Andy.

[Sanfran327]

Its very unlikely that he could do anything right now unless he just says, F it and brings up Snyder and Bell and see if they can get hot up here.

I'm getting here a little late, but this is what I've been thinking about for the past few weeks. What is the worst-case scenario for bringing these guys up? Does anyone really think that having them struggle here would be that damaging to their psyche?

Wouldn't you rather struggle with youth than retreads? Lugo, Scott, and Atkins are retreads. Atkins seems to be showing signs of life, but Lugo and Scott are probably nearing the end of their major league careers. I've seen all I need to see from Montanez to conclude that he's a AAAA player and should only be in the majors to fill in for an injury.

If they demoted Jones, would that kill him? A few weeks ago, I thought it might, but now I'm wondering if it might give him a nice kick in the pants. The whole message during spring training was that everyone was earning their jobs, and that nobody's position was inheirited from last season. Sorry, but that's exactly what happened. Everyone on this team got their job based on prior performance, not the collective terrible spring training this team displayed.

Reimold to the DL? Hell yes. Do it now, and let him rest for a month, then work his way back from Norfolk. Something is clearly not right with him. He made a nice play on Varitek, but I'm pretty sure that most of us could have thrown out 'Tek in that situation. He runs like a 13.2 60. Tatum actually ate an apple before he applied the tag on him: you can see it in the replay.

So much needs to happen to this team it's sick. I'm glad to see that MacPhail is finally considering change for the sake of change. Unfortunately for the Trembley fans, that's going to mean firing Dave. But I think we are on the verge of seeing permanent turnover regarding Albers, Scott, and Lugo, and temporary replacements for Jones, Reimold, Montanez, Bergesen, and maybe even Tatum.

[Sanfran327]

He needs to point the finger at himself. The players are performing poorly, this is true, but he can't absolve himself.

This would be taken much more seriously if written by any other poster, unfortunately. I don't see how MacPhail can look at the performace of the team thus far and be satisfied or happy with his work. AM said it himself: there's only so long you can take the opposing pitcher into consideration before these guys just have to start playing. I'd say that goes the same for injury replacements all the way up through Adam Jones.

[glorydays]

BTW here's a GM actually trying to do something:

So at least he's saying he's trying to do something instead of pointing fingers...

HA... What makes this post even more amusing is that he's quoting a GM who did EXACTLY what Trea whines about all the time - this GM went out and spent BIG money this offseason and look at their results so far... 11-15.

... this goes along with the Pirates manager post.