Actions Speak Louder than Words

[beardbr]

I guess my frustration is that basically there is nothing we as fans can do. Sure not going to games, or watching, but I am an Orioles baseball fan, always have been, and believe me, if i wanted to root for another team, i would have been gone a few years ago. It seems like we just have accept it, and pray for a miracle. That is what is so discouraging.

[flashjordnk]

Hey, at least they have a new computer system. I mean, that must have taken like weeks to do! First you have to learn how to use Excel...and then you have to add Fangraphs to your favorites! Think of all the intricacies involved!

Also...the aggregation of this data seems to have some kind of value here.

Right if before they didn't have this system, I'm assuming no one was even tracking this kind of stuff. And if they were, they weren't writing it down. It's like a research project, but you burn the research at the end of every day.

Also...this encourages those who are aggregating the stats...scouts, coaches, (?), i'm not really sure who in particular; to have some kind of philosophy. Right this means if they are tracking first pitch strikes...or fastball velocities...or differences in fastball to offspeed pitches...they are looking for something.

On some level I interpret it as the O's moving towards some kind of philosophy organizationally. But you need large samples of aggregated data to get there. I think this symbolizes steps in that direction.

[Dr. FLK]

The Orioles now have two teams in the DSL now, that will hopefully start bearing fruits in the near future. Just signed that 16 year-old kid - making inroads.

Working on VEN. I don't know how up you are on the situation down there, but its not as easy as you are making it seem. The history of MLB in VEN is shaky at best since Chavez took power in 1999. Fun fact, the Orioles DID have a VSL team but left in 2005 along with the Red Sox, who were sharing an academy with another team, and a bunch of others left when Chavez looked as if he was going to nationalize the leagues a'la Cuba.

Didn't the article say that the Rays have a new facility there? It's easy enough that they can do it.

[Peace21]

Tony did a nice job with this piece.

Things that stood out to me:

The talent the Orioles could of had if PA hadn't overruled them.

The way Lee MacPhail viewed free agents and not spending long terms deals on them. (Like father like son)

The Dominican/Venezuela scouting will never be what we would like it to be because the Orioles are to far behind to catch up in this department.

What really bugs me about AM is he wants us to emulate the Rays. WHY!? Why can't the Orioles come up with their own way and do things the right way? Come up with their own model of success.

So once we become good (if we do) are we going to give credit to the Rays for road map?

[SilentJames]

Didn't the article say that the Rays have a new facility there? It's easy enough that they can do it.

They probably built a new one, the Rays have been there since 1997, the first years of VSL. There are only 7 VSL teams left after the original 14.

Most teams left after Chavez looked as if he was going to nationalize the teams.

Mora wanted to open an academy, Jim Duquette advised against it. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3077371

[srock]

I think it is a little more involved than that.

It massively more involved then that.

And more expensive then you can imagine.

IT people and software developers bill out at $100 an hour, minimum.

It's at least 5000 man hours to roll out a new system. Minimum. Just to get it up and running. It could easily be twice that to get it ironed out, as much as 4 times that depending on how sophisticated it is.

Minimum: $500,000 investment

More likely $2,000,000 investment over the last 3 years

Those numbers are conservative...and don't even count capital expenses for the servers and laptops.

[abmun2121]

Thanks for the piece, very in-depth and well researched.

Frankly, I'm not impressed by McPhail. McPhail was quoted as saying, "In the past the preferred method was to sign the Bradfords, the Jamie Walkers, the Baezes, the Huffs, and Millars and trying to patch your way through it."

Well, then how does he explain Gonzalez, Atkins, or Tejada? These were similar patch jobs too, not high end talent. This was the telling quote for me that McPhail lacks what it takes to ever take this team, let alone the entire organization, to the next level.

[Lucky Jim]

Thanks for the piece, very in-depth and well researched.

Frankly, I'm not impressed by McPhail. McPhail was quoted as saying, "In the past the preferred method was to sign the Bradfords, the Jamie Walkers, the Baezes, the Huffs, and Millars and trying to patch your way through it."

Well, then how does he explain Gonzalez, Atkins, or Tejada? These were similar patch jobs too, not high end talent. This was the telling quote for me that McPhail lacks what it takes to ever take this team, let alone the entire organization, to the next level.

The former are multi-year contracts. The latter (largely) one-year contracts. That's a big difference. The former total, what, 15 years of contracts, to 4 for the latter group? I don't think the signing went well, recently, but the cost/risk was far lower.

[DuffMan]

Hey, at least they have a new computer system. I mean, that must have taken like weeks to do! First you have to learn how to use Excel...and then you have to add Fangraphs to your favorites! Think of all the intricacies involved!

[abmun2121]

The former are multi-year contracts. The latter one-year contracts. That's a big difference. The former total, what, 15 years of contracts, to 4 for the latter group?

Yeah, I guess I overlooked that and that is important to note. I guess overall, what he had to say was not overly impressive coming from the GM of a team that perpetually is one of the worst in baseball.

[Mackus]

Thanks for the piece, very in-depth and well researched.

Frankly, I'm not impressed by McPhail. McPhail was quoted as saying, "In the past the preferred method was to sign the Bradfords, the Jamie Walkers, the Baezes, the Huffs, and Millars and trying to patch your way through it."

Well, then how does he explain Gonzalez, Atkins, or Tejada? These were similar patch jobs too, not high end talent. This was the telling quote for me that McPhail lacks what it takes to ever take this team, let alone the entire organization, to the next level.

Gonzalez, Atkins, and Tejada cost a combined $23.5M.

Bradford, Walker, Baez, and Huff - all signed in the same offseason - cost $62M.

There is a difference between spending on a one-year stop gap and on a 3-year mediocre player. I'll agree now that Gonzalez looks like a very poor contract, but even his deal is smaller than Walker's and Baez' and not much bigger than Bradford.

Atkins was a moronic move from day one, absolutely no defense to that one. There were better players available for less money, yet alone for similar or slightly more money.

Tejada wasn't a bad move. Hasn't exactly been a good deal, but he's on pace to have been worth about $2.5-3M and getting paid $6M. There weren't exactly a ton of cheaper options or similarly priced options that were likely to be a lot better.

[Lucky Jim]

Yeah, I guess I overlooked that and that is important to note. I guess overall, what he had to say was not overly impressive coming from the GM of a team that perpetually is one of the worst in baseball.

AM is never going to "throw" himself into something completely new - he's going to slowly ramp things up. In a lot of our deficient areas, he's started that. He needs to follow through. We've seen signs, but we haven't seen enough. But those seeking a quick turnaround built on a lot of high-dollar outlays were bound to be disappointed.

BTW, I'll go on record as saying that I think he makes a valid point about the issue re: number of scouts and diminishing returns. If he's operating w/in a budge of some kind, it's perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of the quantity/quality correlation that some on here have latched onto.

[mefogus]

Hmmm, the situation is not as bad as I thought, believe it or not.

:f

[Peace21]

Hmmm, the situation is not as bad as I thought, believe it or not.

:f

How can you say that?

The article basically shows how much this organization cares about the fans and winning baseball.

Peter Angelos has set this franchise so far back. It is sad.

[mefogus]

How can you say that?

Easy. Everyone knows that the team has been screwed up royally since 1996 (or so), the only questions were in the details. I never said that the details were good, I only said that they weren't as bad as I expected. Are you privy to my expectations?

:f