Actions Speak Louder than Words

[davearm]

Tony in your posts here over the last few weeks, you have sounded pretty thoroughly disgusted with the O's.

In light of that, I was anticipating some more damning revelations about the current state of the O's, and goings-on within the organization.

As it is, I'm left wondering what all your outrage has been about, and I suspect a lot of other folks probably feel this way too.

[Birds of B'more]

Didn't he answer that in the line you quoted?

Tony in your posts here over the last few weeks, you have sounded pretty thoroughly disgusted with the O's.

In light of that, I was anticipating some more damning revelations about the current state of the O's, and goings-on within the organization.

As it is, I'm left wondering what all your outrage has been about, and I suspect a lot of other folks probably feel this way too.

Dave was a little more direct in what I was attempting to ask. I remember Tony saying he felt betrayed. I don't know Tony personally, but it seemed like a strong word for him. I didn't sense anything in the article that would have left him with that feeling, since he's shared much of that information with us before over the years.

[Tony-OH]

Tony in your posts here over the last few weeks, you have sounded pretty thoroughly disgusted with the O's.

In light of that, I was anticipating some more damning revelations about the current state of the O's, and goings-on within the organization.

As it is, I'm left wondering what all your outrage has been about, and I suspect a lot of other folks probably feel this way too.

I've kinda answered this already, but I'll repeat it since it might have gotten lost.

Some of the things I was disgusted about were not corroborated and after I did some research some other things just ended up not being true any longer. There are other things that I decided to leave out due to concerns over outing sources and other things I decided to "tone down" in order to stay away from any possible legal concerns.

In the end, I felt the piece came out as I wanted. Most of the people that have expressed the dissatisfaction were expecting me to come out and totally character assassinate Andy MacPhail, and that was never my intention.

I have some strong feelings about things, but I wanted to present a fair piece and not a 9000 word rant.

I think most got it. I'm sorry if you did not or concluded it was not worth your time. I can't control how people take in the article.

[davearm]

I've kinda answered this already, but I'll repeat it since it might have gotten lost.

Some of the things I was disgusted about were not corroborated and after I did some research some other things just ended up not being true any longer. There are other things that I decided to leave out due to concerns over outing sources and other things I decided to "tone down" in order to stay away from any possible legal concerns.

In the end, I felt the piece came out as I wanted. Most of the people that have expressed the dissatisfaction were expecting me to come out and totally character assassinate Andy MacPhail, and that was never my intention.

I have some strong feelings about things, but I wanted to present a fair piece and not a 9000 word rant.

I think most got it. I'm sorry if you did not or concluded it was not worth your time. I can't control how people take in the article.

It was definitely worth your readers' time.

As Birds of B'More stated, I just came away wondering where the sense of betrayal came from. If that stuff can't be shared publicly, then I think we all understand that.

[Frobby]

Yes, because I think it needed to be told in it's entirety. I do think it was worth the time and effort because most people have enjoyed it and I think they now have a clearer picture of what went on and it going on without having to worry about what was rumor, half-truths, etc.

I was somewhat relieved that there wasn't additional bad stuff about the player development side. When you wrote your article in 2002, what really stood out was how inconsistent the instruction was, how poor the discipline was, and how incoherent the whole philosophy was. In this article, other than the negative comments about Dave Stockstill, I didn't get the impression that our minor league system is in disarray in the way it was in 2002.

My sense of things is that the coaching is much stronger in 2010 than in 2002 at the minor league level. Schmidt seems to get a lot of praise from objective sources outside of the organization, and Griffin has been very good. I've heard some good things about Denny Hocking, who joined the organization this year, and the results in Frederick seem to confirm that he has helped. The addition of Mike Bordick is a very obvious plus.

At the same time, the pressboxonline article seemed to suggest that there are still some issues in our minor league system with work ethic and discipline. If so, that's very disappointing. Tony, any thoughts on these subjects?

[Shopay]

I've kinda answered this already, but I'll repeat it since it might have gotten lost.

Some of the things I was disgusted about were not corroborated and after I did some research some other things just ended up not being true any longer. There are other things that I decided to leave out due to concerns over outing sources and other things I decided to "tone down" in order to stay away from any possible legal concerns.

In the end, I felt the piece came out as I wanted. Most of the people that have expressed the dissatisfaction were expecting me to come out and totally character assassinate Andy MacPhail, and that was never my intention.

I have some strong feelings about things, but I wanted to present a fair piece and not a 9000 word rant.

I think most got it. I'm sorry if you did not or concluded it was not worth your time. I can't control how people take in the article.

Based on what you now know, do you believe the team should look to go in another direction with a new GM? Assuming the O's could hire a good GM, do you believe this would result in significant improvement to the organization in the short term? Long term?

[Birds of B'more]

I've kinda answered this already, but I'll repeat it since it might have gotten lost.

Some of the things I was disgusted about were not corroborated and after I did some research some other things just ended up not being true any longer. There are other things that I decided to leave out due to concerns over outing sources and other things I decided to "tone down" in order to stay away from any possible legal concerns.

In the end, I felt the piece came out as I wanted. Most of the people that have expressed the dissatisfaction were expecting me to come out and totally character assassinate Andy MacPhail, and that was never my intention.

I have some strong feelings about things, but I wanted to present a fair piece and not a 9000 word rant.

I think most got it. I'm sorry if you did not or concluded it was not worth your time. I can't control how people take in the article.

Totally understand that there are things you can't or prefer not to share. Thank you again for all the hard work you do, both in your article and on the website too.

[davearm]

Based on what you now know, do you believe the team should look to go in another direction with a new GM? Assuming the O's could hire a good GM, do you believe this would result in significant improvement to the organization in the short term? Long term?

This is an excellent question.

Tony if it was within your power, and knowing what you know, would you keep or fire MacPhail?

[TiredofLosing20]

Based on what you now know, do you believe the team should look to go in another direction with a new GM? Assuming the O's could hire a good GM, do you believe this would result in significant improvement to the organization in the short term? Long term?

I concur.. this is a great question. I wonder how much of the pace on the organizational side is AM and how much is PA related bullcrap.

[Satyr3206]

This is an excellent question.

Tony if it was within your power, and knowing what you know, would you keep or fire MacPhail?

It is a good question but I think it's the Owner that's the bigger problem.

[El Gordo]

I'm curious about the MRI business. Had I an opportunity to interview AM, I would have explored that as well as the Atkins signing, and budgetary limitations.

[Birds of B'more]

It is a good question but I think it's the Owner that's the bigger problem.

It's almost worthy of 2 questions.

1) If you were the owner, would you keep MacPhail and allow him to make every organizational change he wanted, including firing one of your favorites who is underperforming?

2) You aren't the owner, and the only change you can make to the organization is to replace MacPhail with someone else. Would you do that, and with whom? And consider, who would have more ability/authority to operate within PA's constraints than Andy does?

[Tony-OH]

Based on what you now know, do you believe the team should look to go in another direction with a new GM? Assuming the O's could hire a good GM, do you believe this would result in significant improvement to the organization in the short term? Long term?

In my own personal opinion, I think MacPhail could make a decent President if he had a young hungry GM working under him. MacPhail is too deliberate to properly keep up with the fluid world of major league baseball when it comes to day in and day out operations. He's an intelligent man, but a man very set in his ways.

Also, regardless of his answer to the bottom line question, I do believe that's a big part of his draw to ownership. I don't believe he doesn't want to win, and I don't believe he's just trying to create the best bottom line that he can, but I do believe ensuring a good bottom line is a big part of his thought process. Perhaps I'm wrong, but there is too much smoke for this not to be at least partly true.

This organization needs leadership from the very top. All personnel from executives, to scouts, to managers, to coaches, to players need to be held responsible. Things need to be done in a first class manner, even if that means it costs a few extra $$.

Whether it's not paying for ex-Orioles to come back for spring training or even a softball game (which I think they could easily make money doing) to not ensuring all of their minor league teams and facilities have first class operating machinery, this organization tries to do things on the cheap far too often.

[Tony-OH]

I'm curious about the MRI business. Had I an opportunity to interview AM, I would have explored that as well as the Atkins signing, and budgetary limitations.

These have already all been answered in other pieces of late so I didn't feel the need to go into them once again.

[Shopay]

In my own personal opinion, I think MacPhail could make a decent President if he had a young hungry GM working under him. MacPhail is too deliberate to properly keep up with the fluid world of major league baseball when it comes to day in and day out operations. He's an intelligent man, but a man very set in his ways.

Also, regardless of his answer to the bottom line question, I do believe that's a big part of his draw to ownership. I don't believe he doesn't want to win, and I don't believe he's just trying to create the best bottom line that he can, but I do believe ensuring a good bottom line is a big part of his thought process. Perhaps I'm wrong, but there is too much smoke for this not to be at least partly true.

This organization needs leadership from the very top. All personnel from executives, to scouts, to managers, to coaches, to players need to be held responsible. Things need to be done in a first class manner, even if that means it costs a few extra $$.

Whether it's not paying for ex-Orioles to come back for spring training or even a softball game (which I think they could easily make money doing) to not ensuring all of their minor league teams and facilities have first class operating machinery, this organization tries to do things on the cheap far too often.

Thanks Tony.